Evaluating the Value of Affiliate Marketing Partners

Too often we see affiliates who are adding very little value to online stores, and in some cases actually cause harm to a store’s image.

How much value do your affiliates actually add? Are they creating traffic which you are not already reaching?

We evaluated a program being operated by a store recently and found some very interesting things. Evaluating individual affiliate partners, the store was able to weed out ineffective marketers with no loss in traffic and strengthen relationships with some who adding great value by providing traffic which was never destined for the store.

Affiliates who add value by allowing you to leverage good search position, verticals with related products or customers, those with a large following such as popular blog sites or social networking sites, and sites who rank well for generic brands, categories and products are good performers and generally earn their commission.

Avoid affiliates who run CPC marketing in competition to your own, rely solely on gaining prominent ranking for your brand name, use deceptive practices to lure click-throughs via sensational page titles such as “MUST READ”, “your brand SCAM” or “Click for huge discounts” type stuff.

Affiliates must add value to merchants, not deceive shoppers or hijack your brand name.

At the very least, affiliates must create unique copy when describing your store. Smart partners will use keywords and phrases which you may not be well placed for.

Quality affiliates will provide a shopper with information to assist in a buy decision from your store, not simply act as a stepping stone to a sale that would have occurred anyway, clipping the ticket as the customer passes through.

I recommend communicating with affiliate marketers and establishing how they plan to generate traffic. Evaluate their blogs, social media pages, or product comparison sites and find examples of multipliers which will capture traffic which would otherwise go to a competitor, this is worth paying for.

Sometimes I question the value of pure coupon sites, even those who have gone to the trouble of creating unique copy even if it adds no additional value to what is on your site. When I say ‘pure’ I mean directory type sites which simply focus on your brand, a brand you have spent time and money building.

Consider a customer who has purchased from you before, searches for your name and sees a site positioned close to yours which promises a discount for your store. Of course they will check it out, and more often than not there is either no discount or you end up providing a discount on an order plus the affiliate commission on a sale you would have got anyway. Add this this scenario an element of deception by the affiliate making claims, promises and sensational statements designed to scare them into clicking them first.

The best affiliate partners are those who create channels which don’t rely on the use of your brand, brand searches are sales which are likely to become yours anyway because customers have probably been referred or responded to your branding exercises. Affiliates who are highly ranked for a broad range of generic search terms (or those who operate CPC advertising for them with your consent) will provide far better performance.

TIP – Google your brand. Fair use, in my opinion, would be those with genuine user reviews, product blogs, product comparison capability, evaluations of your terms of service, those who create an improved user experience and importantly those who already have some native traffic that you could gain a slice of. Communicate any concerns you have and give affiliates an opportunity to change how they operate. Update your Affiliate Terms and Conditions too so future partners understand your position.

You might be well placed for ‘laptops’, but having a partner who also provides traffic for ‘netbooks’, ‘notebooks’, ‘macbook’ and ‘portable computers’ is worth something.

Good affiliates are hard to find, as are good merchants. It is a relationship which should benefit both parties, so make sure you get the balance right when controlling your brand. Get tough, if you must, on those who simply squat on your brand with some token copy and perhaps misleading claims.