RP # 15

REVENUE
performance
Monetization & High-Performance Marketing
MOBILE
THE NEXT BIG MONEY-MAKER
Issue 15 | Summer 2013
revenue.mthink.com
• Mobit - The next generation of mobile optimization?
• The future of social performance marketing
• 7 keys to global affiliate marketing success
REVENUE
performance
PUBLISHER & EDITOR
Chris Trayhorn
DIRECTOR OF ONLINE
Sheila Fox
PRODUCTION DESIGN
Rick Greer
Revenue Performance is published by mThink
55 New Montgomery, Suite 617
San Francisco, CA 94105
mThink: Intelligent Performance Marketing
CHAIRMAN AND CEO
Chris Trayhorn
VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING
Yvonne Schellerup
DIRECTOR, WEB DEVELOPMENT
Ron Snow
advertising Index:
ad:tech . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
AdultModa . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
eMetrics Summit . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Dedicated To Monetization + High Performance Marketing
Contents
The Future of Performance Marketing: More
Consolidation & Better Social Media
Lead Generation. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4
By Peter Klein, MediaWhiz
Public and Private Affiliate Networks:
Finding the Right Mix. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6
By George Hansen, oneNetworkDirect, Digital River
Firefox and Third Party Cookie Blocking . . . . . . . . . . .8
By Ryan Gilbert, Webgains USA
Understanding the Modern Payday Loan . . . . . . . . 10
By Morgan Gethers, T3Leads
SPECIAL PRODUCT REVIEW
Mobit: Changing The Game In Mobile Media? . . . 11
By Chris Trayhorn, Revenue+performance
FriendFinder Networks . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . OBC
Fluent . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Are You Asking For It? You’d Better! . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 15
iBallers.com . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .17
By Matt Frary, SmarterChaos.com
LifeLock . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Privacy Policies: A Legal Necessity
for Mobile Apps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Matomy Media Group . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IBC
MediaWhiz . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Millionaire Network . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
T3Leads . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . IFC
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. Statements 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
By David O. Klein & Daniel West, Klein Moynihan Turco LLP
The 6 Most Common Mobile Optimization
Mistakes & How to Avoid Them . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
By Lee Aho, Clickbooth
Seven Requirements for Global Affiliate
Marketing Success. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 20
By Lisa Mollura, Rakuten LinkShare
5 Steps to Accelerating International Growth . . . . 21
By Cristian Miculi, Avangate
Choosing Your Best Network Partner . . . . . . . . . . . . 24
By Doug Godkin, Millionaire Network
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.
revenue.mThink.com
3
Industry Insights – Peter Klein, MediaWhiz
The Future of Performance Marketing:
More Consolidation & Better Social Media Lead Generation
By 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, ROIpositive 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.
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
google affiliate Network Closure and Consolidation
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.
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.
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.
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.
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
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.
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REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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 mediabuying 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 performance marketing agency MediaWhiz, a Matomy Media
Group company.
revenue.mThink.com
5
Managing Performance – George Hansen, Performance Marketing Group, Digital River
Public and Private Affiliate Networks:
Finding the Right Mix
By George Hansen, Performance Marketing Group at Digital River
Direct Relationships…
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?
• Foster affiliate trust
leading to more focus and
opportunity
• Enable differentiated value
propositions (offers, payouts,
etc.) for top affiliates
• Provide stronger control to your
brand identity and message
Privatized
Long Tail
Top
Affiliates
$
Time
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.
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.
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.
With Visibility Comes Control and Flexibility
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 networks deal with hundreds of thousands of
publishers to offer the broad reach that many organizations
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REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
about george hansen
revenue.mThink.com
7
Device Tracking – Ryan Gilbert, Webgains USA
Firefox and Third Party Cookie Blocking
By 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.
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,
What is certain is that
ensuring a truly future-proof tracking
methodology.
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
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.
8
how does it work?
REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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]
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.
Find out more about our suite of digital marketing solutions at www.fluentco.com
Affluent
Financial Services – Morgan Gethers, T3Leads
Understanding the Modern
Payday Loan
By 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.
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
Computer technology has transformed the short term
in their growth. Consumers are often confused by big bank
lending industry. The ability to apply from home and receive
loans. That’s why Alternative
nearly instant loan decisions has
Financial Services (AFS) such
not just made the process faster,
as payday loans and pre-paid
but has improved efficiency
The ability to apply from home…
credit cards have exploded in
for lenders, facilitated growth
and allowed the involvement of
popularity. People understand
has improved efficiency for
affiliate networks. These changes
how they work and there are few,
have created the framework
if any restrictions on how they
lenders, facilitated growth and
of the modern day short term
can be used.
lending industry and the
allowed the involvement of
return To The Past
evolution is being accelerated
by the introduction of wireless
affiliate networks… the
Payday loans have been
connectivity and mobile devices.
around for a very long time and,
evolution is being accelerated
Consumers can and do apply
for affiliates, the opportunities
for loans from their cell phones,
are likely to continue to grow.
by the introduction of wireless
often applying in emergency
New innovations such as “Direct
situations where a speedy
Call” - in which there is an option
connectivity
and
mobile
devices
response is essential.
for loan applicants to be put in
Why Payday Loans have
direct telephone contact with
Become So Popular
a potential lender – are leading
to
positive
results.
Ironically,
in
spite of all the technological
Millions of jobs have been lost since 2008 causing cash flow
advances, we are seeing that a little personal contact can lead
issues for many people, often through no fault of their own.
to new innovation, better customer service and increased
Five years into the recession, many are still earning much less
than in the past and with damaged credit ratings, traditional
conversion rates.
loans become all but impossible to obtain. Payday loans and
about Morgan gethers
other forms of non-traditional lending are an effective way
to meet emergency expenses for those who have been hit
Morgan Gethers is Business Development Manager for
hardest by the lingering poor economy.
T3Leads, interacting, assisting and ensuring the most
game Changers: Computers and Technology
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
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REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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 contacted at (877) 778-3532 x207 or at [email protected].
revenue+Performance - PRODUCT REVIEW
Mobit
Changing 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.
Figure 1: Mobit: a smart tracking and analysis tool for mobile affiliates and media buyers.
It is hard to argue against the proposition that mobile is the
future of performance marketing. The adoption of Internetenabled 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.
revenue.mThink.com
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revenue+Performance - PRODUCT REVIEW
Q&a with Noa
Benvenisti
Background
I’ve been in the online media
industry for seven years and have Noa Benvenisti,
eight years of experience as a Head of Product
product manager during which I at Matomy Media
Group
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.
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
Latest Developments
In addition to the many features already builtin 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.
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REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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.
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.
Matomy CEO Ofer
Druker reveals all
Until relatively recently
Matomy Media Group had
a fairly low profile in the Matomy Media
USA, but that has changed Group CEO, Ofer
Druker
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?
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.
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.
revenue.mThink.com
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revenue+Performance - PRODUCT REVIEW
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.
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
Imagine you have a campaign that has been launched
it only going to become more important. For any publisher,
successfully and now you want to scale it up. What kind of media
advertiser or agency seeking to
should you buying? Does it make
succeed with mobile performance
a difference whether the traffic is
marketing, having a deep and wide
coming from iPhones or Android
• Manage and optimize all
understanding of mobile media
phones? Or from Samsung
buying is absolutely essential.
mobile ad campaigns in
handsets or those made by HTC?
In our view Mobit addresses this
Or from which carrier?
one place
need admirably. It is able to report
These are the kinds of questions
on campaigns in near-realtime, it
• realtime conversion tracking
that simply don’t apply to
is easy to add new campaigns and
online performance marketing,
and data collection
to edit existing ones, it aggregates
where day-parting and some
all the available data (including
demographic
targeting
may
•
Post-click
redirects
and
carrier, device OS and particular
be all that is needed in terms
device model, for example) into
split-testing
of optimization. But mobile is
one place and can then show which
different – carrier, device model,
media buys are least profitable and
• Mobit Insights automatic
operating system, WiFi or 3G – all
which are most profitable - the
these different criteria may have
analytics saves time and
list of functions is long. And the
a real and significant effect on
good news is that it all works well.
maximizes
profitability
conversion rates. The problem is
The Mobit on-demand platform
that with so many different data
is responsive, cost-effective and
points, analyzing all the possible
provides good user support. It
different combinations can take
makes for a simple to use but powerful platform for managing
days of work.
mobile campaigns.
That’s the problem that Mobit Insights aims to solve, and in
In an industry like performance marketing, where there are
the short time that we had to work with the system, it seems
literally hundreds of cookie-cutter CPA networks, it is great
to work extremely well. Within a few minutes it is easy to look
to see a network investing in technology in order to stand out
at a campaign, identify what kinds of traffic from which sources
from the crowd and to take a leading role in the development of
aren’t working and then either stop them completely or redirect
new marketing strategies for affiliates. Matomy deserves a lot
them to another landing page. That alone can save an enormous
of credit for launching Mobit - we think it is excellent. Highly
amount of wasted media buy. But Mobit Insights also instantly
recommended.
identifies the precise type of traffic that is converting most
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]
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REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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?
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 often hear people refer to the Pareto Principle; you
you? Don’t be afraid to ask for free samples or the product
know the rule that says, “20% of affiliates will contribute
to be sent to you. You’ll want to take pictures of it, review it,
80% of total affiliate sales.” Thank
and write about it. Nothing is better
you, Vilfredo Federico Damaso
than original content to attract
Pareto. You have contributed to
traffic to your site, and nothing
our conversation over 100 years
any
affiliate
can
become
creates new content like your own
after you first came up with the
opinion on the product you are
idea.
part of the 5% driving the
marketing.
I’m pretty sure Pareto wasn’t an
ask for a Coupon or Unique
affiliate marketer, but people in
traffic to these advertisers
Promotion
this industry have been quoting
his rule for a long time. In fact,
When you reach out to an
and in so doing can make
those of us that have been in the
advertiser or program manager,
business for a while now have
you are going to want to ask them
more money than 95% of
modified the rule to state that
what deal they have that you can
actually just 5% of the affiliates
uniquely promote. You see, if
the marketers out there
in your program will send 95% of
they have 20% off their product
your business.
somewhere else on the web, but you
have to sell it at full price, it’s like
The question is whether
being in a boxing match with Mike
affiliates who are not currently in
Tyson
with
one
arm
tied
behind your back and no ear guards.
that golden 5% have the ability to change the situation?
If
the
advertiser
values
you
as their selling partner, they will
Yes. The answer is yes.
offer you a unique promotion, or some unique product to
These affiliates need to be asking themselves, how can
promote that is limited to their affiliate channel or to you
I be heard over the larger affiliates? How can I drive more
as an affiliate. If the advertiser is using promotional code
sales with the traffic that I’m providing?
tracking such as what is available in Impact Radius or that
Affiliate marketers who want to do better should begin
can be uniquely tracked to you, then you will get more credit
by engaging more with their brands and advertisers. Make a
for sales than you are getting today. Your traffic will start to
phone call, start an instant message conversation, reach out
convert better, the search engines will pick up your unique
via email, or send smoke signals. The truth is that affiliate
deal, and it will create more buzz around your site.
program managers actually WANT affiliates to reach out to
ask for Pre-Written articles or eBooks
them. Any affiliate can become part of the 5% driving the
This tactic is one that is not often employed, but is very
traffic to these advertisers and in so doing can make more
effective. Many advertisers have pre-written content about
money than 95% of the marketers out there.
revenue.mThink.com
15
Managing Performance – Matt Frary, Smart
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.
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 affiliate
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
16
REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
terChaos.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 passionate 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.
revenue.mThink.com
Legal – Klein Moynihan Turco LLP, David O. Klein and Daniel West
Privacy Policies: A Legal Necessity for
Mobile Apps
By David O. Klein and Daniel West, Klein Moynihan Turco LLP
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 plugins) 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
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REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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, healthrelated 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 wellsuited 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].
Mobile Optimization – Lee Aho, Clickbooth
The 6 Most Common Mobile Optimization
Mistakes & How To Avoid Them
By 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 prepopulated 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 callto-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 Marketing. Originally hired at Clickbooth as an Advertising
Consultant, Lee was quickly promoted to Senior Advertising Consultant, and most recently to Vice President of Advertising. He excels in planning, evaluating, managing, and
optimizing online campaigns.
revenue.mThink.com
19
Managing Performance – Lisa Mollura, Rakuten LinkShare
Seven Requirements for Global Affiliate
Marketing Success
By 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-forperformance 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.
20
REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
Business Expansion – Cristian Miculi, Avangate
5 Steps to Accelerating International Growth
By 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.
Software Apps Market Geo Breakdown
Asia/Pacific APAC
16%
CIS
3%
W. Europe /
MEA
32%
US/CA/LATAM
49%
Figure 1 – Software Applications Market Geographical Breakdown
(source: Gartner Market Databook 3Q11 Update)
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
revenue.mThink.com
21
Business Expansion – Cristian Miculi, Avangate
their usually reliable and experienced sales techniques, their
established long-term industry partnerships and their preexisting 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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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-toconsumer (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-aService companies to sell their products via any channel and any model with
a view to optimizing both online and offline revenue.
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23
Strategic Partnerships – Doug Godkin, Millionaire Network
Choosing Your Best Network Partner
By Doug Godkin, Millionaire Network
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?
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?
strategic partner makes all
the difference in generating
significant sales, revenue,
and customer value while
minimizing risks
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?
24
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?
Choosing the right online
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?
7.
answer questions, but also to provide solutions as they
see opportunities arise? You want a proactive partner.
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
REVENUE+performance – ISSUE 15
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 everchanging 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.
®