revenue performance magazine, spring 2011 edition

8/7/2019 Revenue Performance Magazine, Spring 2011 Edition

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BLUE BOOK Top 20The Best CPA & Affiliate Networks

Building Instant TrustWith Tim Ash

Integrated Bidding PlatformsLeading the Way Forward

BLUE BOOK Top 20The Best CPA & Affiliate Networks

Building Instant TrustWith Tim Ash

Integrated Bidding PlatformsLeading the Way Forward

DO YOU HAVEA FUTURE?THE PERFORMANCEMARKETING EXPLOSION

IS GOING TO ROCK

YOUR WORLD

ISSUE 7 | SPRING 2011 | REVENUE.MTHINK.COM


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ContentsLetter From The Editor

Spring 2011 | Revenue.mthink.com

Performance Marketing Is Your Future .....................5By Chris Trayhorn

Does Your Website Inspire Trust? ...............................6By Tim Ash

SPECIAL SUPPLEMENT

The BLUE BOOK GuideTo Ad Networks & Exchanges

How We Chose The BLUE BOOK Top 20..............BB3By Chris Trayhorn

The BLUE BOOK Top 20 - Affi liate Networks ..... BB4

The BLUE BOOK Top 20 - CPA Networks .............BB5

Integrated Multichannel Marketing ..................... BB6By Peter Bordes

The Evolution Of Performance Marketing .......... BB8By Gary Olden

Interview: Thomas Dietzel - CPAWay ..................BB12A BLUE BOOK Q&A

Maximizing Opportunity InPerformance Marketing Networks ......................BB14By Greg Bayer

Maximize Performance Across ChannelsWith Holistic KPIs ....................................................BB16By Tom Walsh

Interview: Darin Namken -Bulldog Media Group .............................................. BB17A BLUE BOOK Q&A

15 Years Of Linkshare ..............................................BB18

A Retrospective Round Table

How Mobile-Friendly Are You? .................................. 33By Geno Prussakov

Is Affi liate Tracking Software RightFor Your Program? ........................................................34By Maranda Moses

Affi liate Program Management:An Hour A Day ...............................................................38By Geno Prussakov

Affi liate Networking 2011: With Great Scale

Comes Great Responsibility ......................................40By Peter S. Klein

This edition of Revenue Performance includesthe BLUE BOOK Guide To PerformanceMarketing Networks. We have chosen toreproduce the ranking tables for 2011 for both theTop 20 CPA Networks and the Top 20 Affi liate Net-works as we have many new readers for whom therankings may be useful. Since the rankings werepublished in November, 2011, a couple of themeshave emerged in the feedback we have received.

The fi rst was that the rankings werent fairor were possibly infl uenced by whether or not thenetwork concerned was an advertiser with us.Speaking as the publisher of a print magazine in theage of the internet, all I can say to that is, I wish.We dont even have 20% of the companies featuredin the BLUE BOOK rankings as advertisers. If onlyit were more.

The truth is that the whole point of the BLUEBOOK approach to the rankings is that we wantedto get way from the online lists of my favorite net-works, written by gurus and governed by embed-ded referral commission links. Weve worked hardto make it as authoritative as possible and thats howit will remain. The second theme that has emergedis that everyone wants more education. Its clearthat performance marketing is the answer for manyof the ills that marketing professionals and agenciesare struggling with, but they need to know how tomove forward. Several of our contributors look athow the industry has evolved and where it is goingin the future - please read them and also check outmy column on page 5 for more on eduction andthe future.

Also in this issue we bring you the latest chapter

of our ongoing collaboration with Tim Ash, thelanding page and conversion expert. He once againbrings his inimitable style and invaluable advice toour pages. His piece begins on page 6 and is recom-mended reading.

Chris TrayhornFounder and Editor


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Tim Ash is the CEO ofSiteTuners.com, a landing page

optimization firm that offersconversion consulting, full-serviceguaranteed-improvement tests,and software tools to improveconversion.

Peter Bordes is the Founder CEOand Chairman of the Board ofMediaTrust. Prior to MediaTrust,he spent much of his career inbanking and venture capitaland was a founder of MasonCabot investment bank, whichspecialized in early stage mediaand technology financing. He isa Founding Charter Member and

on the Board of Directors of thePMA Performance MarketingAssociation.

Peter S. Klein is GeneralManager of the MonetizeItAffiliate Network, a division ofMediaWhiz, a leading onlineperformance marketing agency.Peter heads sales, distributionand operations, as well as productand offer development forMediaWhizs affiliate program.

Geno Prussakov is an author,blogger, speaker and consultant in

affiliate marketing and affiliateprogram management. He is awell-known speaker at conferencessuch as eMetrics Summit,a4uexpo, Internet MarketingConference, eComXpo andAffiliate Summit.

Maranda Moses is acommunications strategist forShare Results and contributessome of their widely read blogsand articles on affiliate strategies,industry news, and trends.She has vast experience as asenior account manager in the

education, family, apparel andmaternity insurance verticals.

Tom Walsh is the Senior Directorof Media Services at NetMargin,Datran Medias Multi-ChannelMedia Network since 2005. He isresponsible for media planning,buying and publisher partnermanagement specializing inoptimizing revenue opportunities.

Contributors

2 revenuePERFORMANCE

PUBLISHER & EDITORChris Trayhorn

ART DIRECTORDavid Witcomb

DESIGN & PRODUCTIONSharon Anderson and Donna Sharee

SENIOR WRITERLisa Morgan

PRODUCTION MANAGERYvonne Schellerup

CLIENT LIAISONJennifer Neaves

CONTRIBUTING WRITERSChris Trayhorn, Tim Ash, Geno Prussakov, Tom

Walsh, Maranda Moses, Peter Bordes, GaryOlden, Greg Bayer, Peter Klein

VICE-PRESIDENT, SALESTobias Siegel

ADVERTISING/SALES DIRECTORKelly Joseph Lemos

To advertise, subscribe or obtain reprints, call 415-371-8800,

or visit: revenue.mThink.com

Revenue Performance is published by mThink55 New Montgomery, Suite 617

San Francisco, CA 94105

mThink: Intelligent Performance Marketing

CHAIRMAN AND CEOChris Trayhorn

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETINGYvonne Schellerup

DIRECTOR, WEB DEVELOPMENTRon Snow

COMPTROLLERJulienne Riveong

DEDICATED TO SUCCESSFULPERFORMANCE ADVERTISING

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy

of the content of this publication, the publisher will accept

no responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for any loss

or damage, consequential or otherwise, suffered as a result

of any material published here. The information published

in Revenue Performance is not intended as a substitute

for legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice. The

publisher assumes no responsibility for statements madeby advertisers in business competition. All editorial submis-

sions, whether solicited or unsolicited, become the property

of mThink. Statements and opinions expressed herein are

not necessarily those of Revenue Performance, mThink, its

affi liates, advertisers or any other agent. The name Revenue

Performance and the phrase Super-Affi liate Insights a re

the intellectual property of mThink. The entire content of

this publication is protected by copyright; full details are

available through the publisher. All rights reserved. These

trademarks or copyright materials may not be used in any

media for any purpose without the express written consent

of mThink.

2011 mThink

ISSN: 1549-7615

Cover Image: Solarseven | Dreamstime.com

Stanislav Perov | Dreamstime.com

Disclaimer: Revenue Performance and revenue.mThink .com include editorial and/or advertising that refers to affi liate programs that ofteninclude many different websites. Occasionally those programs may include websites offering education in casino or card games. In such cases

no promotion or endorsement of those sites should be inferred or implied our editorial coverage and/or advertising relates only to the affi liateprogram itself. Revenue Performance magazine and revenue.mThink.com do not accept advertising that promotes online gambling.

Advertiser Index

Adknowledge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB7

adMedia.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC

ad:tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 10

CashNetUSA.com, A Cash America Company . . BB11

CPAWay . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB13

Digital River oneNetworkDirect . . . . . . . . . . OBC

DirectTrack . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB19

Effectus Software . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4

Infi nite Traffi c . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .35

LinkShare, A Rakuten Company . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3

MarketHealth.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .31

MediaWhiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9

MillionaireNetwork.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . BB2

NetMargin, A Datran Media Company . . . . . . IFC

NetX . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39

Pepperjam . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .BB9

Search Engine Strategies . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 32

ValueClick . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 37

2 0 1 0

Dedicated To Performance Marketing

Find the Top 20 CPAand Affi liate Networks

on pages BB4 and BB5


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5revenue.mThink.com

Educate For The Future Chris Trayhorn, Publisher & Editor

Hey Networks!This isnt diffi cult to understand.

When people say they want the per-formance marketing sector to grow,

the answer is in their own hands. Andwhen I say people you should knowthat I mean ad network executives.Need more advertisers? There areseveral million companies in the USAalone that arent currently using perfor-mance marketing but could do so veryprofi tably. Go get em. Whats stoppingthose companies from using perfor-mance marketing? They dont knowenough. They dont understand how itall works. Theyre intimidated by thestories they hear.

So teach them. This isnt diffi cult tounderstand.

Hey Agencies!If you are an agency and youre used

to buying display ads for your cus-tomers, are you tracking the resultsall the way through to sales transac-tions? I dont mean just we ran thisad campaign and saw an uptick inoverall sales. I mean real, customer bycustomer tracking. Regarding your lastmedia buy, do you know exactly howmany leads it generated? How manybrand transactions? How much traffi c

it generated? You dont know? Well,you could. Performance marketing cando that for you.

Hey Advertisers!How about your online sales? Couldthey do with a boost? Could you usean extra 20% of sales revenue? Or howabout sales leads? What if you couldbuy them at a fi xed price, and youknew in advance exactly how manywould convert into sales? Performancemarketing can do that for you.

A couple of weeks ago I was chat-ting to a senior executive within theperformance ad network space and

he told me, we have lots of potentialcustomers. We just cant train themfast enough. Hes a very smart manwith his fi nger on the pulse of ourindustry and what he says rings true.Every week I get two or three callsfrom companies wanting to start anaffi liate marketing program or needingto generate leads. They have no ideawhere or how to begin. Then I read thenews and see that another network hasgone bust or is under investigation forfraud or something. Its madness. Asan industry, performance marketinghas one of the biggest opportunities in

history sitting right in front of it. Mo-bile Internet access and social mediaare between them driving a stake intothe heart of much of the bricks and

mortar retail sector and forcing offl ineand broadcast marketing companiesto panic as their lack of measurabilitycomes back to haunt them. Perfor-mance marketing is the answer. It isthe future of marketing. But we needto be teaching merchants, marketersand advertisers what it is that we do.Why it works. How much it costs. Andthen we can turn them into customers.Colleagues. Evangelists.

Its not that diffi cult.Performance marketing is the future.

Education of marketing profession-als is the future of the performancemarketing industry. rp

REVENUE PERFORMANCE AND THE BLUE

BOOK will be launching a number of training

and education initiatives in the coming months

to help merchants, advertisers and agency execu-

tives understand what performance marketing

is, why its the future and how to make a start.

To sign up for updates and new announcements,

please go to: training.mthink.com

Performance MarketingIs Your FuturePlease, take a moment to follow my train of logic:

STEP 1: Marketing professionals are under more pressure than ever before.The pressure is to deliver measurable results, now and in the future.

CONCLUSION 1: Measurable results are key to the future of marketing.

STEP 2: Measurable results are key to the future of marketing.Performance marketing is all about delivering measurable results.

CONCLUSION 2: Performance marketing is the future of marketing.STEP 3: Performance marketing is the future.

Marketing professionals need to know much more about performance marketing.

CONCLUSION 3: Education of marketing professionals is key to the future of the performancemarketing industry.


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6 revenue

Conversion Tim Ash, SiteTuners.com

Appearance

Dont get disqualifi ed based solelyon how you look

Does Your WebsiteInspire Trust?The Secret to Building InstantTrust Online

Figure 1 Would you buy a $30,000 grand piano from these folks?Even if the company was recommended to you by a friend, you wouldlikely question their professionalism after visiting them online.


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7revenue.mThink.com

Transactional Assurances

Relieve point-of-action anxietiesbefore they arise

Experts & Media

Borrow trust from better-known brands

Figure 2 This ecommerce site has the right idea but missed thepoint. If visitors cant see your transactional assurances, they mightas well not be there at all. Display them prominently above the fold.


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8 revenue

Conversion Tim Ash, SiteTuners.com

Consensus of Peers

Support automatic compliance bydemonstrating social proof

rp

TIM ASH

Figures 3a-3b By simplifying their form and emphasizing trust sym-bols, this company was able to increase conversions on their landingpage by 51%, resulting in a $48 million/year revenue increase.


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AKQA

AMAZON

AMERICAN EXPRESS OPEN

AT&T

BABYCENTER

BANK OF AMERICA

CBS INTERACTIVE

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY

EBAY

EXPERIAN

FACEBOOK

FEDERAL TRADE COMMISSION

GOOGLE

LENOVO

LINKEDIN

MICROSOFT

MSNBC

MTV

NBA

NBC

NIELSEN

NOKIA

OFFICE DEPOT

OGILVY

PEPSI CO

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SAATCHI&SAATCHI

THOMSON REUTERS

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The Best NetworksIn this section of the BLUE BOOK

we reproduce our annual ranking of

the best performance marketing net-

works. The list is updated each Fall and

remains current for 12 months. Theseare the networks that we feel able to

wholeheartedly recommend as a result

of receiving feedback from over 5,000

industry experts: publishers and adver-

tisers that do the business of perfor-

mance marketing every day.

These networks made it onto these

lists because as a group they work hard

to provide their customers with ROI.

They invest in technology, they recruit

and train their affi liate managers to

help publishers succeed and they un-

derstand that advertisers need measur-

able results.

In other words, these networks were

chosen as one of the Top 20 networks

in their fi eld because over 5,000 pub-

lishers and advertisers think they are

the best at what they do, and our Blue

Ribbon Panel of industry experts con-

curred.

No other ranking of ad networks

uses the depth of research or is as au-

thoritative as the BLUE BOOK Top 20.

Choose these networks for your nextperformance marketing campaign.

MethodologyThe BLUE BOOK Top 20 is not a

simple listing of the biggest networks.

Instead it takes into account reputa-

tion, infl uence, clientele, popularity

and scale.

An important part of the ranking

process was our survey of over 5,000

industry fi gures carried out during Oc-

tober, 2010. In that survey we asked an

open-fi eld fi rst question to identify the

respondents favorite networks for run-

ning CPA and affi liate campaigns. The

open-fi eld nature of this question wasdesigned to avoid any selection bias

caused by prompting or by which net-

works we included in a pick-list.

On a subsequent page of the survey

we provided a list of almost 80 lead-

ing networks from which respondents

were asked to choose a further four

networks in each of the CPA and affi li-

ate network categories.

We also made allowance for the

sheer number of publishers that the

big networks deal with. We didnt want

smaller but well-loved networks to be

swamped so we factored that in too.

In addition to the main survey, we

also asked our Blue Ribbon panel of in-

dustry experts to complete a survey of

their own. In this, we asked that each

should create an ideal portfolio of af-

fi liate networks and of CPA networks.

We allowed for the fact that they might

be tempted to vote for their own net-

works where relevant, and then these

confi dential results were fed into our

calculations.Finally, we also researched and ag-

gregated a variety of traffi c data, mea-

sures of industry infl uence and as many

other pieces of information as we could

gather.

The result of all these deliberations

is the BLUE BOOK Top 20: our picks for

the Top 20 affi liate networks and the

Top 20 CPA networks.

BLUE BOOK Top 20The Top CPA and Affi liateNetworks For 2011

The Online Advertising BLUE BOOK

BB3The Online Advertising BLUE BOOK bluebook.mthink.com

HELP US GET EVEN BETTERPerformance marketing is

growing so quickly that the next

update to the BLUE BOOK Top

20 rankings will expand. For the

first time it will include displaynetworks used for performance

marketing media buys. It means

a lot more work for us and so the

research and survey effort will

begin immediately after ad:tech

San Francisco. If you are a net-

work of any kind and you would

like to participate in the survey

and assist with distribution of

our survey link, please email me

directly at: [email protected]

Thank you,

Chris Trayhorn

BLUE-RIBBON PANELThe authority of the Top 20

rankings are much enhanced by

the input of our distinguished

panel of industry experts. They

are an unfailingly helpful, intel-

ligent and patient group.

The members of the Blue-Rib-bon Panel are: Heather Paulson,

Peter S. Klein, Brendan J. Smith,

Jennifer Lovette, George Hansen,

Dennis Syracuse, Evgenii Geno

Prussakov, Bob Kumagai, Michael

Sprouse, Matthew R. Sandin, Jeff

Kamikow and Chad P. French.

These are stars of our indus-

try and for their help we thank

them sincerely.

For more information on our methodologyand on the best affi liate and CPA networksgo to: mthink.com/bluebook

BB3


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Network URL Survey comments or notes

1 ClickBank www.clickbank.com ClickBank, you are the greatest. You know what you are doing and how tohelp your affiliates. Keep up the great work.

2 Commission www.cj.com CJ is the best at balancing the relationship between the merchants, theJunction network, and the affiliates.

3 ShareASale www.shareasale.com Absolutely the overall best performance marketing network in the worldtoday is ShareASale.

4 Affiliate Window/ www.affiliatewindow.com The biggest affiliate network in Britain, received abuy.at buy.at lot of support from affiliates in Europe.

5 oneNetworkDirect www.onenetworkdirect.com Digital Rivers oneNetworkDirect is the leader in software sales with theindustrys best network technology and offices worldwide.

6 LinkShare www.linkshare.com Owned by Japanese company Rakuten with strong foreign language andcurrency capabilities.

7 Amazon affiliate-program.amazon.com Although Amazon offers a smaller percentage per sale, their reporting systemfar surpasses other big networks.

8 Google Affiliate www.google.com/ads/affiliatenetwork The Google affiliate program is much easier to deal with than most others.Network

9 AvantLink www.avantlink.com Avantlink is incredibly professional. I wish to heaven the rest of the networkswere in the same league.

10 TradeDoubler www.tradedoubler.com Founded in Sweden and now covering 18 different markets in Europe.

11 eBay Partner www.ebaypartnernetwork.com eBays affiliate network with the Quality Click Pricing (QCP) payout system.

Network

12 LinkConnector www.linkconnector.com A newish network that claims to be breaking the mold by taking a differentphilosophical approach.

13 Advertising.com www.advertising.com Claim to monetize almost 2 billion impressions a day from a network thatincludes more than 70 of comScores Top 100 ad supported sites.

14 Pepperjam www.pepperjamnetwork.com Because of networks like Panthera, Commission Junction and Pepperjam Iwas able to start with little to no traffic on my web pages. They will always

have my loyalty as I grow.

15 Affiliate Future www.affiliatefuture.com Affiliate Future claims to be the UKs number one content-based affiliatemarketing network, delivering over 130m in sales in 2007.

16 zanox www.zanox.com Europes biggest affiliate network. Part of the Axel Springer news and mediagroup in Germany.

17 Webgains www.webgains.com Formed in 2004 and part of the ad pepper media group. Delivers campaignsin over 50 countries.

18 RevenueWire www.revenuewire.com A network specializing in digital products, built on elevated principles ofsustainable and ethical commerce.

19 AdCommunal/ www.adcommunal.net AdCommunal is the best affiliate network in theAdCanadian internet marketing industry today.

20 Bridaluxe www.bridaluxe.com Specialist network focused on weddings - if thats your market you will lovethis network.


The Top 20 Affiliate Networks 2011

BB4


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Networks URL Survey comments or notes

1 Epic Direct www.epicdirectnetwork.com Ive found Azoogle/Epic and MaxBounty to be the best mainly due to theiraccount management with the advertiser. They both seem to see the bigpicture for the advertiser - many other networks only see a short-term

requirement to get revenue and allow scammers in.

2 NeverBlue www.neverblue.com A Canadian network strong in lead-gen worldwide. Popular withhigh-performing affiliates.

3 Market Leverage www.marketleverage.com Recommended by two different Blue Ribbon Panel members, MarketLeveragehas a great reputation.

4 Clickbooth/ clickbooth.com Ranked #5 on the Inc. 500 list and regarded as one of theIntegraclick leaders in the industry. Focuses on exclusive offers.

5 Max Bounty www.maxbounty.com Clickbank and MaxBounty are the two networks that work best for me. They

have great products that meets the customers needs and also have excellentcustomer service.

6 CX Digital Media www.cxdigitalmedia.com A 2-tier network that claims to reach more unique visitors than any other USonline advertising network.

7 NetMargin - Datran www.netmargin.com NetMargin is the best network around. They understand how we makemoney and provide us with the resources to make even more.

8 MediaTrust www.mediatrust.com MediaTrust has been repositioning itself and is now focused on its newlylaunched CPC bidding platform, PerformanceExchange.

9 MediaWhiz www.mediawhiz.com MonetizeIt has great offers and the affiliate managers provide great service- MonetizeIt

10 COPEAC www.copeac.com Part of the newly renamed IMM Interactive, COPEAC claims over 40,000publishing partners.

11 Adknowledge www.adknowledge.com The buyers of MIVA and Hydra, Adknowledge has highly-rated predictive/behavioral technology.

12 Motive Interactive www.motiveinteractive.com A premium, invitation-only CPA network with a well-respected, proprietarylead-gen platform that offer great tracking.

13 Rextopia.com rextopia.com A smaller network with a good reputation and a well-liked team.

14 Convert2Media convert2media.com Rucks network. Thats all you need to know. Great reputation.

15 DirectLeads www.directleads.com Digital Rivers long-established CPA network, running on the DirectTrackplatform.

16 Affiliate.com www.affiliate.com Part of Scott Richters Media Breakaway empire.

17 Panthera www.pantherainteractive.com Panthera is one of my favorite networks. Matt Sandin is honest and likeable. Interactive His team gets the job done right.

18 RevenueStreet www.revenuestreet.com Part of TheMediaCrew.com and in the Inc. 500 two years running.

19 Adperio www.adperio.com We currently work with 35 different networks, some of which we run a lotmore volume with, but Adperio still remains our favorite network.

20 PeerFly peerfly.com PeerFly is my favorite network. They are courteous, helpful, and point you inthe right direction. We love PeerFly.

The Top 20 CPA Networks 2011

BB5


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Integrated MultichannelMarketing: Moving FromMassMarketing To Me Marketing


We have begun to enter the next evo-

lution of the web and internet market-

ing. Web 3.0 is the age of relevance and

the shift from mass marketing to me

marketing.

Good marketers already understandthat pushing messages excessively at an

audience will only cause them to slam

on the brakes; consumers are now the

ones behind the wheel. In order to get

to a destination that makes everyone

happy, it will have to be on the consum-

ers terms. Its no longer the content but

rather the consumer that is king, and

they will decide if, when and how to re-

spond to communication.

In performance marketing, it is more

important than ever for advertisers and

publishers to empower consumers with

relevant information to engage them

and to provide tools with which they

can choose how they want to interact or

transact with a brands campaign. Mar-

keters must provide value and can no

longer use mass marketing techniques

to push or trick the consumer into

a transaction.

In order to anticipate and meet the

needs of consumers, the evolution of per-

formance marketing has led to the rise of

truly integrated multi channel marketingplatforms. Consumers are able to choose

whether they will read, click, fill out a

form, make a phone call, text, reply, and

so on, and providing all those options

not only leads to more satisfied consum-

ers but also better conversions and ROI

for advertisers and publishers.

Instead of cobbling together multiple

solutions to reach consumers via a mul-

titude of channels, performance market-

ers are turning to solutions that combine

all the moving parts. Why shouldnt we

be able to access all the tools, channels

and partners we need in one platform?

Thats why the industry has moved

away from focusing on specialized servic-es, and toward a more holistic approach.

The paradigm shift away from mass

marketing and toward me marketing

has replaced the use of multiple black

box systems with transparent multi-

channel platforms. We are moving away

from siloed and fragmented solutions to

platform driven ecosystems of services

and solutions driven by technology

The fragmented nature of the market

has always made performance marketing

harder than it should be and MediaTrust

has long been a proponent of bringing

participants together to strengthen the

industry. Our recently launched Perfor-

manceExchange is an example of the

new integrated environments: a real-

time bidding platform that brings adver-

tisers and publishers from a variety of

industries and channels together.

Advertisers can bid on aggregated

traffic from publishers who are carefully

curated based on the value they provide

to advertisers. Initially launched with

email, advertisers will soon be able toreach customers who have opted in to

receive communication through email,

mobile, content, social channelsany

of the consumers preferred methods of

communication.

Likewise, sophisticated performance

metrics and analysis also need to be

included within any truly integrated so-

lution, so that users can evaluate their

efforts and determine which channels

and approaches are working. The new

integrated platforms live and die by

transparent performance metrics.

Unlike previous solutions that rely

on the traffic in, traffic out mantra,

multichannel platforms dont rely onsimply getting consumers in and churn-

ing them through the process. Instead,

they focus additionally on what might

happen after the initial contact. There

are ways to optimize the relationship

by contacting the consumer at differ-

ent points along the length of the value

chain, placing importance on the long-

term value of relationships rather than

on short-term, immediate monetization.

As an example, within PerformanceEx-

change, publishers are evaluated and

paid based on the long-term quality of

traffic that is delivered, so only those

publishers that provide most value will

survive and thrive.

Multi-channel platforms are now be-

coming a reality as advancements in

technology have allowed the creation

of truly integrated environments. When

combined with a focus on catering to

the unique needs of individuals rather

than a spray and pray mentality, con-

ditions are ripe for integrated platforms

to become the approach of choice forenlightened publishers and advertisers.

Peter Bordes is the Chief Executive

Office of MediaTrust

by Peter Bordes, MediaTrust

BB6


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The Evolution ofPerformance Marketing


Although theres plenty of healthy

debate about precisely when and how

affiliate marketing programs emerged

on the Web, few will argue that the

channel has considerably evolved since

it began over a decade ago. Understand-

ing the evolutionary cycles that have oc-

curred in the affiliate marketing space

can provide large brands and advertisersa valuable perspective on the best ways

to take advantage of the performance-

based opportunities that exist for busi-

nesses today. More importantly, by

broadening definitions of comprehen-

sive performance marketing and antici-

pating what lies on the horizon, advertis-

ers can effectively position themselves

for long-term program success.

2000-2010: First Wave AffiliateMarketing

The early days of affiliate marketing

can be broadly identified by two major

hallmarks. One is the era of primitive

ads and the other is the emergence

of the network model. Together, they

make up what I consider to be affiliate

marketings first wave.

Primitive Programs and TacticsChances are, when you think back to

the affiliate marketing activities done

between 2000 and 2006, you remember

the annoying pop-up ads and bannerswith bad creative. I refer to this era of

primitive or suspect ads as the caveman

period on the affiliate marketing evo-

lutionary timeline: Early man thrived

by hunting prey with stones and clubs,

and early affiliate marketers thrived by

luring unsuspecting traffic with rudi-

mentary advertising traps. Web surf-

ers got wise to these tactics, and when

that happened, many publishers moved

to different and progressively more

nefarious black hat marketing tactics.

This is the main reason many large brands

shied away from the affiliate marketing

channel altogether for many years.

The Network ModelAround the same period of time, be-

ginning around 2004, the affiliate mar-

keting and advertising network modelemerged. First, publishers discovered

new revenue opportunities by recruit-

ing other publishers and direct advertis-

ers. And not long after that, networks

realized they could work together to

build exponential revenue via super

networks, using tools like DirectTracks

CrossPublication solution.

Many very successful businesses

emerged from the network model

and plenty of good things came from

it, including the development of more

sophisticated technologies to handle

tracking and detect fraud. Whats more,

since enterprise networks have always

been low risk and theyve offered low

barriers to entry, some large brands feltmore comfortable dipping their toe into

the affiliate marketing waters via the

network model.

2008-2014: PerformanceMarketing Today

Because of reluctance on behalf of

publishers and networks to give brands

enough visibility into who their affiliates

are and where traffic comes from, first

wave network models have either need-

ed to adapt their offerings to accommo-

date large advertisers requirements, or

advertisers have pursued their own pro-

gram development. Additionally, primi-

tive advertising tactics and opaque net-

work models do still exist in various

capacities, but their survival requires ad-

aptation to rapidly changing consumer

perceptions and todays competitivebusiness climate. As such, I consider the

first wave of affiliate marketing to be be-

hind us for the most part. That brings us

to today.

Whats In a Name?Over the past several years, large

brands have increased their knowledge

of affiliate marketing through their rela-

tionships with agencies and networks.

So today, more than any other time in

the past, advertisers and publishers

have gained a greater understanding

of the channels real value. Along with

this understanding comes a movement

to redefine some of the terms that have

traditionally dominated our industry.For example, an affiliate has typically

been defined rather narrowly as a pub-

lisher. But as the industry responds to

and learns from old first wave stereo-

types, they tend to eschew terms like

affiliate marketing in favor of more

comprehensive terminology, like per-

formance marketing.

This trend isnt really about a change

in vernacular. Instead, it reflects an im-

portant reality: Performance marketing

by Gary Olden, Direct Response Technologies

Because of reluctance on behalf of publishers and networks to give brands

enough visibility into who their affiliates are and where traffic comes from,

first wave network models have either needed to adapt their offerings to a

ccommodate large advertisers requirements, or advertisers have pursued

their own program development.


BB8


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22/44


has evolved to become much more com-

prehensive than yesterdays basic af-

filiate program. Today, merchants realize

they haveand have access tomany

different types of partnerships. Call

them affiliates, publishers, advertisers,

value added resellers (VARs), channel

partners, or what you will. They are all

relationships that can help drive rev-

enue for brands.

Todays ChallengesAs large brands recognize that any-

one who makes a commission from sell-

ing their products is an affiliate of sorts,

they have started to craft new business

visions to maximize these opportunities.

However, when looking at their perfor-

mance marketing needs and objectivesmore broadly, merchants do face some

challenges.

Operational Challenges:Program Management andDecentralization

An enterprise network program can

function as an effective intermediary

between an advertiser and a publisher.

However, on the operational side of

things, finding a way to manage the out-

sourced relationship with an affiliate or

advertising network alone can be diffi-

cult, especially for businesses with lim-

ited investment in staffing and support.

A challenge merchants can face when

moving toward a true performance mar-

keting mindset is that one program has

now become many programs. Addition-

ally, while affiliate marketing has always

been perceived to be an extremely low-

risk endeavor, placing an advertisers

entire affiliate program budget with

a single network can potentially add

some risk. This risk can come from a lackof diversification and because with an

outsourced network brands rely on the

same vendor to provide the technology

as well as the revenue reporting.

Brand Challenges: Distributionand Control

Another challenge consistently faced

by major brands who have entered into

affiliate marketing is that they eventu-

ally hit a revenue plateau. This happens

for two primary reasons. The first reason

is that many networks have limited dis-

tribution options and the second reason

is that networks dont offer tools that

allow merchants to build direct relation-

ships with their top affiliates. From a

brand perspective, these challenges can

be significant. If the network is strug-

gling to ensure that added distribution

is achieved, and if the advertiser cannot

connect directly with publishers, thiscan create an environment where dis-

tribution volume and traffic quality can

both begin to decline. In this type of

environment, merchants can easily lose

confidence in how their brand is repre-

sented online.

Todays OpportunitiesThe good news is that solutions exist

that allow merchants and publishers to

realize the value of a true performance

marketing program in a way that can

also address current challenges. Now,

performance programs can encompass,

simplify and optimize any third-party

relationship or sales channel that a

company wants to leverage. As perfor-mance marketing continues to evolve,

brands are capitalizing on available op-

portunities to diversify their current

programs to help ensure high volume,

and theyre developing new, highly stra-

tegic programs and campaigns that can

reflect and inform their brand aware-

ness objectives.

Opportunities forProgram Diversification

Large advertisers are looking for

expanded distribution, long-term sus-

tained revenue, program simplicity and

brand control. The best opportunities

for them to achieve their objectives

can currently be found by taking a two-

pronged approach. This approach, where

the enterprise network relationship is

augmented by the brands own internal

performance marketing programs, is

what I consider to be a key harbinger of

entry into second wave performance

marketing.

Here are some results that can be

achieved by augmenting an affiliate

network relationship with an in-house

performance marketing program:

Risks decline as the brands perfor-

mance marketing portfolio is diver-sified across a wider set of distribu-

tion channels.

Distribution increases, which means

incremental revenue.

Brands can identify, reward, and fos-

ter direct relationships with their

top-performing affiliates, resulting in

higher returns.

Internal program management tools

can centralize control and can add

performance marketing operational

efficiencies and scalability.

Opportunities to BecomeMore Strategic

Another opportunity that has been

created by the increase in large brand

adoption of internal performance mar-

keting programs is an exciting invest-

ment in program strategy. We continue

to see a rise in new types of programs be-

ing developed by brands, including VAR

programs and other independent sales

channels. And from todays leading-edge

publishers we see better, more relevantoffers and very sophisticated publisher

site content that provides real customer

value. Darwin would be proud this is

evolution at its best.

2012-2016: Whats Next?In addition to offering an effective

response to brand and operational chal-

lenges, program diversification and con-

tinued strategic investment offer great

ways for brands to position themselves

Performance marketing has evolved to become much more comprehensive

than yesterdays basic affiliate program. Today, merchants realize they have

and have access to many different types of partnerships. Call them affiliates,

publishers, advertisers, value added resellers (VARs), channel partners, or what

you will. They are all relationships that can help drive revenue for brands.

BB10


23/44

for continued success as we enter the future of affiliate mar-

keting. Why?

The Medium is the MessageThe third wave promises to build on technology advances

that exist today. As end users become more mobile, additional

distribution channels are becoming available. Phones and

tablets have emerged as ideal platforms to target consumers

and keep brands top of mind. In addition to these enhanced

ad targeting opportunities, further monetization can be real-

ized from app downloads, ring tones and social media revenue

opportunities.

Whats great about these opportunities is that they con-

tinue the forward progression of our industry, where ongoing

evolution will be key to ongoing success. Consumers will con-

tinue to become savvier about who markets to them, how they

do it, and when. And the future of the Internet is likely to bring

further convergence with other mainstream technologies and

consumption channels, including Internet television. Thatswhy the concepts were currently formalizing, such as program

and channel diversification, transparent affiliate relationships,

and strategic program management, are so important. As the

future unfolds, nobodymerchants, publishers, networks, or

the solution providers who support themcan succeed by ap-

plying first-wave tactics to third-wave innovations.

ConclusionThe affiliate marketing industry has recently entered the

second wave of maturity and evolution. The number of large

advertisers and major brands who are recognizing the true

strategic value of better managing their network program

alongside many other types of business partnerships is reach-

ing critical mass. Indeed, as companies learn to build programs

that work specifically for their brand affiliate marketing will

continue to be redefined. An elite group of solution providers

bring the appropriate level of service, technologies and expe-

rience required to work with major brands. These companies

can effectively address first-wave challenges, fully capitalize

on second-wave opportunities and strategically position busi-

nesses for the future of performance marketing. This is raising

the bar across the board.

Done right, performance marketing can play an important

role in the online marketing mix for large advertisers for years

to come. As the third wave brings an onslaught of new adver-tising channels and opportunities, long-term performance

marketing profitability will hinge on advertisers ability to con-

tinue to evolve their programsleveraging second wave stra-

tegic accomplishments and building on direct affiliate relation-

ships to maximize success across new channels and media. rp

Gary Olden is the vice president, enterprise sales for Direct

Response Technologies, a leading provider of performance

marketing solutions including their flagship performance

marketing tracking solution, DirectTrack (www.directtrack.com).

Direct Response Technologies is a business unit of Digital River.

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BLUE BOOK Interview: CPAWay

BB12 The Authoritative Guide to Ad Networks and Exchanges

In our most recent survey we noticedthat CPAWay was getting a lot ofsupport from publishers and advertis-ers alike, so we thought it was a goodtime to get together with Thomas

Dietzel, their founder and President,in order to find out more.

Q. Tell me a little about CPAWay. Why

are you growing when so many net-

works are struggling? What makes

you different?

Ha! Good question. I think its our

approach to merchants looking to get

started with performance marketing.

We really take the view that if we want

to grow, we need to help bring them

into the industry. As a result, we dont

ask for a setup fee, or an integration fee

or even a creative services fee from our

merchants. This approach allows us to

bring on merchants that would have

previously been turned down by other

agencies or networks. Once we bring a

new merchant on board and they see

the ROI that performance marketing

provides, nine times out of ten we have

created a loyal customer for ourselves.

Q. What about technology? Is that

something that you think is important?

Absolutely. CPAWay has always tak-en a strong approach on building our

own technology. We have built our own

tracking platform from the ground up

which means that we can offer publish-

ers and advertisers new features when

theyre needed, not when the software

supplier gets round to it. We have also

been able to build in an integrated fraud

detection platform that helps catches

rogue affiliates before they cause any

headaches for our merchants. Technol-

ogy helps us to deliver on our promises

to both publishers and advertisers.

Q. Technology is great but personal

support is always valued highly by

publishers and advertisers. How do

you ensure they get the support fromyour team that they need?

We have a dedicated sales team that

works continuously to develop new

campaigns for our publishers and to

provide fast turnaround times to our

merchants. We treat all of our mer-

chants and affiliate the same, regardless

of how much or how little business they

do with us, and everyone is allocated a

go to personal contact. This means

they only have to deal with one person

within our organization for all of their

day to day needs. Were very proud of

the fact that our account managers and

executives work hard to earn the trust

of our publishers and merchants and

that they sometimes put on the boxing

gloves to fight our management team

for whatever their merchants and pub-

lishers need. We like that.

Q. Publishers sometimes feel that its

hard to trust networks completely.

What would you say to those people?

As with any new business partner,

you need to your homework. Simplethings like Googling the name of the

network, checking if they have a physi-

cal address and seeing if they pick up

the phone can weed out more networks

than you would think. Search on some

of the industry forums to see what the

networks reputation is. Then once ap-

proved into the network, ask your ac-

count manager for publisher referenc-

es. These are simple steps but they can

make all the difference in terms of en-

suring that publishers get paid. Always

do your homework before extending

credit to any network.

Q. So thats what publishers should

look for in a network. What do you

look for when it comes to recruitingnew publishers?

We just look for honest, hard-work-

ing affiliates. Performance marketing

takes time and energy; we are looking

for publishers who are willing to give it

their all. We take care of veteran pub-

lishers and super-affiliates, but we also

welcome new publishers.

Q. If you had one piece of advice for an

advertiser thinking about trying per-

formance marketing, what would it be?

Only partner with networks or agen-

cies that have an established reputation

for delivering quality leads and/or sales.

Have clear goals in mind, but get input

and suggestions from at least two or

three companies. Make sure that you

know the margins youre making on

your products or services before dis-

cussing any commission rates; that way

you can negotiate rates with assurance

and wont find yourself over-paying for

sales or leads.

Q. Finally, what lies ahead for CPAWay?

Well, were growing fast, we have zerodebt and plenty of funding, and there

are huge opportunities in performance

marketing that are still wide open. We

are focusing on the development of new

tracking tools to help improve ROI even

more, on new exclusive campaigns for

publishers and on identifying new sec-

tors such as mobile into which we should

invest. We are here for the long haul, in

the best industry there is. Performance

marketing is our passion.

Assembling the research for the BLUE BOOK rankings of

the top performance marketing networks provides us atRevenue Performance with a wonderful insight into the sheer

depth of talent in the performance marketing industry.

Q&A: With Thomas Dietzel


25/44


26/44

Maximizing Opportunityin Online PerformanceMarketing Networks


Large online performance marketing

networks offer a multitude of channels

and pricing models. Finding the right

mix is key to maximizing yields for

publishers and securing high-quality

leads for advertisers. Marketers needstrategies for building multi-channel

campaigns that effectively leverage the

opportunity in a cost-effective way.

There are particularly attractive op-

portunities for marketers on hard-to-

reach channels (email, display, social

media, affiliate networks and more),

where traditional search engine ad-

vertising has proven less effective. But

marketers face three key challenges

when moving into performance mar-

keting outside of search engines:

Consistently meeting their target ROI.

Understanding how to effectively

price media buys depending on channel

and ad unit (CPC, CPM, CPA, CPL, CPI,

revenue share, etc.)

Managing media buys efficiently

across tens or hundreds of unique seg-

ments online.

Planning Multi-channelCampaigns

There are two ways to approach plan-ning a multi-channel campaign:

1. Use an Aggregator

Aggregators like Google Adsense,

which focuses primarily on contextu-

ally-targeted, display inventory, or

like Adknowledge, which offers a

bid-based platform to access email,

display, social media (virtual currency

in particular) and affiliate distribu-

tion. Both of these example services

provide a centralized marketplace

(Google Adwords and Adknowledges

Bidsystem.com) where you can buy

all types of ad units on a cost-per-

click basis across the Web. A market-

er is able to control cost-per-click bids

to ensure that target ROI is achieved.

2. Do-it-Yourself

This typically requires the marketer

to have a great deal of expertise

understanding the best practices in-

herent in each channeland can be

very time consuming and inefficient.

Objectives Regardless of which approach is

taken, marketers need to be clear

about their objectives in order to

effectively achieve return-on-

investment:

Who is the target audience?

What outcomes are desired? Sales?

Lead generation?

What are the cost-per-acquisition

targets?

What are the revenue goals? How

fast must revenues come in?

Methodology Another set of important questions

to consider is howobjectives willbe achieved:

What specific product or service is

being sold?

What pricing or other incentives

are available to use?

What is the communication idea that

will inform all of the messaging?

What promotional tactics will inspire

the clicks that are needed?

How will a transaction get com-

pleted? Online? In-store? By phone?

Understand The AudienceOnce youre clear on your objectives

and methodology, its important to con-

duct research to deeply understand

your target audience(s). Too many mar-

keters make the mistake of planningfor advertising channels rather than

the audience they are aiming to reach.

Know your audience first and the chan-

nel strategy will come into sharper

focus. Select the channels that best

address specific business barriers and

opportunities.

This approach will empower you with

the best chance of reaching your audi-

ence at the right time and place on the

Web. First and foremost, understand

your target market segments life stage

and media habits, environments where

they congregate, and their intent (e.g.,

purchase, research, socialize, etc.):

Are they consumers of social media?

Can they be reached via email?

What is their online activity? Do

they use search? If so, what do they

search for? And what keywords do

they use to find it?

How do they find and get informa-

tion? Blogs? News sites? Entertain-

ment sites?

Executing Multi-channelCampaigns: Data is Critical

The use of data for effective target-

ing is critical. Based on your goals and

your research planning, make targeting

choices that ensure youll get in front of

the right audience with the right mes-

sage at just the right time. Leveraging

systems like Adknowledges Bidsystem.

comwhich relies on highly advanced

predictive analytics to identify the audi-

by Greg Bayer, Adknowledge

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ence segment youre targeting within each channelcan take

a lot of the guess- work out of the equation.

Adknowledge Chief Scientist and Advisor, Usama Fayyad,

who formerly ran Data Analytics at Yahoo!, leverages vast

stores of information and a proprietary predictive analytics

engine and advanced tracking mechanisms, to help us empow-

er marketers with data insights that make their campaigns the

most effective possible.

Data is what makes performance marketing so revolution-

ary. Its power becomes apparent especially when campaigns

reach the scale and critical mass that is possible only through a

robust network.

Therefore, its also imperative that you have effective track-

ing and reporting mechanisms in place. Be sure youre look-

ing at the performance of each channel along each step of the

acquisition funnel. You should be detailed in your tracking so

you can show campaign ROI. At a minimum:

Establish your conversion event

Set your conversion value Create your acquisition funnel

Achieving ScaleThe most robust networks often function as media market-

places, bringing together both buyers (advertisers) and sellers

(publishers) in a bid-based environment where smart pricing

brings value to all parties. Publishers benefi t from having

their content monetized through a robust portfolio of diverse

advertisers and offers. Advertisers benefi t by having access

to a diverse range of publishers whose quality and convert-

ibility relative to their offer is managed dynamically. Only

the most comprehensive networks have the technical ex-

pertise to manage the targeting and tracking, compliance

methodologies and key performance drivers in real-time to

ensure that the right ad reaches the right audience in the right

channel. When all of these pieces come together, advertisers

are able to reach the scale, effi ciency and ROI that exemplifi es

performance marketing.

In the end, an effective performance marketing campaign

should leverage a combination of email, display, social media,

search, and affi liate channels. This is the best way to get high-

er-than-average conversion rates, especially if youre able to

use predictive targeting technologies to reach the right audi-

ence with the right message at the exact right time. Youre

sure to achieve results far superior to that of traditional mar-keting or search engine advertising.

Greg Bayer is the general manager of Adknowledges

Affi liate Division and has over 15 years experience in affi liate

marketing and digital media. He has occupied senior positions

within Epic Advertising, Sony, Linkshare and barnesandnoble.

com and holds a B.A. in English and American Studies from

Princeton University.

For more information onthe best affiliate and CPAnetworks go to mthink.com/bluebook

Counsel to the

Online Marketing Industry

CONTRACTS,PRIVACY POLICIES,

Sweepstakes, Gaming,

LITIGATION, ETC.

Contact David O. Klein today at:(212) 935-6020 x 244 | [email protected]

485 Madison Avenue, New York, NY 10022

T: 604-689-8962

E: [email protected]

www.chexxinc.com

An easy way topay affiliatesin over 60countries.

The Leader in Health Insurance Online

Partner with eHealthInsuranceUp to $75 Per Action*

CJ Horizon Award Winner

Generous Performance Incentives

*An action is defined as a Submitted application for health insurance

www.eHealthAffiliate.com

CLASSIFIEDS

BB15


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Maximize Performance AcrossChannels with Holistic KPIs


It almost seems too obvious

to say it, but the one essential of

every single campaign is that it

needs to succeed.

As performance marketers,

we tend to interpret that tru-

ism as being relevant only to our

particular channel, rather than

looking at the campaign fromthe viewpoint of the advertiser.

He or she may be using multiple

channels integrating different

pricing models, social media,

offline, email, etc., and the over-

all success or failure of the cam-

paign is likely to spring from how

well they all work together.

Just because we in our industry focus

on online channels doesnt mean that our

customers only evaluate our campaigns

in terms of the online results achieved.

Nor should they. Our online activities

on their behalf can drive engagement as

well as leads, brand awareness as well as

traffic, and offline sales as well as online

conversions. As sophisticated marketers,

we need to look at campaigns holistically,

so we understand how each of the com-

ponent parts affects the rest.

A key part of this process is identi-

fying which metrics should be used to

judge success. These chosen metrics

the KPIs or Key Performance Indicators

should provide us with a way to deter-mine if a campaign is performing across

all channels, not just those in the digital

domain. If you dont look at how your

channel-specific KPIs are influencing

consumer behaviors and results in other

areas, you could be missing a big piece

of the puzzle and some key insights into

your target audiences.

As an example of this, a banking client

of ours ran an email campaign around a

new checking account product, which

incentivized consumers to sign up on-

line or print out a coupon to redeem

offline. When we analyzed the metrics,

we were pleased with the KPIsopen

rates were up, checking accounts were

being set up and coupons were being

redeemed. It was a good campaign. But

we looked deeper and found gold.

Further analysis showed a 4-to-1 ratio

of offline redemptions to online, which

led us to identifying three different

types of customers that were reacting

to the same advertisement. Consumers

who redeemed online via email seemed

to display an immediate need of the ser-

vice. Consumers who printed the coupon

showed that they preferred the conve-

nience and reassurance of a brick andmortar store. And finally we identified

a third group of consumers for whom

the email seemed to generate purchase

intent as evidenced by later engagement

with display or search campaigns. This

represented significant and useful feed-

back for our client, allowing them to

tailor messages and future promotions

much more effectively and providing im-

proved ROI across other digital channels.

This is a real-world example of

how understanding KPIs across

channels can help marketers

maximize performance of cur-

rent and future campaigns. It is

also important to understand

the different roles that each

channel may play in the buying

process and how they impactperformance. For instance, dis-

play gets eyeballs so its great

from a branding perspective;

search is great for leads because

of its refined nature, and email

and social are having an increas-

ing impact on engagement. Email

is especially useful because of its ability

to kick-start customer engagement.

David Perez, co-founder of Convertro,

confirms, Overlap is costly to market-

ers. When were looking across channels,

email tends to be one of the strongest

performers, as 60% of the time it doesnt

overlap with other media. As marketers

we are responsible for generating posi-

tive ROI from our media placements. We

should always keep in mind that orga-

nized, consistent, focused multi-channel

campaigns where we understand the

value and strength of each channel are

the most effective use of our market-

ing spend. Identifying Key Performance

Indicators that give a holistic view of

results is an important first step.

Tom Walsh is the senior director

in charge of media services for

Datran Media.

by Tom Walsh, Datran Media

100%

90%

80%

70%

60%

50%40%

30%

20%

10%

0%

Online Marketing Channels - Timing of Marketing Interaction

Paid Search

21%

Affliates

32%

Display

36%

Email Acquisition

37%

Organic Search

Source: Convertnu Client Data

42%42%

Last Click

Middle Click

First Click

When Overlap Does Occur, Organic SearchEmail Acquisition Tends to an Introducer

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For more information onthe best affiliate and CPAnetworks go to mthink.com/bluebook

Bulldog Medias CommissionSoup

is one that caught the eye in ourlast survey, and we recently satdown with their President and co-founder, Darin Namken, to find outmore about what makes them tick.

Q. To start with, tell us a little about

the history of CommissionSoup.com.

A. CommissionSoup is over 10 years

old now. It was originally part of Cred-

itSoup, Inc. Internet usage was just

beginning to grow and we saw a gap

for a network that had real marketing

skills and a customer focus. We wanted

to zone in on strong business relation-

ships and understanding our partners

needs, and then we built on that by de-

veloping our own proprietary tracking

software. Everything grew from that

focus on what our partners need.

Q. So you have your own tracking

platform? What advantages do you

think that offers you?

A. Flexibility, first and foremost. We

can adapt and change to whatever our

partners need. There is no cookie cuttertracking at Bulldog Media Group. We

speak all the time with our merchants

and adapt to their requirements. Hav-

ing our own tracking platform means

we can help them to identify the best

performing channels: those that pro-

duce the cleanest traffic, the best quali-

fied leads and whether those leads are

converting or not. It lets us provide a

quality of service that simply couldnt

be done with an off-the-shelf system.

Q. Fraud is on everybodys mind these

days. How are you dealing with it?A. One thing that really works in our

favor is that our reporting was origi-

nally created for the banking industry

where security and compliance are the

top priorities. Theyre part of our DNA.

That helps us to both deter fraud and

to offer transparency to our advertisers.

We dont just say that we are transpar-

ent, we are truly transparent.

Q. Affiliate marketing is always

changing. How do you deal with

that?

A. Weve seen a lot of changes in 10

years, especially as so many networks

come and go. Were happy to be on

such a solid footing. And in that time

the industry has grown enormously,

theres a broad acceptance now that

transparency is needed which plays to

our strong suit, and weve continued

to see with amazement the incredible

work, effort, and knowledge that so

many of our affiliate marketers bring to

the table.

To keep up we now have three divi-sions that together provide complete

online marketing solutions to our part-

ners. Along with CommissionSoup, we

now have Infusion Strategies, which

provides lead generation, data man-

agement, email marketing and a variety

of internal properties to assist in mar-

keting various products. Most recently,

we added The RewardsRunner Net-

work. RewardsRunner.com is a cash

back shopping network that makes

shopping an individualized experience

for its members.Q. So whats your elevator pitch? If

you only had 20 seconds to tell some-

one why they should work with Bull-

dog Media, what would you say?

A. Integrity we are a company that

truly gets it. Whether were working

with affiliates or merchants we take

the time to understand their needs and

adapt to their requirements. We al-

ways pay on-time and we have our own

tracking system that allows affiliates

to track their progress daily and mer-

chants to have full clarity on their cam-

paigns. Whats not to love? (smile)

Q. Whats next? Whats coming down

the pipe?

A. Were constantly on the lookout

for both new technologies and for new

opportunities. In affiliate marketing

you can never relax so were always

looking for the next big campaign,

whether its in banking, education, pay-

day loans or whatever. We always want

to find a way that we can make a dif-

ference, give our publishers an edge inthe marketplace and our merchants the

best ROI possible.

There is always going to be change

in this business, so at Bulldog Media

we embrace it and the opportunities

it brings. I always say that we cant fail

if we continue to innovate, stay on the

cutting edge and stick with what has

made us successful so far: experience,

customer service, an open mind, and

technology.

It is always interesting here at Revenue Performance when the first results

come in from the BLUE BOOK survey of advertisers and publishers.

Most exciting is to see a network rising in the rankings, showing the

result of them working hard to make a good impression with their partners.

Q&A: WithDarin Namken

BLUE BOOK Interview: Bulldog Media Group

BB17The Online Advertising BLUE BOOK bluebook.mthink.com BB17


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The following Q&A providesperspective from five LinkShareexecutives: Adam Weiss, VicePresident, Network Development;Melissa Feemster, Vice President,Client Services; Russell Pechman,

Vice President, Lead GenerationServices; Deepa Sureka, Vice Presi-dent, Affiliate Marketing Services& Education; and Liane Dietrich,Managing Director, LinkShare UK

Q. When looking back what do you

think has been the biggest impact of

LinkShares 15 years in the industry?

Adam W: Well for me its really about

publisher commissions. We took a look

at the total amount of commissions the

LinkShare Network has paid out since itwas founded and its over $1.2 Billion.

Russ P: I like to think of the new

opportunities that have been created.

Weve developed so many new offer-

ings - Pay-Per-Call, hosted-forms, email

so over time weve really been able to

expand the definition of the network.

Melissa F: You can easily flip that

around and look at it from an advertis-

er perspective. Affiliate marketing has

grown to become an incredibly impor-

tant channel for driving sales and find-

ing customers. LinkShare has played

a pivotal role in helping to establish

affiliate marketing as a respected mar-

keting and sales channel and were re-

ally proud of that. Same store sales

in the network grew close to 40% in

2010 far out pacing overall e-commerce

so I think the numbers truly speak for

themselves.

Q. Over the last 15 years has anything

fundamentally changed in the way

affiliate marketing should be ap-

proached?

Melissa F: Thats a great question

because although there are certainly

more tools and product features today

than even just a few years ago, its still

about getting the basics right. Werestill adding new features to the Link-

Share platform every year but you still

have to have competitive offers, great

creative and clear, concise communica-

tions with publishers.

Deepa S: I do think Affiliate Mar-

keting has got easier and as the tools

become ever more accessible we see

more advertisers managing their own

program. We take a lot of features for

granted now which were simply not

there a few years ago. Take year-over-

year reporting as an example today

you can just login and see YOY data

instantly both at the program level and

publisher level. That wasnt possible

just a short while ago.

Adam W: I think a lot of the change

has actually been on the publisher side.

Publishers are incredibly innovative

and sophisticated. Just look at the buzz

around new sites and new business

models. We see thousands of new pub-

lishers join the network every month

and there is constant innovation. Social

media, mobile, coupons, content blogs

you name it. It never stops.

Liane D: Well I might be biased but I

think the launch of our UK network was

a huge milestone. It was a really goodexample of how you could enter a mar-

ket and succeed by offering a higher

level of service. That was our strategy

from the get-go and it was good to see

that it worked.

Q. So lets talk about innovation on

the network side. How has the Link-

Share platform changed over the

years?

Deepa: Innovation is still incredibly

important. While one could argue that

15 Years Of LinkShare

BLUE BOOK Interview: LinkShare

Its hard to believe but its now 15 years since LinkShare was founded.

A lot has changed since the early days or has it? To find out, I sat down

with several of their executives to reflect back on LinkShares history and

more importantly to find out whats on the horizon for one of the

industrys leading players.


ADAMWEISS

MELISSAFEEMSTER

RUSSELLPECHMAN

DEEPASUREKA

LIANEDIETRICH


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were in a mature industry, our clients

are very smart and increasingly sophis-

ticated themselves and they have great

ideas. So we have to stay focused on

client needs while finding ways to one-

up the competition. That could be any-

thing from reporting enhancements, to

link types, to productivity tools. Last

year was an important milestone be-

cause we launched an entirely new Ad-

vertiser Dashboard.

Melissa F: I totally agree with Dee-

pa - the new Advertiser Dashboard

was a huge milestone. I also think pixel

tracking and near real-time reporting

was significant in our history because it

was not something we were known for.

These days advertisers can also choosebetween pixel and enterprise tracking,

for example. Theres no end to the fea-

tures we offer now that werent avail-

able 15 years ago.

Deepa S: When we install tracking

now were also testing mobile devices

so thats a significant development as

well as we watch the adoption of mo-

bile commerce unfold.

Adam W: Yes, as I think back, we

brought in the new Publisher Dash-

board in 2007 which was a big deal and

then theres what we call the LinkShare

BentoBox our collection of tools to

help publishers find, get and distribute

links. From Twitter and Facebook to

Tumblr, to WordPress we have lots of

tools that make publishers lives easier

and offer new ways to promote links in

the context of social marketing.

Melissa F: And more recently, theres

LinkShare Lightning our ad network

for e-commerce. Were just ramping

up but already weve seen interest

from more than 100 advertisers whichis great because it tells us that theres a

real demand out there for new, innova-

tive technologies.

Q. Tell me more about LinkShare

Lightning what need are you ad-

dressing in the market?

Adam W: Affiliate marketing is a

very time-intensive process. Lightning

provides publishers with the ability to

create optimized ad units that update

automatically and contain one or more

advertisers. Lightning will figure out

which ad is best performing and serve

that one more often.

Melissa F: Ultimately addressing the

need to have more intelligent ad units

that have a higher conversion rate. The

ad units themselves do the optimizing

saving time.

Deepa S: Theres also no program

application process, however, Adver-

tisers and publishers have control over

who they want to work with simply by

Including or Excluding at the click of

a button.

Adam W: Its also a great way for

publishers to keep their sites updated

with new creative without having to

swap out code.Q. I remember when Rakuten ac-

quired LinkShare in 2005 how have

things changed culturally at Link-

Share since then?

Adam W: In one word: momentum!

Its great to have a parent company

thats not just successful but is also

very supportive. Were now the desig-

nated performance marketing platform

for all of the Rakuten divisions and that

really provides us with the confidence

and the resources to think big to re-

ally think outside the box.

Deepa: Rakuten has also been a

great influence when it comes to ana-

lytical thinking as an organization

were more metrics driven than ever.

Kaizen or continuous improvement is

something we live and breathe and it

has really made a positive impact on

overall productivity.

Melissa F: Rakutens overall corpo-

rate philosophy is based on 5 Principles

of Success: 1) Get Things Done; 2)

Complete Professionalism; 3) Hypothesize>>Execute>>Verify>>Incorporate; 4)

Maximize Customer Satisfaction; and

5) Speed! Speed! Speed! Weve really

been able to apply this in the context

of the services we provide clients. If

we regarded it as just a set of slogans it

wouldnt mean anything but when you

consciously think about it and execute

on it, it does make a difference.

Liane D: To be able to tell advertis-

ers and publishers that we have a high-

level strategy is important. Our clients

want to know that we have the resourc-

es to grow with them.

Q. What about the future? Where are

you focusing your efforts?

Melissa F: Well first and foremost

were listening to our clients to under-

stand what they need, where theyre

going and how their requirements are

evolving. So within that context we

are focused on three major areas: 1) En-

hancing LinkShare technology and ser-

vices based on requests from advertis-

ers and publishers; 2) the development

of new and innovative technologies not

available on any other network; and 3)

strengthening our global capabilities

and then entering new markets.Russ P: On the lead generation front

were completely focused on quality.

Delivering on quality is what really sets

us apart from other networks. Pay-per-

call, email, hosted forms theres tre-

mendous opportunity in all these areas.

Deepa S: Were also very focused on

finding ways to help those advertisers

that are managing their own programs

to be successful. We understand these

advertisers may need help in specific

areas like recruitment or communica-

tions but perhaps only for a limited

length of time. So were packaging up

service offerings to meet those needs.

Were also taking a fresh look at how

to approach on-going training to em-

power affiliate managers with the right

tools and support.

Adam W: And I think the global part

of the strategy is really taking hold.

Were seeing more interest from adver-

tisers and publishers in entering new

markets and regions. ShopStyle for

example recently joined the LinkShareJapan network. More advertisers are

launching in the Canada network and

were not making plans for a Euro net-

work as well. We believe that no other

network offers the same level of access

to Asia. So as e-commerce becomes

more global, the LinkShare Network

will become more global as well and

that will spell opportunity for Link-

Share advertisers and publishers.

20 The Authoritative Guide to Ad Networks and Exchanges

BLUE BOOK Interview: LinkShare



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20%

OFFFOR DETAILS VISIT: WWW.SESSANFRANCISCO.COM

20RE

POWERING ONLINE MARKETINGSearch. Social. Display.


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33revenue.mThink.com

Managing Performance Geno Prussakov, AM Navigator

1.

2. 3.

4. 5.

6.

7.

8.

9. 10.

rp

EVGENII GENO PRUSSAKOV

How Mobile-FriendlyAre You?


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34 revenue

Managing Performance Maranda Moses, Share Results

Your IT team consists of one staff member

Your online marketing manager is fresh out of school

You want to invest in more exclusive affi liate partner-ships

You want your affi liate program to mirror your brand

You need support for multiple products under oneumbrella

rp

MARANDA MOSES is a communications strategist for Share Results

and contributes some of their widely read blogs and articles on

affi liate strategies, industry news, and trends. Over the years

shes honed her skills in the online marketing space as a senior

account manager in the education, family, apparel and maternity

insurance verticals.

Running Your Own Program?Is Affi liate Tracking SoftwareRight For You?


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36 revenuePERFORMANCE ISSUE 7

The Future Network Chris Trayhorn

It is said that when the industrial revolution was takingplace in the 1800s, many people had no idea that a revo-lution was what they were living through. Unless theytook the time to look around them and really think about theimpact of the new steam-powered machines that were beingintroduced, things seemed much the same.

Their days were still fi lled with work or with fi nding

enough food to eat, and in the normal way of things it didntreally matter when they saw a steam train for the fi rst timeor if ships were made of steel instead of wood. Life went on.

But eventually the forces of change accumulated enoughmomentum and rapid disruption happened. The old orderpassed away, and new organizations took over, comfort-able with the amazing new technologies and suddenopportunities.

Thats what we are seeing at this moment in the market-ing and advertising business.

Let us take a few minutes to catalog just a little of thedisruption that is all around us right now.

In media, TV and radio giants fi nd their audiences frag-

menting and drifting away. The movie business is suddenlybeing out-sold by the computer games industry. Newcom-ers like Netfl ix and YouTube are commanding more viewerhours than 95% of cable TV channels. Newspapers andmagazines are dropping like fl ies while clutching desper-ately at novelties like iPad applications and paid contentwalls as potential saviors. But all the time, the drip, drip,drip that they hear is the sound of their audiences, leakingslowly away.

Look at agencies. Even the largest of them have had toreinvent themselves and learn new skills. Rarely, if ever,do they now get to rake off 20% off every media buy orspend $5 million on research for a new product name. They

struggle now to educate a new generation of marketers thatbrand is worth something, and that clicks, views and con-versions are not the be all and end all of marketing.

Their selling proposition - that they were the only oneswith the knowledge of how to reach mass audiences and tocommunicate effectively with them has been diluted bythe ease with which audiences can be aggregated today andthe simple effi cacy of applying a test and optimization cycleto advertising creatives.

Then there

revenue performance magazine, spring 2011 edition

Documents