J
Jack Holden
- Original Poster
- #1
Hello there, We're quite new to affiliate marketing (as a merchant/advertiser) and I have a slight issue with sales being logged to publishers through the affiliate platform that carry a discount code that we have exclusively marketed through Facebook (and not added to the affiliate platform).
I can see how this happens - potential customer sees an ad (cookie length 48hrs) or clicks an ad (cookie length 30days) from an affiliate publisher on the web. Doesn't buy at that time. They then see our Facebook promo with discount code (e.g. 15% off + free shipping), click through and buy from our site. The affiliate cookie logs the sale as coming from that publisher, and yet the trigger for sale is our own FB marketing (at additional cost). So we have paid affiliate commission on the sale (e.g. 10% + fee to the affiliate platform), the conversion cost for Facebook ad (e.g. £2.50), plus given a 15% discount & free shipping to the customer equating to c.40% of the £24 sale price.
Strikes me that in this scenario the affiliate publisher is basically goal hanging. If were the affiliate publisher for our own products, then we would be claiming nearly all these sales ourselves as the last touch before goal.
I have had discussions with affiliate publishers saying that I will decline commissions with in-house discount codes (and supplied the codes and campaign run times) where customer click to buy time from affiliate tracking is over 24hrs (or reduce some cookie duration)...which I think is fair. But this seems to have rattled some cages.
One work around I thought of is that we actually do act as our own affiliate publisher on the platform and track sales through the affiliate program (with a zero commission). I think it would work and I wouldn't have to decline affiliate publisher sales that carry our own marketing codes, but I think the affiliate platform might then get a bit shouty.
Happy to pay commission to publishers for genuine influence and sales. But I can't pay twice - when the key driver seems to have been our own marketing efforts.
Any suggestions or similar experiences? - Many thanks - Jack
[Apologies if this is a bit of a naive question / scenario, but as I said we are quite new to affiliate marketing and trying to find our feet.]
I can see how this happens - potential customer sees an ad (cookie length 48hrs) or clicks an ad (cookie length 30days) from an affiliate publisher on the web. Doesn't buy at that time. They then see our Facebook promo with discount code (e.g. 15% off + free shipping), click through and buy from our site. The affiliate cookie logs the sale as coming from that publisher, and yet the trigger for sale is our own FB marketing (at additional cost). So we have paid affiliate commission on the sale (e.g. 10% + fee to the affiliate platform), the conversion cost for Facebook ad (e.g. £2.50), plus given a 15% discount & free shipping to the customer equating to c.40% of the £24 sale price.
Strikes me that in this scenario the affiliate publisher is basically goal hanging. If were the affiliate publisher for our own products, then we would be claiming nearly all these sales ourselves as the last touch before goal.
I have had discussions with affiliate publishers saying that I will decline commissions with in-house discount codes (and supplied the codes and campaign run times) where customer click to buy time from affiliate tracking is over 24hrs (or reduce some cookie duration)...which I think is fair. But this seems to have rattled some cages.
One work around I thought of is that we actually do act as our own affiliate publisher on the platform and track sales through the affiliate program (with a zero commission). I think it would work and I wouldn't have to decline affiliate publisher sales that carry our own marketing codes, but I think the affiliate platform might then get a bit shouty.
Happy to pay commission to publishers for genuine influence and sales. But I can't pay twice - when the key driver seems to have been our own marketing efforts.
Any suggestions or similar experiences? - Many thanks - Jack
[Apologies if this is a bit of a naive question / scenario, but as I said we are quite new to affiliate marketing and trying to find our feet.]
