The-Search-Monitor-Savings.com-Paid-Search-Affiliates-The-Good-The-Bad-and-The-Ugly-March-25-2015

Even in 2015, The SERPs

(Search Engine Results Pages)

Are A Wild West

Privileged & Confidential 3 3

Ushered in by Google’s Enhanced Campaigns

Allows targeting by device, geo-location, and daypart (time of day) creating many times the # of segments

Harder to enforce rules given to TM+ affiliates

3

Privileged & Confidential 4 4

The Good –

CTR and conversion data shows consumers want to browse 3rd party coupon and deal listings before they buy

At best, brands control one or two of ten listings

4

Top TM+ Affiliates Get Consumers

The Deals and Coupons They Want

Privileged & Confidential 5 5

The Good –

Merchants recommend and approve deal %, promotion language, and landing pages…there’s ability to highlight multiple deals

Notice improved accuracy over organic

5

Doing TM+ with a few trusted

Affiliates increases overall sales

Privileged & Confidential 6 6

The Good –

Frees merchants and networks up

We’re almost at 50% of deal and coupon searches coming on smartphones – mobile SEM is in fact the “killer app”

6

TM+ Affiliates Can Help Manage

Complexity of Deal Landscape

Privileged & Confidential 7 7

The Bad –

Ideally choose only 2-4 partners

To manage cost, set tiered bid caps

Coordinate with merchant’s SEM team,

set firm rules around deals to promote,

ad position, and brand usage

7

TM+ is not “set it and forget it”

Privileged & Confidential 8 8

The Bad –

Google Auction Insights report shows you exactly what’s happening on your TM+ landscape.

8

TM+ is competitive,

need to keep an eye on partners

Privileged & Confidential 9 9

The Bad –

Direct from AdWords reports sent to network and merchant

9

Sometimes you need to go

right to Google for answers

Privileged & Confidential 10 10

The Ugly –

Only YOU have the authority to remove these bottom feeders from landscape

Luckily it’s easy: 1. Have your SEM team ask their Google or Bing/Yahoo rep

2. Fill out this AdWords Trademark Complaint Form

10

Fly-by-night SEM bidders

want your commissions!

Privileged & Confidential 11 11

The Ugly –

11

Poor affiliate landing pages leak sales

Privileged & Confidential 12 12

The Ugly -

Filters need to be set up properly

Are merchants only bidding on approved keywords?

Send reports directly to TM+ SEM management teams

12

3rd party tools often needed

Privileged & Confidential 13 13

Finally, communication is key

Demand near real-time responsiveness from TM+ partners

Network, merchant, and TM+ partner should be in constant communication

13

14

How to tame the

Wild West of paid

search affiliates

Clint

Privileged & Confidential 15 15 15

Monitoring Tools Help Tame the Landscape…

1. We See What You Can’t See…

Day-Parting – hour by hour

Geo-Targeting – countries, states, cities

Across Devices – Desktop and Mobile

Keywords – volumes of keywords

2. We Answers Questions by Trending KPI’s…

Ranking – are affiliates outranking you on your brand & brand+ keywords?

Reach – how vast is your affiliate program or your competitor’s?

Competition – why did your SOV drop or CTR drop or CPC increase?

3. We Share Research Findings on Affiliates…

30,000+ affiliates have been profiled over the past 7 years

Rated based on paid search advertising behavior

Privileged & Confidential 16 16 16

Here is What to Expect from Affiliates….

Source: The Search Monitor

The Good

The Bad

The Ugly

Direct Linkers

Privileged & Confidential 17 17 17

Compliance Can Be Easy with Smart Workflow…

Define What You Are Looking For…

Presence – are affiliates allowed to show up on specific terms?

Ranking – are affiliates outranking you on your brand & brand+ keywords?

Direct Linking – are affiliates allowed to direct link? Are shopping engines allowed to arbitrage through direct linking?

Offers – what is allowed? Can you scan through ad copy quickly?

Privileged & Confidential 18 18 18

Compliance Can Be Easy with Smart Workflow…

Determine Where You Should Spend Your Time…

Important Keywords e.g. Brand & Brand Plus what about branded typo’s that gets 0 searches a month – do you care? e.g. ‘www overstork .com’

Measurable Impact e.g. What frequency is enough to merit action?

Hijacker Displaces Brand Owner

4.17% of All Searches

Privileged & Confidential 19 19 19

Compliance Can Be Easy with Smart Workflow…

Automate As Much As Possible…

Alerts – get alerted to violations

Send Alerts – automate alerts to affiliates so that they can make corrections

Auto-Submit – submit trademark issues to search engines