03

Types of Affiliate Marketing

for Advertisers
 Affiliate Types
Incentivised traffic Non incentivised traffic

Voucher Social bloggers

Employee benefits Content

Cashback Email Comparison

Social currency Shopping channels

Retargeting
Freebie sites Display affiliates

Co-registration PPC affiliates

Loyalty
Affiliates – Examples - Incentivised
Affiliates – Examples - Non incentivised
Affiliates - Examples - Finance
Affiliates - Examples - Gaming
 Types of Affiliate Placement

• Banner Advertisement
• Text Link
• Dedicated Article
• Dedicated Page/Tab
• Promotional Page
• Newsletters
• Comparison
• Email
• Pop Ups
• Native
• Content
 Cashback
Who are they?
Publishers who pass their commission earned from a sale straight onto the consumer

How does their model work?

Examples: http://www.thesuncashback.co.uk/ http://www.quidco.com/how-it-works/

What’s their size?

Cashback sites make up 31% of performance revenue generated. http://www.quidco.com/press/fast-facts/

How do you optimise this type of site?

Be competitive within the space (exclusive CPA’s)
Maximise site exposure
Gaining trust & avoiding complaints (co-branded & additional T’s and C’s)
Peak period competitions

What’s their random fact?

Top earning customer has earned over £100,000 in cashback https://www.topcashback.co.uk/account/earnings/merchant

Considerations:
Brands have to be conscious, can create negative press
Attribution modelling
Lifetime value
 Loyalty
Who are they?
Similar to cashback they take the commission, turn it into points and pass the points onto the consumer

How does their model work?

Similar to cashback although they can skim profits out of the CPA upon conversion to points

Examples:
http://www.nectar.com/NectarHome.nectar http://www.avios.com/gb/en_gb

What’s their relative size?

Second biggest incentive publisher, making up 17% of the overall performance marketing mix

How do you optimise this type of site?

Exclusives
Site exposure

Considerations:
Understand the value of the point
How big are they compared to cashback?
Brand associations
 Voucher
Who are they?
Many advertisers issue vouchers on site, voucher sites are directories for all available vouchers across the net

How does their model work?

Many savvy shoppers will search the net looking for money off and when this happens, a voucher site is there to pick up the traffic via SEO. The
advertiser funds the voucher and the publisher takes away 100% of the commission.

Examples: http://www.vouchercodes.co.uk/ http://www.hotukdeals.com/

What’s their relative size?

Voucher sites are huge. The top publishers have approx a 6-10 million database.

How do you optimise this type of site?

Exclusive vouchers- seasonal periods & personalised vouchers
Offering something different (stand out from the crowd)

Considerations:
Monitoring voucher use
Don’t de-value the brand
Mix up the offers
Not all advertisers have voucher code functionality
 Freebie
Who are they?
Site which give away free stuff!

How does their model work?

Some lead generation campaigns will be focused on free samples or free giveaways for
people to become more interested in the brand, a person registering their interest to
receive a free sample is a valid lead.

Examples: http://www.magicfreebiesuk.co.uk/ https://www.thefreesite.com/

What’s their relative size?

Dependent on the campaign, as it’s niche to a campaign setting, they can only perform
well under certain campaign environments

How do you optimise this type of site?

Understand the value of the CPL
What touch points are reached after the initial free sample?

Considerations:
Don’t give away something for no reason
 Display

Who are they?

Affiliates who specialise in banner advertising on a CPA/CPL basis.

Otherwise called…
Direct Buy campaigns

How does their model work?

These companies have bulk banner inventory and target the best consumers on a CPM basis. They
must be able to provide enough value through the banner in order for it to a viable campaign.

Examples: https://www.thisismoney.co.uk/money/index.html

How do you optimise this type of site?

Understand the right CPM or CPC equivalent for your CPA
Share customer demographic information

Considerations:
Attribution
Only works with certain partners
 PPC
Who are they?
Aka the cowboys of affiliate marketing. PPC affiliates will hold the second position in the paid listings of search engines and will protect the brand
from competitors

How does their model work?

Search publishers will develop a site to look very similar to the original and bid into a second position strategy. They must ensure that their CR’s and
CPC’s are balanced with the CPA being offered to give them a good ROI.

Examples: http://www.found.co.uk/

What’s their relative size?

Once on a media plan, search affiliates will be the top performing
The number of media plans they are on however is somewhat limited these days.

How do you optimise this type of site?

CPC caps, Growing generics & SEO gaps (unique content)

Considerations:
“Dying media”- increases costs to PPC campaign
Are they incremental volume drivers?
 Aggregators
Who are they?
They aggregate information into to make a more informed decision of their purchase
within finance

How does their model work?

With simple comparison (finance), the model is CPA based on most occasions.

Examples: http://www.uswitch.com/ http://www.moneysupermarket.com/

What’s their relative size?

Stand alone they are the largest affiliates in affiliate marketing. Often referred to as super
affiliates as they often work directly with the advertiser due to their size and commercial
agreements.

How do you optimise this type of site?

Lead Generation strategies
Product lead strategies
Conversion floors

Considerations:
FSA regulated
Don’t become overly reliant on aggregators
 Shopping Comparison

Who are they?

Comparison engines that specialise in specific shopping items that compare merchants by price

How does their model work?

The only affiliate type to work on a CPC model only. This is still relatively low risk as they convert well. The model is due to the traditional way
in which they buy traffic and work against their competitors

Examples: http://uk.shopping.com http://www.kelkoo.co.uk/

What’s their relative size?

Very large within the retail sector only.
Expect top ten in terms of size of a campaign.

How do you optimise this type of site?

Ensure that the feed is fully optimised
Optimise by shopping engine and allocate budgets accordingly

Considerations:
Managing the feed
 Content
Who are they?
The most traditional affiliate, offering advice and detail of a product which is extremely useful for a
consumer when purchasing requires research.

How does their model work?

Traditional affiliate model- CPA based.

Examples: http://www.moneysavingexpert.com/ http://www.mumsnet.com/

What’s their relative size?

MSE has over 13million email recipients a week

How do you optimise this type of site?

Exclusive offers and content
Good relationship

What’s their random fact?

MoneySavingExpert was owned by Martin Lewis. His site began in 2003 and got big through promotion
on TV, he sold MSE to MoneySuperMarket for over £83 million in 2011.

Considerations:
The editor is the boss
 Social Bloggers / Vloggers / Influencers
Who are they?
Social Bloggers grew out of content based sites into the social landscape and have developed from there. Publishers are becoming increasingly more
aware that they can build trust and a dedicated following through social media.

How does their model work?

Straight CPA, although some sites also offer subscription service to their users

Examples: http://terrytipster.com/ http://www.shopstyle.co.uk/ http://www.instragram.com/

What’s their relative size?

Not a top affiliate but if the approach is done well, they can be a top ten affiliate in a campaign.

How do you optimise this type of site?

Offer affiliate days
PR content
Optimised feed

Considerations:
Can make or break your brand- treat them with respect
 Niche Sites
Who are they?
Specific sites which hole a very specific purpose on the net

How does their model work?

Straight CPA traditional model

Examples: http://www.studentbeans.com/
http://www.petrolprices.com/

What’s their relative size?

Generally quite small, make up the long tail in most instances

How do you optimise this type of site?

Provide with up to date information on products and details

Considerations:
Limit the amount of time you spend optimising with them- generally
speaking they know best
 Industry Approach - Finance
Size
• 45% of online performance marketing spend by far the largest
sector for online spend

Approach
• Largely dominated by comparison sites who bid heavily on
PPC generic terms as well as having a strong brand presence.

• Some brands have moved into incentive sites but its not
widely used.

• Email and content sites can create volume when approached

correctly.

Considerations
• Specialised subject- monitored by regulators
• Competitive on price
• January & Tax Year represents the peak period
 Industry Approach - Retail

Size
• Second biggest sector accounting for 20% media spend

Approach
• Cashback and voucher sites will make up the majority of sales

• Social bloggers will make up an integral part of the campaign

• Shopping channel’s revenue will largely come from this sector

Considerations
• Highly competitive on brand and promotions
• Peak period is in December with other peaks depending on
brand (school terms, valentines etc)
 Industry Approach - Telecoms

Size
• Third highest spenders in online performance marketing- 10%

Approach
• PPC affiliates can be useful in competitive space

• Cashback offers are huge within the sector

• Comparison is the largest affiliate type

Considerations
• Specialised subject- monitored by regulators
• Competitive on price
• January represents the peak period
 Industry Approach - Travel

Size
• 9% of online performance marketing spend

Approach
• Comparison, comparison comparison!

• Supplemented by incentive sites

Considerations
• Highly competitive on price
• Low commissions- low margins
 Industry Approach - Automotive

Size
• Smallest of our sectors but one of the fastest growing for
online media spend

Approach
• Email is the bedrock of the campaign

• Content and niche sites make up a key area

• Co-registration can depend on campaign type

Considerations
• Not an online purchase- cost per lead considerations
• Huge marketing spends on generating leads