There is a post on affiliate blackhat PPC on the PPC Blog that any affiliate manager should read as a primer on cheating affiliates.
The tactics are focused on things like geotargeting and dayparting to hide forbidden affiliate PPC campaigns from affiliate managers.
“There are a number of tricks I have seen used to bend completely flaunt many affiliate programs terms & policies. One of the most common PPC policies is to disallow affiliates from bidding against merchant brand terms, as the merchant will generally get that sale 99% of the time anyway not having to pay a premium to an affiliate for it. From the other side, obviously it makes sense for an affiliate to bid against brand as it cuts away the hard work of finding a niche as & they know it will convert. It’s a low hanging fruit.
Another popular affiliate network policy is to ban affiliates from sending traffic direct to a merchants site because the merchant or ad agency are already running a paid search campaign, the merchant does not trust affiliates to uphold their ‘brand image’ within adverts or perhaps for a variety of other reasons.”
Here are the areas detailed in the post, Flaunting Affiliate Network Rules With Blackhat PPC:
- Bidding At Certain Times
- Geo-targeting
- IP Exclusion
- Advert Tricks
- Masking Affiliate URLs
- Sending Traffic To A Different Domain
- Using Broad Match To Bypass Trademarks
If you don’t already cover these issues in your affiliate agreement, be sure to revise it now.
And don’t just file this away. I know a lot of affiliate managers are already monitoring this sort of behavior – if you manage an affiliate program and don’t keep an eye on this stuff, it’s time to start.
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“Companies are quickly starting to reverse their positions on allowing trademark bidding because they watched their sales PLUMMET overall because unless they are able to make the 40% difference the affiliate was bringing to the table, they are losing millions of dollars.”
Do you have a source you can reference that supports this claim?
See, this line of thinking is incorrect. Affiliates that do bid on Trademarks do add significant value to the sale, or else those affiliates would see NO sales results at all. The trademark owner would still get all the sales regardless. The value is added when the affiliate is able to sell the same product in addition to promoting the local retailers ability to service the customer in a more personal manner, and the affiliate goes a long way to write effective ad copy, in some cases, better than the trademark holders ability to do so which also captures what would be a lost sale altogether. Companies are quickly starting to reverse their positions on allowing trademark bidding because they watched their sales PLUMMET overall because unless they are able to make the 40% difference the affiliate was bringing to the table, they are losing millions of dollars. They can’t do it alone, and cannot justify their thinking with trademark protection, because that was never the issue. The issue was “We can do this all ourselves and pocket the commissions we are paying to these affiliates” which is quickly turning into, “We’d better get these affiliates back on board because we’ve seen a drastic decrease in sales when we enforced these policies”. You name it, DISH Network, eHarmony, Match, all the companies that built their businesses on the backs of excellent Copywriters otherwise known as Affiliates, now suddenly act like they are God and don’t need our help. This is why I’ve been patiently watching their stock market reports on their subscribers go down down down ever since. They do need our help, and I hope that these companies come to their senses, like Comcast did, and allow affiliates to write copy with their trademarks, bid on their trademarks and so on. The smart company will simply say, “Don’t bid over us” which is fine, we don’t mind that rule one bit.
I said to this particular affiliate, who would spend more to engage a lawyer than they could help to get back from the merchant, that they were better off not going the legal route.
By the way, I am an affiliate.
Contact a lawyer based in the U.S. that will provide you with a free consultation and give them the details. If they think you have a good case, then pursue legal avenues.
Because they are intentionally violating the terms to which they agreed. If they’re not violating the terms, then there is no problem.
If you are adding value to a transaction, rather than acting as a parasite, explain what you are doing to the merchant. If they aren’t willing to work with you in such a circumstance, promote their competitors.
But in all cases, if you are unsure whether an activity is permitted, ask first.
Thanks for the post. I spend WAY too much time chasing down affiliates who are hiding brand bidding.
I think that affiliates need to realize that these rules benefit them as well. You don’t want to be competing for a sale against a fellow affiliate doing brand bidding.
A clean program benefits the affiliates and the merchant.
Dear Shawn,
thanks for the advice to forget about the money.
you are really helping the affiliates. but i guess one can not bite the hand that feeds him.
what is your advice for someone from Europe who is owned $5,000 by an American merchant ? which merchant was part of one of the top 3 networks ?
and why is someone a scumbag just because they advertise for the stupid merchant and make him money ? should i remind you that this trademark thing includes all variations, so they’d rather not make sales than split with someone else.
anyways, don’t categorize so easily people that just trying to make a living and still make money for an ungrateful merchant. probably the best thing is to buy trademark keywords and advertise their competitors.
not even close to checkmate.
Dear Raz -
I’m a critic of scumbags of all kinds, whether they are affiliates, merchants or networks.
> how is it when a merchant doesn’t pay commissions on time ? i don’t see u all up about that.
See the video I posted yesterday at http://one.revver.com/watch/445097
Checkmate.
you are so lame man….all the time it’s only the cheating affiliates. you make sales for the stupid merchant anyways..
how is it when a merchant doesn’t pay commissions on time ? i don’t see u all up about that.
no worries man, you and your industry won’t stop us from making money..
I read that post on Search Anyway’s blog too. I am glad someone is addressing it.
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