Affiliate Network Comments (was Re: commission junction and others)

From: Chris Charlwood <chris_at_charlwood.com>
Date: Wed 08 Aug 2001 13:20:59 -0500

STEFANIE OLSEN <stefanieo_at_cnet.com> WROTE:

>Can I get the group's opinion on Commission Junction
>and other pay for performance networks such as BeFree
>and LinkShare? Are these networks effective? How so?
>Are they growing in popularity? Any input is helpful.


Re CJ, BeFree and LinkShare, I have to agree with many
of Dana Todd's comments (SiteLab International Inc.)
on the effectiveness of these affiliate networks. From
an advertiser's standpoint, these networks provide some
good technology for tracking sales and allocating
commissions, however, it is often vary difficult to get
decent volume and sales, especially when you are
competing with hundreds, if not thousands of other
advertisers. From a publisher's standpoint, you do get
to choose among the most effective offers going
(especially with CJ's Earnings Per Click metric), but
you will often be lucky to offset your operating costs
if you rely on these commission checks.

In my experience with brokering CPA deals, as well as
running a number of smaller websites as a publisher
using CJ and LinkShare affiliate offers, the key is
structuring big volume deals with leading sites that have
a fit with the offer. Like anything, relationships
matter, and knowing the site owner/rep, demographics and
what pulls is also important. Finding an offer with a
high EPC on Commission Junction by no means guarantees
a decent conversion rate on your site.

By working with larger partners as I do, I can cherry
pick only the best performing or exclusive offers for
my website partners, and usually negotiate better net
pricing for them with higher volumes so its a win-win.
This is another disadvantage of the larger networks,
given that pricing is often fixed, and not flexible
for higher volumes. Also, testing is key, and most
larger sites will allow a smaller test campaign to
ensure a decent result upon roll-out. The only caution
with larger site deals is that most are looking for
offers with at least a $5 to $10 effective CPM return,
with evidence of past sales conversion history, online
or daily tracking, fast and reliable payment terms and
preferably existing brand awareness with traditional
advertising support. The CPA model will work if these
factors are all taken into consideration. Also,
advertisers these days have to be flexible in terms of
offering non-refundable deposits and looking at hybrid
deal arrangements, again, which is where the network
affiliate model falls short.

Chris.
__________________
Chris Charlwood
President
Charlwood eMarketing
t: 416.413.9196
e: chris_at_charlwood.com
w: http://www.charlwood.com
Specializing in opt-in email marketing, eCRM,
search engine placement & CPA performance promotions.



Received on Wed Aug 08 2001 - 13:20:59 CDT