AdTech Pans Affiliates

Jan 25, 2005
by

Not that I really take it very seriously (especially in light of AdTech selling out this week) but AdTech’s survey claims that affiliate marketing doesn’t rank a “safe bet” for advertisers dollars when compared to (hu?) rich media and SEM.

Anne Holland asks:

Is this because marketers perceive that they have already maxed out potential spending on email, and that they find search an easier tactic to expand and broaden? (If so, they’re wrong.)


To which I respond:

“no… the sample is just whacked and is weighted toward what agencies see/feel/believe.”

As I see it, the survey sample makes not a bit of sense. It’s a hodgepodge of agencies, marketers… each with vastly different value perceptions on “what works” vs. “what doesn’t.”

Filed under: Affiliate Marketing
  • http://www.kowabunga.com Jeff Doak

    Not to mention that asking someone if they want to spend 100k on "affiliate marketing" doesn't really make sense. How does one do that exactly?

    With search, you buy keywords or pay an SEO guru. With affiliate marketing, you pay a provider and CPA. If you were really spending most of that 100k on CPA, then obviously that would be a much safer bet than hoping that paid keywords converted or your SEO spends resulted in SERP's that converted.

    If the question had been instead, "Which is a safer buy — paid keywords, SEO, CPM, or CPA through an affiliate network?" I think the results would have been far different.

  • http://NoCookie David Lewis

    Great point, Jeff. Agencies will see what they do as being the way to go. They make money if they can manage your banner, e-mail or search campaign. They don't have a way to manage an affiliate program.

    It's like going to a doctor. If you see a cariologist, you'll wind up having heart problems. If you see a neurosurgeon, you'll have brain surgery.

    Fortunately, this isn't brain surgery.

  • http://blueman62.bravehost.com/ JB

    Hi Jeff, I find it a bit difficult trying to promote products right now, I haven't tried ebay of course. I heard and thought of it, but Im not doing that right now. Right now I have my footwear site and gear page that Im working with affiliate program thru CJ junction. I think its all honest and good to me if you take a look. Let me know if I have anything else I could do to shape it up a bit. I been reading alot of newsletters from various sources, and adding them to my blog for others to notice as well as I work thru affiliate program of adsense and Amazon. I just started, and been doing this now for two months. To me , you have to be honest with your site. Ive read somewhere, too much on your site ,will not help the customer, and too little isn't good either. As a beginner in this business, Im learning alot. I rerad somewhere to have something that would catch your eye on advertising or when someone opens up the site. So I tried to do that yet. For starters , I submitted it to a few search engines, and traffic places, and Im working on linkage ,and I haven't gotten to email marketing yet, but thats another learning part, and read alot on that already. Its great to read sites like yours and others into researching alot of marketing and affiliate programs,google and so forth.

    Regards,

    JB

  • http://www.caratinteractive.com Lara

    I'd like to comment on David and Jeff's comments about agencies not having a vested intest in affiliate marketing since I work at one that offers affiliate marketing management.

    Many companies are concerned about their brand online and see themselves as having very little control once they create an affiliate program. Technologies have not helped much with adware and cookie stuffing. I believe this is the cause of affiliate marketing not being listed as a "safe bet" for online advertising. I think the demand for a 3rd party with affiliate expertise will grow considerably this year. We've been offering affiliate management service for over 4 years and are seeing demand rise year over year.

  • http://www.molanderassoc.com Jeff Molander

    Indeed, Lara. Thanks for posting. I've been waiting for someone like you to speak up.

    Agencies are very much in control moving forward… like it or not. They have always and will, likely, always control total media budget and have direct input as to how dollars are alloted. Also, the notion that an affiliate program is equivalent to a sales channel seems to be dwindling as most affiliates come right out and tell you… they're not anyone's sales tool. Furthermore, media publishers are publishers with targeted real estate for sale… not sales people. Hence, we *do* have budgets for affiliate marketing at the end of the day and it continues to fall under marketing budgets, not COGS.

    As time moves on I, personally, see more and more advertisers understanding that affiliate marketing really is the junior leagues. I've said it before and I'll say it again and probably draw heat. However, let me pair the comment with this statement:

    It's the junior leagues because that's how it's been built (and I can say that, having played a role in building it).

    At the same time, if you look at companies like Performics, Avenue A and, yes, even ValueClick you can see a future that includes affiliate marketing but certainly is NOT the cash cow that it has been for them. Why? Affiliate marketing (rather, "pure performance deals") is a great test bed for a performance relationship that could blossom into a more fruitful one. When I say performance relationship I'm talking about one that is "out of the box" in terms of cost structure to the advertiser.

    If you ask me, affiliate marketing's biggest obstacle to being taken seriously is are the solution providers – not affiliates. They continually constrain advertisers and affiliates to work inside their rather in-flexible (hybrid payment structures, things like day-parting and other tracking/reporting functionality) solution.