Is Affiliate Marketing Dead?

[phileas]

We've been using affiliate marketing for our site for about 10 years now. I'm wondering whether it's still worth doing because I think 90% of all the sales we get would have come to us anyway; they've just searched for voucher codes and using the codes they've found so we're losing out on that extra 10 or 15% plus affiliate marketing fees and overrides.

Our PPC company suggests binning our affiliate network as it's not working as well as what we think and often an Adwords sale is overwritten by an affiliate sale as that's the last cookie that was recorded.

Thanks

 

[Darren_Ssc]

We've been using affiliate marketing for our site for about 10 years now. I'm wondering whether it's still worth doing because I think 90% of all the sales we get would have come to us anyway; they've just searched for voucher codes and using the codes they've found so we're losing out on that extra 10 or 15% plus affiliate marketing fees and overrides.

Our PPC company suggests binning our affiliate network as it's not working as well as what we think and often an Adwords sale is overwritten by an affiliate sale as that's the last cookie that was recorded.

I think you've just described what has been going on for at least 10 years, so it would be interesting to know why you're just noticing it now?

I don't know what the actual figures are but, anecdotally and from experience, you'll find true affiliate influence much less than you already fear.

If you look at your affiliate sales for the past couple of years, are there some affiliates you identify as actively promoting you in the way you want? They may not have actually been awarded that many sales because they have the same problem as you are but may well be worth talking to.

If your ppc campaigns are well optimised and producing a good return then, obviously, your money is going to be better spent here. But I would try and dig into your data first to see if there are some more obvious solutions. It could just be a couple of site misbehaving and being given the blind-eye treatment by the network?

 

[DRDR]

There are different attributing that a PPC agency can report. If they think last click from voucher sites is stealing all their sales and affecting their ROAS in the report, then they can just report on a different attribution model so that the report is not just based on last click.

Affiliate marketing is not dead, it just depends how your work with the publishers. If all of them are vouchers and cashback, then its ok if you are looking for brand awareness. If you want to make a good ROAS on sales, then affiliate marketing is difficult, you will need to find and work with content publishers to make the sales for you.

 

[Martyn Thompson]

It's not dead - but it is harder to make more profit. Contacting suppliers directly and using plugins to manage the commission rates is one way to reduce your costs.

 

[justinaldridge]

I generate affiliate income every month and have been for the past 15 years. It still works and this year I'm up on last year.

I don't use voucher codes myself.

I think you are correct in that voucher codes don't work like they used to and affiliates using them are making money with very little effort. You are better off scrapping these. I know many businesses have already.

You are better off working directly with your best performing affiliates or approaching "influencers" who you can work with in your industry.

 

[James Duval]

No way. Affiliate marketing is one of the old marketing tactics and a must for future influence marketers to learn and achieve.

 

[jackanderson]

Of course, affiliate marketing still works in 2019 and it will continue to work quite nicely if it’s done correctly.
Affiliate marketing is a system. To the extent that someone follows the system is the level of success, they will attain.

 

[Darren_Ssc]

To the extent that someone follows the system is the level of success, they will attain.

Profound words indeed, Jack.

 

[Scott2019]

No it's still very profitable, as you'll already know the hardest part is to get good affiliates who are willing to work at it who know what they're doing. If your affiliates are struggling have you looked at diversifying your channels? I don't know what you sell but Youtube, Instagram, Pinterest are great for promotion. Most people think no one will be too interested in what they're selling but you'd be amazed. If you can tell a story around your products that resonates with people they'll follow you and buy from you.

 

[alexalemzy]

Thank you for bringing up such important topic. We are currently renewing our affiliate program at TextMagic. We decided not to focus on coupons (however we have such option) but rather work with affiliates, so they could earn commissions from selling our product. We use ShareaSale platform for that, so I guess you should also check your opportunities in the common direction.

There are many platforms which allow you to create interesting and easy ways of cooperation with your affiliate partners.

What is really a challenge for us now is to spread the word about our program and get new partners.
I would appreciate if someone shares some working and quick methods.

 

[Matt Tomkin]

I think all this is down to attribution, if you start to look at different attribution models you should see a different picture emerge.

We use Ruler Analytics for our clients and this helps us report both first and last click attribution as well as where phone calls have come from.

I'd be very wary of just working on the basis of what a PPC agency has said (and I own one!) as it sounds to me that if the affiliate link has been clicked it could be the way people are finding out about your website, then when they do come back they just click on the paid ad due to it being the easy option.

We've started to use a bid adjustment for all search engine traffic that have been on the site before; reduced by up to 75% in some circumstances as you end up paying twice like you are alluring to.

 

[webgeek]

You can prevent affiliates from using your brand in paid searches as a condition. It's standard.

If you're getting sales cannibalised by affiliates outranking you for Blah Brand Discount, Blah Brand Coupon, Blah Brand Voucher, then either you haven't bothered to create your own pages on site to rank for these, or you haven't invested enough in beating the competitions in the quest for organic rankings. You MUST have your own offers pages optimised for these keywords and pushed to rank well.

Affiliate networks shift in strength and popularity from time to time. We've all seen them come and go. I know of one tech company who recently shifted from CJ to ShareaSale. Improved features, better match among affiliate marketer and offers to promote.

Usually when I hear that PPC or affiliate marketing or email marketing or any other proven marketing technique isn't working well, it doesn't mean that channel is broken - it means the 4 P's of marketing aren't being executed properly by the company or agency they've engaged.

Don't quit when things don't work - figure out what needs done to make them work!

 

[CoinCornerJoanne]

In answer to your initial question, 'Is Affiliate Marketing Dead?' - no it's not, but I feel that its success very much depends on the industry it's being used in. I work in the Bitcoin industry and affiliate marketing is a great way of encouraging new people to get started with us.

From what you've described, it sounds as though affiliate marketing isn't working for you financially and that it's largely due to customers now expecting to get discounts right at the start. Perhaps you could set up an A/B test to determine if your new registrations (or whatever KPI you go by) is affected by affiliate marketing or whether other channels are as successful?

 

[mannierichardson214]

Definitely not dead, in fact more alive than ever, but first you need a high-quality website to actually make more profit.