So, you want to promote your products in LinkConnector, and you want to have it happen—like yesterday. Well, not much beats preparation in life and launching a campaign is no exception. There are a multitude of things that you need to do, but let’s concentrate on the highest priority items first:
1. Funding
Money—ah yes, money. It’s always the topic we want to avoid, but it all starts there. Paying the Network Access Fee will grant you access to our interface, but you won’t be able to launch your campaign until you have a positive, prepaid account balance. In addition to covering your first affiliate sales, these funds allow our team to dedicate the amount of tech support needed for your campaign to gain immediate traction. Of course, this isn’t really much of an issue, right? You knew this wasn’t going to be free!
2. Value Proposition
When you joined the network you already had an idea of what you wanted your offer to be:
- 6% commission on each sale
- $5 per lead
- $50 per sale
But there are several other details to consider with your campaign to garner long-term success:
- Is your payout competitive with other retailers in your vertical?
- What is your desired cookie duration?
- Will you be using coupons?
- What about PPC bidding and direct linking?
- Are you commissioning differently for new versus existing customers?
Your Merchant Relations manager or LC’s Merchant Support team (depending on your level of account services) can help you with all of this, but it is best if you’ve given some thought to the answers.
3. Promotional Terms
An integral part of your campaign is defining the list of terms/criteria that tell affiliates what you allow and do not allow as promotional methods. They can sometimes be complex, so giving this some thought early on will help your launch go more smoothly. When setting up promotional terms it is best to consider that less is more. I know you want to ensure things like your brand and integrity are not misrepresented, but, in general, LC affiliates can be trusted to make you look good. After all, it is in their best interest to maintain a long-term mutually beneficial relationship with you. In addition, as a network we are constantly vetting affiliates we allow into the network as well as monitoring affiliates for compliance that are in our network.
4. Approval Rules
Approving affiliates for your campaign can be a time-consuming process, but we make it easier by allowing you to set up rules that can auto-approve or auto-reject certain affiliates to your campaign. For example, merchants can easily choose to auto-accept affiliates with a five-star rating, and auto-reject any affiliates located in Nexus states. Why are these parameters important? Well, you generally have an affiliate’s attention for a short time, so you want to make it as easy on them as possible to start promoting your campaign.
5. Creatives
Your affiliates will need some form of creative to promote your campaign. This normally is in the form of banners, but can also include video, html creatives, etc. Since banners are still the primary promotional tool for affiliates, be prepared to provide web-based and mobile banners in the standard sizes recommended by the Internet Advertising Bureau. Now, you don’t need all those banner sizes, so provide the ones you have and ask LC’s merchant support team for a list of the most popular ones that affiliates are currently using.
6. Code Setup
The item that can sometimes take the longest time in getting a campaign launched is placing the code that will allow for commissions to be paid to your affiliates. We’ve dealt with all manner of shopping carts and lead generation setups, so chances are we’ve seen one like yours; however, it is your responsibility to place the code on your end–so you’ll need someone available that can work with our Tech team on this. And be diligent about this aspect of campaign launching. Once you receive the code, place it on your site, so the testing process can commence and code setup can be complete early on.
If you concentrate on the items I’ve listed above, you will be well on your way to launching in a short amount of time. Launching an affiliate marketing campaign can be a rewarding experience once you see the campaign (and affiliates) making you money, and nothing gets you to campaign launch faster than preparation, diligence and hard work.