In recent years, many large affiliates have switched from an affiliate network to their own platform. Affiliates such as Fashionchick.nl and Kleding.nl have switched to a CPC fee, where the advertiser pays per click. These affiliates can be connected directly or through an affiliate network (in which case an advertiser does pay a fee on the advertising costs).
Who is Affiliate Marketing Interested in?
Affiliate marketing is primarily suited to webshops and service providers who deliver to consumers: financial and telecom service providers. Affiliate marketing is less suitable for companies which focus on Business to Business products and/or services. When using affiliate marketing, it is first of all important that the SEO and search advertising channels are deployed and optimised. If affiliate marketing is used without SEO and search advertising being optimised, there is a chance that affiliates will take over these channels from you. Ultimately, in that case you will be more expensive: if it is profitable for an affiliate to use search advertising for you, then you should be able to use this cheaper yourself. Suppose you want to use affiliate marketing while SEO and search advertising are not optimized, make sure you set conditions for your affiliates about what they may or may not do for you. AdResults can advise you on this.
How does affiliate marketing work?
In the Netherlands, about 20 affiliate networks exist (some examples: Zanox, Daisycon, TradeTracker, Affilinet, etc.). Affiliate networks are intermediaries between affiliates (website owners) and advertisers. An affiliate network provides a software solution, which registers clicks and sales from affiliates. The advertiser pays for the number of approved leads/sales. For example, should a consumer return a product, you retain the right to reject the affiliate’s sale for an agreed period. You pay nothing for the rejected leads/sales, only for the approved leads/sales. AdResults can support you in the area of affiliate marketing: we can take (part of) your inspection off your hands, draw up guidelines for affiliates, check for fraud and further expand your affiliate campaigns by recruiting new affiliates.
What should you be aware of when using affiliate marketing?
It is important to realize who you are promoting and also to specify which affiliates can and cannot promote you. Questions you may ask yourself in this regard are:
How do you deal with legislation (e.g., mention “Borrowing money costs money” for loans and with the fixed book price for cashback sites).
Which affiliates do and do not add value for you? How can you analyze this?
How do you deal with affiliates who generate unrealistic sales for you and how do you detect fraud?
In addition to these questions, when using affiliate marketing you will become acquainted with a large number of aspects in which AdResults can advise you independently and take the campaign management off your hands. Examples of aspects that come to the fore: IP Tracking, cookie dropping, fee setting, network fee (mark-up and margin method), promotional materials (banners, links and XML/CSV feeds), approval of affiliates, approval period leads/sales, network deduplication, analyses of affiliates, recruiting affiliates, eCPC analyses, typosquatting, etc.
Wondering what AdResults can do for your business? Feel free to contact us for a cup of coffee and a good conversation!
