CJU Course: If You Only Knew #CJU2010

Advertisers and publishers each have a unique way of “getting the job done” and often times, neither understands what the other needs to succeed. “If they could just see it from my side…” seems to be a frequent plea. Well, now you can! We’re getting together three advertisers, three publishers, one moderator, and audience feedback to cover all the topics you’d always wished you could. This session took place on September 22, 2010. The panel consisted of:

• Jennifer Lovette, Vice President Advertiser Development West, Commission Junction (Moderator)
• Alexis Caldwell, SurfMyAds.com
• Yung Trang, TechBargains.com
• Tony Pantano, imwave
• Cheryl, Intuit
• Shawn Sullivan, Priceline
• Mike Tabasso, Gen3 Marketing

As you can see, I didn’t catch Cheryl’s last name, so I apologize in advance to Cheryl – especially if her name is spelled wrong!  Overall this was a great session.  It was nice to see both advertisers and publishers tackle the same questions from different sides of the affiliate coin.  None of the panelists promoted their sites, they just used examples that were pertinent to points they were trying to make.

Bullet Point Review!

What are some recommendations on the best way to manage offers and tools to generate quality transactions for everyone?

• Focus on improving your conversion rate.
• Make your coupon code box clear & show the savings.
• Have a really clean Add to Cart product page.
• Enable deep linking.
• The most important tool is the communication between advertisers and publishers.  What are the things that advertisers need to give publishers to get the best success.
• Networks need to put some initiative into getting one sheets from publishers outlining what they want from advertisers.
• At the end of the day, everyone wants an order placed.
• Use your CJ account reps to make that connection.Ask for feedback from the publisher account reps.
• If I continue to be small and not have tools and resources, how do I get those tools and resources?
• It’s important for advertisers to work with account reps, because it holds more weight if they recommend a program to a publisher instead of a blind pushed offer.
• Rev-share isn’t as important as showing them the economic value.
• At the end of the day, the channel is managed by ROI.
• You have to be open minded because you don’t know where or when you’re going to meet your next big affiliate.

What are some of the challenges you deal with when it comes to advertiser program guidelines and restrictions?

• You have to talk to the publishers to know what is and isn’t acceptable to help develop your terms and conditions.  You don’t know what you don’t know.
• This isn’t a playground – we don’t all have to share the ball.  We all have to play by the rules, but there are different rules.  You have to determine what’s going to best grow your program.
• Mistakes do happen, but reach out because 8 times out of 10 it’s just a miscommunication.
• If you manage a program & login, and you see that your top affiliate is someone you don’t recognize and you have no idea how they got up to the top, chances are they’re probably doing something wrong.
• Sometimes it could be an emerging market with a business model you’ve not encountered, so reach out and ask.
• If you get no response, or a 2 line response that doesn’t make sense, something’s wrong.  Don’t be afraid to ditch the bad people even if they’re you’re top sellers.
• Be transparent – merchants aren’t going to take your secret sauce and spread it all over the place.

If you could ask for one and only one simple thing from your partner, what would it be?

• Alexis: An open ear.
• Yung: Landing page conversion.
• Tony: Be open to having a conversation and analyzing your business to achieve your goals.
• Cheryl: Bring new ideas to merchants – they’re open to testing new things & learning.
• Shawn: Reach out & introduce yourself if you’re new.
• Mike: Be my partner.

Points brought up during the Q&A

• Why aren’t there more self-service tools for merchants? It’s tricky – making it self-service is really difficult.  You don’t necessarily get to determine how the publishers use their real estate on their site.  It’s not always what’s in your best interest as an advertiser, it’s what in the combined best interest of the merchant and publisher.

Unfortunately, the conversation was so good amongst the panelists that there wasn’t much time left for questions.  But considering how approachable all the panelists made themselves, I think there was probably considerable opportunity for them to be asked questions 1-on-1 instead of in front of the entire audience.