beat the competition with the right intelligence tools

Beat the Competition with the

Right Tools

Moderated By:

With Special Guests:

Introductions

WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor

Greg Shepard CEO, AffiliateTraction the largest Affiliate Marketing Agency in the world

Lori Weiman

CEO, The Search Monitor

Monitors Paid & Organic Search, WorldwideReports on rank, copy, market share, and compliance with TM’s & affiliate programs

Max Teitelbaum

COO, WhatRunsWhereMonitors Display Advertising, WorldwideReportson reach, ad content, & networks

Meet the Vendors

Affiliates Are Competitive…Look at the Stats


Earlier this year, Forrester estimated the affiliate marketing industry would grow to

$4.5 billionby 2016

The Presence of Affiliate Marketing

Compiled by: The Search Monitor

Sources: Shoppertrak, Adobe, IRM

Consumers that shop via affiliate linksspend an average of $7 more than the average shopper

Online shopping through affiliate referrals are 43% more likely to convert than average

Merchants on average see 23% of total online sales coming from the affiliate channel.

Together, Display & Search Marketing make up more than 1/3rd

of the Affiliate Marketing Promotions space


Affiliate MarketingWhy So Competitive?

WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search MonitorWhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor

Top Affiliate Marketing Niches

Presence Continued

Health & Wellness Diet Education

Auto Insurance Online Gaming Dating


5 Ways to UseCompetitive Intelligence

1. Affiliate Recruitment / Lead Generation2. Campaign Building3. Client Reporting4. Compliance5. Benchmarking & Self Review

Number 1:Affiliate Recruitment

Discover Opportunities


Affiliate RecruitmentPaid Search

Over 30,000 Affiliates

Advertise Using Paid Search Ads


Discover OpportunitiesPaid Search

Find Verticals with Lower Competition

Source: The Search Monitor


Discover OpportunitiesPaid Search Product Listing Ads

Consider Sharing PLA / PPC

Merchant own PLA.Affiliate own PPC.


Discover OpportunitiesDisplay

With online advertising numbers increasing daily…• More sites are offering ad space,• More networks are helping power campaigns• More affiliates are seeking offers to promote, etc.

Use competitive intelligence to solve these problems:• Find advertisers working with competing publishers to reach out

to• Find advertisers active with other networks to reach out to• Find offers other affiliates are promoting, etc.

Source: WhatRunsWhere


Discover OpportunitiesDisplay

Ex. For Advertisers: Search a category that relates to your niche to find offers already being promoted

These two ads are from gamingwonderland.com– an affiliate in the gaming industry can find them and contact gamingwonderland about their affiliate program + learn how gaming ads are commonly being promoted


Number 2:Campaign Building


Campaign Building Use the Data

• There are various questions to ask during campaign building:• Where will I place my ads? • Where is there the most traffic?• Which ad creatives work best?

• Answer these questions with data from your competitors, including:• Which ads competitors have run the longest• Which sites or keywords they’ve placed ads on the longest• What ads they’re currently testing

Use this data to build and optimize your own campaign


Campaign Building Display Data

Through the traffic sources function, on business2community.com we can see…• They’ve been seen here on 453 days over the past 2 years• They have a very high prevalence score here (meaning they’ve been seen a lot)

A competitor of Sprout Social can then consider:• Should we run ads here to compete with Sprout Social?• OR should we find somewhere new since they are so prevalent there?

Source: What Runs Where


Next, let’s see some patterns from Sprout Social’s top performing ad creatives…

Apply these findings to your own campaigns – what has or has not worked already?

Campaign Building Display Creatives



Campaign Building What Keywords?

Find Keyword Opportunities – Compare the Number of Advertisers:• Lowest Competition: “Aviator Sunglasses” with 10 – 18 advertisers• Highest Competition: “Clip on Sunglasses” with 25 – 30 advertisers


Campaign Building Ad Creatives?

Advertiser: TheClymb.com• Creative: 90% off Deal• Success: Ad has been running for over 2 years (463 days)• Budget: The ad shows 100% of the time for searches on the keyword ‘Snowboard Boots’

on Google Mobile. This indicates that the advertiser puts money toward it.


Campaign Building Most Popular Black Friday Offers of 2014


Number 3:Client Reporting


Client ReportingDisplay

Agencies – use client reports derived from competitive intelligence to maintain existing clients + add further value to your services when appealing to future clients

• Use reports to see:• Where campaigns are running• Ad performance• Metrics – share of voice, share of category• Competitive data

Ex. Booking.com



Client ReportingSearch Advertising

Agencies Share Metrics Such As:• Share of Voice• Ad Spend• Visibility Score: cross-media picture of paid search, organic, and product listing ads


Number 4:Compliance


ComplianceThe Rules

• Prevalent Paid Search Rules• Prohibits Direct Linking• Prohibits Trademark Bidding • Ad Copy Restrictions: Trademarks or Use of Words like ‘Free’ or Regulatory• Rank Restrictions: allowed trademark bidding with rank compliance. Usually part

of a super affiliate strategy

• Prevalent Display Ad Rules• Look for Creatives that Don’t Match Your Rules

• Advertisers – Find all existing ads for your company and where they are being placed

• Publishers – See what ads should and should not be running on your site• Networks – Find ads that should not be placed


Affiliate AdherenceMerchant Rules on Paid Search

34%38%

10%

18%

LOW MEDIUM HIGH EXTREMEcomplies TM bids direct links direct links +

TM bids

72% COMPLY



Compliance: Direct LinkingPaid Search

• Advertiser: AutopartsWarehouse.com• Problem: CJ Affiliate using a domain ‘leadtrackr.com’ is direct linking on a trademark• Challenge: Direct Linking Increases CPC’s Very Expensive for Advertisers• How Much will It Cost?: We look at the knock-out value. In this case it is 5.26%.

This means that 5% of the time, the wrong ad is showing. CPC impact is on the lower end. Advertisers see the most impact starting at 5% and ranging to 100%.

http://www.leadtrackr.com

/leadtrackr.php?id=59995

WhatRunsWhere.com & The Search MonitorWhatRunsWhere.com & The Search Monitor

Super Affiliate StrategyOWN THE PAGE. CONTROL THE MARKET

Affiliates

Merchant Maintains Top Rank Achieved Using

Rank Rules MonitoringMerchant

Merchant Assures That Appropriate Ad Copy is

Used


ComplianceDisplay

As found through WhatRunsWhere, the-virus-radar.com features an ad which would be non-compliant on most ad networks and publishers

Why?• It appears as an official warning message• It claims it is licensed by Microsoft• Both the ad and the landing page contain forbidden copy (error messages)



Number 5:Benchmarking & Self Review


Benchmarking & Self Review

• Using many networks, publishers, and campaigns can lead to confusion when reviewing your own work

• You Need to Know Where You Stand:• Reach: what is your reach compared to other advertisers?• Share of Voice: what is your market share?• Can you Improve?



Benchmark Competitors Who had the better strategy?

Target front loaded and then slowed down?

Walmart who grew presence over time?

What happened in October when the Paths Crossed?

A dead heat tie!


Benchmark an IndustrySample Travel Statistics

TRAVEL

Which travel advertisers earn the best clickthrough rates?

Google,Nov. 2014.

Average across top tier advertisers.

4.1%3.7%

3.4% 3.2% 3.2%

2.2%

Attractions Accomodations Transportation Air Travel Cruises Luxury Travel

Average PPC Clickthrough Rate


SERP Share: PPC, PLA, OrganicWhat’s Your Visibility Score?


Benchmarking & Self ReviewDisplay


First, using the Traffic Sources option, they can look through their various networks and the countries on which they’re advertised




Next they can view stats on each network one by one, through searching by network, to see which is showing them most on which sites, and with which ad creative

ASOS’ stats through

Glam Media network

ASOS’ creative placed through

Glam Media network




On top of this, if they just wanted to see each of their creatives (listed by date or strength), they can view them all in one manageable place

beat the competition with the right intelligence tools

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