It can be hard to understand affiliate marketing if you're new to it. When I mention I work in affiliate marketing people often looked scared and confused! Quite often you might be unaware of the amount of times you come into contact with an affiliate site in your day-to-day life. This is why they are such a great opportunity to expand the reach of a retail or ecommerce site - you can reach audiences that you wouldn't otherwise and only pay when sales are delivered.
Like walking through the jungle it’s a lot less scary if you know what to look out for. Understanding the different types of affiliates and some of their characteristics can help to improve your chances of surviving and prospering. With that in mind I have looked at some of the animals that make up the affiliate marketing kingdom.
A lot of the smaller content sites are often built around what people enjoy. Somebody might like football and start a blog reviewing games or discussing their favourite team. They could then have links in the copy or banner placements promoting something like Sky Sports or football shirts.
Bigger content affiliates will build sites specifically to target traffic in a particular niche. For example, they might anticipate the latest Sony PlayStation or Wii launching and buy a specific domain name and pages that will rank highly on these terms. Content could then be created that reviews the product but would be optimised to appear on key search terms. When the PlayStation launches they would be well positioned to add value and make sales for retailers. Affiliates who do this well show their passion and can create great content which will help you get visibility if you partner with them.
If they were an animal: They would be a Fox. Able to anticipate opportunities, cunning and clever.
Voucher codes sites are becoming more and more well-known and often have large databases. You can see examples such as netvouchercodes.co.uk, where there are a number of different offers promoted. Voucher codes give instant rewards to customers as they can get 10% off or £5 off a £35 spend etc.
Voucher codes sites promotion often relies on the strength of their newsletters with clients often needing to give strong exclusive offers to feature in promotional newsletters.
If they were an animal: They would be a Whale. Big volume, regularly communicate to others.
Comparison sites help consumers to make sense of complicated offers in an easy to digest format. Good examples include Uswitch. Things like mobile phones will have different factors that affect the decision such as the price of the handset, the monthly fee, the minutes, the texts etc. Comparison sites work to sort this data and make it easier for users.
Comparison sites will work in different ways to make their revenue. There are opportunities to get higher placement on site with tenancy. You will therefore sometimes see sponsored offers at the top of comparison tables. Quite often these are labelled to stand out and make users aware they are not necessarily the strongest offer.
If they were an animal: They would be a Cat. Often independent, but will rely on attention to achieve their aims.
Cashback and loyalty sites rely on the strength of their member base to get good deals for consumers. The high possible pay outs for members on items like mobiles or insurance are a strong call to action with cashback often exceeding £100. Sites like TopCashBack offer 100% cashback, so all the commission they are paid from advertisers is paid to members.
Revenue is generated in other areas such as on site advertising or more visible placements on site.
Cashback sites tend to have a loyal member base as more details are needed when signing up. As members get paid the commission, they need to set up their account with their banks details etc, so it is a more involved process. Ensuring they get the best deals and work on customer service ensures that they retain and grow their members.
If they were an animal: They would be a Dog. They rely on loyalty and will defend their -cashback family. A member’s best friend.
PPC affiliates are specialists in their area. Often they will work with clients to try to help to plug gaps in their search strategy. As an example, they might be able to identify long terms keywords that you are not currently bidding on. They can then give you more visibility on search engines while working to a CPA which is often more cost-effective than bidding yourself.
A good example of how this could be effective would be a multi-product retailer such as HMV. The huge size of their back catalogue of products would make it next to impossible to appear on every key word. PPC affiliates would be able to help define the areas that offer the greatest reward and work to improve your visibility while not competing with your current search strategy.
If they were an animal: They would be a Beaver. Always looking at ways to dam the gaps in your PPC strategy.
Understanding the types or affiliates and their promotional methods helps you to build them into your online strategy. There are other affiliate types lurking in the affiliate wildlife and many will be unique. What is important is to not assume all affiliates even of the same type will be the same. Two voucher codes might use the same primary method of promotion but one might specialise in fashion and the other retail. Despite having similar database sizes, promotional methods and type, their database is likely to be very different and should be treated accordingly.
By Graham Jenner
Graham Jenner is Head of Partnerships at TopCashback. Graham manages TopCashback’s Partnerships department, the team that helps to understand and achieve client’s objectives. His role involves developing relationships with key merchants and networks and consulting on strategy. Graham has been involved in the campaigns that have won the ‘Advertiser Innovation’ award for the past two years at the Performance Marketing Awards. Prior to joining TopCashBack Graham worked at Digital Window looking after key brands such as T-Mobile and Game. You can follow him on Twitter or connect via LinkedIn.
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