After writing mainly about things that puzzled me about the survey, I will now write a far more constructive post about the key learnings that we can take from it.
The most interesting point as far as I’m is the question about the reward model. 36% of affiliates believe that commission should be split in some way, higher than the 34% that believe last click should win. I am glad that affiliates appreciate the arguments about rewarding based on value. However, as I keep arguing, you cannot attribute based purely on the affiliate channel, as there is clear crossover with PPC, SEO, display etc. You need to take all of these channels into account when looking to understand each parties contribution top the sale.
I think the network section needs to looked at by all of the networks. There seems to be a growing feeling amongst affiliates that networks need to be more visible in their dedication to protecting the future of the industry, even if that means taking a hit on revenue. All of us working in affiliate marketing obviously have a vested interest in making sure that merchants continue to invest money in the channel and I do think that networks need to be more proactive in this area.
There also seems to be a greater requirement from affiliates for increased communication from networks, agencies and merchants which I think is really encouraging. The fact that affiliates are seeking to find out more about merchants instead of just flinging up a few banners randomly is great, and merchants should look at ways to produce more ways to assist affiliates to produce good quality content.
Backing this claim up is the data on why affiliates don’t promote a merchant once signed up for it. Lack of links, slow acceptance, lack of information provided and people not getting round to it are the main reasons. As a merchant I would be looking at this and thinking that I could convert 75% of affiliates who sign up but never promote me quite easily. Make sure affiliates can deeplink to where they want to, pester them to get round to it and ask what they need to help them, approve them quickly and provide them with the information they need. If you have 50 dormant affiliates on your campaign, think about the amount of sales that 38 of them could be doing for you right now.
The section about working directly with merchants is also insightful. The majority of affiliates dealing direct do so because either they have no option or because they get paid more. It seems that a huge majority of affiliates would prefer to work through networks because it reduces time and increases security. Therefore the message seems to be that if you are going to run an in-house affiliate scheme you have to do it bloody well to tempt the affiliates over, as well as being a big, stable company in whom the affiliates have trust.
It is positive to see that 55% of affiliates see the “current economic crisis” as an opportunity. I am a bit more sceptical on this one. Merchants are reducing their advertising budgets and will tend to prioritise in the areas that deliver the lowest acquisition cost, which tends to be search. I completely appreciate the arguments around affiliate being pay per performance and therefore essentially risk free. However, in larger companies they will be assigned a budget for online marketing and have to split that between their channels. A lack of understanding of the affiliate channel, or a larger share of voice from the search agency will see this budget being assigned to channels other than affiliate. This is of course not true for all merchants, but I fear many affiliate networks will be in a position where their job will be to manage budget rather than attempt to grow a campaign over the next year or so.
The fact that 44% of people believe the Google’s entry will be a threat surprises me. Personally I think this will be a really positive move, dependant on how the Big G play it. I think it will give increased respectability to the affiliate sector and bring more genuine content affiliates into the channel, thereby increasing the amount of spend and knowledge merchants have. I think the most sensible thing Google could do is start persuading all of those site owners with AdSense on their sites to change them for more compelling affiliate adverts being paid on a CPA basis, but I’m sure they have their own plans!
Interested to hear others views on the census.
