Tagged: affiliate marketing

The Coull guide to common affiliate marketing acronyms

Affiliate marketing features more acronyms than a teenage text conversation. For those who are new to this area of marketing it can take some time to get to grips with, so we’re here to help with straightforward definitions of the most common affiliate terms.

CPA – ‘Cost per acquisition’  is the commission value paid to a publisher when a customer buys something from the advertiser via the publisher’s affiliate link. This can be represented as a percentage, e.g. ‘8%’, which means the publisher receives 8% of the value of the product purchased. It can also be a flat rate, such as £20 for a specific product.

CPC – ‘Cost per click’ is what an advertiser pays to a publisher every time a user clicks on the advertiser’s ad on the publisher’s site. (Also known as PPC – Pay Per Click)

CPL: ‘Cost per lead’  is what an advertiser pays to a publisher when a customer completes an action (such as filling in a questionnaire/ signing up to a newsletter) from the publisher’s website

CPI: ‘Cost per install’ is what an advertiser pays every time a user installs a program using the affiliate link  on a publisher’s page

CPA – ‘Cost per action’ is an umbrella term that covers CPA (acquisition), CPC, CPL and CPI (install). It refers to what an advertiser pays a publisher for generating a specific action by a user.

CPV: ‘Cost per view’ is what an advertiser pays for each unique user view of their ad/video on a publisher’s website or blog. Commonly used with banner advertising.

EPC: ‘Earnings per click’  is the average revenue a publisher earns per click across all the affiliate links/ads on their website. This can be worked out by dividing the total commission they’ve generated by the total number of clicks on their affiliate links/ads.

CPI: ‘Cost per impression’ is what an advertiser pays every time their ad appears on a publisher’s website

CPM: ‘Cost per mille/thousand’ is the value paid by an advertiser for one thousand impressions of their ad on a publisher’s website. For example, if a website has a CPM of £20 and an advertiser wants 100,000 impressions, the advertiser will pay £2000. 100,000 / 1,000 (one mille) = 100. 100 x £20 (one mille) = £2,000.

eCPM – ‘Effective Cost Per Mille/thousand’  shows how much money a publisher makes for every 1,000 impressions on an advert or affiliate link. Say you are displaying an advert for a XBox 360 costing £150. If you sold one last week and that advert had 10,000 impressions during the week, your eCPM is £15.
£150/(10,000 /1,000) = £15

The EU ‘Cookie Law’ and how to deal with it

May 26th cookie regulation in the UK

The EU ‘Cookie Law’, which requires websites to gain consent before storing cookies on users’ computers, was passed in May 2011. The Information Comissioner’s Office (ICO) granted firms a year to comply before prosecuting any cases.

What is a ‘cookie’?

“A cookie is a small text file stored by a web site on your computer to keep track of information about your browsing on that site.”

A year later and the deadline is fast approaching. However, it’s clearly obvious the majority of the UK isn’t ready for the regulation (including the Government itself). So what effect does this regulation have on the average publisher website?

Opting out

Without much guidance from the authorities it’s easy to bury your head in the sand and hope this passes over. However, the law is a wake-up call to the industry and therefore we could soon be reading about a large publisher being taken to court as a test case. It’s clear that EU policymakers want the internet industry to show it can be trusted to police itself, using innovative tools and approaches that are fit for our fast-moving world.

Fortunately the UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are all examples of Opt-Out, or ‘implied consent’, countries.

Opt-Out: Otherwise known as “Implied Consent”, this seems to be the most common interpretation for the directive, and allows compliance with informed consent. So by allowing users to see they are being cookied and how this is being used, combined with reasonable information to the user on the reasoning behind it and giving instructions on how to opt out, the user is given the ability to make an informed choice on whether or not they wish to allow the cookies on their system to be used. The UK, Germany, France, Italy and Spain are all examples of Opt-Out countries.

http://www.gdmdigital.com/eu-cookie-directive

Rather than having to gain implicit consent from visitors permitting you to store cookies on their computer, implied consent means you can continue to automatically use cookies as long as you make the process transparent.

Within the affiliate market the cookies being passed around are business critical, they are integral to following a user’s affiliate engagement and associating that journey with the publisher. It’s therefore important to adopt an open attitude with immediate effect. None of us want the regulations to get any more complicated! Implementing the following steps are a good way to ensure you are letting your users know exactly what information you are storing.

3 Steps

  1. Get to grips with how your site works or what technology you’re working with
    Carry out an audit of your use of cookies and other technologies so that you know what you’re working with or what’s being dropped on your site.
  1. Be very clear and transparent on how you present information to consumers
    Revisit your privacy policy and make sure that you are being clear and transparent on the technologies that are being used. It is advisable to take a ‘layered approach’: start simply and offer further and more detailed information for those consumers that want to find out more. You can point to helpful websites such as www.aboutcookies.org or – if appropriate – www.youronlinechoices.eu.
  1. Make your privacy information more prominent on your site
    Place it ‘above the fold’ and use a different font or colour. You can also label it something a little more eye catching. Instead of ‘privacy policy’ why not ‘how does this website work?’ or ‘how do we collect and use your information?’

As a Coull publisher in opt-out countries in Europe, how can I be sure I’m compliant?

It is important that you appropriately disclose how you and your partners use cookies, and give your users the ability to opt out of being tracked if they wish. An easy way to do this with regards to disclosing your use of Coull, if you haven’t already, is to let your users know you use Coull to supply rich media adverts.

Updating your own privacy policy with info about Coull, including links to the Users section of our Privacy Policy and our User Cookies page is a really great place to start.

Nick Forsberg
Head of Development

Google TV and interactive video

“Google Chief Executive Eric Schmidt said in an interview late Thursday that a new killer ad format—which he dubbed “interactive video ads”—is coming. Such ads, which could appear anywhere on a Web page not just inside a video, would allow users to interact with the ads in new and more engaging ways, such as asking users to click on a video to learn more about a product. He said he has encouraged Google’s ad teams to think along those lines, but didn’t comment on any specific plans.”

http://online.wsj.com/article_email/SB10001424052748704075604575357180763918638-lMyQjAxMTAwMDEwNjExNDYyWj.html#ixzz0wlyxBvKs

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With the introduction of Google television I definitely feel that they are using YouTube as a testing ground for interactive video advertisements, and therefore depending upon the response received could be used to a larger extent on Google TV. With statistics from other sites showing that an interactive video is far more successful in creating sales, I think that it is only common sense to say that it will also do well on Google’s video products too.

Reelseo interviewed Jimmy Healey, Senior Manager of E-Commerce for Onlineshoes.com, one of the first companies to actively use online video to advertise their products in 2006. He considers how video has evolved, and how it has adapted how they use it in their advertising, to begin with it was primarily used to increase info on the products on sale on the website, to now actively using interactive video as a major advertising resource.

“I think the greatest insights we’ve gained is, one, just doing it – taking the willingness to make the business decision to actually invest in it.” Says Jimmy. “We didn’t invest heavily at first, but we did do a lot of testing with it. And with testing we found that we made a strong business case for investing considerably more into it.”

http://www.reelseo.com/video-ecommerce-onlineshoes

Though interactive video is still quite new it is definitely set to boom in the online advertising market. As Mr Healey points out, it was perhaps a risk plunging money into this relatively untapped resource, though as shown in the comScore statistics it is definitely going to play off for any advertisers that do so. I think therefore somewhat like what Mr Healey did with Onlineshoes.com using video as a test resource, Google are also doing the same with their interactive video on YouTube, of which I definitely feel will be increasingly effective. What is now especially interesting is to see what Google choose to do with Google TV and online interactive video.

buy.at and Coull Launch Coull Activator to Increase Impact and Value of Online Video to Affiliate Marketing

Coull Activator – the first fully integrated video technology for affiliate marketing launches at Affiliate Summit West to drive more income to affiliate programmes

15 January 2010, London, UK – buy.at, the affiliate marketing network, has announced the launch of Coull Activator – a new video affiliate platform developed in conjunction with Coull, the interactive video technology company.

As online video usage soars to its highest ever level[1], Coull Activator will launch at the Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas 17-19 January 2010.

The Coull Activator launch secures buy.at’s position as the first ever global affiliate network to offer online interactive video functionality across its entire affiliate marketing channel.

Available as a free member benefit to the many thousands of buy.at’s merchants and affiliate partners worldwide, including the likes of Ticketmaster and Sky, all videos used through the service will be managed by Coull.  This ensures that affiliate links stay with videos when they are passed around social networks and blogs.

The launch of Coull Activator means that all buy.at affiliates will be able to include interactive video footage on their sites – to further engage and retain customers online, and increase sales.

Key Coull Activator features will enable affiliates to:

  • Make any video content interactive on their sites, including their own video footage and approved videos taken directly from YouTube
  • Tag individual products and items within videos clips enabling visitors to click through to a dedicated affiliate page
  • Generate increased sales and earn commission every time someone clicks on their links within a video
  • Access detailed analytics to measure the effectiveness of their videos and affiliate campaigns
  • Promote video content across marketing channels, including websites, email forwarding, ad-serving sites and social networks to drive increased visitors, commissions and sales.

To support merchants and affiliates once they start using Coull Activator, buy.at will also be making a library of pre-approved video content available for affiliates to access and upload.  This content will include its advertising back catalogue and sponsored sport interviews.

Paul Fellows, MD of buy.at, said: “In rolling out Coull’s interactive video technology across LittlewoodsDirect.com’s affiliate campaign last year, we saw first hand the impact it can have on product placement and sales.

“Online video directly influences website visibility, encouraging visitors to stay longer, engage and convert.  By teaming up with Coull we are taking the very best in online interactive video right to our affiliates front door.”

Irfon Watkins, CEO of Coull concludes: “Engaging content, especially interactive video is an essential element in generating income for affiliate programmes.  By making sites more interactive, Coull Activator delivers real SEO benefits and will ensure that buy.at’s affiliates are far better placed to increase the visibility of their sites and convert more sales.

“Online video usage is at an all time high around the world.  In the UK alone, the number of online videos viewed in the UK is up 47% compared to last year[2].  As a result, it’s great to team up, yet again, with such a great player in the affiliate market to help their affiliate partners capitalise on the growth and increasing importance of online video, especially when it comes to the bottomline.”

but.at merchants and affiliate partners can sign-up to beta test Coull Activator up until the end of January 2010 by visiting http://www.coull.com/affiliate/register

Coull CEO, Irfon Watkins @Irfonw will be available for interview at Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas where demonstrations of Coull Activator will also be taking place.  Irfon will also be available on Skipe, tweeting and blogging from the event.

Affiliate Summit West is the premier affiliate marketing conference.  Taking place January 17-19, 2010 in Las Vegas, the three day conference includes an exhibit hall with affiliate merchants, vendors, and networks, as well as multiple tracks of educational sessions covering the latest trends and information from affiliate marketing experts.

[1] comScore Video Matrix (January 2010) November sees number of U.S. videos viewed online surpass 30b for first time on record.

[2] conScore Video Matrix (July 2009) 4.7b videos viewed online in the U.K. in April 2009 up 47 percent versus a year ago.

Congratulations to the a4uawards winners

Unfortunately we did not win our nomination in the Best Use of Technology within Affiliate Marketing category of the a4uAwards last night.  However, a well deserved congratulations must go out to SkimLinks who won all 3 categories that they were nominated in the a4u Affiliate Marketing Awards!  Well done indeed.

It is nice to see a small company being disruptive and SkimLinks definitely seem to be doing that.  It just goes to show that disruption can happen in niche sectors too, it is not just a global phenomena.  Although we all hope for that globally disruptive concept, I am sure the team at SkimLinks are enjoying the recognition of their niche disruption this morning (or perhaps not, as the hangover kicks in).

Looking forward to more disruptions ahead :)

Getting the rest of the winners (congrats to you all) off twitter as they are not published anywhere else yet it would seem and interestingly enough, they are but in twitter :)

Gary Wilson – 2 June 2009

And the winners are:

Innovation in networks #a4uawards winner is @affwindow – ( posted by chrisclarkson )

Innovate merchant of the year #a4uawards winner is prezzybox ( posted by chrisclarkson, corrected by me I think the liquids were flowing and typos were a plenty)

Innovative publisher of the year #a4uawards winner is skimlinks ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Best use of intergrated campaign #a4uawards winner is Argos ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Innovative Affiliate of the Year #a4uawards winner is skimlinks ( posted by alexhoye )

Best use of technology #a4uawards winner is skimlinks ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Digital media agency of the year #a4uawards winner is i-level ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Best new entrant #a4uawards winner is skimlinks ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Finance Vertical (affiliate) #a4uawards winner is leadbay ( posted by chrisclarkson )

Retail (vertical) #a4uawards winner is Argos  ( posted by 10Yetis )

Casino & Gaming (affiliate) #a4uawards winner is bingohideout ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Casino & Gaming (merchant) #a4uawards winner is paddypower ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Travel & Leisure (affiliate) #a4uawards winner is artemis8 ( posted by chrisclarkson )

Travel & Leisure (merchant) #a4uawards winner is lastminute.com ( posted by chrisclarkson )

Technology & Telecoms (affiliate) #a4uawards winner is Formula (Top 10 Broadband) ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Technology & Telecoms (merchant) #a4uawards winner is Vodafone ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Publishers choice awards – account manager – #a4uawards winner is Hannah Swift from Existem Affiliate Management ( posted by exwebjunkie )

Affiliate manager  – #a4uawards winner is Chris Clarkson ( posted by chrisclarkson )

 

And that’s it… hell that was a chore, gleaning info out of twitter – there is an idea in there ;)