Whether you're an affiliate (aka publisher) or a merchant (aka advertiser), understanding how other affiliates prioritize various factors related to affiliate programs is important. In this post I'll share findings of a poll I ran for three months on my blog.
Having picked 15 different factors that normally influence an affiliate's decision about joining (or not joining) an affiliate program, I asked affiliates to cast their votes checking all criteria they analyze prior to choosing an affiliate program to work with.
Here is the top five ranking that can be derived from that poll:
- Commission amount (45%)
- Website usability, leaks, etc (35%)
- Merchant's reputation/reliability (34%)
- Conversion rate (27%)
- Tracking/reporting platform used (25%)
The full picture looks as follows:
Legend:
A - Commission amount
B - Commission recurrence
C - Conversion rate
D - Cookie life
E - Creatives
F - EPC
G - Management & approachability
H - Market saturation
I - Prices/competitiveness
J - Reputation/reliability
K - Reversal rate
L - Terms of service
M - Tools
O - Tracking/reporting platform
P - Website (usability, leaks, etc)
If you're an affiliate and haven't yet voted, poll, your vote would be much appreciated.
Geno Prussakov is the Founder & Chair of Affiliate Management Days conference, Founder & CEO at AM Navigator, author, internationally known speaker, and a guest blogger at Econsultancy.
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2:17PM on 30th July 2010
This varies for me depending on the type of site.
I will often promote electronics and gadgets, and my focus is on the Reputation/reliability more than anything, because I want to send people to a store where they already have an account like Amazon, Buy.com or Overstock.
Unless there is some fantastic offer on price, as a consumer I would rather not shop at a merchant for the first time, and I assume (hopefully I am correct) that most others feel the same.
2:17PM on 30th July 2010
This varies for me depending on the type of site.
I will often promote electronics and gadgets, and my focus is on the Reputation/reliability more than anything, because I want to send people to a store where they already have an account like Amazon, Buy.com or Overstock.
Unless there is some fantastic offer on price, as a consumer I would rather not shop at a merchant for the first time, and I assume (hopefully I am correct) that most others feel the same.
Business Director at 7thingsmedia
10:01AM on 2nd August 2010
Interesting Geno but not sure that a poll with only 64 respondees is much help.
For me the primary factor that people should be looking at, and one that gets overlooked so often is conversion rate. A minor alteration in conversion rates equals a big change and in an area where the affiliate takes all the risk, more emphasis should be put on merchants to optimise (UK Spelling!!) this as much as possible.
10:33AM on 2nd August 2010
I agree Matt, conversion is key. In a worrying conversation with an affiliate recently they confessed to not even looking at the conversion rates of different merchants they were promoting, and instead gave preference purely on the highest commission rate. More education is required.
Founder at AM Navigator LLC
11:40AM on 2nd August 2010
@Shawn: Great input. More affiliates should focus on the reputation/reliability. Good point that it often comes way higher than a competitive price.
@Matt: Can't make people vote. :) It was still still a wide enough of a sample to make conclusions... By the way, the poll is still open, and a couple new votes have rolled in since I've published this post.
@Graham (and @Matt too): Yep, conversion can mean a world if difference. So can that reversal rate, by the way, too! Apparently, not only merchants need more education.