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REVENUEMonetization & High-Performance Marketing

UMonetization & High-Performance Marketing

performance

• Mobit - The next generation of mobile optimization? • The future of social performance marketing• 7 keys to global affiliate marketing success

MOBILE ThE NExT BIg MONEy-MakEr

Issue 15 | Summer 2013revenue.mthink.com

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REVENUEperformance

While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content of this publication, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for any loss or damage, consequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of any material published here. The information published in Revenue+Performance is not intended as a substitute for legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for statements made by advertisers in business competition. All editorial submissions, whether solicited or unsolicited, become the property of mThink. State-ments and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Revenue+Performance, mThink, its affiliates, advertisers or any other agent. The name “Revenue+Performance” and the phrase “Super-Affiliate Insights” are the intellectual property of mThink. The entire content of this publication is protected by copyright; full details are available through the publisher. All rights reserved. These trademarks or copyright materials may not be used in any media for any purpose without the express written consent of mThink.

© 2013 mThink ISSN: 1549-7615 Cover Image: © Dmitriy Melnikov

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FriendFinder Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OBC

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Matomy Media Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC

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T3Leads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC

PUBLISHER & EDITORChris Trayhorn

DIRECTOR OF ONLINESheila Fox

PRODUCTION DESIGNRick Greer

Revenue Performance is published by mThink55 New Montgomery, Suite 617

San Francisco, CA 94105

mThink: Intelligent Performance Marketing

CHAIRMAN AND CEOChris Trayhorn

VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETINGYvonne Schellerup

DIRECTOR, WEB DEVELOPMENTRon Snow

Disclaimer: Revenue+Performance and revenue.mThink.com include editorial and/or advertising that refers to affiliate programs that often include many different websites. Occasionally those programs may include websites offering education in casino or card games. In such cases no promotion or endorsement of those sites should be inferred or implied – our editorial coverage and/or advertising relates only to the affiliate program itself. Revenue+Performance magazine and revenue.mThink.com do not accept advertising that promotes online gambling.

Dedicated To Monetization + High Performance Marketing

ContentsThe Future of Performance Marketing: More Consolidation & Better Social Media Lead Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4By Peter Klein, MediaWhiz

Public and Private A�liate Networks: Finding the Right Mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6By George Hansen, oneNetworkDirect, Digital River

Firefox and Third Party Cookie Blocking . . . . . . . . . . .8By Ryan Gilbert, Webgains USA

Understanding the Modern Payday Loan . . . . . . . . 10By Morgan Gethers, T3Leads

SPECIAL PRODUCT REVIEW Mobit: Changing The Game In Mobile Media? . . . 11By Chris Trayhorn, Revenue+performance

Are You Asking For It? You’d Better! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15By Matt Frary, SmarterChaos.com

Privacy Policies: A Legal Necessity for Mobile Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18By David O. Klein & Daniel West, Klein Moynihan Turco LLP

The 6 Most Common Mobile Optimization Mistakes & How to Avoid Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19By Lee Aho, Clickbooth

Seven Requirements for Global A�liate Marketing Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20By Lisa Mollura, Rakuten LinkShare

5 Steps to Accelerating International Growth . . . . 21By Cristian Miculi, Avangate

Choosing Your Best Network Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . 24 By Doug Godkin, Millionaire Network

4 REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15

Industry Insights – Peter Klein, MediaWhiz

Three seemingly disparate events this year — the closing of the Google Affiliate Network (GAN), Facebook introducing CPA buys and Twitter launching Lead Generation Cards — foretell the future of performance marketing. There are two trends moving in parallel: the increasing consolidation of the industry that will result in only a few select full-service players and niche networks in operation, and a continued integration of lead-generation marketing capabilities by social media portals.

Brands are increasingly coming to the realization that an experienced performance marketing network/agency is critical. Equally important is the acquisition of action-taking consumers in a social media setting versus merely purchasing a presence.

In short, more advertisers, along with the social media platforms they use to reach consumers, are realizing that a strong lead-gen component is needed for successful, ROI-positive brand advertising. The closure of GAN, combined with Facebook’s and Twitter’s forays into lead generation, represents a critical evolution toward performance marketing’s future.

google affiliate Network Closure and Consolidation

In mid-April, Google announced it was shutting down the GAN platform to allow the search giant to “focus on other products that are driving great results for clients.” All services will be shut down over the course of a few months, Merchants (May 1), Publishers (July 31) and reporting (October 31). Many of the traditional CPA networks have tried to capitalize on this gain, though I’m sure the majority of this scramble went to the convenient choices of behemoths like Commission Junction or LinkShare.

The sudden closure of GAN came as a major surprise to many in the performance marketing industry because of the general feeling that Google had the market power to succeed at anything it attempted. Google has an amazingly talented and entrepreneurial staff but even so it is hard to shake the idea that Google believed it could dominate a $35 billion industry on name and existing clients alone. The problem is that search and performance marketing are two completely distinct channels of online marketing. The complexities within the performance marketing industry are far greater than those within search marketing.

Google’s shuttering of GAN reinforces the notion that performance marketing is one of the most complex facets of online marketing. It requires a sophisticated understanding of how customer acquisition works in the digital age.

The Future of Performance Marketing:More Consolidation & Better Social Media Lead GenerationBy Peter Klein, MediaWhiz

GAN’s failure is indicative of the across-the-board consolidation that has been going on in the performance marketing industry in recent years. Performance marketing is still a huge growth channel, and it will continue to grow, fueled by innovations in mobile marketing and social media. There remain, however, far too many small companies getting squeezed out by market saturation and capital needs.

In short, there wasn’t enough value being added to the performance marketing food chain by all of the new affiliate network entrants to sustain their own business, let alone drive organic growth for the industry. Something had to give, and it took the shuttering of GAN — not the largest affiliate network, but one that had great name recognition given its affiliation with Google — to wake the industry up to the reality that a bubble of new, often unsustainable affiliate networks was forming. And just like financial and real estate bubbles, all good things eventually come to an end.

The Era of Performance Marketing Stability

The closing of Google Affiliate Network represents the end of a reckless era of expansion and greed within the performance marketing industry. We’re at the dawn of a more mature, stable era in performance marketing.

Affiliate networks and performance marketing agencies need more than big-name recognition to fuel sustained growth. They need to have their own content and properties, focus on a particular niche or vertical(s) and employ highly skilled internal media buyers with powerful technology and analytics — not just own the physical media channel. There will always be room for small players to earn a decent living, but those days are slowly passing by without having one of these pieces.

Large or small, consolidation is helping to assemble large, end-to-end performance media experts. I have even seen this with my own company. MediaWhiz has always been a large player in the performance marketing industry, working with some of the world’s top brands across a variety of media channels, such email and search, and competes strongly in several verticals (Education, Finance, Insurance and Health and Beauty). Last January, we were acquired by Matomy Media Group, a global performance marketing company that excels in display, mobile, international and verticals such as games and entertainment, and is a strong complement to MediaWhiz’s core business. Combining the best of these two companies’ core strengths in such a complementary fashion will pay off in the near future as we spread out wider coverage to thrive and adapt. Adaptation, in this case, is the ability to

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focus resources on growth opportunities as they arise without losing focus on the core business offerings.

There are many other mergers and acquisitions of note throughout the online marketing and advertising ecosystem, such as Globalwide Media buying Neverblue, Facebook acquiring Instagram and Yahoo buying Tumblr. All of these will undoubtedly continue the online marketing arms race to own and operate the media.

Social Performance Marketing: Facebook and Twitter

Although the aforementioned GAN failure/industry consolidation may seem like an independent event, I believe it’s strongly connected to the recent wave of social media networks/platforms moving into performance marketing. This is a significant departure from social networks operating on a CPC- and CPM-based pricing model, as well as the weak marketing technology platforms they have offered advertisers.

In April, Facebook launched CPA bidding through its API. Facebook Exchange (FBX) allows retargeting and offline data matching.

Twitter launched its Ads API in February and added Lead Generation Cards in May. According to multiple industry sources, the microblogging platform is poised to launch an ad exchange sometime this year to allow for retargeting.

So what does this all mean? It seems pretty obvious that social media platforms finally have realized that just having “presence” metrics (a.k.a. eyeballs) isn’t a sustainable business model in digital mediums. That, and brands will spend more on scalable, ROI-metrics driven campaigns — a realization that most performance marketers have long understood.

Social networks like Twitter and Facebook have done the difficult part of having the content and owning the media, but until now have not executed on the skilled media-buying aspect necessary to sustain long-term advertising revenue growth. This is especially obvious since, until now, there has been little investment by most social networks in the media-buying interfaces or purchasing units for advertisers.

Companies have spawned out of technology opportunities and API access trying to make it easier to spend advertising dollars. With the billions of dollars pouring into performance marketing, the only natural adaptation is to capitalize on this opportunity by making it easy to spend the money effectively — both technically and from a cost efficiency standpoint.

It may seem intimidating that social media giants like Twitter and Facebook, which, combined, have billions of users globally, can potentially become dominant players in performance marketing. However, similar to Google, I view them as the experts in developing their data-driven vehicles to reach targeted consumers, not capable of operating their own performance agencies. Perhaps that is down the line in a few years, but if we have learned anything from Google with

GAN, it’s that it’s best to facilitate the dollar spend for the experts with great performance marketing capabilities and technology. Marketers should view this as an opportunity to help drive true ROI results via social media.

Other social networks, such as LinkedIn, Instagram and Tumblr, will continue to turn to the performance side of online advertising as a means to strengthen their value. Having social networks actively join the performance marketing ecosystem means that advertisers and marketers will have a sudden influx of real-time, verifiable data at their disposal. This will help eliminate wasteful marketing spend since targeting relevant offers will be that much easier, particularly at the local level. As more state and federal cookie/privacy laws get passed, turning to these portals for enhanced targeting will become that much more critical and valuable.

The Future is Strong for Performance Marketing

The performance marketing industry will continue to experience further consolidation amongst companies, coupled with social media lead generation efforts that will help propel the industry to new levels. Within five years, I predict, we will be looking at an industry based primarily within social media and mobile, targeting specific consumers who want immediate information and are primed to take an action. Technology and data will drive real-time bidding and analytics to make smarter decisions and deliver better ROI for advertisers. Barriers to entry will be tougher as one will need the right combination of content, media ownership and media-buying experience.

Performance marketing has always bred entrepreneurship for marketing campaigns and technology services, and will continue to do so in the future. Don’t be surprised to see more mergers and acquisitions within the ad-tech space, as there are many DSPs, SaaS providers in tracking and lead validation, and data aggregators that would make a great fit when added to the portfolio of a performance marketing company.

No matter how you look at the performance marketing industry in these changing times, the strong influx of dollars, whether from advertiser spend or investment, is creating a more mature and sustainable ecosystem. Never have marketers had the ability to engage, acquire and retain so many people so quickly and accurately.

Performance marketing has shown its value and will become even stronger as more of the big social media sites continue to recognize the internal and external value of marketing ROI.

about Peter klein

Peter Klein is senior vice president of media services at per-formance marketing agency MediaWhiz, a Matomy Media Group company.


Managing Performance – George Hansen, Performance Marketing Group, Digital River

Direct Relationships…Foster a�liate trustleading to more focus andopportunity

Enable di�erentiated valuepropositions (o�ers, payouts,etc.) for top a�liates

Provide stronger control to yourbrand identity and message

$PrivatizedLong TailTopA�liates

Time

• • •Organizations can no longer rely on public affiliate networks alone. While these affiliate networks drive meaningful sales, many have become inefficient. Companies that rely exclusively on a public affiliate network are often left wondering which strategies may be working best, how to manage attribution and more importantly, what is working for mobile, a multi-billion dollar opportunity? The way to find answers to these questions is to supplement existing public affiliate network relationships with a private affiliate network.

What are the Differences Between Public and Private affiliate Networks?

Public networks offer broad distribution, handle affiliate recruitment and make partner payments. Public networks can also deliver a high volume of ad placements. Private networks rely on Pareto’s principle (80/20 rule) to concentrate on publishers driving the highest ROI and also allow companies to manage their affiliates directly. Savvy companies invest in both types of network: a public network to cast a wide net and a private network that allows them to manage directly their own high performing publishers.

Why getting the right Mix Matters, Especially for Mobile

Finding the right balance of public and private affiliate networks is especially important when dealing with mobile opportunities. Private networks allow organizations to see analytics and optimize their own mobile strategy. Insights gained through the private network can then inform their public network decisions, helping them to place mobile ads that have proved to perform well.

As mobile usage climbs, these insights become even more important. Whereas companies uninitiated to digital marketing once felt dependent on public networks, many organizations are now reclaiming their digital channel and positioning themselves for the rise of mobile marketing and commerce.

It Begins with Visibility

Companies and publishers in affiliate marketing win when a consumer clicks an ad and then purchases the advertised product. So what makes consumers click?

It takes real-time statistics, ad unit metrics and control testing to identify productive strategies. Universal best practices are just beginning to emerge in mobile marketing, so companies need this insight to maximize ROI for existing campaigns today. Private networks can help uncover revenue opportunities that were previously hidden.

With Visibility Comes Control and Flexibility

Public networks deal with hundreds of thousands of publishers to offer the broad reach that many organizations

are seeking. However, with this reach comes less control over where their ads get placed, how they are merchandized and the impression they create.

Private networks allow companies to have tighter control of brand image and integrity as a result of more targeted placement of their ads. Companies are able to choose where their ads appear or, sometimes more importantly, where their ads do not appear. If a campaign is not working or driving sales, there is flexibility to change quickly and test alternative approaches. That kind of agility and flexibility is a key differentiator of private networks.

Making the Transition

Most companies will find benefits from using a combination of public and private networks. Merchants ready to implement a private network should consider platforms that provide the data tracking capabilities they need to craft an effective mobile strategy as well as one that can offer all of the data and control associated with a private network without overwhelming the merchant’s internal teams. A company managing a successful private network will need to evaluate which partners fit their requirements, then recruit and manage those publishers directly with the goal of building profitable, long-term relationships with top performers. Executed and managed properly, high value publishers will want to migrate to the private network over time in order to access advanced revenue opportunities and higher payouts.

Simply put, companies that transition to a private network have the opportunity to capture more of the available marketing ROI and craft a highly calibrated approach to mobile marketing, well ahead of the competition.

about george hansen

George Hansen is a director of sales for the performance marketing group at Digital River, a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions. He has 10 years of experience in the performance marketing and e-commerce field.

Public and Private Affiliate Networks: Finding the Right MixBy George Hansen, Performance Marketing Group at Digital River

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Device Tracking – Ryan Gilbert, Webgains USA

Web browser developer Mozilla has made it clear that at some point in the near future they will implement third party cookie blocking by default in Firefox – possibly as soon as Q3-2013. Third party cookies are those set by a different domain to the one that the user is visiting at the time and have a range of applications including analytics solutions. As an example, if the user visits www.coolshop.com, which uses an analytics package from hitstats.com, Firefox will by default block any cookies from hitstats.com.

This initiative by Mozilla will have a significant impact on advertisers and publishers, and as a result ad networks that to remain competitive must develop technology that provides an alternative tracking solution. Device tracking is one such approach.

Device tracking uses no cookies, no shared objects, no tagging and records no personally identifiable information (PII) of any kind. Device tracking stores no data on the user’s device and as a standalone tracking method, it is compliant with the EU’s ePrivacy Directive as well as being compatible with the overhaul in privacy regulations taking place in the United States.

So what is device tracking?

Conventional cookie technology works by storing information as a small text file in the user’s browser and indeed, most tracking mechanisms use some form of ‘tag’ placed on the user’s computer or device.

Third party cookie blocking is not the first or only challenge facing the affiliate marketing industry. With the rapid expansion of the mobile market and the increasing prevalence of privacy and security concerns among users, all conventional tagging technologies are facing serious challenges. Device tracking provides a more robust and acceptable tracking solution suitable for tracking sales across all browsers in the ever expanding mobile arena as well as traditional desktop and laptop usage.

In most cases device tracking augments existing tracking methods rather than replacing them. As a result, implementation for merchants is typically very easy – often no additional work is needed at all - and device tracking can be rolled out seamlessly. Some other advertisers that use conditional firing of their tracking code may need to work with their tracking vendors to ensure the logic used is first party and not third. This is likely to be the case for advertisers who are on more than one affiliate network, those who are deduping against other channels, and those who are using some kind of container tag or tag management system.

how does it work?

Storing no data on the user’s machine, device tracking builds a unique device profile to identify an individual user (or more accurately, an individual device) and works on all machines that connect to the internet including smartphones, tablets and game consoles.

Device tracking analyses the user’s machine on a number of variables to compose a unique device ‘fingerprint’. There are over 100 potential points of analysis which can be used ranging from OS and browser, to plugins used, accepted browser language settings, time zone and timestamp on device.

As technology moves forward and user machine specifications change, these developments can be incorporated into the queried parameters, ensuring a truly future-proof tracking methodology.

Publishers

Publishers that are unsure about whether their network uses first party cookies should check with the network directly to ensure that links will not be affected. So long as first party cookie tracking is used, clicks will not be affected, however, post-view tracking links used in re-marketing and re-targeting applications will be. In those situations, other solutions will be needed.

In the case of my own network, Webgains has released a solution that utilizes device tracking effectively, though tracking correctly is restricted to use of Javascript links only.

Conclusion

Nobody yet knows exactly when Mozilla will implement third-party cookie blocking, but what is certain is that increasing privacy concerns are likely to see more restrictions on cookie tracking in the future. Device tracking is now a necessary part of any network’s toolkit.

about ryan gilbert

Ryan Gilbert is director of the North American arm of the Webgains international affiliate network. A native of Adelaide, South Australia, he has served in a number of senior management positions within affiliate marketing industry for the past 10 years.

If you would like more information on device tracking and/or cookie blocking, you may reach him at: [email protected]

Firefox and Third Party Cookie BlockingBy Ryan Gilbert, Webgains USA

What is certain is that

increasing privacy

concerns are likely to see

more restrictions on

cookie tracking in the

future. Device tracking is

now a necessary part of

any network’s toolkit

Find out more about our suite of digital marketing solutions at www.fluentco.com

Fluent is a digital performance marketing company bridging the gap between advertisers and publishers to provide integrated solutions for online customer acquisition and monetization. Our proprietary web and mobile ad-serving technology helps advertisers better engage, qualify and communicate with their target audience. We promote interaction between brands and consumers with the end goal of providing tangible results through a pay-for-performance model.

Aff luent


Financial Services – Morgan Gethers, T3Leads

The need for people to have access to small, short terms loans is not a recent phenomenon. Payday loans and their equivalents have a long history. Over time, of course, the industry that provides such loans has evolved and grown. Pre-computer age payday loan transactions took place in storefronts. Just as almost every other kind of business, the customer went to a physical location to conduct their business; in the case of loans they applied in person. Applying and then waiting for a loan decision was tedious. In spite of the lack of convenience, storefront lending still thrives to this day but is now being threatened by the growth of online lending.

game Changers: Computers and Technology

Computer technology has transformed the short term lending industry. The ability to apply from home and receive nearly instant loan decisions has not just made the process faster, but has improved efficiency for lenders, facilitated growth and allowed the involvement of affiliate networks. These changes have created the framework of the modern day short term lending industry and the evolution is being accelerated by the introduction of wireless connectivity and mobile devices. Consumers can and do apply for loans from their cell phones, often applying in emergency situations where a speedy response is essential.

Why Payday Loans have Become So Popular

Millions of jobs have been lost since 2008 causing cash flow issues for many people, often through no fault of their own. Five years into the recession, many are still earning much less than in the past and with damaged credit ratings, traditional loans become all but impossible to obtain. Payday loans and other forms of non-traditional lending are an effective way to meet emergency expenses for those who have been hit hardest by the lingering poor economy.

a Tale of People without a Bank

Further fuelling the increase in payday loans is that many consumers no longer have bank accounts or, if they do, they

are reluctant to use them. The closing of bank locations, the shriveling of free checking accounts and the explosion of bank fees have all led to a drop-off in retail bank customers. A 2011 FDIC study found that consumers were choosing pre-paid cards and payday loans over other options because although the fees are high, they understood how they worked and what the costs were. Today, only 68.8% of American households are defined as fully banked (with at least a checking and a savings account) - these consumers need financial services but they are simply choosing to obtain them from non-bank sources.

Payday Loan Flexibility

Flexibility is not just a marketing slogan. Payday loans really are easy for consumers to use and this has played a major role in their growth. Consumers are often confused by big bank

loans. That’s why Alternative Financial Services (AFS) such as payday loans and pre-paid credit cards have exploded in popularity. People understand how they work and there are few, if any restrictions on how they can be used.

return To The Past

Payday loans have been around for a very long time and, for affiliates, the opportunities are likely to continue to grow. New innovations such as “Direct Call” - in which there is an option for loan applicants to be put in direct telephone contact with a potential lender – are leading

to positive results. Ironically, in spite of all the technological advances, we are seeing that a little personal contact can lead to new innovation, better customer service and increased conversion rates.

about Morgan gethers

Morgan Gethers is Business Development Manager for T3Leads, interacting, assisting and ensuring the most profitable set-up for a number of affiliate accounts. He’s a graduate of Pepperdine Univeristy with a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration. He can be con-tacted at (877) 778-3532 x207 or at [email protected].

Understanding the Modern Payday LoanBy Morgan Gethers, T3Leads

The ability to apply from home…

has improved efficiency for

lenders, facilitated growth and

allowed the involvement of

affiliate networks… the

evolution is being accelerated

by the introduction of wireless

connectivity and mobile devices

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revenue+Performance - PRODUCT REVIEW

MobitChanging The Game In Mobile Media?Does Matomy’s new Mobit platform hold the key to success in mobile performance marketing?By Revenue+Performance Staff

Israel-based performance marketing network Matomy Media Group recently launched a new mobile media buying platform called Mobit. It offers conversion tracking, campaign management, near-realtime reporting and a sophisticated analytic “Mobit Insights” function that automatically identifies the most important campaign optimization priorities.

The introduction of Mobit, described as a “smart tracking and analysis tool for mobile affiliates and media buyers,” comes during a period of rapid expansion for Matomy. It follows the recent acquisition of US-based affiliate networks MediaWhiz and Adperio, mobile marketing specialist network MobAff, and German network Team Internet. Much of Matomy’s success has been built on their expertise with mobile offers, and Mobit is a development of the proprietary tools their own mobile media buyers use in-house.

Our team spent several days recently using Mobit and talking to Matomy’s CEO, product manager and media buying team in order to find out just what the deal is.

It is hard to argue against the proposition that mobile is the future of performance marketing. The adoption of Internet-enabled mobile devices worldwide has been remarkable in its speed. Whether in Western economies where tablets and smartphones are taking ever larger pieces of the ecommerce marketplace, or in emerging economies where in many cases mobile handsets have become the most prevalent form of access to the Internet, mobile is increasingly important to online marketers.

In response, performance marketing is changing and evolving rapidly. With so many different affiliates working to find the best possible way to convert offers online, our industry has filled the role of online marketing’s prototype laboratory, constantly coming up with new ideas, building sites and incentives to test and then dumping the ones that don’t work.

That is why mobile is so exciting to so many publishers and merchants. It is a new territory, where the fittest and smartest have the opportunity to thrive and grow. This is the target audience for Mobit.

Mobit began as a tool developed for use in-house by Matomy’s own media buying team. Like so many mobile marketers, they found themselves struggling to scale and optimize mobile campaigns quickly and effectively, largely because the campaign management and analytics tools available simply couldn’t handle efficiently the sheer volume of data that mobile creates.

After much internal discussion and a lot of software development man-hours, Mobit is the result: a mobile media buying and campaign management platform that offers really smart analytics. Let’s take a closer look.

Figure 1: Mobit: a smart tracking and analysis tool for mobile affiliates and media buyers.



Features

Mobit has been designed to provide mobile media buyers with a one-stop solution for their campaign analytics and optimization, and as such it provides a comprehensive set of features. Not only does it allow one-click set up of campaigns from Matomy’s network, as well as running CPA offers from any other affiliate network, but it also offers built-in and customizable templates to work with any media buy platform that can be set up and tracked just as easily.

The tracking and reporting functionality is deep too, allowing drill-down into any aspect of a campaign for which data is available, real-time conversion tracking and even an auto-suggest optimization tool, Mobit Insights, that claims to identify best- and worst-targeting options for media buys automatically. The system even offers split-testing and post-click redirects so that traffic can be redirected to different landing pages that have been optimized to each traffic type.

All in all, it’s a feature set designed for the working media buyer or affiliate that needs to move fast, identify what is working and then scale successful campaigns rapidly.

getting Started

Getting started with Mobit is done by completing a simple registration process. You set up your supply platforms. A supply platform is anywhere from which you buy mobile media. There is a whole list of supply platforms that come ready to use in Mobit, so in many cases you can just pick the one you want. If you need to add a new one, there is a short web form that helps you to create a template for the tracking data you collect and post-back from/to the supply platforms, including tracking token (clickID), data collection tokens (SubIDs) and postback URL. You only need to set up the template once and then it can used for all future media buys from that platform.

Working Interface

Mobit is built around four main screens, each of which is designed to allow you to accomplish a specific task quickly and easily.

The Home screen (see Figure 2) presents a straightforward dashboard with a chart at the top showing trend-lines for both clicks and revenue. The chart defaults to showing the last seven days. Beneath the chart is presented a list of both your best and worst performing media-buys over the last 24 hours. It’s a

Q&a with Noa BenvenistiBackground

I’ve been in the online media industry for seven years and have eight years of experience as a product manager during which I have nurtured the development of several products from scratch to production. Between them all, they have tracked billions (and counting!) of live events.

Out of all of the products I have helped to create, Mobit is the one in particular that I am extremely proud of. Mobit was instantly adopted by our internal media buy teams as well as external media buyers that we showed it to. It is generating amazing traction.

about Mobit Development

Mobit was developed and brought to life by a group of very talented developers. They brought Mobit into being in a very short timeframe. Just a month and a half after development started we were able to launch the first campaign. We have been adding features and improving the product ever since. Now with six months of testing by our in-house teams and by several beta customers with high traffic volumes, we are proud to make it available to any media buyers that need mobile media optimization.

Best Features

Mobit has many great features but my personal favorite is “Mobit Insights”. This features literally does the work for you. By clicking a single button you get instant recommendations on how to target your media-buys in order to improve margins and profits. It not only makes recommendations you wouldn’t have thought of yourself but it also saves a huge amount of time for media-buyers. Got to love that.

Latest Developments

In addition to the many features already built-in to Mobit, we will also soon be incorporating post-click rule-engine redirects. This feature will allow media-buyers to pass non-targeted media, and redirect it based on operating system, device, geography and number of other parameters to a campaign of their choice. This feature will help media buyers maximize the yield of the traffic as well as lowering their media costs by buying non-targeted media. It is yet another way that we have designed Mobit to be the best mobile media optimization platform possible.

Figure 2: Mobit’s dashboards are clear and easy to read. Data can be presented graphically allowing trends to be easily recognised and acted upon.

Noa Benvenisti, Head of Product at Matomy Media Group

Noa Benvenisti,


simple layout but it makes it the work of a few seconds to check in and see if any buys need urgent attention or if all is well.

The other three primary screens of the interface are Campaigns, Reports and Line Items, each of which we will cover in more detail later in this review. For now, it is enough to say that throughout the application Mobit offers a clean and uncluttered interface that is simple to navigate and that makes drilling down into data very easy. It is responsive too – something that is an important consideration when using on-demand software.

Campaigns

The Campaigns screen is where you set up new campaigns and edit existing ones. Mobit provides solid integration with Matomy’s network so if you wish to bring in new campaigns it is as simple as typing in the campaign ID and everything gets set for you automatically. But you can also set up campaigns from any other CPA networks with just a little more work, and Mobit will provide seamless tracking and reporting on those campaigns alongside those from Matomy.

Line Items

Line items allow you to provide post click rules to your media buys. You are currently able to split your traffic using simple A/B testing logic which means that multiple campaigns can be tested at once with a single media buy.

reports

Reporting is the heart and soul of any tracking and optimization tool and Mobit doesn’t disappoint. The Reports center presents a clean interface (see Figure 3), with drop-down lists of your network partners, advertisers, campaigns, supply platforms and line items by which you can filter your report data. Reports can be grouped and can include any data collected from any of your media buys, campaigns and mobile specific criteria.

Mobile performance marketing is sometimes intimidating for newcomers because it generates so many different data points: device, OS, geographic and network information, and click and conversion data that is then used to calculate KPIs such as EPC, CVR and profit and loss. It is easy for novices in mobile marketing to be overwhelmed unless they have clear performance insights presented in an easily digestible form. This is where Mobit shines.

Figure 3: Reporting and analytics is a strong-suit for Mobit. In addition to detailed, near-realtime reporting on each campaign, “Mobit Insights” work in the background to intelligently identify both the most profitable and least profitable segments of your media buys.

Matomy CEO Ofer Druker reveals all

Until relatively recently Matomy Media Group had a fairly low profile in the USA, but that has changed dramatically in the last few months with the acquisitions of US-based affiliate network MediaWhiz and mobile marketing specialist network MobAff. We caught up with Matomy Media Group’s CEO, Ofer Druker, to find out more.

revenue+Performance: Tell me a little about Matomy for people who may not have worked with you before?

Ofer Druker: We started as a small company of just five people back in 2007 and we now have 400 people worldwide in seven locations. Matomy Media Group has established itself as one of the world’s fastest growing ad networks and a leading international performance media solutions provider. It now includes American companies MediaWhiz, MobAff and Adperio, and in Europe there is also Team Internet which is based in Germany.

r+P: What do you think is the key to your success?

OD: I think it is that we stay focused on what is important to our advertisers and to our publishers. Right now there are three key areas:

• Mobile – We are focused on growing organically as well as making major acquisitions such as MobAff.

• Data – We see data as the key enabler for cross-channel campaigns. Our development of Mobit is reflective of this..

• Consolidation – Consolidation in the industry is desirable and Matomy will continue to play our part, making key acquisitions that allow us to expand and that will add to our tech capabilities and market reach.

r+P: How about you personally? Are you enjoying growing Matomy?

OD: I’ve been in online media and internet advertising for over 15 years: I co-founded Oridian (Ybrant Digital) in 1998 and Soho Digital International in 2005, for example. But for all the different things I’ve done I must say that I am most proud of Matomy. I work with amazing people – I couldn’t be more proud of them.

Matomy Media Group CEO, Ofer Druker



So long as campaigns and supply platforms are set up properly – and Mobit makes those processes simpler than any other mobile optimization platform than we have yet seen – the reporting is intuitive and fast.

Mobit Insights

Mobit Insights is one of the features of Mobit of which Matomy is most proud. Essentially it is a data analytics tool that constantly runs in the background while your campaigns are being tracked through Mobit. When you see the Insights button appear (a star-shaped logo in a circle) you have instant access to a report that tells you exactly which combinations of traffic characteristics are giving you your most profitable conversions, and also which combinations are least profitable.

Imagine you have a campaign that has been launched successfully and now you want to scale it up. What kind of media should you buying? Does it make a difference whether the traffic is coming from iPhones or Android phones? Or from Samsung handsets or those made by HTC? Or from which carrier?

These are the kinds of questions that simply don’t apply to online performance marketing, where day-parting and some demographic targeting may be all that is needed in terms of optimization. But mobile is different – carrier, device model, operating system, WiFi or 3G – all these different criteria may have a real and significant effect on conversion rates. The problem is that with so many different data points, analyzing all the possible different combinations can take days of work.

That’s the problem that Mobit Insights aims to solve, and in the short time that we had to work with the system, it seems to work extremely well. Within a few minutes it is easy to look at a campaign, identify what kinds of traffic from which sources aren’t working and then either stop them completely or redirect them to another landing page. That alone can save an enormous amount of wasted media buy. But Mobit Insights also instantly identifies the precise type of traffic that is converting most

profitably, meaning that scaling up on successful media buys becomes much easier too. In combination, it means that one can very quickly stop buying traffic that doesn’t convert well, and buy a lot more traffic that does convert - campaign optimization doesn’t get much simpler than this.

Mobit Insights was developed with input from Matomy’s own mobile media buying team and it shows. It goes well beyond the standard reports available in the competing mobile optimization tools we have looked at – in our opinion it is a game-changer.

Conclusion

Mobile is the future of online marketing. It is proving to be effective in the form of individual campaigns or as part of an integrated multi-channel, multi-platform efforts. And it only going to become more important. For any publisher,

advertiser or agency seeking to succeed with mobile performance marketing, having a deep and wide understanding of mobile media buying is absolutely essential.

In our view Mobit addresses this need admirably. It is able to report on campaigns in near-realtime, it is easy to add new campaigns and to edit existing ones, it aggregates all the available data (including carrier, device OS and particular device model, for example) into one place and can then show which media buys are least profitable and which are most profitable - the list of functions is long. And the good news is that it all works well. The Mobit on-demand platform is responsive, cost-effective and provides good user support. It

makes for a simple to use but powerful platform for managing mobile campaigns.

In an industry like performance marketing, where there are literally hundreds of cookie-cutter CPA networks, it is great to see a network investing in technology in order to stand out from the crowd and to take a leading role in the development of new marketing strategies for affiliates. Matomy deserves a lot of credit for launching Mobit - we think it is excellent. Highly recommended.

• Manage and optimize all mobile ad campaigns in one place

• realtime conversion tracking and data collection

• Post-click redirects and split-testing

• Mobit Insights automatic analytics saves time and maximizes profitability

Sign up for a free 45-day trial of Mobit: www.matomy.com/meet-mobit

After the free trial period Mobit is available on a monthly subscription of $49 /month, or

entirely free to all Matomy affiliates earning more than $1,000 /month in revenue.

For more information, please contact [email protected]


Managing Performance – Matt Frary, SmarterChaos.com

Are You Asking for It? You’d Better!By Matt Frary, SmarterChaos.com

Affiliate Marketing is traditionally a sport played best by the big guys - the big beasts of the industry. Companies such as eBates, ShopAthome, RetailMeNot, Vertive or SurfMyAds always are near the top of any affiliate manager’s list when considering who should be targeted. Yet the truth is that there are often huge potential traffic sources that are ignored in this situation. In particular, there are very powerful content creators such as blogs and content sites that may be overlooked. These sites may only consist of a single person in their proverbial basement, or a perhaps just few people in an office somewhere, but they still may have huge influence online. Why is it that this part of the affiliate world is so often ignored?

You often hear people refer to the Pareto Principle; you know the rule that says, “20% of affiliates will contribute 80% of total affiliate sales.” Thank you, Vilfredo Federico Damaso Pareto. You have contributed to our conversation over 100 years after you first came up with the idea.

I’m pretty sure Pareto wasn’t an affiliate marketer, but people in this industry have been quoting his rule for a long time. In fact, those of us that have been in the business for a while now have modified the rule to state that actually just 5% of the affiliates in your program will send 95% of your business.

The question is whether affiliates who are not currently in that golden 5% have the ability to change the situation?

Yes. The answer is yes.

These affiliates need to be asking themselves, how can I be heard over the larger affiliates? How can I drive more sales with the traffic that I’m providing?

Affiliate marketers who want to do better should begin by engaging more with their brands and advertisers. Make a phone call, start an instant message conversation, reach out via email, or send smoke signals. The truth is that affiliate program managers actually WANT affiliates to reach out to them. Any affiliate can become part of the 5% driving the traffic to these advertisers and in so doing can make more money than 95% of the marketers out there.

The first and most important step is for these affiliates to start asking for it. What is “it”? It is whatever they need in order to engage more closely with the brand and the advertiser so that their promotions are more relevant, engaging and effective. There are at least five things that every affiliate can ask their affiliate manager for that will help them become part of the 5%.

ask For a Product To review

You are essentially the virtual sales staff for these advertisers. You have to get to know the product, product selection, pricing, and everything there is to know about the product before you can sell it. You wouldn’t go out and sell someone’s widget without trying that widget first….would you? Don’t be afraid to ask for free samples or the product to be sent to you. You’ll want to take pictures of it, review it,

and write about it. Nothing is better than original content to attract traffic to your site, and nothing creates new content like your own opinion on the product you are marketing.

ask for a Coupon or Unique Promotion

When you reach out to an advertiser or program manager, you are going to want to ask them what deal they have that you can uniquely promote. You see, if they have 20% off their product somewhere else on the web, but you have to sell it at full price, it’s like being in a boxing match with Mike

Tyson with one arm tied behind your back and no ear guards. If the advertiser values you as their selling partner, they will offer you a unique promotion, or some unique product to promote that is limited to their affiliate channel or to you as an affiliate. If the advertiser is using promotional code tracking such as what is available in Impact Radius or that can be uniquely tracked to you, then you will get more credit for sales than you are getting today. Your traffic will start to convert better, the search engines will pick up your unique deal, and it will create more buzz around your site.

ask for Pre-Written articles or eBooks

This tactic is one that is not often employed, but is very effective. Many advertisers have pre-written content about

any affiliate can become

part of the 5% driving the

traffic to these advertisers

and in so doing can make

more money than 95% of

the marketers out there



their products, reviews, or eBooks that you can use as more content for your site. You can weave this into your original content and your experience with the product, and therefore appear as a subject matter expert on this particular product. Many affiliates use those eBooks to offer free to visitors to their site in order to incentivize them to join a mailing list. This is a huge advantage for you, as we all know growing your email list is pure gold and you can sell the advertiser’s product to your list and then offer more products to them down the road. If an advertiser has a highly technical product or service, pre-written content can help you explain and pre-sell that product so that once the user hits the site, they are already making an educated decision to purchase or sign up. Pre-written content can increase conversion rates on your traffic and therefore make more sales, earning you more money.

ask for a Site analysis

Sometimes the best question is the hardest one to ask. When you reach out to an affiliate manager or program manager, ask them “What do you think of my site? How could I better sell your products? What would you like to see on my site?” Many of us sit for hours coming up with content or building our sites, and many times we aren’t looking at it from a sales perspective. If you ask for advice or a site analysis, the advertiser can collaborate with you to build the optimal pre-sales content that will help convert your traffic into more sales and/or leads. If you ask the advertiser, and the advertiser or program manager doesn’t have a good answer for you, I’d ask them how THEY sell their products. Many times an affiliate simply puts a banner around content that is not relevant to the product in the banner, and then they wonder why they are not selling anything or why their clicks do not convert. If you find a really experienced program manager or advertiser, ask them for five things that you could change about your site that they think would help drive more sales. This will show you are proactive, and it’s

25+The more conversations you have

with the people for whom you sell,

and the more that you know about

the products you are selling, the

more you are going to make as an af-

filiate

revenue.mThink.com


likely that the tips will help or provide you ideas you had not thought about.

ask What has Worked For Other affiliates

When traditional sales teams try to repeat success, they often interview their top sales person and determine what he or she is doing right, and then try to extend that to the rest of their sales team. This is a also good approach to affiliate marketing. If there is one technique, topic, methodology, or type of traffic that is working better than others, the affiliate team of that advertiser should be happy to share that with you. Don’t expect the advertiser to share specific sites with you, as that wouldn’t necessarily be fair to those affiliates that are top performers, and there is certain etiquette that should be followed so as not to upset your highest performers. Ask for the top conversion rates, and make sure you understand from what type of traffic that conversion is derived. See if the advertiser can give you specific media that has worked well. Does email traffic convert better or are blogs the winner? Make sure that you are comparing apples to apples, because advertisers also like to pump up their stats, using conversion rates from incentive sites or loyalty programs which will always be higher. Once you find out what has worked, see if you can repeat it and be realistic about what type of affiliate you are. If you are not an email affiliate, and the advertiser works best on email, its best to move onto another program.

At the end of the day, affiliate marketing is not an easy job and it is not all about the four-hour work week. You have to come out of the basement, get on the phone, and start finding out how to sell more. The more conversations you have with the people for whom you sell, and the more that you know about the products you are selling, the more you are going to make as an affiliate. It seems so simple, but how many times have you been on the phone this week? How many of your advertiser program managers do you know by name?

Ask for it. You shall receive.

about Matt Frary

Matt Frary is CEO and Founder of SmarterChaos.com, an Internet marketing and sales agency focused on large brands. Matt was a founder of a former top-30 online ad network called ROIRocket.com, and is a frequent speaker at online marketing conferences. As a Mentor at The Founder’s Institute in Denver, CO, Matt enjoys working with start-ups to realize positive ROI quickly and is a pas-sionate and serial entrepreneur. His career also includes branding for the Smart Car at Mercedes Benz, marketing at eBags.com, lead generation for the Auto Channel at MSN (DriveOff.com), brand agency experience at The Integer Group in Denver, and becoming a dominant force in ethical lead and sales generation online.

sionate and serial entrepreneur. His career also includes branding for the


to their employees a written manual on data handling and protection procedures, and that users are notified in the event of any breach of security with respect to their data.

Privacy Policies Can Make app Developers Money

In addition to the legal necessity of operating in compliance with state and federal law, a well written privacy policy can form a key feature of App developers’ business strategies. Providing that proper disclosures are included in the App privacy policy and elsewhere within the App user interface, and end-users affirmatively consent, App developers can monetize user data through e-mail marketing, telemarketing and, where permitted by law and under a narrower set of circumstances, mobile/text message marketing.

Conversely, if an App developer does not properly obtain consent from users to use their data for marketing purposes, any attempt to do so (without obtaining separate and express consent) would almost certainly violate applicable law. Specific disclosures must be provided for each intended use, and App developers cannot deviate from the stated purpose and range of options granted to them in their privacy policies.

Even when an App’s privacy policy clearly discloses the various ways in which the App developer can use end-users’ PII, the App developer is not always granted the right to use that information in all of the enumerated ways. For example, some states have more restrictive laws that apply to the use of sensitive information, such as Social Security Number, health-related information and financial data (such as credit card, bank account and other related information).

With a wide array of rules and regulations governing the collection, use, sharing and security of the various forms of PII – and given the potential financial benefits involved in utilizing a database of consumer information – it makes good business and legal sense to craft a privacy policy that is well-suited to the individual needs of the applicable business.

The increasingly widespread availability of cell phones has created a lucrative market for Apps that shows no sign of slowing in the future. If you are an App developer, operator or marketer, you must be cognizant of the pitfalls associated with poorly drafted or inaccurate privacy policies, and not let your privacy policy, or lack thereof, hinder you from reaching your professional and financial goals.

about David O. klein and Daniel West

David O. Klein and Daniel West of the firm of Klein Moynihan Turco LLP practice Internet and Mobile Marketing Law in New York City. David O. Klein can be reached at (212) 246-0900 or via e-mail at [email protected].

Legal – Klein Moynihan Turco LLP, David O. Klein and Daniel West

For the first time in history, a majority of Americans now own a smart phone of some kind - 56% of Americans, or over 177 million people, to be exact. With this increasingly significant number of people able to use their cell phones to download and utilize mobile applications (“Apps”) on a daily basis, there are several legal concerns that App developers and marketers must address. In this article, we will discuss the most fundamental of these: mobile App privacy policies.

It is not uncommon for clients to inquire, skeptically, as to the necessity and importance of having a privacy policy available within their App. While some might prefer to skip this step (and the associated expense), our advice is almost always the same: if you own, operate or market a mobile App that collects personally identifiable information (“PII”) from end-users, such as name, e-mail/mailing address, phone number, etc., an easy-to-read privacy policy must be made readily available to end-users within the App’s interface. Moreover, if end-user’s PII or mobile tracking information is made available to third parties, you must obtain the end-user’s affirmative consent to the sharing of such information.

Privacy Policies are required by Law

The most straightforward reason for this is that such privacy policies are required by various state and federal laws. Depending on the type of App and the audience to which it is directed, the App developer may need to inform users, via a prominently featured privacy policy, of what PII is collected, how that PII is used, to what parties the PII may be disclosed, the security measures taken to protect that PII and whether the App uses persistent identifiers to recognize and track users’ activities across different platforms using their mobile device IDs.

For instance, under the amended Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (“COPPA”), which went into effect earlier this month, if an App developer is aware that its App is collecting PII from children under the age of 13, or if the developer knows that their App is collecting PII from another website or App that is targeted to children under the age of 13, the App developer must clearly explain the App’s information practices, provide direct notice to parents about those practices and obtain parental consent before collecting the child’s PII via the App. These obligations apply to App developers even when third parties (like ad networks or plug-ins) collect PII through their App(s).

Collecting, storing and transmitting data via an App also imposes a responsibility on the App developer and its employees to safeguard such data. Various state and federal statutes require that data collectors maintain and distribute

Privacy Policies: A Legal Necessity for Mobile AppsBy David O. Klein and Daniel West, Klein Moynihan Turco LLP


Mobile Optimization – Lee Aho, Clickbooth

It is predicted that over half of all worldwide traffic will come from mobile devices by 2015. Mobile usage and growth statistics like these are staggering and if you value your business and brand they cannot be ignored. You must be optimizing for mobile.

Ineffective mobile traffic optimization will not only expose your business to substantial decreases in potential revenue but will also jeopardize the reputation of your brand. A frustrating mobile experience can translate directly into a negative consumer association.

Mobile users expect an experience optimized for their viewing device and the epitome of mobile optimization is simplifying the consumer’s experience in order to help them convert. Unfortunately, most advertisers are not doing this effectively or even at all.

To help you avoid the potential pitfalls, here are six of the most common mobile optimization mistakes.

1. Slow Load Times

Slow loading pages are not just an inconvenience for site visitors; in the age of ecommerce, consumers expect your page to load easily and quickly. Most consumers will wait only 5 seconds for a web page to load on their mobile device before abandoning the site altogether. Ideally, your mobile page should render in less than one second. Keep it simple and limit page sizes by stripping out any unnecessary content, especially large images or Flash.

2. Over-Elaborate Site Design

Function is more important than visual appeal on a mobile device so don’t recreate your desktop site. Instead, mobilize the experience. Simple, clean pages with minimal distraction convert best. Ensure that copy is concise and large enough that it is easy to read on a mobile screen.

3. Forgetting Mobile SEO

Google is just as strict in regard to mobile SEO as in online. Faulty redirects and error messages for your mobile visitor will lead directly to demotion in mobile search rankings and you will soon see a decrease in traffic. Always redirect mobile users from a desktop page to its mobile optimized equivalent. If you do not have a mobile equivalent page yet, serve relevant desktop content rather than redirecting users to an irrelevant mobile or error page.

4. Complex Or Missing Calls To action

Google reports 61% of mobile visitors move to competitors’ sites after a frustrating browsing experience. If your call to

action is hard to find or impossible to navigate with a finger, don’t expect a conversion. As an advertiser, ask yourself what action you want performed – whether it’s short form lead gen or a credit card payment, then determine what information is critical. Simplify text entry with fewer, larger text fields and when possible use dropdown menus, checklists and pre-populated fields. An adult finger easily covers 45 pixels when pressed on a mobile screen, so a clear call-to-action that is 44x44 pixels is ideal.

5. Using Creatives That haven’t Been “Mobilized”

Nearly half of your email creatives are viewed on a mobile screen and if they aren’t optimized for mobile the chances are over 80% that they will be deleted. Non-optimized ad creatives will simply be ignored. Even if your mobile landing page is optimized, your mobile creatives must be designed with mobile in mind. In emails, avoid long subject lines, reduce email width to 640 pixels or less and email size to 20K or less. Format your ad creative to 320x427 pixels or less. Just as on your mobile site, ensure that your email and ad creative call-to-action and text links are clear and easy to press.

6. Network Lacking Necessary Mobile Capabilities

Once you have optimized for mobile consumers, choose to partner with a network that is capable of boosting your mobile traffic. A good network will have strong mobile capabilities including targeting. Mobile targeting is a huge benefit for network advertisers. Advertisers are able to route traffic to specific landing pages based on a series of rules. For example, a network can create a rule that will identify iPhone traffic and redirect users to an iPhone optimized page. There are many other ways a mobile capable network can significantly help improve offer performance.

The mobile sector still has enormous growth left in it, so it is not too late to capitalize on this ever-increasing traffic source. Start mobile optimizing now – the right way – and get ahead; wait any longer and it may simply be too late to catch up.

about Lee aho

Lee Aho graduated from Michigan State with a BA in Mar-keting. Originally hired at Clickbooth as an Advertising Consultant, Lee was quickly promoted to Senior Advertis-ing Consultant, and most recently to Vice President of Ad-vertising. He excels in planning, evaluating, managing, and optimizing online campaigns.

The 6 Most Common Mobile Optimization Mistakes & How To Avoid ThemBy Lee Aho, Clickbooth


Managing Performance – Lisa Mollura, Rakuten LinkShare

Whether you’re a publisher or an advertiser, you already know that performance marketing is the most cost effective way to enter new overseas markets. The low risk, pay-for-performance business model, coupled with local affiliate expertise, allows retailers to quickly set up shop and reach buying customers without having to invest in offices and full time staff.

Still, many businesses are finding it challenging to replicate the success they’ve had in the U.S. when they enter new markets. They invest time and resources into learning about the country or region, align with the right business partners and hire local experts. Many even develop country specific websites. At first glance, this appears to be the right approach. However, there are hidden obstacles that can prevent you from reaching your potential in what should be highly lucrative markets.

If you’re currently struggling to achieve strong results overseas or you’re considering entering new markets, then the following seven criteria should be the main areas upon which to focus for global affiliate marketing success.1. Identify the strongest growth areas for your business. It’s a given that

you’ll research hot growth markets. However, keep in mind that just because a region or country is recognized as having high potential, this doesn’t mean you’ll be able to seize opportunities in it. One way to test the waters is to work more closely with your global affiliate

network. Your account team can connect you with local affiliates that can give you a reality check on the demand for your particular products as well as provide strategic advice about campaign feasibility in specific regions.

2. Recast the competitive landscape. You know which competitors you’re up against on a daily basis in the U.S., but you can’t assume you’ll be facing those same companies in every country. Be sure to explore if there’s already a hands-down preferred local vendor offering comparable products. If so, it’s time to rethink your strategy in terms of working with local distribution partners to decrease shipping costs as well as increasing incentives for affiliates.

3. Look under the IT hood. Your success in a new area will hinge upon the strength of the country’s IT infrastructure in terms of speed and security of transactions. Just think back to the mid- to late-1990’s when e-commerce was starting to really hit its stride. We saw online sales skyrocket along with the broader accessibility of Internet access and technology advances in broadband. Today, it’s easy to take our infrastructure for granted and lose sight of the fact that many countries are just now getting high-speed connections. As you explore new territories, fully investigate how accessible, easy and widely used the Internet is by the country’s consumers.

4. Localize your messages. Going beyond website translation, you also need to understand the nuances of the local language and business customs. This is another area where your affiliates can add tremendous value so work with them and your performance marketing network’s account managers to develop campaigns that speak directly to your target audience.

5. Establish your brand in each new country. Don’t assume your U.S. brand cache will instantly carry over in a new area. For this reason, you’ll need to invest the time in establishing your brand in a new country. The key is to maintain your core differentiators yet also adjust your messages accordingly. As they say, “When in Rome…”

6. Prioritize the fulfillment process. Fulfillment operations can be a tricky component of your overseas expansion. You don’t want to lose customers or compromise your brand due to delays in shipping or high duties and taxes. You can overcome these challenges by working with established partners in drop-ship, payment processing, currency conversion and last mile delivery.

7. Embrace the mystique of international products. A recent study by Forrester uncovered that consumers place a higher value on products that are made outside of their home country. As an advertiser, you can trade on this so long as you don’t compromise quality in pursuit of premium pricing.

If you’re mindful of these common obstacles, you’ll be able to more easily enter new markets and start to see faster returns on your investments in performance marketing. The recent Forrester report also revealed that as e-commerce companies expand into new markets, the affiliate channel commonly proves to be the most cost-effective path to reach new customers. Get things right from the beginning and global success can be yours.

about Lisa Mollura

Lisa Mollura is senior marketing manager for Rakuten LinkShare.

Seven Requirements for Global Affiliate Marketing SuccessBy Lisa Mollura, Rakuten LinkShare


Business Expansion – Cristian Miculi, Avangate

Software applications are ideal products to sell online but many merchants limit themselves to only selling into a single country. Whether you’re just starting to sell online or have an established business, selling internationally is an important opportunity for the development of your business overall. In this article we look at some of the key things to consider when seeking to expand abroad.

First things first: decide where you’re going

Before launching on your international growth campaign, you need to decide where to expand. The US is generally where software companies get most of their sales, and it’s a strong market with a good long-term outlook. However, you shouldn’t limit yourself to that territory, especially as developing economies gain traction. More and more software companies are looking to grow in emerging markets like Latin America (LATAM), China and India, but all of these markets have unique requirements.

To prioritize your approach, you’ll need to do some intensive research on your target markets. This should include identifying the market size and trends, competitive landscape, opportunities and risks. Also take into consideration where the customers and traffic on your website currently come from, which can make it easier to get started planning your expansion.

As you can see in figure 1, the Americas account for almost 50% of the entire global software and software-as-a-service (SaaS) market. North America (US and Canada) specifically is a mature market that’s growing more slowly than emerging markets but still faster than Europe. Competition is strong in the US, so have your company’s SWOT (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, and Threats) analysis close by and know how you plan to stand out from the crowd. When it comes to emerging markets in the Americas, Latin American is growing very quickly. One of the most important factors to focus on is localization of your existing offers – this is especially important in Brazil.

The second biggest software market to target is Europe, Middle East and Africa (EMEA), and specifically Western Europe: United Kingdom, Germany, France, Italy and Spain. These established markets currently make up around one-third of the total software and SaaS sales. EMEA also features three interesting emerging markets with a lot of potential: Russia (and CIS), Poland and Turkey.

Last but not least, the Asia-Pacific (APAC) region claims some 16% of the worldwide software and SaaS market share, with a strong market in Japan and major emerging markets in China and India. APAC is expected to grow dramatically in the coming years due to a combination of population growth, increasing demand and current market headroom, so it’s a great place to turn your focus now.

Figure 1 – Software Applications Market Geographical Breakdown (source: Gartner Market Databook 3Q11 Update)

5 Steps to Accelerating International GrowthBy Cristian Miculi, Avangate

Use affiliates and resellers as “translators”

One of the best strategies for approaching new markets is to minimize costs and risks by using affiliates. Growing your business through affiliates offers many benefits:

• Affiliates get paid only if they generate value (sales, leads).

• Affiliate programs are easy to set up.

• Affiliates have established online audiences in a specific market.

When it comes to business models, performance marketing encompasses several models that you can experiment with when selling online: pay-per-sale, pay-per-install and even pay-per-lead. Depending on the type of products that you have and the locale you’re targeting, you can come up with ways to effectively motivate affiliates using your model.

Pay-per-lead, for example, works best with larger deals for business-to-business (B2B) software and online services, while affiliates targeting emerging markets will most certainly prefer pay-per-install instead of pay-per-sale due to lower conversion rates in those areas. Work closely with experienced affiliates and examine competitors’ tactics to refine your strategy in a specific market.

Once you’ve established your target market and affiliate model, join a local affiliate network and start recruiting affiliates. If you have the budget, working with agencies or outsourced program managers (OPM) to connect with strong local affiliates and resellers can really accelerate the process of seeing returns from your affiliates. But with the right localized offer, you can successfully recruit affiliates yourself.

If things go well with affiliates thus proving that the market opportunity exists, the next step is to start looking for resellers. Strong points in favor of using resellers include

W. Europe /MEA32%

US/CA/LATAM49%

CIS3%

Asia/Paci�c APAC16%

Software Apps Market Geo Breakdown

Business Expansion – Cristian Miculi, Avangate

The eMetrics Summit: the most comprehensive and forward thinking digital analytics forum.

Learn the best practices, tools, and techniques to optimize successful digital marketing programs!

PRODUCED BY

LIFETIMEASSOCIATION

PARTNER

BOSTONSEP 29 - OCT 3, 2013

emetrics.org/boston

their usually reliable and experienced sales techniques, their established long-term industry partnerships and their pre-existing active presence in the local market.

There are no “rules” that determine whether to use affiliates or resellers in any particular case, but both can help you tap into new markets more easily and cost effectively than you can by using only your own resources.

Dress like a local: 5 steps to prepare your product for growth

Now that you’ve gained a sense of where and how to sell to customers within a certain territory, we recommend working through five steps to prepare for expansion into new markets. You might compare it to “dressing like a local,” or adopting local customs to appeal to customers in a specific market.

1. Localize your offer. Translate your website and products or services into the language of the region you’re targeting. English is not always the best converting language, so having your offer localized can greatly help generate and convert new leads. And don’t stop there: if you include testimonials on your website, add endorsements from local influencers, well-known publications or prominent clients. Proof point: Patrick Llewellyn from 99Designs says his company saw a 50% to 60% uplift in sales in Germany after translating their website, adding a local support number with local business hours and supporting local payment methods.

2. Take care of legal requirements and local taxes. When entering a new market, consider the local legal framework. Find out if there are any particular regulations to consider such as the European Union’s ePrivacy Directive (also known as the “cookie law”). Localizing prices must also include adapting to local taxation characteristics. For instance, shoppers in Europe and in other countries, unlike the US, are accustomed to having taxes included in the prices, not added during the purchase process. Seeing taxes pop up later can surprise and deter these shoppers. Tip: Identify a partner to act as your Merchant of Record or Reseller in a particular market who can deal with all the aspects of financial transactions and shopper payments on your behalf. A Service Provider (Direct) model requires you to handle taxation and payment processing yourself and interact directly with shoppers and payment processors which can be expensive, confusing and time-consuming.

3. Support local payment methods. Not every buyer is able or willing to pay in US dollars using a credit card, so team up with a solutions provider that can fulfill local payment methods for your target region. Or go even further and establish regional pricing models to attract new users in a specific locale. Proof point: AVS4YOU, a UK based software company, saw sales in France increase by 40% after establishing regional pricing, displaying prices in the local currency and adding local payment methods.


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The eMetrics Summit: the most comprehensive and forward thinking digital analytics forum.

Learn the best practices, tools, and techniques to optimize successful digital marketing programs!

PRODUCED BY

LIFETIMEASSOCIATION

PARTNER

BOSTONSEP 29 - OCT 3, 2013

emetrics.org/boston

Preferred local payment methods around the world:

• Over 40% of shoppers in the Netherlands prefer iDeal, a standardized online banking-based payment method.

• PayPal is now the preferred online payment method for German shoppers.

• Alipay is the dominant online payment platform in China, accounting for approximately 50% of the market.

• 30% of all online payments made by Brazilian shoppers are processed through the Boleto Bancario system.

• Konbini payments account for up to 18% of ecommerce transactions in Japan.

4. Offer native language support during local business hours. This is an absolute requirement for the strongest markets out there, including Japan, France and Germany. Not only does it help customers find information and deal with any issues, but it also builds confidence in your company, products and services. This is especially important in software, where companies can’t just make a sale and run, but need to provide ongoing support. Be sure to localize product documentation as well as establishing local email and phone support. Outsource translation and support for specific languages if you don’t have sufficient internal resources, or consider using resellers to handle support requests.

5. Customize promotions for each market. Depending on the region you want to target, you can build traction by reaching

out to customers in different ways. Find out what the top performing companies in a region do, then follow their lead while also differentiating your promotions. For example, failing to offer a free trial for a business-to-consumer (B2C) software product will almost certainly reduce your opportunities in the Middle East and many emerging markets. Your discounting policy will also affect sales in different regions, so see how you can add value for your customers with region-specific offers.

Going international will help drive more revenue for your company at low risk if you do it the smart way: by sharing your risks and your earnings with affiliates and resellers initially. Starting out with support from partners is a great way to drive additional revenue in the short term while incurring minimal costs. Then, if a market proves worthwhile, you will be able to focus additional resources with less risk.

International markets will continue to grow. Now is the moment to ensure that your international expansion plans are in place and that you have spent the time to find good partners with which to work.

about Cristian Miculi

Cristian Miculi is senior affiliate marketing manager for Avangate, an eCommerce solutions provider that enables Software and Software-as-a-Service companies to sell their products via any channel and any model with a view to optimizing both online and offline revenue.


Strategic Partnerships – Doug Godkin, Millionaire Network

Choosing the right online

strategic partner makes all

the difference in generating

significant sales, revenue,

and customer value while

minimizing risks

Whether you are an advertiser or a publisher there are many opportunities available in today’s online landscape and many important decisions to be made as a result.

Selecting the right partners to grow your business is a pivotal decision. The decision must be based around a number of factors each of which must be carefully weighed out: short and long term goals, existing sales strategy, compliance, volume and product development. Due to the importance of the selection process to the success of your online marketing strategy, don’t be afraid to ask tough questions of your prospective partners. Choosing the right online strategic partner makes all the difference in generating significant sales, revenue, and customer value while minimizing risks.

Some key points to consider:

1. Do their compliance and operating procedures meet and exceed FTC Guidelines? Stay informed, read up for yourself, ask before you ever commit.

2. How long have they been in the industry? Is there an established track record of relationships that have proved successful?

3. What is the experience level of the members operating the company? How long have they been in the space? Do they have the level of experience in the industry and a good reputation among their peers to earn and keep their business? Will they treat your business the same?

4. Do they not only recognize, but move ahead of shifting trends in the industry? If so, what proactive approaches will they take to ensure that your product is going to reach its target audience effectively?

5. Are they working in the mobile landscape? How is this evolving medium changing the rules in our industry? Are they in tune with this evolution?

6. Are they actively working to bring in the exclusive offers that will grow your business?

7. What level of service are they able to provide when you need it most? Is it merely a few staff behind a chat window willing to occasionally answer a question? Is there a serious level of support that is able to not simply

answer questions, but also to provide solutions as they see opportunities arise? You want a proactive partner.

8. What is the future strategic direction of your partner? Does their long-term direction coincide with yours? What is their focus on expanding into new areas? Will they move with you, or perhaps before you?

9. What other legitimate clients and customers does your partner support? Do they have the level of expertise to manage accounts for Fortune 500 Companies?

10. Does the network you use have a strong compliance policy and strict criteria by which they decide who

to work with, advertisers and publishers? Or are they an open forum working with the masses?

Private networks have significant advantages in many of these areas. At my own network, Millionaire Network, we have worked hard over the past four years to proactively address many of the challenges in the marketplace. By actively recruiting and building out a team of industry leaders and marketing professionals, we have been able to gain a key capability to foresee and provide solutions within the ever-changing landscape of the direct marketing industry.

A good network partner embraces the industry’s challenges and turns them into opportunities. In our case, the broad skillset and abilities of our team lead to us being able to produce major results for our partners as well. So, when seeking a new network partner, get out there and ask around, and look at who will best help you to reach your goals.

The best networks – like Millionaire Network! – don’t claim to be the best fit for everybody. Anyone who tells you they are, you don’t want. But for those who are a good fit and so we do work with, we provide 100% commitment.

Somewhere out there, whether my own network or another, there is a team that is a key fit for you as a strategic long-term partner.

Look diligently and be determined not to settle.

about Doug godkin

Doug Godkin is director of marketing at Millionaire Network, one of the Blue Book’s Top 20 performance marketing networks.

Choosing Your Best Network PartnerBy Doug Godkin, Millionaire Network

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