How to piss off Affiliates: Example #167 - Which? Program
Lee McCoy has wrote an excellent overview of this already, but I thought I would also chip in and add my 2p.
I tend to stray away from controversial posts on my blog; after all, I’m an Affiliate Manager by profession so I try not to voice my opinions on examples of bad affiliate management on an open forum, but there are only so many times that you can watch example after example of piss poor Affiliate Management which seems to have blighted 2006.
I’d also like to make a note to whilst I might place some of the blame on TradeDoubler in the following post, it’s essentially a problem with the industry as a whole, and not just one network.
So firstly a bit of background, direct from the fantastic A4UForum.
They are suspending paying out on the programme when the budget has gone(around 22nd Dec) until the end of the month, when the January budget kicks in. But that’s ok - there was a couple of days notice. Don’t worry about all the careful search engine optimisation the affiliates have been doing - we’ll have the trial but we just won’t pay for it.
Now I’m going to give some FREE advice out for any merchants debating entering the Affiliate Landscape; I usually charge by the hour, so please take note. Affiliate Marketing is a sale cost. Whilst a forum of “Marketing” it is something that is essentially results driven. If you need to put Affiliate Marketing in your “Marketing” budget, considering making it a growing cost.
So why does this keep happening - for me, there are usually just two reasons:
- Lack of understanding by the company
- Agencies
So lets look at point 1. Lack of understanding.
The big question I find myself asking here is who is responsible for this? There are very few (if any) training courses that involve Affiliate Management - it’s not something you find (last time I checked) on the CIM material. So who do I think is responsible for it? The networks. Looking back at the Which? scenario - TradeDoubler are the largest network in the UK; they employ (if i’m not mistaken) the largest amount of Account Managers and staff to any other Affiliate Network in the UK, and let’s not forget that they charge some of the highest fee’s.
So did they do enough? Do they offer training to each merchant that joins the network? Do they explain to potential merchants in the sales lifecycle that making decisions like this based on budget for a performance related program DOES NOT MAKE SENSE AND WILL PISS PEOPLE OFF? Who knows, but I’m betting the answer is no.
It’s not just TradeDoubler - other networks are at fault for the same thing, however some more than others.
Point 2 was Agencies.
I honestly don’t know if the Which? Affiliate Program was being run by an agency, however it does seem that when Budget problems arise they are mainly due to the way that agencies charge for Affiliate Programs. I sat down with an agency a few weeks ago and talked about this very issue and talked about potential ways to solve it. Again, it mainly involves the sales process and giving their clients a better understanding of how Affiliate Marketing works, ultimately other than a few well respected ones such as Blue B, Affiliate Program Advice, etc, it’s all about money and they will take clients on and bugger up the program without a care in the world and do not look at the long term goals.
Anyhow - I’ve ranted for enough about this subject now - education is a huge part of it and I really hope that Affiliates out there start to take a stand against programs that cause these annoyances - the marketing is getting a lot more competitive for merchants and it really is down to all of us to vote with our feet on this subject.
January 2nd, 2007 at 12:23 pm
I can only see agencies adding value when they actually do that and not simply spot what successful affiliates are doing, copy them and then ban affiliates from doing what they were doing.
I see this so many times and, to be honest, I’m fed up to the back teeth of it.
There are a few affiliates that work for their retainers. You get some that find out what the affiliates are doing and then work out how to help them do more.
You get some agencies that will find out more information about products for you, they let you know when products are going out of stock, try and get you discount codes, let you know of other products that a merchant is selling loads of etc etc.
But the one’s that simply take over the running of the programme and then limit what affiliates can do so they can do it themselves should be restrained.
If an affiliate spots an agency from doing this then we should all boycott their programmes - otherwise we’re all going to be marginalised by those agencies.
Lee