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Hmm… two contrasting techniques in the in box this afternoon.
Firstly…Laura Ashley
“We wanted to let you know that you could earn an extra 2% commission during the Laura Ashley sale – that’s a whopping 8%!”
And now…Next
“Please note that the Next end of season sale is due to commence on the 26th December.
From x time and y time the VIP sale occurs. Within this period, Next will not be paying any commission for VIP sale items.”
Thoughts?
I'm an Affiliate Marketing Addict of 12 years, Entrepreneur and founder of Existem, affiliates4u, a4uAwards and a4uexpo Affiliate Marketing Conferences.
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Matthew has been an Affiliate for over 10 years working across many channels including content, cashback, voucher codes, price comparison and paid search. He is founder of affiliates4u.com and the a4uexpo Affiliate Marketing Conferences.
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Well I’ve just spent a few minutes creating some links to Laura Ashley across the site - guess I won’t be doing the same for Next though - in fact I’ll be demoting them on any page to ensure they don’t take sales from my other merchants!!
Hi Matt,
Quite an ill informed comment in my opinion. Whilst I applaud Giedre and the team at Laura Ashley for their innovative approach, to compare this with Next is not a valid comparison.
The Next VIP sale is open only to customers who have received individual invitations and been allocated a specific time to log on to the Next site and engage with the sale ahead of the normal sale becoming available. I would find it hard to justify that an affiliate has driven any sale that arrives at Next in this way, given that these customers have been personally invited by Next.
The standard Next sale which begins on 26th December pays commission to affiliates as per normal. In fact, we have even reduced the amount of commission that we are paying to cashback and voucher code affiliates on the Next campaign, which should please the majority.
Therefore, to compare the standard Laura Ashley sale with the VIP Next sale is a poorly researched conclusion to reach. As with any affiliate campaign, it is up to the affiliate to weigh up the EPC that they can expect from any campaign, not simply the CPA available, and decide which merchants to promote. Our research shows that affiliates are able to earn significant sums working with Next, despite the CPA not being as high as other merchants.
As ever, if anyone wishes to speak about this or any other campaign run by i-level, my contact details are freely available.
Matt
Matt B, what’s the network EPC for Next?
Matt,
Not sure I agree to be honest.
If the last referrer is a publisher who has set a valid 7 day cookie for next they should be rewarded for any sales generated; you do have a recurring cookie after all.
Its a position of influence, and importantly who helps to influence the eventual sale, even if that cookie is set AFTER the next communication.
On a side note you don’t have any de-dupe policy listed in your programme terms, so I’m shooting in the dark a little here comparing it to other marketing channels.
I never mentioned EPC over CPA.. simply highlighting the contrasting styles of programme management - I expect steered by the retailer.
Communications such as no commissions for certain sales is likely in my opinion to infuriate partners who have signed up to promote the programme in good faith.
If it was me, I’d take the hit and pay out, but then you have the figures on what the Next VIP Sale is likely to generate. And importantly the knowledge that many cashback users will flush cookies before making a purchase.
I’m sure you know I’m not having a pop Matt, just offering a different viewpoint
Matt
The Next VIP sale is an invitation only event to purchase items from the Next sale before it becomes available to the wider public. Access is available solely via an email that is sent from Next to some of their more valued customers. There is no way that a new customer referred via the affiliate channel within the last 7 days would receive an invitation.
Therefore I don’t see how any affiliate should have any qualms about this. As the invitation goes to a select number of customers, and access to the sale is gained via a code/link contained within that email, I would struggle to come up with any compelling argument to say that an affiliate has been the main driver in generating that sale.
This is not cookie tracked, it is tracked via Next’s internal systems based on the link/code that the customer must use in order to gain access to the sale. Therefore cashback users or any other consumer can do whatever they like with their cookies and it will have no impact.
On the point of position of influence I can’t really agree. In normal circumstances I would always argue that the channel that leads to the sale actually converting (ie last click) has added something and interacted with the consumer in some way that has lead them to purchase there and then. However, in this situation where the customer has to click through a specific link on a specific piece of communication from Next, I find it very hard to justify the fact that a subsequent click, on a cashback site or elsewhere, has added a great deal to that sale occurring. If anyone can demonstrate an example of how that would happen then I’d be intrigued.
I appreciate your views Matt, but I just feel that comparing the Next VIP sale with the increased commission from Laura Ashley isn’t a fair comparison.
Lee - I’ll find out cross network EPC and get back to you on that.
Matt
Lee,
The EPC for the campaign for the year to date is 33p, which as far as I’m aware, compares quite favourably with similar merchants.
Of course this is going to vary by affiliate, and it is each individual affiliates decision over which merchants to promote. However, I’d once again reiterate that you need to look past the CPA.
Matt