The affiliate industry must ensure that they are buying media in the most efficient way possible as other channels have already become automated.Within performance media affiliate marketing is very much a manual affair. CPAs are negotiated by phone and email, IOs are signed and scanned. Many fundamental processes are entirely manual. Manual processes are one thing but the channel can be somewhat debilitating for advertisers seeking to utilise its maximum potential. Affiliates are scattered across multiple networks and technology solutions making it trying, or in some cases impossible, for an advertiser to work with every relevant affiliate.
If the affiliate channel is contrasted to paid search/social and display we see that the latter two have centralised media buying hubs. One such hub is Xaxis, a global media platform that allows the Maxus display team to purchase audiences from around the globe and all via a platform. No unifying technology currently exists in the affiliate channel as the inventory isn't linked to a central hub, this limits the flexibility within the channel as a lack of automation creates a lot of manual work.
The affiliate industry must ensure that they are buying media in the most efficient way possible as other channels have already become automated. Advertisers are looking to the performance channel to push the envelope in its ability to deliver the best possible return on investment and while the affiliate channel continues to demonstrate this, it isn't a reason for complacency.
The new leaders in affiliate marketing will be those that empower publishers, advertisers and their own staff with the use of technology. The affiliate channel and performance marketing as a whole has led the way on maximising return on investment for advertisers with transparency on what results a marketing budget has delivered. If affiliate marketing is to keep up with its contemporaries in performance marketing, it needs to embrace programmatic buying.
The Maxus Performance team and its own technology the Maxus Performance Network are positioning to lead change when it comes to this trend.
Our view on the future of affiliate marketing is that the largest publishers manage the sale inventory through centralised hubs. Purchasing will take place through platforms similar to Xaxis and other major biddable and display media buying platforms. Eventually advances in technology will allow all publishers to manage the sale of inventory via a single platform.
The advantages of this are that publishers can focus entirely on innovative content solutions while the platform monetises and tracks everything autonomously. Advertisers will gain access to a wider range of publishers to promote their goods and services. Affiliate marketers will be able to buy media in real time with ease by bidding on audiences that fit the strategic goals and commercials their advertiser desires.
Maxus Performance have already started to see and work with email publishers who are at the forefront of this trend.
Advances in technology will allow for better creative serving based on audience targeting, eventually evolving to dynamic creative optimisation through decision trees. Real-time tracking of activity would shift the control back to advertisers through their media agency, and allow for better ROI through constant and instant optimisation. Programmatic platforms should also allow for an open market place of data, which will enable advertisers to overlay 1st and 3rd party data for granular audience segmentation. We are currently in discussions with technology providers who are building this functionality as a long term solution.
As a performance channel, the focus of affiliate marketing should be on delivering the best return on investment possible. The current state of affiliates is hindering marketer's ability to work exclusively on actions that result in incremental value for their advertisers. Through a continued review of technological opportunities in this key space we must embrace change that will enable us take affiliate marketing fully into the programmatic era.
This article originally appeared on Campaign Live. The digital advertising charge sheet: 1. Advertising can't be seen, at least not by humans. 2. A huge amount of impressions are fraudulent 3. Many actual impressions occur?
How we decide what to buy, what to watch and what to do has been changed irrevocably by algorithms. affiliate marketing an hour a day Prompted by a tap on our smartphones or sometimes completely unbeknownst to us, these data driven?
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