In the early years of affiliate marketing, picking an offer was as easy as finding the highest payout for the offer you wanted. There was no need to look into an offer any further. As long as the payout was in line, the landing page appeared intriguing, and the affiliate manager told you it was hot, it was considered a good offer. However, things have changed drastically since then. There are many more advertisers providing new offers with different metrics that make up the pay out. These new changes have been seen mostly with “free trial” offers where the consumer only has to pay shipping and handling. Having an affiliate/advertising manager who is well aware of the industry trends and issues is crucial, but everyone should become aware of how to pick the top “free trial” offer.
Things have not changed for the first part of choosing a campaign; it is still important to make sure that the landing page is appealing, has the lead portion above the fold, and contains a strong call to action. There are numerous articles on optimizing the landing page, and reviewing these will help.
A recent trend emerging for choosing campaigns is focusing on other aspects of the offer, in addition to the landing page. There is a much greater focus on understanding the variability of the payout and how it is created. Publishers focused on providing a quality product to their consumers are looking at the terms and conditions. In recent years, many advertisers trying to compete on payouts to the publisher have created extremely high re-bill amounts. Thus, paying the publisher a high amount, but also charging the consumer a high cost too. In addition, those who didn’t want to charge the consumer a higher price, created free trial offers that lasted 7, 14, 21, and 31 days. The more time the consumer has to test the offer before the billing cycle begins (and they need to cancel their free trial), the better the experience they will have.
Top advertisers and affiliate networks are also making sure that the payment cost, as well as the cycle time are brought forward in the terms and conditions and that they are placed directly under the purchase button so that it is easy to find. In addition to clarifying the costs, the same advertisers and affiliate networks are changing the landing page from “free trail” to “risk free trial.”
With the rapid expansion of the online community, publishers now have the option to choose from a variety offers. Similar offers will have many different variables that correlate to the conversion. It is important to understand the whole consumer process and be able to provide the consumer a great experience for long- term growth. Most affiliate managers should know the cost and re-bill time of each offer, and be able to provide two or three offers that will provide the consumer with a great experience, while still maximizing the traffic.
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