As marketers soak up the effects of the pandemic, it’s important to think about what strategies born of necessity will stick with them. Learn why marketers tend to affiliate in uncertain times, which tactics deserve staying power in the channel’s playbook, and how you can incorporate those initiatives into your digital mix, writes Amber Sweeney, VP, Customer Solutions, Pepperjam.
As brands, both D2C and traditional bricks and mortar, try to absorb the effects of COVID-19 and eventually recover from them, it is clear that part of the work will be reconciling that is probably the first phase of a long journey. It is time to get ready for ongoing reality. To begin with, affiliate marketers shouldn’t assume longevity – be it the strength of the landscape itself or the fruits and results of a particular partnership. Over-reliance on one thing – channel, media type, partner, whatever – has always been risky. But it has proven particularly dangerous for business in the past few months. Diversification is key to operating effectively.
Take a painfully obvious example as an object lesson on diversification. When this all started, massive ecommerce platforms like Amazon completely changed the outlook for content partners and influencers by suddenly lowering commission rates on their popular affiliate programs across a variety of industries. Abrupt lessons like this one are sure to continue. So as the pandemic continues to shape our landscape and affect trade dynamics, How should Affiliate Marketers Planning To Navigate The Landscape? How should you approach partnerships and affiliate models as we head into what is typically the most profitable period of the year?
Learn more: Affiliate fraud could cost marketers $ 1.4 billion in 2020, new report suggests
One of the most fascinating changes in the “home” state is consumer traffic and transactional behavior that we can see in any industry. Although this should always be in the foreground for our strategies and planning, it cannot be denied that it is actually a little more interesting and meaningful now.
As an illustration of what we saw at the beginning of the pandemic, when uncertainty dominated our collective mindset, affiliate traffic spiked year after year, but at the expense of conversion rates. Even so, the conversion rate has still increased compared to the previous year, just not at the same pace as the click activity. Still, CVR growth took off, peaking at 107% YoY in early May, nearing Black Friday levels. In the week that ends on the 9th As of May 28, 2020, the conversion rate on Pepperjam’s Ascend platform was 5.8% while the week ended on the 28th November 2020 6.3% achieved.
Ecommerce sales for the home industry were cheap, likely in part due to consumers’ choice to outfit their homes as they were restricted due to stay at home orders starting in March. From an affiliate marketing perspective, while some industries initially performed better than others, all industries except travel have grown year over year. Ironically, gifts and flowers performed the best, posting sales growth of 170%, followed closely by food and drink at 168%. Both of these were likely due in part to changes in consumer buying behavior, who are now obviously more adept and comfortable with online as a channel for these goods and services. Knowing all of this more detailed data certainly helps B2C and D2C marketers take an even more mindful approach.
In my view, working with some of our most nimble and adaptable marketers, in addition to keeping the buyer in control of their own journey, will act as a guide to help any affiliate marketer methodically think through the following areas in order to act for the new reality .
Diversification of the partnership “types”
Sounds clever, doesn’t it? So how does an affiliate marketing team roll back that groundwork so they have the right mix of partnership types in their program? First, you need to understand your current publisher and revenue mix, and how that aligns with your target demographic and undoubtedly changing goals. Ask yourself: Can you be present with your current publisher mix where your customer is – at the top, middle and bottom of the funnel? Is your revenue mix focused on one type of publisher or a few publishers? Much like planning your own financial portfolio, knowing these answers will help you create the framework you need to better diversify your program. This essentially creates the basis for defining where you are over- and under-focused in order to focus your diversification efforts in the future.
Understand and use the new data available
Assuming you have robust systems in place for running and optimizing your affiliate programs, now is the time to dig deeper with the data you probably already have. Ideally, you will have visibility into data points like repeat purchase patterns and revenue volume over time – all of which will help you understand your most productive partnership types (and of course, specific partners) and fine-tune your programs to build on positive outcomes over time .
Once you’ve made a commitment, it’s time to monetize each type of partnership meaningfully in the long run
While it’s true that you can’t expect longevity to exist, there are certain things you can do to promote longevity. When you create the right mix, use your own data more carefully, and follow the money to some extent, it’s important to remember that at the heart of all of this is one thing – the relationship.
It’s also worth noting at this point that brand safety should be a predominant focus in affiliate marketing. There are no shortcuts or workarounds. You give third parties the opportunity to represent your brand through their own marketing and promotional tactics. From paid search to on-site advertising, the tactics are wide-ranging. That means you don’t want an affiliate to position their own paid search ads as your own, and there should be a clear distinction between where the consumer ends up, their website, and your website. You also don’t want on-site ads to misrepresent your brand, the details of a promotional offer, etc. Hence, you need to make sure that they represent, position and promote your brand. The efforts to counteract the potentially black hat and to protect the brand are “always on”.
Learn more: The state of affiliate marketing in 2020
Relationship marketing is a part of affiliate marketing. So be sure to keep communication with your partners open and share both short and long term goals instead of just focusing on product and promotional messages. This will build up a productive business relationship and enable a mutually more informed dialogue about future optimization possibilities. If you stay agile and flexible during this time, you can adapt to changing consumer behavior and be able to make smart, data-driven decisions based on a long-term perspective – avoiding quick decisions that affect the overall channel. and neglect business goals. With such a solid operational mindset, you can keep investing in partnerships that add value to your affiliate program and make sure you have the advanced tools and analysis to optimize them together. This allows you to fully optimize campaigns and gain a deeper understanding of how to replicate success.
This article originally appeared on Toolbox Marketing. Visit here to learn more.
