Trends Report:
Affiliates and the Media
Buyers Portfolio
by Sam Harrelson
Last week in Digital Thoughts, the issue of media buying
in the current state of online marketing was examined. The
thesis was that 2004 is a year of shrinking inventory where
Media Buyers are having to look outside the traditional
means of generation (email, pop, reg path) to new ways
(search, contextual, behavioral) or old ways that held new
promise (affiliates). The conclusion of the piece was:
“What a seller’s market
requires of a media buyer or an advertiser is a core
competency at all areas of the market. There is no magic
bullet that will provide the highest quality leads/sells for
the lowest costs. What exists is a continually evolving and
changing equilibrium that exists somewhere between these
modes of marketing.”
Due to the large amount of
feedback we’ve received over the past week from readers, we
decided to tackle another aspect of this issue and evaluate
its importance to media buying: affiliate marketing.
Media buyers’ portfolios
are constantly changing and requiring new skill sets to be
learned. Just having enough bravery to cold-call 40
publishers a day still isn’t enough to produce the sort of
leads required for profitability (and a media buyer’s
commission check). Media Buyers must also be proficient at
search engine keyword tactics, using tracking software,
suggesting creatives, etc. Affiliate marketing as an avenue
for low-cost leads, high customer retention and long-term
business partners presents the media buyer with a whole
range of new skill sets that must be mastered quickly if
there is going to be any success.
As a result, there is a
high barrier to entry into the world of affiliate marketing
for advertisers. There is the choosing of CJ, DirectTrack,
MyAffiliateProgram, or an in house solution to provide the
foundation for the program, learning how to offer datafeeds
to the affiliates, dealing with thousands of different
personalities and perspectives, long hours, and the list
goes on. Even the terminology is hard to get a grasp on for
a media buyer just entering the field. It is an uphill
battle for any advertiser looking to quickly get into the
space.
However, once a program is
set up and has garnered a reputation as a decent on-time
paying, newsletter/coupon code/data feed providing program,
a campaign can produce the sorts of leads/sales that media
buyers need to keep their performance level high. However,
even at this point, the job of the media buyer in affiliate
marketing is far from over. All of these components
(including the relationships with affiliates) are
continually changing and in need of constant tweaking.
Affiliate marketing held a
great deal of promise industry wide in the late ‘90s.
Across the online marketing sphere, advertisers, affiliates
and large publishers were evaluating the model of affiliate
marketing and there was a great deal of activity and money
flowing into the space. However, as competition in the
space continued to grow, the barriers became higher for
entry. Eventually, email smothered out many media buyers’
attraction to affiliate marketing and provided a very rapid,
cheap and quality way to produce leads/sales.
With the failings of email
marketing in the online direct response world, and rising
costs/lower performances from pops, banners and reg path
placements, some media buyers are beginning to turn back to
the space with interest.
Whether this is a long term
relationship or media buyers are on the rebound from their
breakup with cheap cpa email marketing is yet to be seen.
However, media buying can be done effectively in the
affiliate marketing model if a media buyer is savvy enough
to quickly learn the ropes and leap the entry barriers
present in the space.
Sam Harrelson is the Co-Editor of the Digital
Moses Confidential. He can be reached at
sam@digitalmoses.com
