This presentation is from Affiliate Summit East 2018 (July 29 - July 31, 2018 in New York). Session description: Have partners stopped promoting your brand? Why? Your program has too many: rules, links, networks, errors. This session will help you simplify your affiliate program and get better results.

1. Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
Nick Oswald
Performance Marketing Manager

2. 2
Who am I?

3. 1. Your Signup Process Is Too Complicated
2. Your Links Are Too Complicated
3. Your Brand Is Too Complicated
3
Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
What is this?
nick_oswald

4. • Search Google
• Scroll past ads
• Click link
• Scroll landing page
• Decide between
networks
• Click sign up
• Fill out form #1
• Captcha
• Submit
• Open email window
4
Signup Process
nick_oswald
A Tale of 43 Steps
• Find and open email
• Click to verify
• Fill out form #2
• Check 5 boxes
• Submit again
• Wait for approval
• Wait
• Wait some more
• Finally get an
acceptance email
• Open CJ.com in a new
window
• Click login
• Enter username /
password
• Login
• Click links header
• Enter search term
• Scroll
• Scroll
• Scroll some more
• Click get code button
• Copy HTML

5. • We don’t…
• Instead you make a difference
where it counts: the acceptance
message
• Network messages are received
the loudest out of any
messaging to publishers
• Make it short
• Make it useful
• You’re competing with short
attention spans
5
Signup Process
nick_oswald
How do we simplify the signup process?

6. 1. Your Signup Process Is Too Complicated
2. Your Links Are Too Complicated
3. Your Brand Is Too Complicated
6
Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
Links
nick_oswald

7. • Keep your banners simple
• And your text links, simpler
• One tracking link per product
landing page
• Let your landing pages do the
heavy lifting
• Lots of SKUs?
• Enable deep links for publishers
• Integrate with feed services
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A Mess of SKUs, Banners, and Text
™
Links

8. • Make easy changes on the fly
that you don’t have to ask
affiliates to swap for you
• Create a link once that you
always* keep active
• Change the destination URL
when your landing page or offer
changes
• Then you only need to tell
publishers to change their copy,
not their livelihood
8 nick_oswald
Pro-tip: Change Redirects, Not Links
Links
*Ok maybe not always, but a really long time

9. 1. Your Signup Process Is Too Complicated
2. Your Links Are Too Complicated
3. Your Brand Is Too Complicated
9
Your Affiliate Program Is Too Complicated
Your Brand
nick_oswald

10. 10
Your Brand

11. • Tell people clearly and concisely
what your product does
• What brings value to a customer
will bring value to a publisher
• Offer content that helps
publishers explain what you do
rather then who you are
• The point of performance
marketing is to have other
people using their own voice to
promote your brand
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Leave the Lifestyle Messaging to Influencers
Your Brand

12. • No one is reading all of your
T’s&C’s
• Think long and hard about your
commissionable product list
• Rules of thumb:
• If it's sold on your website,
customers will find a way to buy it
• Don’t penalize affiliates for poor
click paths on your website
12 nick_oswald
Your Rules Are Too Complicated
Your Brand

13. If your signup process
is too complicated
• Make the welcome
email count
• Send links and product
info ASAP
• Encourage new ideas
13
So It’s Too Complicated. Now What?
Conclusion
nick_oswald
If your links are too
complicated
• Build better landing
pages
• Use no more than 3
banners sizes per
campaign / language
• Change destinations
instead of URLs
If your brand is too
complicated
• Tell publishers what
your product does, not
who you are
• Let influences speak for
themselves
• If a product is available
on your site, someone
will buy it
™

14. Email: nick.oswald@cleverbridge.com
Twitter: nick_oswald
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