A recent article on ClickZ.com cites that businesses in the Entertainment and Health industries paid more for lead gen services delivering “premium” details “during the second half of 2009.” Another clear sign that lead generation or lead gen is big business for companies, especially those in affiliate marketing. Thousands of companies in the affiliate marketing industry specialize in lead generation to acquire new customers. There is a strong preference for the ease with which an affiliate can get paid commissions simply for referring customers through a lead form rather than an action that requires a credit card. As such, affiliates get a bit overzealous about generating revenue and forget that merchants have specific needs for their products and services, too. That said, an affiliate should be aware of what exactly the merchant needs from them, in order for both sides of the business to benefit from lead gen campaigns.
Evaluating Traffic Placements
Affiliates often are driven to sign up to an affiliate program when the payout and the offer looks like an attractive fit. However, these days, traffic placements are more comprehensive now that social media has entered the mix. A paid search affiliate should ask more questions about whether or not a merchant will permit things like brand name bidding and direct link. Even more important, some merchants may not be too keen on lead gen affiliates using social media to generate leads. For instance, Planning Family is a great offer that has gained popularity with Share Results affiliates, but this merchant does not allow affiliates to generate leads via channels like Facebook or Twitter. To be certain about what methods of promotion are accepted when generating leads, go directly to the affiliate manager of the program.
Evaluating the Potential Customer
Affiliates should evaluate whether or not they have the right prospective customer base for the product or service. A database of 100k US-based female users may seem like the perfect fit for an offer like Free Stuff For Your Baby, but what percentage of them are expectant or new moms? What is their average age of their children? Do they have any other children? What is their average income and do they respond to products for babies? This is just something to think about before launching a campaign for a merchant that is targeting a niche market.
Quality not Quantity
Lead gen affiliates often make the mistake of thinking that when generating leads for a merchant that it’s all about volume. This isn’t always the case. A merchant like eLearners may be interested in a high volume of education leads, especially during peak school months like January and September. However, unless they see those prospective students actually enrolling in the months ahead (especially during a downturn economy), it’s not very profitable for them to payout a lucrative amount for each lead. So, evaluate the quality, by asking the affiliate manager of the program for merchant feedback. Also, Share Results Traffic and Transaction Reports are available to use in order to determine just how many web visitors are clicking through specific tools and are successfully filling out and completing a lead form.
Negotiating Commission
Some affiliates have come to us requesting higher commission on an offer before they’ve even signed up to an affiliate program. While $1.20 CPL may not seem like a lucrative payout for a lead, there’s more to consider than just the commission. Remember that merchants have to look at how much they can offer based on their budget. They may only have a small margin to work with and need to be reassured that those leads will actually convert. If a commission is not that lucrative, but the offer is an excellent match for the customer base, one approach to getting a higher commission can be to launch a test campaign over a period of one to three months (or whatever can be afforded) and then ask for feedback from the merchant about how those leads referred actually converted. If the conversion rate is high enough, it’s a good time to inquire about getting a commission increase. Communicate with the affiliate manager for the program and make a case. This obviously doesn’t happen overnight, but stay the course and keep being open to negotiations, just don’t do it before signing up.
Thanks to affiliate programs like eLearners.com (and now CuteKid.com’s CPL campaign) affiliates are getting their feet wet in the lead gen business. Remember that success in lead gen doesn’t happen overnight. It can be a long process of establishing what the merchants need in a customer and the need for affiliates to refine their strategy used to target that audience.
What are your thoughts on lead gen? Feel free to contact us via affiliates [at] shareresults [dot] com with your feedback and questions?
The rest is here:
What Lead-Based Merchants need from Affiliates
