AffiliateBenchmarks Survey Results: Vital Information for Affiliate Marketing Version 2.010 Publishers

Take a moment to envision one of those tier-three diet campaigns’ landing pages. You know, the ones that feature ‘before and after’ photos of an unhappy, not-so-svelte person, along with post-diet pill X photos of the same person looking remarkably happier and far lighter. The photos are almost always followed by a disclaimer that reads something like: “extreme case; individual results may vary”. I sometimes wonder if high-earning publishers should plop this disclaimer into the fine print of their blog sites, as today’s affiliate marketing industry, Affiliate Marketing version 2.010, is anything but a walk in the park. I hate to be the bearer of bad news, but contrary to the perception of some that affiliate marketing is a get-rich-quick industry, it simply isn’t. Those who are earning the big bucks (six figures and up) are the few and lucky who have worked their way to the top of the industry by out-working, out-testing, out-analyzing and out-risking the competition. And let’s make one thing clear –they’re fewer and farther between than you think. The industry’s learning curve is steep, and very few ride out the rough patches long enough to see smooth sailing.

As the newest member of the MediaTrust publisher management team, I’ve been in the trenches for eight weeks’ worth of AM 2.010. While I’m no newcomer to the industry, never before have I witnessed such general ineffectiveness on the part of (many) publishers to adjust with the times. Whether it’s resistance entering new verticals, lack of inspiration in uncovering untapped methods of promotion, or any of a number of other obstacles put forth by AM 2.010, many publishers are either unable to get from point A (earning $0.00 annually) to point B (earning $0.01 – $25,000 annually), point B to point C (earning $25,000 – $100,000 annually), or point C to point D (earning over $100,000 annually). With all of the information that I’m privy to as a publisher manager, I try to pass along as much of it as I can to my family of publishers in order to help them overcome the tough times. I’ll often relay vital statistics, links to compelling webinars, affiliate marketing guides for those just getting their feet wet (for rookie publishers out there who are wondering how to get out of the gates, I highly recommend reading Nicky Cakes’ Newbie Guide to Affiliate Marketing), and many other pieces of a successful publisher’s puzzle. Recently, the 2009 AffiliateBenchmarks Report turned up in my inbox, and upon reading it I immediately felt the urge to convey its key points to publishers.

The report contained the results of AffiliateBenchmarks second annual affiliate industry survey, which was distributed on July 1st 2009. With the help of supporters such as MediaTrust, Commission Junction, Linkshare, Google Affiliate Network and others, 3,521 publishers were surveyed, with the purpose of determining the current state of the affiliate marketing industry, as well as the opinions of those who make it tick. Its questions were broken down into eight distinct categories: general, network, search marketing, communications, promotional, creative, company structure, educational, and site specific questions. Those who have the most to gain from this survey’s results are undoubtedly those publishers who are looking to make the jump from point B to point C (and eventually point D, but Rome wasn’t built in a day!). In addition, those looking to make it from point A to point B will note careful pitfalls to avoid, and will likely also gain excellent insight from these results.

The survey groups publishers into two distinct groups:

- Novices: publishers who began from 2008 to the present day.
- Veterans: publishers who began prior to 2008.

It further breaks down each of these groups by income bracket:

Novices:

- Low-income novices (LIN) earn less than $25,000
- High-income novices (HIN) earn more than $25,000

Veterans:

- Low-income veterans (LIV) earn less than $25,000
- Medium-income veterans (MIV) earn between $25,000 – $100,000
- High-income veterans (SA , which stands for Super Affiliates. I couldn’t use HIV to represent this group, it’d be too eerie to type each time) earn more than $100,000

Let’s check out the results, and what exactly they mean to publishers.

Collection of Traffic Information

So you’ve put together a snazzy site and posted banners of the highest-converting campaigns from affiliate network X. You’ve bought some creative keywords, and even rank organically for a few popular terms related to your niche. For some reason though, your traffic isn’t converting to sales, and you’re mind-boggled. Unfortunately, some publishers make the mistake of promoting campaigns that simply aren’t thoughtful of the traffic that they’re getting to their site. If, for example, your traffic is primarily coming from the UK, would it make sense to promote offers that are restricted to US residents only? Digging a bit deeper, you probably wouldn’t find much success promoting a colon cleanse offer to predominantly male traffic under the age of 18, right? The moral of the story here is to know your audience and cater to it.

Novices:

- LIN: 36.3% don’t collect traffic stats
- HIN: 33.7% rely on visitor surveys, 32% rely on registration form questions

Veterans:

- LIV: 37.3% don’t collect traffic stats
- MIV: 38.2% rely on 3rd party research reports
- HIV 42.8% rely on 3rd party research reports (the percentage of respondents who don’t collect traffic stats dips to 24% in this group)

While higher-earnings affiliates could go out and spend money on high-tech analytics software such as Felix Leshno’s new Buntai (which looks mighty cool), you’re more likely in the market for a free analytics tool. Do yourself a favor and check out Tracking202, which will do everything you need and more. While you’re at it, be sure to check out the various tabs at the top of Tracking202’s Homepage.

The Value of PPC Traffic:

Novices:

- LIN: 28.2% buy PPC traffic
- HIN: 45.1% buy PPC traffic

Veterans:

- LIV: 33.3% buy PPC traffic
- MIV: 54.9% buy PPC traffic
- SA: 64.9% buy PPC traffic

So what do these numbers tell us? For those of you who fell asleep during ninth grade math class, there is a direct positive relationship between publishers’ earnings and their use of PPC as a method of promotion. Low-earning publishers often make the mistake of convincing themselves that they don’t have the budget to engage in PPC promotion. If you ask many of the highest-earning publishers in operation today how much you’d need to get your PPC business up and running, they’d likely suggest an investment of approximately $75-$100 per day, with the intentions of losing half of your money. Your first goal as a PPC rookie is to limit your time “in the red” to three months or less, as once you start breaking even , you’ll ultimately know what’s working and what’s preventing you from ordering that extra shake with your Happy Meal. At a loss of $37.50 per day, multiplied by ninety days of testing, you’re looking at an investment of $3,375 before earning a penny. If you could find a way to allocate this budget toward PPC promotion, I highly suggest you give it a shot.

Yahoo Paid Inclusion – A Potentially Well-Kept Secret:

Novices:

- LIN: 7% use YPI
- HIN: 26% use YPI

Veterans:

- LIV: 8.3% use YPI
- MIV: 20% use YPI
- SA: 29.8% use YPI

After reading the results of this survey, I implore you to at least take a look at the benefits of this tool. 7% of LIN said that they use Yahoo Paid Inclusion as a means of promotion, compared with 26% of HIN. The veterans’ responses echoed the untapped value of this tool, as 8.3% of LIV claimed to use the tool, 20% of MIV said they use it, and 29.8% of SA include it as part of their marketing strategy. As previously stated, you owe it to yourself to at least explore this option and see the results for yourself.

The Employment of SEO:

The results of those who employ SEO as a method of promotion are more so indicative of the value in using SEO as a long-term strategy than of its value as a primary method of promotion.

Novices:

- LIN: 67.4% employ SEO
- HIN: 69.9% employ SEO

Veterans:

- LIV: 78.8% employ SEO
- MIV: 85.5% employ SEO
- SA: 83.2% employ SEO

Simply stated, SEO never hurts. It’s the longest path to the pot of gold, but also the one of least resistance. It costs absolutely nothing to teach yourself how to build a blog, put the effort into writing some quality content, and update it about as often as you change your sheets. Once you’re able to allocate a handsome marketing budget, you can even invest your money toward improving your organic search results (which is a whole other animal that you can read all about at forums sites such as WickedFire).

As exemplified by the recent struggles of many publishers to reorganize their business since Google, MSN, Yahoo and other top-tier PPC advertising platforms tightened up on their compliance rules in regards to continuity offers, you don’t want to put all of your eggs into one basket. If there’s one piece of advice to take away from these numbers, it’s that success in AM 2.010 requires diversity and adaptability.