They do exist, and they are dragging down the reputation of any good affiliate. Firstly, what the hell am I talking about? Well each affiliate programme has rules, some may not allow you to big on their brand name, some don’t accept incentive based sites etc basically most affiliate programmes have some form of hoop that you have to jump through.
So why do some affiliates think they are exempt from these rules? From the affiliates I know, meet with, talk to and generally get on with I know that the majority are happy that the affiliate agrees and then gets on with promoting the merchant within the guidelines set out, and if the guidelines are too strict then they just don’t bother promoting them. However there appears to be a set of affiliates who just don’t care what rules the merchant sets out.
My main example of this is brand terms, a lot of merchants now don’t allow affiliates to bid on brand terms, because its firstly very easy and very cheap, I wont go into this too much more as it’s a whole topic in itself. Now at Alpharooms.com we have a strict no brand terms policy, and this is made very clear in all out network terms and on our site for the independent program terms, this doesn’t make it impossible for PPC affiliates to work in the slightest and we have some very good PPC affiliates promoting us. Now sat watching Top Gear on a Sunday evening I do a spot check and see an affiliate bidding on our brand, firstly why do they think they can do this? They registered on the 28th of Feb and within 4 days they’ve jumped on the brand. How do they think this helps us, or helps to build a long term relationship?
We’ve been working with some of our affiliates for years, affiliates who have sent millions of pounds worth of bookings our way, and this one affiliate thinks they can get away with breaking the rules? Understandably it makes me mad, but its easily to control, cancel all sales and sack them off thanks for the free sales. It’s the fact that some affiliates do break the rules that concerns me most, it’s a bit of easy money and fine it can be tempting for some affiliates. They try their luck, get caught and get removed – no harm done?
Plenty of harm done. Remember issues like this go far beyond the affiliate > affiliate manager > network relationship, senior management get involved and within hours the affiliate programme is in question in its entirety. Now that’s an extreme example, but its easy to see how it could happen a keyword converting at £1 CPA goes to a keyword converting at £30 CPA just from jumping from one marketing channel to another.
Something really needs to be done to control the ‘rouge element’ as it is going to end up where merchants enter the affiliate marketing arena, get stung and leave. Any merchant putting aside resources to actively manage and regulate the programme are going to have such tight rules there’s on room for 4 or 5 affiliates.
Do affiliates care? Do network care? I don’t know, but I think it really needs addressing and with the industry maturing and becoming more professional its things like this that are going to give it a bad reputation and hold it back.
