CJU Session : The Pulse of the Affiliate Market

Rebecca Madigan from CJ presents this great session.  Unfortunately, I didn’t manage to get to blog the opening sessions – due to not being able to find a place to sit!  The room was packed!

Rebecca conducted interviews with Top Performing Publishers & Advertisers in order to provide content for this session.

Topics Covered:

• Perspectives
• Important Issues
• Suggestions
• Trends

1/3 international respondents

•  Average of 10 Weeks to receive commission payment
•  Up to 50% fees charges
•  9 more countries added to direct bank transfer payouts

Advertiser Profile:

• Average time in affiliate marketing : 4.8 years
• Number of hours a week : 40
• Percentage of time dedicated to Affiliate: 58%

Publisher Profile:

• Average time in affiliate marketing : 8.5 years
• Number of hours a week: 61.5
•  Average ramp up to full time: 8.5 months
• Biggest business threats:
  • Disinformation about the affiliate channel
  • Time

Publishers:  Selection criteria when choosing an Advertiser  (in order):

1. Advertiser Response
2. Brand
3. Conversion Rate
4. Deep Linking
5. Commission
6. Consumer Incentive
7. Keyword Policy
8. Product Feed
9. Network
10. Publisher Incentive

(Advertisers should consider consumer incentives, above publisher incentives for their program).

Advertiser:  Selection criteria when accepting Publishers (in order):

1.  CJ Performer
2. Vertical
3. Geographic Location
4. ( a few more that went past faster than I could type!!)

It’s very difficult to blog the rest of the session, as the camera man keeps switching my screen over to Rebecca, and not the slideshow!  I’ll try to put some notes down:

On the survey, almost everyone said that both the publisher & the merchant share the consumer.

“The consumer is married to the advertiser, but the publisher is her best friend” – comments from a loyalty site owner.

Partner Tip:

Advertiser :  Ad key target markets and program objectives in your advertiser detail page.   Send your promotional calendar and marketing plan to your top publishers and find mutual opportunities.

What’s next in the Affiliate Sector?

•  Consolidation:  the big overtaking the small by acquisition or competition
  • Publishers, Advertisers, Networks
• New tools to make it easier for consumers to choose & buy (e.g. web services), in new places to buy (e.g. Social Networks)
• Increased demand for measurable results
• Affiliate sector getting a bigger piece of the marketing pie
• SEO growth
• Everyone needs to ‘come clean’
• Will cookies continue to be viable?
• Affiliate is just beginning – lets do a better job at it!