Proven Strategies for Managing Affiliate PPC David Naffziger CEO, BrandVerity
Affiliate PPC is Universal * Data on subsequent slides from a BrandVerity study of the top 100 e-commerce programs As an E-Commerce site, the question is not IF, but HOW you should manage affiliate PPC
Measure Beyond the Last Click Google Analytics doesn’t cut it. Understand the contribution of all channels to a sale Measure and value the steps in the purchase process First click Intermediate clicks Final click Bucket affiliates by contribution share. Reward those that contribute the most.
Create Clear Policies PPC policies that are simple and clear have lower rates of abuse Easy to understand Easy to communicate Verbally, , onsite, etc. No room for misinterpretation
Examples of Clear Policies
Examples of Unclear & Complex Policies
Cannot outbid merchant Cannot outrank merchant Must uses negative keywords in campaigns Ad Text must contain ‘AFF’ No automatic redirects Cannot copy merchant ad text One or more of these policies are often combined:
Communicate Consistently & Openly Simple policies are easy to communicate. Do so. Putting your policy in the fine print is a quick route to failure Put it on the website Put it in the affiliate newsletter Put it in other marketing materials Document what exceptions you allow
Respect Affiliate Secret Sauce Merchants should not expect to know the details of an affiliate’s PPC campaign Affiliates invest significant time creating and managing their campaigns In some instances they compete against in- house PPC teams
Quick Enforcement Keep your program clean Dirty programs: Attract abusers Deter super-affiliates Cost money Not all abuse is intentional Quick responses discourage further abuse No, you cannot detect most abuse manually
Proven Strategies Top affiliate programs utilize several strategies to manage affiliate PPC Expert Analytics Simple Policies Open, Consistent Communication Respect Affiliate ‘Secret Sauce’ Quick Enforcement
Thank You! David Naffziger CEO, BrandVerity Search Ad Monitoring