The Affiliate Evolution Into Mega-Brands

Ari Rosenstein \ Sr. Marketing Director

Affiliate to BrandThe Market Evolution

2

Sr. Marketing Director

VP Marketing2014 –

2016

2013 – 2014

Director Product & Research Marketing

Marketing Manager2008 –

2013

2006 – 2008

Ari Rosenstein

About Me

EVERYWEBSITE

EVERYMOBILE

APPRATING

ENGAGEMENT

APP STORE

CATEGORY

KEYWORDS

TRAFFIC METRICS

TRAFFIC SOURCES

AUDIENCE

INDUSTRY

CONTENTIN 190+ COUNTRIES

Has All the Data

✓ ✓

✓ ✓ ✓

✓ ✓

✓ ✓ ✓

Our DataOver 5B events/day

(60k events per second)

8 PhDs,100 Engineers

and Big Data experts

Insights on 200MWebsites

& 5M mobile apps

Cleaning, Categorizing & processing

Machine-Learning &Prediction Algorithms

International Panel

Crawling

ISP Data

Learning Set

Granular

Global

Multi-Device

Where is Affiliate Marketing Making an Impact?

Computer and Electronics

Adult

Career and Education

Business and Industry

Finance

Books and Literature

Gambling

Internet and Telecom

Shopping

People and Society

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00%

% of total referral traffic out of total traffic

sources

Top Industries by Share of Referral Traffic

When do the lines begin to blur between “just” an affiliate and becoming a stand-alone brand?

7

What makes a strong brand?

• Authority• Recognition• Stickiness (Recall)

8

What makes a strong affiliate brand?

• Authority• Recognition• Stickiness (Recall)• Added Value

9

What makes a strong affiliate brand?

• Authority• Recognition• Stickiness (Recall)• Added Value

Brand Deep Dive1. Finance: An industry giant and an rising

star2. Retail mega brand – Just how big is it?3. Publishers capitalize on traffic to play the

affiliate game4. Is Social Media getting into the game?

Note: The following slides are a data based analysis. In no way do I endorse any of the sites or companies mentioned, nor are they sponsoring me.

CreditKarma.com is a Finance Industry Super Brand (and affiliate)

In the last 6 months, Credit Karma was the 8th biggest traffic generator within the Finance category

payp

al.co

m

chase

.com

wellsfa

rgo.c

om

bank

ofameri

ca.co

m

finan

ce.ya

hoo.co

m

capita

lone.c

om

amer

icanex

press

.com

credit

karm

a.com

citi.c

om

nette

ller.c

om0

200,000,000

400,000,000

600,000,000

800,000,000

1,000,000,000

1,200,000,000

1,400,000,000

Last 6 Months Total Traffic

Of all the keywords generating traffic to the Finance Industry, Credit Karma is in 8th place!

Searching for Karma

Driving Traffic to Industry LeadersOutgoing traffic from Credit Karma (Apr-Jun 2016)

Not Just a Website…An App Player as Well

With Amazing Penetration

Brand Checklist1. Authority?2. Recognition?3. Recall?4. Added Value?

A Brand in the Making

NerdWallet.com is catching everyone’s attention

• $100m annual revenue• 200 employees• 59th largest site (according to

traffic) in the Finance category and one of the biggest affiliates in the industry

From 3M visits/month to 5M visits/month in less than a year

07-15 08-15 09-15 10-15 11-15 12-15 01-16 02-16 03-16 04-16 05-16 06-16 -

20,000

40,000

60,000

80,000

100,000

120,000

140,000

160,000

Total NerdWallet Branded Search Terms Visits

People are starting to search the brand

NerdWallet is in the top 20 sites winning at SEO traffic within the Finance Category

NerdWallet Specializes in High Quality Content

What Kind of Content? NerdWallet Answers Questions!

Best How What0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

Credit Insurance Loan Mortgage0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

Share of traffic by search term

SEO Today is Driven by Content Not Keywords

Thin Content Content Farms

Duplicate Content Ad-to-content Ratio

Broken Pages HTML Improvements

Short Click vs. Long Click Engagement Metrics & User

Experience Blog Post Comments

SimilarWeb.com

Old School

New Focus

Short Click vs. Long Click

SimilarWeb.com

Short Click vs. Long Click

SimilarWeb.com

So What’s the Lesson?

Query Keyword

is now

Query Keyword Post-Click Engagement

51% of NerdWallet’s traffic goes to their blog

In fact, their blog is their most valuable and popular asset as they build integrity with their consumers

Not just content: there are also products (this one being the most popular)

Brand Checklist1. Authority?2. Recognition?3. Recall?4. Added Value?

Who is The Ubiquitous Super Brand Drive Retail Traffic?

Slickdeals.net is the super brand, super affiliate, super referrer

Slickdeals is the 42nd Most Searched Term Sending Traffic to the Shopping Category, US

Slickdeals Sends 46 Million Monthly Clicks to Retailers

Amazon Gets the Majority

Slickdeals is the Known Brand

Slickdeals related searches were

responsible for 50% of their total search traffic

And doesn’t act like the rest of its counterparts within the Coupons category

Slickdeals is also a Mega app with highest stickiness

Amazing App Loyalty

Are Publisher Putting the Squeeze on Traditional Affiliate Marketers?

SkimLinks – Turning Content into Affiliate Revenue

SkimLinks – Is a Big Player

SkimLinks – Top Publishers are Onboard

Top Websites Using Affiliate NetworksTop Websites by Traffic to Leading Affiliate Programs

1 cnn.com2 dailymail.co.u

k3 buzzfeed.com4 aol.com5 about.com

1 imgur.com2 wikihow.com3 softonic.com4 ign.com5 gizmodo.com

1 makeuseof.com

2 pcworld.com3 complex.com4 sheknows.com5 neogaf.com

Publishers account for 30% of the traffic going through their redirect server

Biggest Advertisers on SkimlinksSkimLinks – Top Advertisers

1,092,102,494

Visits to LifeHacker in Last 12 Month

308,000,000 Out-Going ClicksLast 12 Month

8% to Shopping

3 Million Dollar Post

What happened in July?

LifeHacker Article – Top 5 Online Glasses Stores

Lifehacker

Warbyparker.com Eyebuydirect.com Zennioptical.com Coastal.com Clearlycontacts.ca Goggles4u.comReferral Traffic 780,000 300,000 780,000 690,000 290,000 270,000

% of Referral Traffic from Post 35% 61% 22% 16% 17% 24%Desktop Visits: 270,582 183,210 172,926 113,712 49,822 65,286Avg. Page/visit: 10 17 12 12 6 11

Est. Conversions 12,291 20,459 1,579 1,420 279 3,327Avg price of one unit: $100 $50 $30 $100 $100 $30

Est. Revenue $1,629,093.00 $1,022,971.00 $47,374.00 $142,026.00 $27,935.00 $99,824.00

Results

~$3,000,000

Estimated Revenue

Could This Be the Next Market Disruptor?

Reddit Enters the Game

is the#2 social traffic

driverin the world

9.41% of all social traffic worldwide originates in reddit

In the U.S it’s even stronger with almost 1 of 4 of all social traffic

Reddit is a Traffic Giant

Aliexpress.com

Gamestop

Newegg

Major Implications for the Retail World

Thank You.

Ari RosensteinSr. Marketing Director

& team SimilarWeb

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