The Truth Will Out: Disproving Common Misconceptions In Affiliate Marketing
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The Truth Will Out: Disproving Common Misconceptions in Affiliate Marketing Kevin Edwards Strategy Director, Affiliate Window
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Voucher code affiliates steal sales from other affiliates and 'last click wins' is an outdated and unfair reward mechanism for affiliates.Affiliate Marketing is full of these and other assumptions yet rarely has any in depth research been carried out to show whether these accepted truths are actually the case.Having trawled the Affiliate Window database, chopping, splicing and scrutinising the reams of information available, Affiliate Window presents our findings on some generally accepted affiliate marketing assumptions and asks whether it's time to revise some of these commonly held beliefs.Using actual merchant examples to illustrate how different variables can impact the performance of your programme such as what effect introducing vouchers, paid search activity and cashback sites can have on your campaign or whether rewarding all affiliates involved in a sale rather than just the last referrer is a fair and viable alternative, Affiliate Window will be offering some key considerations for merchants looking to take their programmes to the next level.Aimed at affiliate managers and merchants who are looking to understand the value of their affiliate traffic within the wider online mix AffiliateWindow will aim to provide plenty of food for thought.
Transcript of The Truth Will Out: Disproving Common Misconceptions In Affiliate Marketing
The Truth Will Out: Disproving Common Misconceptions
in Affiliate Marketing
Kevin EdwardsStrategy Director,Affiliate Window
Some Caveats & Explanations Relies on correct affiliates categorising themselves accurately Not all voucher code directory sales were the result of voucher codes being used Two months of data used for all examples, May-June 2009 Only affiliate channel data has been used; we are unable to make conclusions about merchants’ additional online channels All merchants used are exclusive to the network so we are comparing complete affiliate data All merchants work with all affiliate types although some have varying commissions and T&Cs Only merchants with meaningful data chosen None allow brand bidding; all have relatively strict PPC T&Cs
Voucher Code sites are goal
hangers who steal sales at
the last minute
Number of Referrers – Gifts Single Referrer Two Referrers Other Referrers Total Merchant 1 87.1 10.1 2.7 100 Merchant 2 88.6 9.6 1.8 100 Merchant 3 86.8 10.5 2.7 100 TOTAL 87.8 10.0 2.3 100
Number of Referrers – Gifts
Number of Referrers – Mobiles Single Referrer Two Referrers Other Referrers Total Merchant 1 92.3 6.7 1.0 100 Merchant 2 91.2 7.6 1.3 100 Merchant 3 86.9 10.7 2.4 100 TOTAL 89.6 8.7 1.7 100
Number of Referrers - Mobiles
Number of Referrers – Electricals Single Referrer Two Referrers Other Referrers Total Merchant 1 82.3 14.2 3.6 100 Merchant 2 87.0 10.5 2.5 100 Merchant 3 87.0 10.5 2.5 100 TOTAL 85.0 12.1 2.9 100
Number of Referrers – Electricals
Winners & Losers - Electricals
Winners & Losers – Mobiles
Winners & Losers – Gifts
Latency – Click to sale speed
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Latency – Click to sale speed
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Latency – Gifts code (general)
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• 19% of VC sales between 3-5 mins• 12.5% of other affiliate sales• 16% of ‘True Content’ sales
Latency – Click to sale, electricals
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• 16% of VC sales in first 5 mins• 19% of other affiliate sales in first 5 mins• 19% of ‘True Content’ sales in first 5 mins
Latency – Electrical code (product)
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• 6% of VC sales in first 2 mins• 9% of other affiliate sales in first 2 mins• 8% of ‘True Content’ sales in first 2 mins
Latency – Electrical code (general)
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• 15% of VC sales in first 2 mins• 6% of other affiliate sales in first 2 mins• 4% of ‘True Content’ sales in first 2 mins
• 16% increase in sales during code period• 2% increase in multiple referrer sales• Most first click VC sales lose out to VC sites
Conclusion • Small minority of sales are multi referrer
• When there is a multiple referrer sales, loyalty/reward sites are
much more likely to take sale
• Using meaningful data, price comparison and PPC lose out on first
click vs. last click;
•Negligible difference in the percentage of multi-referrer sales
during strong code period
• Voucher code sites most overwritten by other voucher code sites
Last click wins is outmoded
and doesn’t fairly reward
affiliates...
Is last click wins unfair?
• If so few sales are multiple referrer should we move to
another system?
• If we decide on a fairer system, what model could we use?
• With fairness do we lose transparency?
• How does it work on a practical level?
• What values do you use to decide your multi-attribution
model?
Attribution Choices
First Click Acquisition
Last Click Conversion
Even Split Egalitarian
Weighted Recency
Budget Spend
Last Click Wins
£6£0 £0
First Click Wins
£0£6 £0
Every Click Wins
£2£2 £2
Every Click Wins - Weighted
£3£1 £2
Multi Attribution Models - MobilesFirst ClickEqual ClickWeighted LastWeighted First
Multi Attribution Models - ElectricalsFirst ClickEqual ClickWeighted LastWeighted First
Multi Attribution Models - GiftsFirst ClickEqual ClickWeighted LastWeighted First
Average Order Values - Electricals
Number of Referrers
+7% +14% +25.1% +35%
Average Order Values - Gifts
Number of Referrers
+12.8% +31.8%
Where’s the value?
Affiliate multi-attribution isn’t necessarily the answer but it
could be a contributory element of a wider value system
Value System
Average Order Value
New Customer Acquistion
Contribution in the sales journey
Sales Volume
ConversionRate
?
