Affiliate marketing is an industry based on trust. We, as affiliates, need to trust that advertisers and affiliate networks are treating us fairly. My advice to you is to trust no one. Make all of your decisions based on hard data.
All too often, affiliates start to suspect that something is wrong with the offer they are promoting. Conversion rates start at 20%, then after a week fall to 5%. Why would that be? Is it scrubbing, shaving or is the offer not tracking properly?
Forums such as WickedFire are littered with these types of threads.
If you contact the network to complain about the drop in conversion rate they will often say “the offer is tracking fine.” And that’s it.
There is a simple test that you can perform to see if you’re getting ripped off. Collect the leads YOURSELF!
Let’s say you are running a lead generation offer:
1) Take a screenshot of the advertiser’s landing page.
2) Pop a form on it that looks like the advertisers original form.
3) Turn your traffic on and collect any leads that come through.
4) Compare conversions against the stats you have collected on the affiliate network.
Is there a huge discrepancy between the conversion rate of the offer and the conversion rate of the identical page you control? If so, then it’s time to contact the affiliate network and show some proof.
The affiliate network may or may not care; it depends whom you’re dealing with. If you can’t get an amicable resolution or answer as to the discrepancy in conversion rates, you can collect the information yourself and monetize it privately.
If affiliates are willing to test ads, landing pages, offers and more, we should also be performing tests to make sure that the advertiser or network is not blatantly stealing from us. We, as affiliates, should no longer accept any form of shaving or stealing our leads.
For an industry based on trust, there are an awful lot of untrustworthy companies operating in it.
Ad Hustler has been advertising online for more than 7 years, and you can read his case studies at www.adhustler.com
Download the entire FeedFront issue 6 here – http://feedfront.com/feedfront-issue6.pdf
FeedFront issue 6 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/06
