Questions about Affiliate management

[Shoda]

OK, I read through lots of the management posts, read through the report "launching and relaunching an affiliate program" and I have questions. Many, many questions.

- Are reports worth signing up for? I saw two reports available on industry stats. I'm trying to define some benchmarks and timelines, and industry stats aren't widely available. I'm looking for extremely general numbers too, realizing that specifics will depend on too many factors. Are there industry stats available elsewhere?

- When I was a sales manager, I would know if a program was working or not in about 2-3 weeks. Not that I'd cancel a campaign, but I would definitely change it on a promotional level. Is that too soon to change a promotion for affiliates? What's their turn around time once they've signed up for a campaign?

- How long is an average affiliate campaign? a year? is that reasonable?

- I'm down with creating technology, we're a development team so it's gravy. There's talk of widgets and software and feeds and blogs. Are those used primarily as enhancements to an affiliate campaign to assist them in ther marketing? Like a weather widget for example - OR are they used as a tool for affiliates to track sales, communicate new promotions - OR would you do both?

- I know some stuff about conversion, (I've done PPC campaigns and other search marketing like banner management), I have all the tools to hit the ground running - planning a launch about a month after official startup - how long would someone with a fair bit affiliate management experience (not me of course. ) expect to wait before seeing some preliminary results? I'm back to the question of best case scenario/worst case scenario for someone that's been there. I can adjust the benchmarks based on my own experience.

That's probably enough for now, as I get answers I'll probably have more questions. Thanks!

 

[Linda Buquet]

Hi Shoda,

If you can tell me a little more I can possibly give you better answers. You can't really talk about your program specifics in this thread, but can you give me a general idea of:

tracking solution or network you plan to use
the type of products (general product category)
how many products

When you say "planning a launch about a month after official startup"

Is this a new company, new site, new product or all of the above???
That will have some impact on what I tell you too.

 

[Shoda]

Hi Linda.

tracking solution or network you plan to use

Haven't answered that question yet. I'm looking for a reputable system, steep learning curve doesn't bother me. I have bookmarked some content on various different solutions. Once I have it narrowed down I'll probably ask more questions about it - unless there's a system out there that you would recommend. What's important to me is scalability and overall simplicity.

the type of products (general product category)

Hosting and hosted applications for small to medium sized business. SMB's make up about 85-90% of the total where I'm from.

how many products

Virtually infinite, the products will all be hosting or hosted solutions, and there's always more space to be had. My plan would be to run hard and fast initially, scaling back later on to a few reliable affiliates. Is that something I should even consider? Reputation management will be extremely important to me, so I want to make sure all reps are treated well and fairly.

 

[Linda Buquet]

Thanks for the answers. So many things I want to say but carpal is bothering me so have to type in shorthand without explaining much and hope you understand what I'm trying to say.

You didn't answer if it's a "new company, new site, new product or all of the above???"

The reason I asked is that that if it's a new site and/or new products I don't recommend starting an affiliate program right away.

You asked a couple different Qs about timing, I'll try to tackle this one:
"how long would someone with a fair bit affiliate management experience (not me of course. ) expect to wait before seeing some preliminary results? I'm back to the question of best case scenario/worst case scenario for someone that's been there."

With a B to C, retail program on a major affiliate network, it can take 3 - 6 month to launch and begin to see some traction. That's if you do things right, have the right payouts and devote the right resources.

If it's B to B it's 10 times harder and will take longer to build. If you don't join a network, but do an in-house program then it's going to take even longer to build up. So you have your work cut out for you and I would not expect to see big results for awhile. Just trying to set your expectations and be realistic.

"My plan would be to run hard and fast initially, scaling back later on to a few reliable affiliates."

Keep in mind affiliate marketing is a 90/10 game. So you have to recruit a lot of affiliates to get a few good ones that produce for you. When it's B to B the numbers probably shift to 98/2. So while it's good to run hard and fast I'd be careful if and when you get to the point you want to scale back.

Sorry that's all for now. Maybe I can type a little more later.

 

[Shoda]

Thanks for the quick response Linda, extremely helpful.

Is this a new company, new site, new product or all of the above???

The product is not new, the company has been around for a while, but has not been actively marketed, the site - and the company, while retaining the name, will be undergoing a major rebranding.

3-6 months hey? Well, that's probably alright for a timeline, I have a fairly flexible marketing plan with lots of choices available, so taking a bit longer won't be a big deal.

No rush on replies, I still have lots of time to plan everything out, so...