By Matt Swan, Head of Business Intelligence
Affiliate marketing has traditionally been premised on a ‘last click wins’ business model. With this being the mechanism for payment, it is no surprise to see affiliate business models geared to generating the final click in the path to conversion. As a result we have seen the rise of incentivised traffic as well as retargeting and basket abandonment solutions. While these sites have been extremely effective at generating conversions, advertisers have been keen to see content sites play their part in driving early funnel traffic.
Some advertisers have looked at attribution solutions to reward affiliates for their influence while others have paid certain affiliates on a CPC model or a tenancy placement. The launch of our payment on assist model has allowed advertisers to work more closely with affiliates that have been identified as adding value in the earlier stages of the path to conversion.
What is influence?
With all the clamour to receive the final click, are the affiliates that are driving early funnel traffic being ignored? This is where the concept of influence comes in. Typically editorial content and blogger-style sites can be involved in the early stages of the path to conversion and are not necessarily converting these sales. There is however an argument they ‘influenced’ the purchasing decision. On a purely last click CPA basis, these ‘influencers’ are not being rewarded for their involvement in sales. Our commission-by-assist payment model has provided an effective way of rewarding publishers for their influence upon a sale.
Why reward influence?
While the traditional ‘last click wins’ model is one that has worked for a number of years, it ignores everything that has happened in the customer journey prior to the final click. While some affiliate models are primed to close sales as we have mentioned, others add value prior to the final click.
A consumer may have read a review on one affiliate’s site before comparing products on another’s. They then check if there is any cashback available from the advertiser, and complete their purchase having clicked through from a cashback site. Without paying assist bonuses, the influence that the first two sites had upon the sale is completely ignored.
By implementing a payment on assist campaign, the advertiser is able to reward the editorial and comparison sites for the role they have played in influencing the consumer on their path to conversion.
It is important to note – this model is about rewarding for assists rather than re-assigning split commissions.
By rewarding on influence, advertisers are recognising this element of affiliate marketing that has typically been ‘free’ and only if a transaction has been made as a result. It is worth considering that in 2014, Affiliate Window tracked 20 clicks and 200 impressions for every sale recorded. This is the element we are considering when assessing influence beyond the sale.
Identifying the correct partners
Prior to running a payment on assist campaign it is important that the relevant publishers are identified. With assist reports readily available in the interface, it is possible to identify affiliates that are currently driving a number of assists. By using the assist data, it is possible to calculate an influence score for each affiliate – this is based on the number of sales each affiliate is involved in that they convert. Any content affiliates that are involved in a number of sales yet convert less than 80% are prime targets to run a payment on assist campaign with.
Rather than simply running a campaign across all partners, it is beneficial to be selective in order to uncover those that are currently influencing a number of sales without converting them.
Results
To date we have seen a number of advertisers launch payment on assist campaigns and the results have been impressive. Boden offered a select group of publishers £1 for each assist they contributed on the programme. As a result they gained a significant amount of coverage across the most relevant content and blogger sites which contributed to an increase in traffic and revenue generated. They benefited from a 19% increase in traffic when compared to the period before the promotion and generated a return of an additional £17 in revenue, for every extra £1 spent.
Topshop has also benefitted from the model seeing a 97% increase in traffic from their selected partners. Interestingly the number of assists across these affiliates decreased while their number of sales increased – highlighting the benefit to conversion rates for publishers. Whereas previously the visitor may have browsed only to convert having visited another affiliate site, the additional content provided encouraged them to purchase there and then.
QP Jewellers has offered one of the largest payments for assists on the network – offering £10 for each assist. Despite the high bounty they have also seen a positive effect with a strong increase in sales and revenue. By understanding how valuable an assist was to them in a sector with extremely high basket values, they have been able to offer a higher payment for each assist in order to gain additional coverage across the relevant content sites.
By encouraging increased exposure across relevant sites, these advertisers also benefitted from publishers being able to convert the visitors arriving at their site rather than merely influencing them to purchase from another affiliate. Affiliates were able to benefit from earning a commission top up for their involvement in sales, while also improving their own conversion rates.
Summary
The tool has been designed to engage relevant content affiliates and it is proving to be successful for advertisers and affiliates alike. By rewarding affiliates for their early funnel influence, advertisers are able to gain increased exposure and additional traffic while affiliates are rewarded for their role in influencing their visitors’ purchasing decisions.
For more information on our payment on assist model please refer to our recent webinar on the subject, as well as the supporting document that accompanies it.
If you would like to discuss setting up a payment on assist campaign, please speak to your account contact.