Dealing with Affiliates Search Engine Strategies Conference, December 2006Chris Henger

Vice President Affiliate Marketing

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Affiliate Marketing Today

• More than 100 million web sites worldwide, many with the

potential to become an affiliate publisher

• A significant source of sales for online retailers– 2-20% of online sales

• Performics classifies publishers according to business model

Shopping & Promotions Loyalty/Rewards Community & Content

Search Specialists NetworksComparison Shopping

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Search is a Primary Traffic Driver for Affiliate Publishers

• Opportunity– Affiliates enable an advertise to dominate the page

• Challenge – Managing the brand and the message – Enforcing restrictions– Controlling CPCs

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Advertisers with Different Business Models

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Advertisers with Different Business Models

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Advertisers with Different Business Models

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Affiliate Search Specialists – Dominate the Page

• Expert at natural and/or paid search

• Opportunistically build new pages or entire websites “on-the-fly”:– Seasonal– Category– Product– Payout– Building a “sticky” destination site is not necessarily the objective

• Able to quickly adjust and adapt to ever changing engine policies, advertiser policies, algorithms, competition, etc.

• Willing to spend $$ to make $$ – Put their money at risk

• Strong engine relationships and access to tools (e.g. , API’s)

• Often top performers

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The Search Specialists “Wish List “

• Authorization and guidelines to bid on trademarks/brand names

• Ability to direct link to an advertiser’s site – Using their landing page URL as the display URL

• Ability to send traffic to domain that contains advertisers’ brand– e.g., www.eddiebaueroffers.com

• For lead gen programs, the capability to host the form on their own domain

• Authorization letter to search engines providing permission to use advertiser’s brand in ad title and copy

• Ability to build links quickly and flexibly (offline BYOL, data feeds)

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Lessons Learned

• There is a balance between advertiser interests and the affiliate’s need to

drive traffic

• Affiliate publishers are often better at focusing on conversion than

advertisers– Given the proper brand guidelines, an affiliate can monetize cpc traffic better

than an advertiser• If they can pay for the CPC and the advertiser can pay only for a

commission on the sale, why not let the affiliate bid?

• Set guidelines, communicate and monitor for compliance

• Maintain a feedback loop with affiliates who can shape guidelines for the

future

• Provide best practices in search marketing for affiliates– Best performing keywords– Best selling products – Custom creative

• Measure the impact across channels