AffiliateMarketing Technologies

Saturday 4th September 2010

Kevin Edwards,Strategy Director, Digital Window

kevin.edwards@affiliatewindow.com020 7553 0354

Affiliate Marketing Trends

• Est. £4.62bn in sales in 2010• 12% increase on 2009 figures• c.8% of online sales generated through AM• Est. £275m in fees and commissions• Up from £245m in 2009• AWin projected turnover, £52.1m (2010)• Up 21% on 2009

Affiliate Marketing Trends• PPC activity squeezed:– Merchants tightening T&Cs– Search engine costs rise

• ‘Incentivised’ traffic continues to boom• Affiliate Marketing has gone mainstream• Syndication: ‘sub-affiliates’ emerged• Agencies take on the networks• Third party apps offer rev-share opportunities• Last click model challenged• Regulation increasing professionalism & openness

Affiliate Marketing Trends

• Key shift from PPC to Incentivised traffic• PPC has upheld volume but lost % share• Steady growth in active affiliates• Content > PPC > Reward / Loyalty > Vouchers• Social Media, Mobile, Applications, Widgets,

Plug ins & APIs recognised growth areas

Affiliate Trends: Statistics

• Affiliates driving revenue more than doubled in three years

• Commission from top 10 affs has fluctuated but top 50/100 has steadily diversifiedDate Revenue Driving

AffiliatesTop 10 (%) Top 50 (%) Top 100 (%)

Jun-07 2,627 31.7 66.3 79.1Jun-08 3,501 42.3 66.3 76.8Jun-09 4,737 35.9 62.6 73.6Jun-10 5,758 36 61.7 72.8

Awin’s Top 20 Affiliates

Where do sales come from?• High street electrical retailers

Where do sales come from?• General department store/high street

retailers

• Clothing high street/catalogue

Where do sales come from?

Where do sales come from?

• PRODUCT FEEDS: Electrical, mobile phone

• TEXT LINKS: Dominant, all sectors

• BANNERS: Few sales, all sectors

PPC is no longer Dominant

• PPC is holding its own but % of sales has dropped significantly

• Those who remain are professional and trusted search agency partners

• T&Cs tightened, direct linking curtailed• RFPs are increasingly common, certainly for

bigger brands• Advertisers looking for innovation; new

technology, A/B testing etc.

Artemis8 & Premier Innwww.premierinnhotels.co.uk/

Artemis8 & Premier Inn

PPC Opportunities

• Currently many programmes are very restricted

• Long tail value is always being sought• SME opportunities still exist• Speak to your network • Beware network monitoring tools!• Google changes potential opportunities for

affiliates?

Incentivised Traffic Trends

• Fiercely competitive• Voucher codes and cashback dominated by

handful of sites• White label solutions available • Voucher code sites subject to separate cross-

network regulation

Incentivised Traffic Booms

Incentivised Traffic Booms

• Cashback and loyalty sites are mainstream, represents big competition...

Voucher codes

• Think sites with voucher codes rather than voucher code sites

• Red Letter Days will offer you exclusives based on your content that cannot be used elsewhere:

Protecting your codes

• Display/hide voucher code entry box in the checkout• Enable affiliates to pass in an extra parameter in the

inbound URL called a ‘deal ID’ • Corresponding promotion is applied automatically• Deal IDs are exclusive to individual affiliates• Deals are session-based, providing a powerful call to

action – ‘you must click on this link to get this deal’ & ‘you must start your journey from this site to get this deal’

Red Letter Days – Code Mngment

• A4U Forum• A4U Forum• David Fiske’s blog

Syndication & Sub Affiliation

• Growth of ‘sub networks’• Affiliates building technology making AM

‘foolproof’ and accessible• Cleans product feeds• Trawls millions of products across networks• Offers image, deeplink & html, with tracking• Revenue share between publisher & affiliate

Untapped revenue potential

• Banner ads and sponsored links monetise your ad-space

22

• Untapped potential in your content

- Existing links added by editors/users

- Unlinked product references

Automated vs. DIY

23

Do-It-Yourself

Integrate with Ad Network

Integrate with Ad Network

Install 1 line of code

Install 1 line of code

Apply to advertiser programs

Apply to advertiser programs

Create deep-link syntax

Create deep-link syntax

Hard code into site

Hard code into site

Maintain linksMaintain links

Access multiple reporting interfaces

Access multiple reporting interfaces

Optimize performance

Optimize performance

Skimlinks

Skimlinks

• Tech Crunch• Skimlinks blog• Wordpress plugin

Easy Content Units

• Content units for affiliates• Flexibility with sizes, sectors and merchants• Offers price comparison facility• Revenue share 80:20 split (based on ad

serving)• Range of customisable linking methods

ECU – Price Comparison

ECU – Compare Range

ECU – Video Content

ECU resources

• Easy Content Units• Matt Bailey’s blog• Affiliate Stuff blog• Affiliate Window blog

Other Third Party Applications

• PrismaStar ‘advanced widgets’• Revenue split between provider and affiliate

APIs

• Opening up technology platforms could be significant growth & innovation area:– Jul 2010, TradeDoubler & Tesco announce ‘ARC’– Affiliate Revenue-share Community– Encourages tech/widget/toolset development by

affiliates on revenue share model

Interactive video content

• Interactive video content encourages advertisers to focus on content

Where’s Facebook & Twitter?

• Facebook, Twitter can all be monetised, few companies generate revenue

• What’s important... branding vs. sales?• Mobile offers the next great opportunity,

especially geo-targeted content• ABI Research estimates 60% of consumers will

browse the Internet on their phones by 2015

Selling yourself

• Prepare a crib sheet of your USPs• Ask for unique content (many advertisers

have it yet don’t share it)• Ask for a prize or product to review• Utilise your email database• Ensure you sell yourself well (no one else will!)• Show value, flexibility and creativity

Regulation• IAB, Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC)• Achieved:

– Downloadable Software / Rebate Catchers– Voucher code regulations– Behavioural Retargeting

• Future:– White papers / research– Product Feed best practice– Commission Attribution Cmt.– Best practice guides

• @IAB_AMC, http://www.iabaffiliatemarketing.com/

Other resources

• Common Misconceptions in AM• Understanding Voucher Codes• Understanding Incentivised Traffic• Vouchercodes.co.uk Case Study• IAB Affiliate Marketing Council• AWin’s eConsultancy Posts

AffiliateMarketing Technologies

Saturday 4th September 2010

Kevin Edwards,Strategy Director, Digital Window

kevin.edwards@affiliatewindow.com020 7553 0354