This presentation is from Affiliate Summit West 2015 (January 18-20, 2015 in Las Vegas, NV). Session description: Squeezing every penny from your program is vital, so here’s how to maximize your network performance and site real estate, turn more clicks into sales, and take amazing care of your affiliates.

1. Affiliate Summit West
2015

2.  Merchant - John LoBrutto
◦ 1&1 Internet
 OPM - Rick Gardiner
◦ iAffiliate Management
 Network - Jeannine Crooks
◦ Affiliate Window

3.  Managing Real Estate - Landing Page
Optimization
 Turning Clicks into Sales - Cart
Abandonment
 Maximizing Network Performance
 Taking Amazing Care of Your Affiliates

4. Maintaining a high conversion rate is one of
the biggest challenges in affiliate
marketing.
 Develop unique affiliate landing
pages, focus the customer on a clear
call to action. Shorten the sales
funnel.

5. Optimize the anchor text or banner ad to
focus on one clear offer and execute a
simple message on the linked page.
Develop a unique promotion for the
Affiliate channel and clearly display
added perks, such a free shipping.
Test – Test – Test!

6. The average abandonment rate is 67.75%
of all online shopping according to a
Baymard Institute study.
After spending so much time optimizing
landing pages, developing pricing
initiatives, and perfecting your message,
just about 7 out of every 10 people are
leaving at the cart.

7. According to Forrester Research, the
estimated total of annual abandoned
shopping cart revenue will reach $31
Billion dollars in 2015.

8. So, why does cart abandonment happen?
How do you recover abandoned carts?

9. ◦ Reason 1 - Unexpected Costs
◦ Reason 2 - Browsing
◦ Reasons 3 - Better Price Elsewhere
◦ Reason 4 - Price Was Too Expensive
Customers are not just changing their mind,
they have tangible reasons to abandon
the purchase. Recovery strategies need to
remove these barriers.

10. Basket Recovery vs. Abandonment Recovery
Many players, but different approaches:

11. Key elements in a successful
abandonment recovery campaign:
Timing – the first recovery email should be sent
within 24 hours, and then a follow up within 3-5
days.
Images – Show images of the abandoned items,
add reviews and recommendations. Develop a
single compelling call to action to bring them back.

12. Phone Number – Add an additional point of
contact to ease concerns and answer questions.
Reminders – Promote satisfaction guarantees,
return policies, shipping policies, and perks.
Coupon vs. no Coupon – Analyze customer
trends and verify if adding discounts increase
conversion or influences behavior

13. Essentials for Optimizing Website Real Estate
Know your audience – Who is your typical visitor and the
demographic of people using your website? How are people finding
you?
Improve your end-user experience – Use analytics and webmaster
tools to understand how people are using your website.
Create Targeted Content – Create useful content specific to your
demographic that will help them take that next step.
Take control of your ads – Evaluate how targeted ad rotations
perform vs. AdSense (or similar programs).

14. How do I strategically improve the ROI and
operational efficiency of our affiliate channel?

15. The Benefits of Having a Multi-Network
Affiliate Program:
Divide and Conquer – Additional network
resources available to support different
areas of your program.*
Increased Brand Exposure – Multiple
network marketplace listings provide more
visibility for the merchant/advertiser.*
*Additional expenses may be incurred.
Varies by network.

16. Flexibility for Affiliate – Partners choose which
network they would like to join your program
through.
Flexibility for Merchant – More control over
your Ad Spend. Better positioning for contract
negotiations.
Current Technology – Knowing competitive
landscape enables you to identify networks with
new or emerging technologies.

17. The Challenges of Having a Multi-Network
Program:
Operational Inefficiencies – Workload increases
exponentially as you add networks. Your operational
playbook will include ad-hoc reporting and other
network-specific tasks.
Data Inconsistencies – Additional work to normalize
data between networks. Order reconciliation is required
to address duplicate orders that artificially inflate data
and increase your ad spend and expense.

18. More is (not always) Better – More networks
does not equal incremental revenue.
Network Support Varies – Not all affiliate
networks are created equal.

20. Source: AffiliateBenchmarks. (2014).
2014 Affiliate and Advertiser Research Report, U.S. Advertiser Version.
Who Manages Your Affiliate Program?

21.  Current Banners
◦ Affiliates don’t have time to swap out banners, so
do it for them; replace the old ones with new ones.
◦ Don’t leave the old ones up forever
 Work with your Account Rep – what
can they do for you?
◦ Holiday wrap-ups
◦ Category focuses

22.  Always Have an Offer!
◦ Whether it’s free shipping, free gift with purchase,
discount based on basket value, sale on selected
item(s), always have something!
 Pay to Play
◦ Many large affiliates have special offers, premium
placement, newsletter inclusion in exchange for
increased commission or payment. Test it, don’t
just dismiss it.

23.  Communicate
◦ Regular newsletters – not just special offers, but
also discuss seasonal favorites, how to promote
selected items or categories.
 Contests
◦ Very popular with affiliates UNLESS only the
same top performer can win.
◦ One entry for every sale, extra entries for first time
sale, social media promotion, sales thresholds

24.  Review Assists
◦ Who is generating a lot of clicks but not closing
the sale? Analyze the whole click path.
◦ Offer training, custom content or creative,
exclusive offers
 Respond
◦ Most affiliates don’t contact merchants, but some
have special offers, opportunities, great ideas If
they email you, answer them.

25.  Approve on a regular basis
◦ Don’t make them wait longer than a week
◦ If they don’t make sense for your program, ask
before you decline.
 Payment
◦ Timely payment secures relationships
◦ Prompt approvals, prompt invoicing approval,
make sure AP sends the check on time

26.  John LoBrutto
◦ John.LoBrutto@1and1.com
 Rick Gardiner
◦ rgardiner@iAffiliateManagement.co
m
 Jeannine Crooks
◦ Jeannine.Crooks@AffiliateWindow.
com