By Rich 23 Comments

A quick tidbit on affiliate networks and their “managers.”

If you’re running an offer on an affiliate network, you probably receive calls weekly from network managers wondering why your offer dipped in sales. The question is typically posed as “did you change something in your offer.” The real underlying question is whether you started using a scrubber on your account.

What networks and affiliate fail to realize at times is that they are pushing traffic to real human beings.  And yes, while humans are creatures of habit, they are not robots.

Consumers purchase in patterns throughout the day, season, and holiday.  There are a myriad of external factors that affect the way consumers shop.  i.e. On December 28 diet offers are dead.  On January 3, right after New Years Resolutions, diet offers boom.

Shopping trends fluctuate during day hours as well.  i.e.  Women buy clothes online during the day.  At night sales drop.

It’s funny to hear stupid ass affiliate managers that don’t know the first thing about marketing try to understand why offers perform differently from day to day.   One of my favorite affiliate managers comes from a background in buying and selling businesses.  This guy is a total bad ass when it comes to selling businesses.  His only problem is that he doesn’t have a clue about marketing.  I tried to explain to him today why offers dip at certain hours.   In one ear, out the other.

Most affiliate managers don’t even deserve that much credit.  I worked with one affiliate manager that kept wanting to bump the pay of “his affiliate.”  I noted that the advertiser was going to lose money at that rate and this dumbass seemed oblivious.  As I explained the business model of the advertiser and why the highest payout could be $38, I noticed that he seemed loss.  (affiliate managers work on quotas btw, hence they are only motivated by high numbers.)

What’s the problem with this picture?  Well for starters, without advertisers affiliate networks wouldn’t exist.  All the bitchy ass affiliates out there have these affiliate managers wrapped around their little fingers.  Affiliate managers for the most part are slaves to their affiliates – until of course the advertisers pack up shop and go elsewhere.  Funny, the affiliates follow the advertisers.

The dialogue then goes something like this:

Affiliate: Yo, what’s up with XYZ advertiser jumping ship.  I went down the street to another network and my payout dropped 20%.  I’m still running it but I’m NOT HAPPY.  WTF????

Affiliate Manager: I’ll do everything I can do sir.  It seems as if there was an issue with the offer not backing out on our network.  It’s probably a shady advertiser, ya know?

Affiliate: Well if you can get it back at the same payout I will CONSIDER running it with you.  Don’t waste my time BITCH!

Affiliate Manager: HAHA lol

Affiliate: I’m serious you fucking dipship

Affiliate Manager: Ok, i’ll see what I can do

And people wonder why the larger networks have lost almost ALL lost their tier-1 advertisers.

At the end of the day, the advertiser is king.  The advertiser brings all of the money to the table.  Without advertiser dollars, affiliate networks and affiliates wouldn’t exist.  We are the reason you earn an income.  Advertisers can easily run their own media, and most good advertisers do just that :)

Advertiser to Affiliate Networks: LOL.  You’re not getting my money and if you want to run our offer, you’re going to pay a CPA that I can profit at.  In the mean time, I’m going to run my own media and make a shit ton of money.  How do you like that biatch!

————————————————————————————————–

Crush Your Competition.  Build Your Own Direct Response Campaign With Us.

Contact Us Directly: Impact@DirectResponse.net