The issue of PI tracking through the affiliate channel has died down recently, having been a big issue 3-4 years ago. However is it now time to revisit this?
Because of the last click wins model, many affiliates contribute to sales that they do not get rewarded for, and content affiliates are generally considered to be the worst affected category. With the advances that have occurred in cross channel tracking and deduplication, is there now an argument to reinstate PI as for affiliates?
Most large merchants nowadays utilise a third party tracking solution that automatically deduplicates between marketing channels and awards the sale to the party that generated the last action. In affiliate marketing this action is a click, in search a click but in display advertising it is a click or often simply a banner impression.
The argument in the display channel being that a consumer has seen this advert and this has influenced their decision. Why is the affiliate channel not treated the same? If we now have the ability to examine the journey of the consumer, and it can be demonstrated that they have had no other touchpoint with the brand apart from viewing a banner on an affiliate site, then there is a compelling argument that the affiliate has driven that sale.
I often feel that in the online world we live and die by the same sword because what we do is so trackable. You don’t need to have this argument when selling radio, press or TV advertising. Sorry Mr ITV, we’re not going to pay you for that sale because the consumer saw our advert in The Sun after they saw the ad during Coronation Street.
Obviously this would have to be policed correctly. Previously affiliates have “bent” rules by hiding the ad at the bottom of a page or even reducing the image to make it invisible whilst allowing a cookie to be dropped. Maybe it should only be allowed to occur on certain high traffic affiliate sites? Would it only benefit certain affiliate sectors? Maybe the CPA should be lower for a PI sale rather than a click driven sale?
So there are things to be taken into consideration but I feel that this issue may have been ruled out too soon. Because we have complete visibility, why should affiliates miss out when they can demonstrate that they are driving awareness and value to a merchant?
