Is affiliate ever going to be worth it for a brand that doesn't promote?

Anonymous
08 March 2011 13:14pm

Hi there,

We are a fashion brand who have been running affiliate campaigns for well over a year now, and when it all started we were given all the promises of "you won't just be on voucher code sites, we have a network of excellent fashion site partners..."

However, the reality is that the vast majority of traffic and sales come through voucher code sites. As a brand that very, very rarely promotes, these sites are really of no use to us. We want to reach a higher quality audience.

The net result of this is that a voucher code site puts our affiliate ad on, a user goes to google, types in our brand name + voucher code / promo code or something similar, goes to the voucher code site, sees we have no promos, and goes on to buy anyway.

We are paying commissions to these affiliates for sales that we would have won anyway.

So I am about to close our affiliate programmes, but before I do, I wanted to see if anyone had any experience in this area they could offer? Is this simply how it works out there in affiliate now? Is there anything we can do to get off these sites and onto higher quality ones?

Any thoughts and experiences very welcome,

Many thanks,

Gareth
Chloë Thomas Silver
Managing Director at indiumonline

09 March 2011 09:46am

Hi Gareth,

It's a big challenge at the moment for all affiliate marketers - working out how best to harness voucher code site traffic for your brand.

And sometimes the answer is that you're best off not on them. If you're a brand that doesn't do promotions then you shouldn't make a quick decision to "just do it for voucher code websites" as it can have a huge impact on your overall business.

So you're definately right to ask the question.

Without seeing your stats I can't tell you if turning off the whole programme or not is the right idea, but have you considered the just removing the voucher code affiliates, and keep working with other affiliates? Those affiliates could include:

- cashback sites (such as rpoints, ipoints, greasypalm etc). They offer their users points rather like a loyalty card but without you having to provide a discount. There can be some great rewards from working with them.

- BIG cashback sites - by which I really mean Nectar. You need to get accepted by them, and it can be a lengthy process to get on, but they can drive a lot of traffic too.

- fashion specific sites - there's a growing number of fashion sites being powered by affiliate product feeds. Look at almost any magazine / national newspaper site and their shop section is almost certainly affiliate based.

Those 3 would be my first moves - but there are countless more. Feel free to get in contact if you want to discuss in more detail.

Chloe
Ashley Friedlein Staff
CEO at Econsultancy

11 March 2011 09:28am

Hi Gareth

I sympathise with your position. I'd read through Matt Swan's blog posts on this site - see http://econsultancy.com/uk/blog/authors/matt-swan as he seems to know his stuff and might make you consider various options.