ad:tech San Francisco: Affiliate Marketing Innovations for Brands and Advertisers

Posted on May 16, 2011 in Affiliate Marketing, Conferences & Networking |

Session Description: Affiliate marketers are the most adept at harnessing new technologies in their marketing efforts. As a result, the industry has evolved faster than most marketing channels. During the past decade, affiliate marketing has grown from basic text links and banner ads to geo-targeted mobile campaigns and social media swarms. In this session, we’ll delve into how brands can leverage their affiliate channel to multiply reach and the number of consumer touch points. What market factors have driven the rapid growth so far in affiliate marketing? Has the increase been consumer-driven or technology-driven? And what sort of changes will come next? Join us as we find out.

This session took place Wednesday, April 13, 2011. The speakers:

  • Carolyn Tang Kmet, Director of Affiliate Marketing, Groupon (Moderator)
  • J.J. McCarthy, Sr. Manager Internet Marketing, eBay
  • Alicia Navarro, Co-Founder & CEO, Skimlinks

This was a great session.  It gave some insight on the beginnings of Affiliate Marketing that even I didn’t know.  It was also chock full of interesting tidbits and insight gained from eBay & Skimlinks’ experiences.

Bullet Point Review!

  • Affiliate marketing really started in 1886 with Avon ladies.
  • People didn’t realize sites were interactive at the dawn of the internet.
  • Consumers are responsive to free and discounted offer.
  • Approving of animation.
  • Consumers lost interest in flashy stuff, needed to find relevance.
  • Groupon basing the ads not on the content, but the consumers location.
  • Consumers felt their privacy invaded by contextual ads.
  • Key to delivering content is relevance to individual consumer.
  • Recognize where services are needed.
  • RFID helped Walmart improved out of stock by 16% and improved restock efficiency by 60%.
    • Staples reduced out of stock by 21%.
    • Harrahs used RFID in chips – knew where to send cocktail waitresses or pit bosses according to the concentration of where the chips were located on the casino floor.
  • Market fragmentation: broadcast to the individual instead of to the masses.
  • Groupon has added incentives for users to share deals via Facebook and Twitter.
  • Affiliate marketing has become device agnostic.
  • We’re constantly wired.
  • Convergence used go just be a phone, but now it’s a PDA, camera, Internet, television, & more.
  • eBay been actively marketing in affiliate space since 2000.
  • eBay partner network launched 2008.
    • >100k websites actively driving traffic.
  • Unlike all other marketing channels, success in affiliate marketing is predicated on competing for affiliates mind share & loyalty.
  • Success is a function of reputation, ease of use, & earnings f(ree).
  • Invest significantly in reputation.
  • Being successful isn’t always about tech innovation, it’s also about cultural innovation.
  • QCP: quality click pricing.  Volume isn’t a proxy for value.  Would rather have quality. De-averages the CPC.
  • Build world class tools.
  • Do-it-Yourself Affiliate Marketing is more costly than the revenue.
    • Integrate with the affiliate networks.
    • Apply to individual merchant programs.
    • Create deep link syntax.
    • Hard code into site.
    • Maintain links.
    • Access multiple reporting interfaces.
    • Optimize.
  • Publishers don’t think of themselves as marketers, so appeal to them with that angle.
  • Perhaps affiliate marketing should be affiliate linkage.
  • The closer funnel (converto.com)