The Evolution of Affiliate: From Web Rings to Influencers
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This presentation is from Affiliate Summit West 2018 (January 7 - January 9, 2018 in Las Vegas). Session description: The new affiliate channel is pure quality, micro-moments to social. You’ll learn about the massive growth of influencers and critical elements that led them to spark a new affiliate Renaissance.
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The Evolution of Affiliate: From Web Rings to Influencers
- 1. The Evolution of Affiliate From Web Rings to Influencers — Greg Shepard, Chief Technology Officer
- 2. Greg Shepard Chief Technology Officer Pepperjam • Seasoned veteran in building and running sustainable growth businesses • Served as CEO of Affiliate Traction from 1999 through the company’s acquisition by eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions in January 2016 • Simultaneously founded AdAssured in 2013, which provides affiliate channel compliance and ensures brands are accurately represented • In 2016, eBay Enterprise Marketing Solutions spun off, rebranded to Pepperjam and absorbed Affiliate Traction
- 3. The evolution of affiliate. How did we get here?
- 4. Table stakes have changed in a major way 1
- 5. Basic affiliate tactics are just as important as evolutionary technology 2
- 7. The affiliate renaissance. Where do we stand?
- 8. 2017 Momentum • The MarTech industry made tremendous progress in modernizing optimization and shifting to performance- based measurements. • Online and offline presence merged with cross device and omnichannel tracking. • Influencer marketing broke down the walls of the traditional affiliate model and rocked the affiliate boat. What does this mean for your program?
- 9. Opt for dynamic attribution. • Target spend to influencers who create the most actionable micro-moments. • Last-click approach is outdated. • It doesn’t matter when they click; it matters how they got there. • Track and pay the influencers that drive results.
- 10. OLD: Last-click scenario — Merchant Site Last Click (Purchase) Commission 1st Click Introducer 1 2nd Click Influencer 2 3rd Click Closer 3 4th Click Abandonment/ Retargeting Retriever 4
- 11. NEW: Dynamic attribution — Merchant Site Commission 1st Click Introducer 1 2nd Click Influencer 2 3rd Click Closer 3 4th Click Abandonment/ Retargeting Retriever 4
- 12. Preparing for the next wave of the renaissance. Where are we going?
- 13. Influencers have replaced webrings and are shaking up the industry .
- 14. Case in Point: Fashion Retailer Preferred Publisher Campaign with Magic Links Results 19K 28% $310K 5K $58 CONVERSION RATE REVENUE TRANSACTIONS AVG. ORDER VALUE -23% +5010% +3911% +3830% +2% CLICKS Q2 2017 QoQ Comps 11,110 likes 1,045 post comments
- 15. 15 Serving the immediate needs of customers is the key to capitalizing on micro-moments. • Airbnb uses mobile to give tourists a customized, local experience with hosted walks • Dunkin’ Donuts draws in caffeine lovers with Time to Coffee showing a map of locations in the immediate area • Sephora uses Google’s local inventory ads as a customer magnet serving up notifications for available products in nearby stores Capitalizing on Micro-Moments
- 16. Maximizing the Power of Micro-Moments. Pinpoint the most actionable moments in a shopper’s journey and gain control over intent to buy by understanding the purchase path. Harness the digital friendships between influencers and their followers to build brand equity through crafted content. Take the reigns of influencer relationships by adopting dynamic attribution models that accurately measure ROI.
- 17. Embracing the renaissance and stay ahead. Jumpstart 2018
- 18. Stay ahead of your competition with sustainable results that fuel success.
- 19. Key Takeaways Shift your mindset to see opportunity instead of issues, value in micro-moments and the importance of quality content. Understand that today’s consumers are always shopping, often subconsciously. Reach them with influencers who craft organic content and spark action to build both immediate and long-tail results. Stay educated on evolving industry regulations to stay compliant in the changing landscape.
Editor's Notes
- After nearly 20 years of experience in the affiliate space, it’s easy to recognize when and how the industry is reaching a turning point of becoming a more attainable, streamlined and standard marketing strategy
- Set the scene: Where affiliate started (Reflect on Progress through the evolution of the affiliate channel) The affiliate channel got its start as an attribution and reconciliation solution for advertisers and publishers Affiliate allowed brands and their partners to drive growth and promote awareness within the shift to ecommerce – ultimately creating a data deluge Reporting, attribution and analytics grew in demand while tracking and payment were no longer fulfilling the needs of the channel. Advertisers and publishers desired deeper metrics and insights. Payment and tracking are a commodity -- Strategy and technology are crucial Phase 1: 1990-2005. Networks were expected to track data, ensure publisher payment and host a central forum for publishers and brands to connect Phase 2: 2005-2010: Expectation for network partnerships evolves from a partner meeting place to an insights and optimization hub Phase 3: 2010-Present – No Strings Attached. Networks are expected to provide tracking, attribution and payment model in one centralized location
- The Evolution: Going Back to Basics Affiliate may have evolved to include new partnership types and evolutionary tech. However, don’t forget about the basic fundamentals of what makes the channel great. Merge basic affiliate tactics – commission payouts, gifting incentives, omnichannel tracking – to benefit influencers as well as your existing publisher base.
- Don’t fight what is changing- embrace it. However, what got you here won’t get you there. Know what steps to take to advocate for the next wave of the Affiliate Renaissance and drive success for your business
- On this stage last year, we talked about the issues the marketing industry was facing as we entered 2017: (Reference Maura’s Affiliate Summit West 2017 deck) We were in the midst of an optimization debacle—data was available but there was an unrealistic expectation that it should be able to empower real-time marketing and strategy decisions Traditional revenue measurements weren’t working anymore and attributing conversions instead of impressions was a necessity There is (surprisingly, still) a lack of education and understanding around the role affiliate marketing can and should play in the consumer journey and how to safely partner with third-party publishers
- Location companies adopted business models allowing marketers to pay per store visit, affiliate leaders like Pepperjam launched more controlled and accurate methods to attribute results to top influencers/publishers, BI companies like Qlik and Tableau helped marketers make sense of data faster these all still have work to do but made tremendous steps forward for optimizing customers, measuring and attributing results and managing spend
- Content creates “micro-moments” that influence the purchase decision-making process brands and advertisers must be able to commission and attribute the influencers that help them capture shoppers at these micro-moments and drive action (visit or sale) Affiliate often gets lost in influencer marketing priorities if this attribution is not functioning efficiently Social sharing + new content channels have made the age-old “last-click” approach to attribution inefficient Majority of sales are falsely attributed to coupon and loyalty just because it’s the shopper’s last click Affiliate has evolved far beyond coupon and loyalty plays By cleaning up commissioning, brands forge stronger relationships with influencers, reduce wasted spend and improve ROI Here’s what the difference looks like…
- The traditional affiliate model is last click, where the “closer” of the sale is ultimately rewarded for driving the purchase. Attribution allows advertisers to decide which step in the sales process is most important to them and reattribute the commission to the publisher that played that role. Example A: Clients may want to pay an influencer for a sale. The influencer falls top of funnel. It could be a blogger that introduced you to a new brand/product or a sale you became aware of from a newsletter sent by a coupon partner. Dynamic attribution allows you to choose this influencer as the most important role in the click path + reward them with a commission. Example B: Choosing a specific affiliate within your program to commission when a sale is referred. This technology would be Preferred Publisher. A publisher that is set as a Preferred Publisher will receive the payout on the sale no matter where the fall within the click path. The benefit of this tech is that publisher, likely one that resonates directly with your demographic, is more willing to offer additional content features or cultivate content in exchange for being marked as Preferred Publisher knowing that each sale they take part in, they will be paid for. Example C: “Coupon Sniping” is a buzz term meaning that once the customer has already decided to make a purchase, they leave the site they are on to seek a coupon. This process drops a new cookie which would ultimately reward the final publisher in the click stream. Attribution technology will pay out the publisher that the customer was on when they decided to make the purchase, not the one where they left to check for a coupon.
- Influencer marketing was a trending industry topic in 2017 – and a major desire for advertisers. The need to deliver on content through influencer campaigns formed a “fork” in affiliate marketing – traditional publishers and influencers – and influencer campaigns provide major value for brands. IE: Brand advocacy, curated content, revenue, contact with an engaged audience. Rewarding influencers for their effort is difficult in a last-click environment. Therefore, one of our clients launched a preferred publisher campaign with Magic Links, an influencer network joined to Pepperjam as a publisher. MagicLinks was given Preferred Publisher for Q2 for Windsor to meet their goal of driving traffic to the site and sales. Q1 2017 --- $7,835 in measured sales Q2 2017 --- $316,258 in measured sales Click traffic went down because on a video that launched during Q1 that (to our contact at ML's knowledge) generated no sales since Preferred Publisher was not turned on. Lesson: we are finally rewarding publishers for driving quality traffic over quantity traffic CVR increased drastically to 28%- which is huge. This is for MagicLinks as a whole during April-July, not limited to the 8 vloggers AOV increased 2% ($1.18) in Q2 when Preferred Publisher was on This is a good time to call out the possible push on a publisher's side to drive more sales for the 9% commission they were ensured to receive Additional Background Info Each vlogger was given ~$250 in product for their campaign and received an average 9% payout for sales they referred Eight influencers participated in the campaign 11,110 likes and 1,045 comments on the posts
- These learnings were pulled from 2017 for building and optimizing influencer campaigns. They’re the table stakes for making the most of influencer campaigns to benefit both the content creator and your brand.
- In 2018, marketers need to understand that shoppers are savvier than ever- and they’re essentially always shopping (even if they aren’t consciously doing it).
- Influencer marketing will stay in the forefront this year delivering new hurdles along with greater wins. Marketers need to stay educated to be one step ahead amidst the renaissance. Wins: Tracking micro-moments, rewarding outside of last-click allowing brands to negotiate quality customized content that is served up to their targeted demographic with partnerships they choose (proper and efficient attribution) Hurdles: Brand safety, FTC regulations, net neutrality, quality screening of influencers
- Embrace the renaissance and kickstart your 2018 influencer marketing program with these key takeaways Shift your mindset: Brands can be hesitant to work with influencers for a number of reasons: lack of control of their content, inability to track their content in real time, difficulty measuring results. Advertisers should shift this mindset to focus on the value that influencers bring to a brand as well as utilizing the tools available to them to optimize – think building brand advocacy through digital friendships/followers, new-age word of mouth that generates brand trust. Today’s consumers are always shopping & we’re immersed in micro-moments. Invest in influencers who craft creative content and spark action – whether that be a site visit or a purchase. Building brand equity in the shopper’s mind yields both immediate and long-tail results. Stay educated in the changing landscape. Recap previous slide hurdles + lead into stay in touch.