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AFFILIATE MARKETING
How the cookie crackdown can affect affiliate revenues
Namaste! We found this article from Digiday over the weekend, which discusses the effect of privacy pushes from Apple Safari and Mozilla Firefox on websites that use the affiliate monetization model.
According to them, affiliate businesses are starting to feel exposed.
The main problem is in the attribution of conversions to the publisher. When users click on an affiliate link, they are redirected to the advertiser’s or retailer’s site. This is where the problem arises: The blocking of third-party cookies by these browsers erodes the ability to track the user between the publisher and retailer.
As a result, the advertisers are unable to attribute the sale to that specific publisher, and the publishers are likely to miss out on the commission that they generated.
Another issue for affiliate publishers is Apple shortening the life cycle of the first-party cookie to just 24 hours. This means that, for purchases that have a longer consideration time, the sales can’t be attributed accurately.
Publishers like Marie Claire Edit have started to suffer as a result of this. For them, purchases tend to happen after that 24 hours has passed due to users taking their time to research and read reviews.
The solution, as suggested in the post, would be to have the tracking aspect handled directly from the advertisers side. Basically, first-party cookies instead of third-party ones.
What about you? Have you seen some sort of revenue decrease because of inaccurate attribution? Or is this just unnecessary alarmism?
Custom report to flag multiple-account issues under 1 roof
How long have you been managing multiple Google Ads accounts? Yes, you can imagine how difficult it can be to keep track of hundreds of thousands of keywords running under multiple accounts.
That’s just the start of it though; you also have to keep tabs on bid modifiers, device modifiers, location targeting and a bunch of other metrics!
And, just when you’re about to fall asleep, a sudden thought pops into your mind to confirm if you just added an extra zero to your bid or budgets.
You don’t have to do this way. Humans are not robots, and there’s always a possibility that you’ve overlooked something.
This is where this script comes into the picture. It allows you to automate this whole process, so you could finally get that peaceful nights of sleep.
+ How does the script work? The script applies the following security checks to all your accounts and then emails you an HTML table report, flagging anything which violates the rules you have applied to it.
Worldwide Targeting Checker: The script will flag any campaigns that don’t have any location targeting applied.
Keyword Bid Upper Limit Checker: Specify a max CPC limit, and the script will report any keywords which have bids set higher than that CPC range.
Bid Modifier Upper Limit Checker: This will check for any troublesome bid modifiers for location, device, and ad scheduling to ensure you are not pushing bids too high.
+ How to use the script? Well, it’s as simple as pasting this script in your Ad account and making some custom modifications to the script based on your requirements. After that, it will do all the leg work for you.
Check out the detailed instructions for setting up the script here.
SPONSORED
🏆 1M websites data says the award for the Best Backlink Checker Tool goes to…
Ladies and gents, the results are out. After a lot of experiments, re-considerations, careful analysis, Mathew Woodward has finally published the results from his case study.
What does it comprise of? He took the 4 best backlink checking tools in the industry:
- Ahrefs
- SEMrush
- Majestic
- SEO Spyglass
He used the above market leaders in SEO industry to collect data for the same set of 1M links. Yes, you got that right! One-freaking-million websites with tons of data.
The results from the case study here reveal the tool that showed the most number of:
- Referring IPs i.e Total Wins By IP.
- Referring Subnets i.e Total Wins By Subnets.
Historically, Ahrefs has always been the KING of backlink checkers. SEMrush has played second fiddle to Ahrefs but last year, SEMrush raised $40M to expand and give a fierce competition to Ahrefs and others.
Majestic, a seasoned vetern, has had a great sales pitch but does their tool match their sales pitch? Or did SEO Spyglass take the top spot by any chance?
Check out the results and the complete details from Mathew Woodward’s case study here. (No sign-up required)
5-step guide to generate leads for high ticket products on Facebook
Over the weekend, we came across this interesting guide that we thought we should bring up. It was written by Gregor Mckenzie in the Facebook Ad Buyers group, and it is literally 5 steps.
It’s a way to improve automation of lead gen for businesses that offer a service. We do have some doubts about it, which we’ll discuss at the end. But first, let’s dig into it, shall we?
+ Step 1: Create 5 pieces of content solving problems for the people in your niche.
Start by asking a question that is relevant to your audience and the chosen niche.
If viewers answer “yes” to that question, they are very likely to watch the whole video and actually pay attention to it. Of course, it must be a highly relevant question.
The content should consist of a 2-3 minute long video, and contrary to what you would expect, you shouldn’t include any offer or CTA at the end.
+ Step 2: Set up a Facebook engagement campaign
Create an engagement campaign and add some interest targeting for this first run. This will vary based on your niche.
You can run a small budget. Gregor suggests as low as $3-5/day, although that sounds a bit on the lower side to us.
The point here is to build up your audience.
+ Step 3: Create retargeting audiences
After promoting content that has no offer or CTA, you should now build those 50%, 75% and 95% video watchers Custom Audiences and retarget them.
Nothing special here, you just want to make sure that the people interested can be retargeted in Step 4.
+ Step 4: Set up your retargeting with the core offer
You should retarget them with your core offer. It should be relevant to your previous videos, but you should definitely include a CTA here that directs people to your offer.
You can keep it shorter and just share a lead magnet on the topic or some free video lessons. The point is to offer a small incentive to offer users, and in exchange they’ll give you their email after already showing a real interest in your content.
+ Step 5: The ask!
For users who visited your page and signed up for the lead magnet, make sure to use a “Thank you!” page to take them a step further.
Ask them to schedule a call with you, or maybe show them a survey to qualify them for certain product you offer. You can get creative here. Gregor uses the fitness niche as an example, so all his are related to coaching programs.
The Crew’s Thoughts
A clear and simple guide. We get these types of ads regularly, but they rarely actually provide a solution to the question they ask. It’s good to have a step by step structure.
This is a reasonable structure to try out, but you should never underestimate how much testing it takes to find creatives that resonate with your audience.
We still wanted to share this though, because some readers who are newer to the industry might find it useful. Don’t worry, we’re always on the lookout for content that suits all levels of experience!
SWEET SIX
- PRIVACY: Is your website GDPR compliant yet? Even if it is, be aware that from January 1, 2020, California’s Consumer Privacy Act (CCPA) is also coming into play. If not, step up your game or risk getting fined.
- AMAZON: Looking to hop on to Amazon Ads? Here’s how you could bid more effectively on Sponsored Products and Sponsored Brands for well optimized conversions and maximum search volume.
- ADVERTISING: Well, most of you already know your way around using Live Photos on FB pages. For the rest of you, here’s a simple way to do this and list of devices compatible for it..
- SNAPCHAT: A big step for Snapchat… Adidas is the first brand to sell shoes using a game in the app. E-commerce plays by Snap too, not just FB and Google!
- SECURITY: Always beware and stay safe of these ever-growing phishing attempts. Never share your PIN with anybody over the phone, not even with your own banks.
- FACEBOOK: New PDF report from FB shares new insights on modern fashion shopping processes. 72% of US apparel shoppers say personalization increases their likelihood of making a purchase.
BRAIN TEASER
I build bridges of silver and crowns of gold. What am I?
You’ll find the answer at the end of this email.
POOLSIDE CHAT
Cool tech, (funny) business, lifestyle and all the other things affiliates like to chat about while sipping cocktails by the pool.
Is Facebook’s Libra currency dead-on-arrival?
Remember FB’s big step into crypto? Their big step into global payments?
Well, Libra seems to have run into a big pothole that could stop its journey before it’s even begun.
US regulators don’t like it, and they sent some “friendly” warnings to a bunch of other companies that were part of the association.
PayPal, Visa, Mastercard, eBay, Stripe, and Mercado Pago have all said they are out.
Of course, they all left the door open to joining later though… You can read the original letter that Stripe and the other companies received right here.
The letter warns that FB has not proven itself to be capable of handling the privacy of people, misinformation and all that jazz. Standard story, as you already know if you follow us.
Well, just another day in the realm of crypto trying to go mainstream.
BRAIN TEASER ANSWER
A DENTIST.