Online Marketing News - Affiliate Marketing

Disruptive e-commerce start-up Glasses Direct recently bagged £3m in funding to continue its assault on high street opticians, ramp up its staff and expand internationally. 

Here, we ask new marketing director Phil Gates about how it got on the map... 

Jason Calacanis delivered a typically candid keynote address at the Affiliate Summit in Las Vegas today, during which he urged affiliates to “stop polluting the river”.

Back in the day we used to talk about 'above-the-line' and 'below-the-line' as a proxy for advertising versus direct marketing (and never the twain shall meet).

Digital has changed all that - we need to redraw the line.

Research group AffStat has released the results of a new survey of around 200 affiliate managers in the US.

One of the most striking things is the scale of many companies’ affiliate marketing programmes on the other side of the Atlantic.

There is now less than a week to go before Affiliate Summit  in Las Vegas which E-consultancy will be flying out to along with 2,600 other delegates from 30 different countries.

The scale of this event has grown massively since the first Affiliate Summit conference in November 2003 when there were 200 people. This reflects both the huge growth of affiliate marketing in recent years and also the hard work put in by organisers Shawn Collins and Missy Ward.

Ahead of the 9th Affiliate Summit, we asked Shawn some questions about the conference and the affiliate marketing landscape more broadly.

We estimate that affiliates generated more than £3bn in e-commerce sales last year, a whopping 45% increase over 2006.  

If done well, affiliate marketing can provide a cost effective and highly measurable way to acquire customers and grow sales.

So here are some tips for managing the affiliate channel: 

With the popularity of the last click model dwindling, do affiliate networks need to evolve their approach to tracking sales in order to remain a viable channel for advertisers?

AOL yesterday announced it had acquired Buy.at in a move that will see the affiliate network becoming part of its ‘all-in-one’ online ad unit Platform A.

With AOL failing to bag Tradedoubler last year, the deal means it has finally got its teeth into a performance medium that we estimate generated more than £3bn in sales for UK businesses in 2007.

We caught up briefly with Buy.at CEO Kevin Cornils on what the buyout will mean for the company, including cross-selling opportunities, greater reach and cash for expansion abroad.

French start-up Zlio, which enables site owners to set up their own online stores, is set to launch in the UK today.

Is it time to say farewell to the old model of assigning all the value to the last click? Many marketers want the ability to measure customers' paths to purchase and understand the influences of each channel on a sale.

It would be a dream to accurately measure the impact of your TV ad on generating uplift in an outdoor campaign, driving interest in your press ad, which subsequently delivers a sale.

But can this now be achieved online?

With cookie deletion rates leading to significant problems with tracking online campaigns, a solution finally exists.

However, with greater tracking comes responsibility and consumers are becoming more savvy, as the Facebook 'Beacon scandal' has shown.

Affiliate-shy fashion etailer ASOS.com has reported an 83% rise in sales in the six months to the end of September, with its registered user base also increasing sharply.
 
The company’s profit before tax for the period increased from £300,000 to £3.4m as revenues reached £31.8m, up from £17.4m in the same period last year. The business looks in solid shape.

Bloggers can increase conversion rates for affiliate sales by using simple ‘buy it now’ buttons to product-related posts.

This tip comes from Al at the Self Made Minds blog (via ProBlogger) – he says he has managed to increase conversions by up to 100% by adding an Amazon-style ‘Buy Now’ button to his affiliate pages.

It's Halloween and time for two true tales of tracking that went terribly wrong.

The scariest part of these cautionary stories is that either one could so easily happen again.

In an industry founded on the ability to deliver marketing that is highly targeted, controllable and measurable, why are we still grappling with issues of sales duplication?

Speaking with one site owner, he estimates duplication of sales is over 30%. Isn't it time we put this issue to bed?

Gurgle.com, as it is called, is a joint venture between the retailer and MediaBurn, a digital marketing company focusing on social networking sites.

Dragons' Den investor Theo Paphitis entered the world of affiliate marketing on last night’s show, handing £200k to web entrepreneurs Emmie Matthews and Ed Stevens for 30% of their business.

Their site, GamingAlerts.co.uk, offers odds comparisons and an alert system from “major online casinos, online poker rooms, online bingo sites and online sportsbooks”.

Hotel Chocolat online marketing manager Chris Bishop is in a good position to discuss both the risks and rewards of affiliate marketing programmes.

Affiliates helped Hotel Chocolat grow its internet business by over 30% last year, but the retailer was also recently forced to crack down on sites breaking its PPC terms and conditions.

We asked Chris for his thoughts on how to get the most out of affiliate strategies - including his 'Love and Respect' theories. Read on for more...

Microsoft yesterday acquired Jellyfish, a shopping comparison site which offers cashback on purchases for users, and ranks retailers according to the amount they agree to lower their prices.

The terms of the acquisition were not disclosed, though Jellyfish raised $5m in funding last year from Kegonsa Capital Partners and Clyde Street Investments.