Comments on: Search Agencies vs Search Affiliates

By: cez

cez — Fri, 15 Sep 2006 09:25:12 +0000

Is it me or does this article seem to simple and skewed to affiliates? There is no such thing as search affiliates and believe me, good affiliates will not share data and will avoid exclusivity until the end.

This is an interesting article but doesn't take some extremely important real world factors into account.

BTW: I am search biased but mainly interested in organic online marketing such as acquisition-based online PR, SEO, etc.

By: ReveNews - Adam Vien

ReveNews - Adam Vien — Tue, 12 Sep 2006 13:05:16 +0000

The Return of Direct Linking Search Affiliates

On Goyami, I posted an article last week about the benefits of allowing your affiliates to direct link to your affiliate program via their paid search ads. Along similar lines, Vinny posted what I consider a "must read article" here…

By: Vinny Lingham

Vinny Lingham — Wed, 06 Sep 2006 12:00:35 +0000

Very interesting article here from SES San Jose

By: Vinny Lingham

Vinny Lingham — Tue, 22 Aug 2006 15:58:39 +0000

Adam Viener's comments are here!

By: Beth Kirsch

Beth Kirsch — Mon, 21 Aug 2006 00:21:15 +0000

We really do need to get data from multiple advertisers together on this and get Anne Holland to write a case study.

I have some from Audible that works, I wonder if we can get some more.

Beth

By: Vinny Lingham

Vinny Lingham — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 16:51:51 +0000

Thanks David – that certainly is great compliment, especially coming from you!

Just for the record, this article was written for and never published by The Search Marketing Standard on request, by them, but after I emailed the article to them, I never heard back – I assume it would have offended some of their advertisers (being agencies) – such is the beauty of blogging – you can tell it like it is!

By: David Lewis

David Lewis — Sun, 20 Aug 2006 11:06:00 +0000

This is the best article on the topic that I have seen in a long time. In fact, it's one of few that builds on what I've been saying for the last two years. Thank you Vinny! [Note: I never compliment Vinny lightly. In fact, I much prefer to give him a hard time at conferences when he is on a panel. In this case, I must give him credit for being brilliant... well, at least for being right.]

Find your value added presellers and work WITH them. Don't allow a knee jerk reaction to run your business.

By: Jamie

Jamie — Fri, 18 Aug 2006 01:13:12 +0000

Great points Vinny. I would point out that there are agencies in the PPC arena that also base their compensation on a % of revenue or some other conversion based metric. Merchants should be seeking to create payment structures that align their affiliates' and agency's interests with the merchants business goals.

By: Chris Kramer

Chris Kramer — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 17:27:39 +0000

Good post Vinny, I think the real issue here is that you rarely have the same people managing both search and affiliate initiatives. I don't know for sure, but I suspect that those larger brands such as Amazon and Ebay have a very integrated plan and understand the value of a holistic strategy. I think it is very easy for the search agencies to just tell their clients not to allow affiliates on these keywords because they simply have nothing to gain from it. If they were managing the affiliate programs as well they might see the value. More than once we've been able to prove the value of affiliates and search working together in a controlled environment.

By: Vinny Lingham

Vinny Lingham — Thu, 17 Aug 2006 13:50:35 +0000

Thanks Beth – someone had to make a stand

I wonder if a company could actually sue their agency for giving them poor SEM strategies in order to boost their own bottom line?

Up to now, most marketing director's didn't care – but now, they're waking up!