The Low Down on Media Buys

When it comes to Media Buys, the road to success can take many twists and turns, but should always consist of a strategic plan, proper execution, detailed optimization, scalability, and the testing of new offers.

The planning phase of any media buy should include choosing a traffic source. With new traffic sources popping up ever more frequently, Media Buyers need to rely on resources such as industry newsletters, Magazines, and Forums for inside information. Often times, industry magazines will count down the top advertising networks based on reach and monthly impressions served. While forums make a great place for referrals and obtaining feedback from other online marketers (regarding specific traffic sources), be sure to do your own research. Once the traffic source, whether a advertising network or large website, is locked down, consider setting a daily spend which corresponds to your back end goals. This will later help with the scalability of your campaign. Also, request reporting access, as this will pertain to the optimization of a media buy.

To the experienced media buyers, the execution phase may seem like second nature, however, the steps involved with properly launching a campaign should not be overlooked. Many advertising networks require a minimum purchase of between $5,000- $10,000 for a CPM or CPC media buy. With this type of investment in place, media buyers should be sure their affiliate link is loading correctly, a pixel is placed, and the campaign is tested to ensure tracking. A campaign will see the most traffic during the week. With that said, keep in mind the day of the week of which the campaign is launched. For example, launching a campaign on a Friday evening is dangerous since an issue could occur over the weekend and days may go by with impressions or clicks completely wasted.

Once the campaign is live, the optimization phase of a media buy begins. Having a daily spend in place will allow you to compare apples to apples, regarding the offer’s performance. The daily spend will also allow buyers to spot trends in the reports. Optimization should involve eliminating sites which aren’t converting and setting day parting in place. For example, if reporting shows the most leads between 7am and midnight, day parting can be set so your campaign will only be viewed during those hours. This will help preserve your budget and increase your ROI. The optimization phase also includes “tweaking” the campaign. There are many ways to tweak an offer. If you are using Text Links, changing up the ad copy can increase Click-Through Rates. The same applies for Display ads; the creative can make or break the success of a media buy since it is the first interaction a user has with an offer.

Scaling an offer is the most exciting part of a media buy, in my opinion. It means you have made a campaign successful on the small scale and are ready to see what the inventory is really capable of. The first stage of scaling should be to increase the cap (perhaps double the daily spend). If the offer is still profitable at that level, blow your budget out and wait for the return! At this point, a media buyer may feel like they have achieved success. However, the largest buyers out there are always looking for “the next big thing”. Be sure to test new offers throughout each phase of your media buy. Testing new offers and new traffic sources will provide the diversity necessary for your future success in Media Buying.

Are You Getting The Most Out Of Your Publisher-Affiliate Strategist Relationship?

Whether you join on your own or are directly contacted by a network to partner up, you’ll almost always be paired up with an Affiliate Manager (or in our case, an Affiliate Strategist). The Affiliate Strategist is your ‘eyes and ears’ of the network and is one of your greatest assets and resources when it comes to growing your online business. So how do you get the most out of the Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship?

Sharing is Caring

You’ve probably used Twitter to vent about the Celtics losing to the Lakers in Game 7 and updated your Facebook status to inform your friends that you pre-ordered the new iPhone 4G (jealous?). Not to mention the countless emails, IMs, texts, and phone calls you send and receive each day. It is practically unavoidable to share with the world all of the things you are doing and thinking at any given time. This has to translate into the Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship as well. Many times Reps are stuck assuming certain details of a publisher’s promotions. No good! You know what they say when you assume: “you make an…” well you know .

When an affiliate is transparent about their promotions, there is no guesswork. This enables your Affiliate Strategist to truly keep you updated on industry trends and changes that can impact your ad campaigns—both positively and negatively. Keep in mind, communication goes both ways! When you openly share information about your promotions with your affiliate strategist, you can guarantee to receive inside knowledge on traffic sources, new verticals and often additional resources and tools which can totally supplement your campaigns.

It doesn’t stop there. Communication isn’t only beneficial at the campaign level, but also in your online business as a whole. Put it out there! What are your long term goals? What is the dollar amount you want to make each month? Expressing where you want to be is the first step to getting there.

Fear of Commitment

“Rule #76: No excuses. Play like a champion!” This is one of my favorite quotes from the movie Wedding Crashers. Yeah, she was a stage 5 clinger, but Owen Wilson’s character had a goal in mind and wasn’t going to let an excuse get in his way of reaching it. In affiliate marketing, we have to make a commitment to the game and play like a champion!

In the Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship, it’s easy to make excuses. Especially, if a campaign test doesn’t go the way we want. It’s crucial to stay focused on solutions! Before you test an offer, make a commitment to put your best foot forward. Do your due diligence to research the vertical or offer before you test. After the test, dive into your stats. Examine every variable, placement, bid, keyword, ad copy…etc. Once you have an estimate of how to make the ad campaign better, reach out to your Affiliate Strategist to formulate a game plan. Your Affiliate Strategist can’t carry you, but they can be the most valuable asset to your online marketing plan/strategy.

Commitment, like communication, goes both ways. The relationship between an affiliate and their account Rep depends on each other bringing something to the table. There is no point in blaming one another, the only focus has to be staying committed to the goal and learning from previous experiences.

So to quickly recap, the key ingredients to getting the most out of the Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship are communication and commitment. Transparent promotions will open the doors and even windows of opportunities, while commitment to the relationship and putting your best foot forward in each promotion will keep each party accountable. As long as both parties have an open line of communication and a commitment to reaching your goals, you will get the most out of your Publisher-Affiliate Strategist relationship!

The Ins and Outs of Lead Caps on Campaigns

Many affiliate marketers have experienced the recent trend of lead caps on campaigns. A hot new offer is launched within a network, with a specific number of leads rationed out to affiliates per day. The capping of a campaign can be frustrating to large volume publishers, who can easily exceed their allotted leads. However, lead caps are beneficial (and argumentatively necessary) for the long term success of all parties involved.

Caps and Opportunity:

Affiliates are facing campaign caps on a more regular basis. For marketers who produce big volume, promoting an offer with a cap means switching links once their portion of daily leads has been satisfied. This fad is seen predominately in the PPC realm and actually creates a huge opportunity for affiliates to test different offers.

Testing alternative campaigns not only alleviates complacency, but it also enables the potential of discovering an equally or better converting deal. For affiliates, this means the ability to run several strong performing campaigns over a longer period of time, which directly relates to increased revenue.

Keep in mind, an affiliate-network relationship is a partnership, where each member depends upon the other for success. Lead caps provide the opportunity for publishers to prove their worth to a network. When presented with a campaign that is capped, a network is clearly including the affiliate on an exclusive and sensitive circumstance. View your appointed space on the offer as a favorable way to affirm your reliability and loyalty to a trusted network!

Networks reward your loyalty:

A network’s duty is to work with the advertiser to ensure they have product, as well as create a streamline process that guarantees the end customers' happiness. Capping leads is the most efficient way to ensure all of the above. Not only will it ensure customer satisfaction, but it is also a strategy used to ensure that affiliates are paid promptly.

It is important to note that networks assume all risk when it comes to speedier payment terms (especially if a partner is new to affiliate marketing and has no established credit line), since the network is paying the affiliate prior to being paid by the advertiser.

Networks should do their due diligence to obtain feedback from the publisher to ultimately maximize their landing page. When the lead cap is lifted, networks should reward those affiliates on the cap by giving them first stab at the unlimited promotion of the offer.

Understanding caps:

Rolling an offer out slowly is essential for the scalability of a campaign and for the success of an advertiser. For instance, an offer is launched with a 1,000 lead cap this week and a 1,500 lead cap next week, etc. This allows the advertiser to ensure accurate inventory, plan for cash flow, as well as handle the amount of volume a network can deliver per week.

The recent trend of lead caps on campaigns is a wise strategy for a long and successful life of an offer. Offer caps yield better customer satisfaction rates, prompt payment, higher earning potential for affiliates over time, as well as scalability and success for the advertiser.

New Year, New Mailers, Same Mistakes

In any business venture, you should begin with the end in mind. For email marketers, the end goal is to execute a successful email campaign. For those new to the email marketing industry it is important to know “what works” in order to achieve such success. The first step for new mailers is to become fully acclimated with the Can-Spam Act (This will save you headaches and possible litigation!) Unfortunately, there is no rule book or law which leads to the ultimate success of an email campaign. Seasoned email marketers achieve a favorable outcome through old fashioned trial and error, marketing research and strategic list segmentation. Below are several bloopers, blunders, and impractical errors that newbie’s of email marketing should be sure to avoid.

No permission to Send Mail- Sending mail to users who have not opted to receive campaigns is a violation of the Can Spam Act. Whether they remember signing up or not, you must first get permission to mail to users. A great way to do this is through a newsletter offered on your site. Allow the user to receive promotions based on their individual interests. For example, “Sign up for our daily health newsletter” is a great way to find users to market diet offer towards. This is also a great way to begin segmenting your list and gain insight into the interests of your users. In the long run, you will see solid customer retention!

No Clear Unsubscribe Link- Unsubscribe links should be clearly defined on each email offering. Just as you need user’s permission to send mail to their inbox, you also need to provide them a way to opt out from receiving any further promotions. The unsubscribe link is a necessity. Be mindful, that once a user requests to opt out from receiving promotions that they are removed from your list or added to a suppression file for that specific advertiser.

Not Testing the Promotion- An offer may have several Creatives and variations of Subject Lines. How do you know which will be the most effective for your list? Sending a test drop to track the best converting creative and subject line is a lesson any new mailer does not want to learn the hard way. Some marketers like to depend on their account representatives for this information, which is fine. Keep in mind that it is important to test in order to learn what the specific individuals on your list respond to.

Not Redirecting links- A common mistake for new mailers is keeping affiliate links. Any successful mailer with tell you that redirecting the affiliate link is a wise way to ensure deliverability and add credibility to a product or campaign.

Not Analyzing Reports- It is crucial to check stats! Most mailers check stats up to the minute and constantly learn from their reports. EPC is an important metric, but you can learn more than simply how much commission you can expect to earn. When you efficiently optimize based on the data you have collected, a successful email campaign will be in your reach.

Diversify Today

The old saying: “Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” may be a cliché but has withstood the test of time for good reason. Risk management techniques of diversification are an important strategy for savvy business people to implement in any industry. When it comes to internet marketing, spreading risk over many programs, campaigns, and investments is a necessity for every entrepreneur in the coop.

People like Options:

My marketing background and persistent curiosity has me constantly polling friends, family members, and anyone whom I come into contact with about a variety of interests. My “research” has proven that, from small to large decisions, people like options! From an affiliate program standpoint, it is advantageous to have multiple recommendations for any given product or service. Options allow business affiliates the opportunity to compare creatives, landingpages, payouts, and any other aspect of a program. Diversifying affiliate programs is a great way to not only spread risk but more notably, increase the opportunity for success.

The Next Big Thing:

When one affiliate program becomes the current success, the idea is to promote this campaign in as many distribution channels as possible for as long as it is advantageous. It is critical for all participants to keep in mind that this sizzling campaign has an expiration date. From the affiliate manager’s point of view, diversifying the reach of other offers is crucial at this time. The trigger for this transition is not always easily determined. Ideally, the push for the next big thing should take place at the height of the current program’s profitability. The key to this push is two-fold. Spreading the reach of new offers allows affiliate managers to find that next hot market trend way ahead of the curve. Plus it provides a smooth transition from the current buzz offer to the next slamming campaign.

Valuation:

Diversification is not only important from an affiliate program or manager aspect, but more importantly from the affiliate’s perspective. Having a multifarious promotion strategy allows an affiliate to create value for a specific campaign by highlighting its value in comparison to other similar type offers. Whether the user selects the highlighted offer or the comparison campaigns, they both equate to dollar signs in the form of conversions for the affiliate.

Whether you are creating, distributing, or promoting affiliate programs, diversification is a technique that all parties will benefit from. A multiple stimulus strategy is the best way to ensure lucrative results. By spreading your eggs to several baskets, you can reach the various consumer communities growing at an exponential pace every day.