Earlier I wrote about the need for an affiliate tracking system that allows marketers to understand the numbers behind multiple affiliates being involved in a sale, whether it’s two regular affiliates, or whether it’s understanding the impact of incentive programs like Ebates that are using software plug-ins. On any given sale, how many affiliates touched that user within the allowed commissionable timeframe? That would be interesting information to understand. Even more interesting would be to be able to arbitrarily allocate compensation depending on this information.
Many affiliates are quick to blame specific external factors for any decline in earnings based on very little real information. When numbers decline, scapegoat #1 is “parasites”, or other affiliates who dubiously force clicks on any visitor to their website or who are using software plugins to jump in at the last second and take a sale.
When your numbers go south, it’s very easy to point fingers and start hammering on the affiliate program manager about what parasites are in their program. While there’s nothing wrong with talking to your affiliate managers about the issues, you can only do so much and you cannot really know if you’re even barking up the right tree.
Take the Emotion Out
Until a tracking system is developed, there’s another way to look at this issue. Take the emotion out of the equation and simply think about the other affiliates who may unfairly take your commissions as just another factor affecting the conversion rates of a merchant. If a program has these sorts of affiliates affecting your conversion rates, it’s really no different than a program that has other issues affecting conversion, like a poor user experience, telephone numbers on their site, links to other sites, coupon code fields prompting users to look elsewhere, etc.
As long as there has been commission based compensation, there have been external factors that may prevent someone from getting credit on a sale. There’s an understanding that people are not getting credit for 100% of the sales they contribute to. Even so, they get compensated at a level that they feel is fair to them, else they quit.
Any one external factor that you look at, could be a big red herring. Say a merchant gives that horrible affiliate the boot and you don’t see any difference to your paycheck. Maybe the merchant really is better off, but are you? No? Must be some other parasite. There will always be external factors to blame.
Operate on Facts
Which leads me to my point. Instead of focusing too much time and effort on the unknown, look at facts. Do you know your earnings per click with the programs you promote? That’s a real number that takes into consideration all activity by ALL factors that effect conversion rates (including the ones you don’t even know about), other affiliate competition, both fair and unfair, the quality of your traffic, merchant site factors, cookie and tracking loss, an so on.
What’s a click worth to you? Are you getting what you deserve from the programs you promote? If you think you can do better elsewhere, go. If you’re not getting enough for your clicks, ask for more. Don’t tell a merchant how to conduct their business. Tell them what you need in order to conduct business with them. If you’re getting paid at a level that you’re comfortable with, who else they pay money to is irrellevant from a business perspective.
Once you can accept your average EPC as either fair or the best you’re going to get, focus your valuable energy on improving your business and driving more clicks, and if neccessary, look to replace that program with a better one. That’s a business decision you can make based 100% on facts.
Likewise, merchants must look at their cost per click overall. Yes, they’re double paying on some clicks, even to you. Hopefully they know that and that’s all part of their cost. If they feel that working with one particular affiliate worth certain costs (monetary, loss of other affiliates, emotional distress from the hate mail), then that’s a business decision as well.
Change the World, Second
I’m not suggesting that you roll over on issues that you feel strongly about. Don’t give up on the discussions about how these external factors affect affiliates. A ton of great ideas have been exchanged over this and other issues, many positive actions have been taken as a result, and the world has been changed. At the very least it certainly keeps things interesting. But don’t forget to take care of business.
