Affiliate Marketing

Things to consider when running an Affiliate Marketing program:

• Monitor for affiliates bidding on your brand terms in paid search (or any terms you’ve outlawed in your program)
• Decide if affiliates creating content around ‘promo code’/’coupons’/’discount code’/etc. is of value — it’s likely not (customers back out of purchases when they see a Promo Code box to go look for a code – Your affiliate then takes a cut of the commission after the customer completes the purchase after clicking through via the affiliate link)
• If you don’t offer promo codes, coupons, etc – or want to control misuse – create a content page on web site that references codes/coupons/etc; this content should rank above those sites misusing such methods; same can be done for ‘reviews’ – collect positive reviews and post to own ‘reviews’ page
• Cookie stuffing – is this occuring?
• Monitor your competitors’ affiliate offerings and conversion rates – compare and adjust accordingly
• Monitor how affiliate are portraying your brand – especially in channels that don’t use provided creative directly (Paid Search landing at brand site, Facebook ads, POF ads, etc.)
• If paying per ‘Action’, monitor lead quality on a per affiliate basis – especially if using CPA networks; Ensure can extract revenue on a per affiliate basis