This presentation is from Affiliate Summit West 2014 (January 12-14, 2014 in Las Vegas, NV). Session description: We will explore why Groupon built out it’s own internal platform along with looking at the tools we created within the platform to help make it easy for affiliates to be successful.

1. Steve Manes
Head of Affiliate Marketing in North America for Groupon
CONFIDENTIAL

2. My Background
• I have managed Affiliate Marketing Programs for over 6 years
– Rakuten LinkShare – 3 years
– Sears/Kmart – 1 year
– Movepak.com (coupon site for the moving industry) – 6 months
– Intertwine Interactive (Marketing Agency) – 8 months
– YearsAhead.com/Sittercity.com – 9 months
– Groupon – 1 year
• I have managed affiliate programs on all of the affiliate network
platforms
• I am currently working on growing and optimizing Groupon
Partner Network (GPN) which is Groupon’s internal affiliate
platform which was launched earlier this year
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3. Internal Advertiser Platforms
• What is an Internal Advertiser Platform?
– It is a platform where an advertiser can work directly with publishers
– Most internal advertiser platforms do not require third party tracking
– With an internal advertiser platform, advertisers no longer need affiliate networks
for their tracking
• Who is currently using an internal platform to manage their
affiliate program?
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4. Internal Advertiser Platforms - Survey
• Groupon recently completed a survey of 300 overall affiliates
•
86% of the surveyed affiliates are not part of the Groupon Affiliate Program
• 6 in 10 Affiliates have worked with an Affiliate advertiser on their own internal
platform.
• 73% of these members were satisfied with their experience.
Have you worked with an Affiliate advertiser on their
own internal Affiliate platform?
Not sure
12%
How satisfied were you with the overall experience of
working with these internal platforms?
Saisfied
73%
No
28%
Yes
60%
Somewhat
Satisfied
Not Satisfied
26%
2%
Base: Total sample N=300
Q9. Have you worked with an Affiliate advertiser on their own internal Affiliate platform?
Base: Worked with an Affiliate on their own internal platform N=178
Q10. How satisfied were you with the overall experience of working with these internal platforms?
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5. Why Build an Internal Advertiser Platform?
• We built our platform for the following reasons
– Eliminating third party tracking fees so we can invest that cost savings directly back
to our partners
– A place to quickly integrate non-traditional publishers which include our
partnerships with AOL, TripAdvisor and Zillow.
– Create a place where we can host Interactive Banners, Retargeting Banners, and
Widgets that give publishers complete control of what they want to present to
their users
– Being able to offer true real-time reporting where publishers can get up to minute
data on how their specific campaigns are converting
– Ability for publishers to get a very quick integration to get our robust deals API
with over 60K deals up and running
– Ability to test different types of affiliate offers and commission structures
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6. What’s in it for the Publishers?
• What are the advantages for publishers to partner with
advertisers who use internal advertiser platforms?
– More Money!
– Ability to work with the advertisers to test different types of commissions
and payment structures
– Plug & Play solutions to help promote deals and products
easier, especially for mid-sized and small publishers
• Why do Publishers have problems with internal advertiser
platforms?
– Publishers don’t want to use one platform for one specific advertiser.
Working with multiple advertisers on one platform makes their business
easier to run
– Will tracking work?
– Being paid on time
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7. What We Have Learned
• Here are some of the things that we have learned since we
launched our internal platform; GPN
– Affiliates have been getting credit for more sales since our tracking has
caught more transactions
– Affiliates are really interested in all of the tools that we offer, including our
full API
– Affiliates need real time reporting in order to optimize their campaigns on
the fly
– Affiliates are using the increased commission they get from us in order to
promote our deals/products more
– After some initial problems with affiliate payments, affiliates are now
getting paid on a normal cycle which has eased the concerns of some of
our affiliates
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8. Q&A
If you have any other questions – you can contact me at
smanes@groupon.com
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