This is a live blogging recap of the session “Trends & Innovations in Affiliate Marketplace.” Below is coverage from the session featuring speaker Ali Pasha (pictured left), Product Manager for Google Affiliate Network.

Ali personally believes that 80% of his time needs to be focused on future based innovation . . . what’s the next big thing? Ali believes the three big buckets are Social, Mobile, and Commerce.

Social

Ali pointed out the multiplication factor of Social and how affiliate’s now have offers passed through social media on a tremendous scale.  He points out that celebrities currently have a scale and reach we haven’t seen previously.

He posed this question:

“If you have a huge reach, why wouldn’t you become an affiliate?”

As such, the affiliate space has grown from tens of thousands to hundreds of thousands of publishers virtually overnight. How do we manage that approval process? Can it still be manual? Is it automatic?

Ali believes the 3 key steps immediately for brands looking at this are:

• Create a social presence
• Offer your followers incentives
• Engage your partners who are already building social

Mobile

It’s a function issue and a competitive issue. Google shows a statistically significant lift in coversion rates on mobile devices if that user is given a custom mobile experience. Secondly, if your company isn’t moving in this direction, your competitors likely are.  Google also works with some specific affiliates that are actively seeking merchants with dedicated, trackable mobile sales capability. (Visit the Google site on tactics for going mobile.)  Added that creating a complimentary offline experience and coupon experience, both that support proper affiliate tracking.

Commerce

The success of coupon affiliates is undeniable and popular coupon related affiliates are becoming well branded.  They are exerting more and more influence over the online shopping experience.  End users hold the belief that coupon sites (affiliates) are likely to run better offers than the merchant themselves and shoppers that visit coupon sites are likely to spend more online.

Understanding the Channel in it’s Entirety

Ali offered that Google has started to look past the “end of funnel” component that affiliates bring in closing sales and have started looking at ways that affiliates influence the sales process.

This is exciting for analytics folks, but exciting for affiliates as well.

The post Trends and Innovations in Affiliate Marketplace #AMDays appeared first on Small Business Trends.

This is a live blogging recap of the session “How to Optimize Affiliate Landing Pages for More Conversions and Revenue.”  This covers remarks during the session featuring speaker Chris Goward (pictured left), the CEO of WiderFunnel Marketing, a firm specializing in landing page optimization and conversation rate optimization.

Chris’s remarks:

• Conversion optimization has been undersold. Testing buttons and fonts is not effective A/B testing. In fact, true A/B testing is situation-specific, and best practices and tips and tricks are not really hallmarks. Your sales process and sales cycle will determine what/how you should be testing.
• Interesting note: “Smiling people” in some cases has reduced conversion rate as opposed to providing lift.

Conversion Optimization

• Static screenshots often outperform video in conversions. However, the content/value of the video can influence conversion rates as well.
• Value proposition is still the greatest indicator, but other factors (design, offer, layout) can weigh down your conversions.
• Relevance: Does the prominent language in your affiliate ad match the prominent language on your landing page? Matching lifts conversion rates.
• Clarity: Form follows function. Don’t sell so hard or artfully that the visitor misses the call to action.
• Anxiety: Minimize anxiety/data points on key “decision pages”. Quote forms, Add To Carts, etc.
• Distraction: Don’t take away from the call to action with superfluous information. Drive the process.
• Urgency: Why should they take action now? Even if you can’t show a tangible, time sensitive urgency, create one! What are they missing out on by waiting?

Chris urged us to look at their whitepaper for more information:  Conversion Optimization Whitepaper

Note: Inasmuch as this is “live blogging” there may be minor inaccuracies. We may correct them after publication, if brought to our attention.

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