Affiliate Citizen

Tmesis

‘Tmesis’ - a feeling that you may have missed something. A vague feeling of guilt that intelligent marketeers can use to their advantage to keep shoppers or indeed online browsers around for longer. Comparison sites thrive on this by convincing consumers that the need not look elsewhere and their time has been well spent. Of course, in the current climate of instant gratification time is vital to a lot of people.  This also applies to choosing a suitable merchant, when faced with so many, on the various affiliate networks you may frequent during your time as an online marketeer.

Metrics

How do most people in the offline world overcome the feeling of tmesis? They justify their shopping experience by going for special offers, discounts or top of the range items to ensure they can stave off the guilt of ‘having missed something’. They look to metrics and figures - ‘buy 1 get 1 free’, ‘ 20% off’ and so forth.

In the affiliate-merchant relationship where remote communication and interaction is commonplace affiliates must rely on metrics and figures to gauge a good program and whether to promote it with their precious time. When a market is competitive and many similar merchants are available to the affiliate how can the successful marketeer be sure they have chosen the correct partner and avoid massive tmesis?

We are bombarded with a huge amount of statistics: EPC, CPC, CPA, 90th EPC, CAVE DATA, NETWORK RATINGS, AOV, CONVERSION RATE to name a few. These metrics and figures are extremely useful in measuring the relative performance of merchants against each other but of course the only real test is a live PPC campaign or inserting the merchant onto your content site. Both of which take time and in the former’s case, money.

Gut Instinct

What it comes down to, in my opinion anyway, is a general positive gut instinct feeling about a program. When considering several programs with similar metrics and commission deals consider the ‘added value’. This may well result in you choosing a merchant that could possibly offer a lower %, but the additional aspects will help you run a more profitable campaign.

So what would I consider to be ‘added value’? Read on:

• Tiered program with REALISTIC goals for the affiliate based on sale volume through the month
• Communication and support is viewed as essential by the merchant. This point is crucial in my opinion, especially if you are planning to promote in a market you dont know a lot about. Support via MSN and phone is invaluable in these situations. However, dont stand for agencies who contact you on MSN or offer support and then take days to resolve any problem with ‘their’ merchant.
• The program offers an in house solution. Usually an in house program offers a higher % than the network program as merchants dont have to take into account network costs.
• A reasonable approach to PPC. If you see a merchant’s program that says ‘the affiliate must not bid in a higher position than us’ that is a sure sign of ignorance on the part of the merchant towards how PPC works (notably google) and the long term aspects of an affiliate-merchant relationship.
• With regard to the above point, if the merchant bids on their own brand and restricts affiliates from doing so (commonplace), check whether affiliate cookies are overwritten by the brand bid. This effectively means if anyone comes back to the merchant site by searching on their brand having discovered them at your site - you get nothing. Some merchants do this, some dont.

There are many other added value factors that may come into play for different types of merchant depending on the vertical but those are some of the main ones. Hopefully that will help new affiliates choose the right merchant for a long and fruitful relationship - without too much tmesis!