Kevin Edwards - Voucher Codes: Understanding the Metrics

Voucher Codes: Understanding the Metrics 18th May 2010

The growth of the ‘maximising consumer’ Voucher code search traffic is maturing Growth of longtail searches shows growing sophistication of consumers

Awin’s Top 20 Affiliates

Voucher Code Trends – AWin Top Two Voucher Code Affiliates - Revenue Revenue Xmas Xmas Xmas

The Data (thank you Hitwise) Jul 08 34,200 search term variations Jul 09 8,300 0 5,000 10,000 15,000 20,000 25,000 30,000 35,000 With a year granular search terms featuring the word ‘voucher’ had quadrupled

RetailRetail site share of‘voucher’ traffic site share of 'voucher' traffic 45.0% 40.0% % of searches direct to VC sites, dropped by 5% 35.0% 41.5% 30.0% 25.0% 28.2% 20.0% 15.0% 10.0% 5.0% Jul 2008 Jul 2009 0.0%

Merchants’ Reacting

Current Situation Merchants are reacting differently: • doesn’t allow any paid search ads to appear for brand + generic code terms • has banned an affiliate based on brand misspells & impact on SEO strategy • allow a voucher affiliate brand rights when codes are available

A merchant’s considerations • Impact on other affiliates; latency • New vs. Repeat customer • Setting commissions Value of Traffic • Type of code • Distribution, monitoring & tracking • Just voucher code directories? • Paid Search & SEO T&Cs • Testing & optimising Value of Code

Value of code: How to define Any merchant needs to understand the importance of any affiliate’s traffic Value System Average Contribution in Sales New Customer Conversion Order Value the sales journey Volume Acquisition Rate Intelligent commission setting

Who Overwrites Content & Codes? • When True Content is last referrer voucher code sites are more likely to be second to last referrer more than any other affiliate • BUT this amounts to a very small number of sales and amount of commission • Voucher Code & True Content affs gain equally when multiple referrer voucher code sale occurs

Latency – Click to sale speed 10 Voucher Code Sites 9 Other Affiliates 8 Percentage of Sales 7 6 • VC sites convert sooner 5 • Other affiliates convert later 4 3 2 1 0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 Minutes

Latency – Click to sale speed 10 Voucher Code Sites 9 8 True Content Percentage of Sales 7 • Big similarity between TC & VC 6 • Minor variance, inconclusive 5 4 3 2 1 0 1 3 5 7 9 11 13 15 17 19 21 23 25 27 29 Minutes

Latency – Electrical code (general) 12 Voucher Code Sites 10 Other Affiliates True Content 8 Percentage of Sales 6 4 2 0 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 Minutes • 16% sales’ increase for code • 2% increase in multiple ref sales • Most 1st click VC sales lose to VC sites

Setting the parameters • What type of code? – Bespoke code? – Stretch and save code? • What tracking is in place? • Which affiliates are you giving the code to? • Think ‘affiliates who use codes’ NOT ‘voucher code affiliates’ • Set yourself clear objectives

The power of an exclusive • M&S issued exclusive code to one affiliate: • Sales increase during the peak Christmas period for the three days was 5,000% • What we don’t know: impact on rest of prog.

Vodafone e-voucher • Uplift in orders; maintain Gross to Net? • Strength of the e-voucher for affiliates? • More exposure for Vodafone? • Did it increase upsells (longer term contracts)? • How cost effective was it to run the e-voucher? • What was the feedback from affiliates?

Vodafone e-voucher • Value add proposition; bundles, extras, freebies • Opportunity to upsell or build affinity deals • Vodafone saw a 12 fold increase in clicks • Offers helped create significant buzz, but conversions dropped • 28% uplift in contracts • 60% overall sales uplift

Driving customer acquisition • Shop Direct ran with three affiliates, £15 extra off for new customers • Sales increased 75% for the three affiliates • New customer numbers increased 37% • Indicates code drove both additional buzz and exposure and new customers • Further analysis showed higher than average repeat customers driven by code

Increasing your basket value ‘Stretch and Save’ • 3% increase in overall programme AOV • 41% increase in voucher code AOV

Monitoring & Reporting • Voucher code tracking

Monitoring & Reporting • Address affiliate concerns about overwriting of cookies in the final stages of buying cycle • Enable every affiliate to provide compelling & exclusive deals to customers, without disadvantaging any particular affiliate type • Reduce sales leakage

How does it work? • Display/hide voucher code entry box in the checkout • Enable affiliates to pass in an extra parameter in the inbound URL called a ‘deal ID’ • Corresponding promotion is applied automatically • Deal IDs are exclusive to individual affiliates • Deals are session-based, providing a powerful call to action – ‘you must click on this link to get this deal’ & ‘you must start your journey from this site to get this deal’

How does it work? • Types of deals - £ or % off: – Individual product – Product Category e.g. Driving – Product Subcategory e.g. Driving > Ferrari Driving – Site-wide • Additional functionality: – Individual products can be excluded from any category, subcategory or site-wide based deals – Set a minimum spend before customer receives discount • Affiliate can have multiple deals running

Codes in action

Codes in action • Promotion running from 9-16 April: Exclusive 15% off Champneys Express Manicure or Pedicure, promoted via VoucherCodes.co.uk • Regular 10% discount code also offered on the VoucherCodes.co.uk website • Compared to same period in March: – Traffic increased by 212% – Number of sales doubled – Sales value increased by 68%

End-to-end analysis Issue Code Which affiliates? Just VC sites? What type of code? Inform Decisions Sale strategy? on Future Codes: Monitor Sales: Which affiliates? Volume? Commission setting? Distribution? Impact on other Control? affiliates? VC tracking in place? Analyse your Data: New or repeat custom? Incremental Sales? Impact on other affiliates? AOV go up?

The IAB’s Code of Conduct • Sets standard for promotion of codes • No click to reveal • No attempt to mislead • Separation of codes from deals • Protects exclusivity • Voucher Code of Conduct

The Future • Better reporting; increased scrutiny • More automated solutions • End to end monitoring & ‘intelligent’ commission setting • Tracking of mobile codes • Mobile opens opportunities for localised codes

Voucher Codes: Understanding the Metrics Kevin Edwards, kevin.edwards@affiliatewindow.c om 020 7553 0354, 07974 810 547

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Kevin Edwards - Voucher Codes: Understanding the Metrics

by a4uexpo Conference on May 18, 2010

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