8 Affiliate Lessons From This Program
1) Conversion rate is the single most important metric. As Brook said, “if your competitor is converting twice as well as you, you probably can’t double your commission to keep up with that.” (Listen to the full program for how to increase it.)
2) Leads-based affiliate companies can start their affiliate programs early, but retail-based companies should be more established before they start building their programs.
3) To figure out how much you should pay your affiliates, ask an affiliate network (like CJ.com) what similar programs charge — but keep in mind that the posted payouts could be misleading. You want to know the private prices because that’s what you’ll compete with.
4) “Lead quality is of paramount importance,” says Brook. “Don’t think that just because a credit card is required that that will defeat the fraud because there are so many stolen credit cards out there.”
5) You can protect yourself from paying for bad leads by negotiating how much time you have to evaluate a lead before paying for it. Of all the networks, CJ.com seems to give merchants the most time to evaluate leads, up to 60 days.
6) Online retailers usually get most of their traffic from Search Engine Optimization. Affiliate programs and ads in search results are often the second and third biggest sources of revenue. (Not necessarily in that order.)
7) The biggest impediment to increasing conversion rates is often a site that’s built so rigidly that it can’t adjust based on research. (Listen to the interview to hear Brook’s shocking experience with this at Shoes.com.)
8) Affiliates are under fire. From Performance Marketing Alliance: States are attempting to define their resident affiliates as having a sales presence for out-of-state merchants. Therefore, these out-of-state merchants would now be responsible for collecting sales tax from residents in that state. Many online merchants cannot afford that expense, and will need to end their affiliate programs in those states.
Also: We didn’t talk about it in the program, but Brook suggests these resources to research leads prices: affspy.com and offervault.com
Full program includes
– How Zappos.com got its affiliates and how you can find yours. (Lots of helpful discussion on this.)
– An overview of the affiliate networks you can work with.
– What’s the biggest metric for affiliate programs and how understanding it can get you more customers without spending more money.
