This presentation is from Affiliate Summit East 2018 (July 29 - July 31, 2018 in New York).
Session description: Have partners stopped promoting your brand? Why? Your program has too many: rules, links, networks, errors. This session will help you simplify your affiliate program and get better results.
3. 1. Your Signup Process Is Too Complicated
2. Your Links Are Too Complicated
3. Your Brand Is Too Complicated
3
Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
What is this?
nick_oswald
4. • Search Google
• Scroll past ads
• Click link
• Scroll landing page
• Decide between
networks
• Click sign up
• Fill out form #1
• Captcha
• Submit
• Open email window
4
Signup Process
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A Tale of 43 Steps
• Find and open email
• Click to verify
• Fill out form #2
• Check 5 boxes
• Submit again
• Wait for approval
• Wait
• Wait some more
• Finally get an
acceptance email
• Open CJ.com in a new
window
• Click login
• Enter username /
password
• Login
• Click links header
• Enter search term
• Scroll
• Scroll
• Scroll some more
• Click get code button
• Copy HTML
5. • We don’t…
• Instead you make a difference
where it counts: the acceptance
message
• Network messages are received
the loudest out of any
messaging to publishers
• Make it short
• Make it useful
• You’re competing with short
attention spans
5
Signup Process
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How do we simplify the signup process?
6. 1. Your Signup Process Is Too Complicated
2. Your Links Are Too Complicated
3. Your Brand Is Too Complicated
6
Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
Links
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7. • Keep your banners simple
• And your text links, simpler
• One tracking link per product
landing page
• Let your landing pages do the
heavy lifting
• Lots of SKUs?
• Enable deep links for publishers
• Integrate with feed services
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A Mess of SKUs, Banners, and Text
™
Links
8. • Make easy changes on the fly
that you don’t have to ask
affiliates to swap for you
• Create a link once that you
always* keep active
• Change the destination URL
when your landing page or offer
changes
• Then you only need to tell
publishers to change their copy,
not their livelihood
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Pro-tip: Change Redirects, Not Links
Links
*Ok maybe not always, but a really long time
9. 1. Your Signup Process Is Too Complicated
2. Your Links Are Too Complicated
3. Your Brand Is Too Complicated
9
Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
Your Brand
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11. • Tell people clearly and concisely
what your product does
• What brings value to a customer
will bring value to a publisher
• Offer content that helps
publishers explain what you do
rather then who you are
• The point of performance
marketing is to have other
people using their own voice to
promote your brand
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Leave the Lifestyle Messaging to Influencers
Your Brand
12. • No one is reading all of your
T’s&C’s
• Think long and hard about your
commissionable product list
• Rules of thumb:
• If it's sold on your website,
customers will find a way to buy it
• Don’t penalize affiliates for poor
click paths on your website
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Your Rules Are Too Complicated
Your Brand
13. If your signup process
is too complicated
• Make the welcome
email count
• Send links and product
info ASAP
• Encourage new ideas
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So It’s Too Complicated. Now What?
Conclusion
nick_oswald
If your links are too
complicated
• Build better landing
pages
• Use no more than 3
banners sizes per
campaign / language
• Change destinations
instead of URLs
If your brand is too
complicated
• Tell publishers what
your product does, not
who you are
• Let influences speak for
themselves
• If a product is available
on your site, someone
will buy it
™