Are you looking for a new credit card? We’ve been working on some new comparison tables that allows you to compare credit cards online. Our website also has product profiles for each credit card, bank profiles and issuer profiles (Visa, MasterCard etc). The site is really gaining some traction, we are still ranked number 1 in Google for the term “credit cards” and we’re also picking up some good rankings for a lot of secondary terms.

The credit card and finance verticals are probably the most mature (affiliate) markets in Australia. It’s a very competitive space, there are lots of affiliates and businesses competing for the traffic, generally because there are actually lots of affiliate programs available.

Anyway, our credit card website has been around for a while now (about 18 months) and it is definitely the best credit card comparison site in the market. We monitor and review over 100 different credit cards from all the major banks and building societies. So if you are in the market for a new credit card, check out CreditCards.com.au.

Many advertisers don’t realise (or care) that they are stealing from their affiliates. I am not talking about programs that shave valid sales, I simply referring to sites that have any kind of links or cross promotion that isn’t commissionable to their affiliates.

I have a few examples:

Case 1: Finance Products

At work we send a fair bit of traffic to credit card campaigns. Let’s say the bank pays affiliates for each credit card application, but has the traffic delivered directly to their main banking portal. My traffic suddenly clicks on a promotional advertisement for a personal loan and my traffic and commission has been stolen!

Solution: Create custom landing pages for the commissionable product only.

However, a few of the campaigns have successfully created custom landing pages but continue to steal traffic and money from me. How? They have links and phone numbers plastered all over the page for “call now”, “print an application form” or “go to your local branch” etc.

Solution: Get rid of those links! That really is the only answer, creating a special phone number, email address and applications forms with affiliate tracking is far beyond the capabilities of these programs so the only real solution is to remove them.

Imagine if you were a sales person working on commission in a television retail shop? Which way would you direct customers if the boss told you that only certain products in the store would pay commission? <THINK OF ANSWER HERE> That’s right! Of course you would!

Now, what if you worked with a customer, you provided all the information they needed in order to purchase a new TV, but then they spot one of the “other” products and pick up up one of those non-commissionable credit cards television sets? Would you be disappointed? Would you be angry? How long would it take you to go next door to another banks affiliate program television retailer who paid you commission on all TVs?

Maybe you could ask your boss to pay differently, maybe on a salary? After all, the bank boss doesn’t care what televisions get sold, he makes money on all products. As long as you convert those leads to sales, he’s happy! Maybe the banks should be paying me differently?

In this example, the St. George bank commits both sins. Traffic is delivered to their main banking portal and can go walk-about into other areas such as personal loans. They also have “call now” and “other ways to apply” buttons that are larger than the “Apply Now” commissionable buttons.

Case 2: Homewares Retailer

This one really is offensive. If you are an affiliate sending traffic to this program, close your eyes. The home couture affiliate program running in ClixGalore is a shocker! They have two very bad thieving mechanisms running directly in front of affiliates. Sure these guys are not the only ones doing stuff this, but it is just very easy to point out since they have it on their homepage and category sub-index pages!

1. eBay store - Home Couture auction some of their products (new) on eBay. If I send traffic to buy a new set of steak knives and then the visitor hops on over to eBay and Home Couture just happen to be selling those steak knives brand new and at any discounted price on eBay, who here is going to get the commission? It’s definitely not me!

2. Google Ads - OMG! Why am I sending my traffic to your program to hopefully make a sale and some commission when all you are doing is turning my traffic into CPC revenue for yourself? I don’t get a cut of that! Let me see how this works. I sent my traffic to Home Couture, they send my traffic on to one of their own competitors (faith in their own product?) and then help themselves (and Google) to a bit of revenue and I miss out completely. I think I am better off putting the Google ads on my own site. Sinner!

Solution: Whilst Home Couture does seem to offer an alternate landing page (for affiliate traffic) that does not have the eBay advertising on it, a simple click on the logo and you are back at the real homepage and off to bid on those steak knives. Home Couture, get rid of it! Maybe you make your pages smarter and put an “if” statement around the offending elements. IF (traffic = from_affiliates) THEN (dont_steal = true).

Case 3: Adult Product Programs

Most adult retail product websites use (read “rely on”) affiliate traffic. Many soon realise that the traffic doesn’t convert as well as they suspected so they start looking for other ways to cross promote to visitors. Linking off to DVD sister sites, dating sites, or straight up adult content sites. Some of those programs are in-house, but not commissionable and some even resend affiliate traffic directly to other programs! Many do this right under the nose of their affiliates; others do it behind closed doors. Sure this might not be considered “stealing” as direct as the other examples, but some sites will capture “leads” via newsletter signups, free trials etc and then remarket that traffic in the background (to their own site again, or to other programs as mentioned).

Solution: If you are going to steal from us, just do it behind closed doors. We can’t stand to see you rip us off blindly. Just remember that if you do rip off your affiliates, there are thousands of other adult programs who would love to get our traffic!

Affiliates: Take a good look at every site you are sending traffic to. If you think you could be bleeding sales like this, do something about it! Contact the advertiser, express your concern. If they don’t see the problem, or refuse to fix it for you, send your traffic somewhere else!

I’ve worked on both sides of affiliate programs for years now and one of the biggest issues I see with advertisers are their banners and marketing creatives.

I’ve set up a lot of advertisers in an affiliate network as well as in-house programs. When it comes to banners, the worst thing you can do is offer one 468×60 standard banner of your logo and URL. Well actually, the worst you can do is 470×80 or some weird size that doesn’t scale or fit into banner rotation software. In fact, you could do even worse and just offer text links.

Anyway, I want to make agencies and advertisers aware of the do’s and dont’s that will subsequently lead to an affiliate dumping or not choosing your program at all.

In no particular order, I offer some hints and tips:

Design - Clean and Professional
As an affiliate, I have a nice looking site so I want your banners to complement it. I don’t care how many clicks you think you can get with a red and yellow flashing “YOU WON” banner, I am a professional, so please keep your banners looking professional. I understand, your corporate colours are important, but so are mine.

File Size - Watch Your Weight
Hire a designer, one with experience creating banners. I don’t want my users to load 100KB banners when it could have been created in 10KB. The IAB are currently working on “file weight” guidelines, but while you wait, just compare your stuff you everyone else.

Pixel Dimensions - Stick To Standard Sizes
The IAB in Australia (Internet Advertising Bureau) has published a set of standards and guidelines for the Australian UAP (Universal Ad Package). This is the very minimum you should have, it includes 4 ad units including a leaderboard 728×90, standard banner 468×60, medium rectangle 300×250, and a wide skyscraper 160×600. Note, the US IAB drop the 468×60 from their UAP and swap it with a 180×150.

A lot of major traffic portals will be compliant with UAP units, however keep in mind the ‘mum and dad’ affiliate who also want to see some other sizes.

The United States IAB also publishes standard ad unit guidlines for a complete range of banners. Work towards adding as many of those banner sizes over time, or as you receive requests working with more affiliates.

Promotions - Keep Your Banners Updated
If you have seasonal campaigns or products you must keep your banners updated, this lets affiliates know you are actively taking care of your program. If you’re a chocolate shop and you’ve got Easter promotional banners but it’s Christmas time now, forget it. Keep your promotional banners up to date. You should identify seasonal banners as such and allow the affiliate to run your promotional banner in a “spot”, managed on your end that he/she can rely on you to update and keep fresh.

URLs in Banners
You must have a different set of banners for affiliates on CPL/CPA programs to the ones you use on CPM campaigns. When you buy impressions from me, I am selling you the right to get brand recognition from my users, even if they don’t click. If you’re paying me per lead or per acquisition, and your URL is featured predominantly in the banner, forget it. I don’t want my user typing in your URL tomorrow and I get nothing for it.

Some networks and advertisers offer post-impression tracking (PI) that will track a sale for x number of days after a user has been served a banner impression, that is acceptable and a highly respected piece of code. In my experience with some finance campaigns (credit cards, home loans etc) I’ve seen up to 40% of sales coming through from 2 day PI display ads. So if your URL toting advertisements give you 40% more sales that I won’t be getting commission for, I’ll be promoting someone else.

So to summarise:

• Standard sizes, best variety possible.
• Clean and professional designs.
• Small filesize, fast loading.
• No URLs for CPA/CPL campaigns.
• Keep banners fresh and promotions up to date.

Most importantly, be prepared to work with your affiliates. If you are in a network and an affiliate application comes through, make sure you have the right tools for that affiliate or they won’t promote you. Check out their website, consider the possible spots you will be promoted, if you don’t have a banner size for that spot, create it, and get back to the affiliate. It can get costly creating custom banners, but remember, if you add another standard size or colour for a particular affiliate, it can always be used by other affiliates.