Helen Southgate

About Helen Southgate

Combating ad blocking: What we can learn from the affiliate channel

I’ve worked in affiliate marketing for more than 13 years and in that time I have had to endure a lot of comments about the industry emulating the “wild west” and being tarnished with a bad quality image. 

I have always felt these comments to be incorrect and unfair, but what the affiliate world has done very well is address these concerns by putting in place practices to ensure transparency and quality that is self-regulated by industry stakeholders.

Cross-device tracking in the affiliate channel: Which method is best?

We are all surrounded by importance of mobile use in today’s industry, it gets rammed down our throat at every opportunity!

Cross-device tracking is an important and crucial development to enable us to better understand customer behaviour.

This is particularly true when looking to assign a sale correctly to an affiliate in our channel and also to have the ability to view the value of a channel that works on a last-click-wins basis. 

Price comparison and the great energy debate

Last week Co-Op energy boss Ramsey Dunning made a very public attack on price comparison sites, citing them as misleading and pushing up energy bills. 

Dunning stated that price comparison sites such as uSwitch, Moneysupermarket and Energy Helpline should disclose how much they make in commission from the energy partners.

While I of course advocate a continued development of greater transparency to consumers, I find it difficult to understand exactly what it is that Dunning is hoping such a move will achieve. 

Voucher code sharing ruffles affiliate feathers

UGC within the voucher code space has been a contentious issue for quite some time prompting many a discussion at the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council and earning itself a reference in the Voucher Code of Conduct. 

However, the affiliate industry to date has struggled to find any real consensus on how this area should be managed and regulated, and as a result one of the key players in the market has embarked on its own version of UGC within voucher codes with a ‘social codes’ platform.

Has the affiliate channel outgrown the CPA last click model?

It’s well known that the affiliate channel works on a cost per acquisition (CPA) model, meaning that when the desired action is completed, be it a sale, lead or quote,  the affiliate is paid.

To be able to attribute the sale to an affiliate there needs to be an agreed metric by which a sale can be attributed.

Typically this is a ‘last click wins’ model: if the last click is attributed to a particular publisher then they receive the commission.