Good Merchant, Bad Merchant (Waitrose Entertaining)

Good piece. Well said Fraser.

It’s like they’re saying “we value your business only in the slow months of the year; Christmas we can do it on our own”…
The bad thing about big names moving in online marketing is that they treat it like traditional marketing, where they run short-term campaigns prior to their peak season, during which they do nothing but reaping the rewards… that’s not how affiliate marketing works though. It’s a middle-to-long term exercise and you need to commit to it, not switch it on and off depending on the season.
However I feel that this is just the first of many to come, unfortunately, as more big names move to online. Until they understand how it works and that they cannot enforce offline techniques; will they be able to get away with it because of their name and brand? We’ll see

The silence from Tradedoubler is almost deafening … or is it beneath them now to respond.

The backlash also has to be laid firmly on the step of the network, Tradedoubler in this case, to firstly permit this to happen (though a merchant can close at any time), but mainly even considering allowing the merchant to relaunch the program after the christmas peak period.

It’s another prime example of where this networks priorities lay, which is appeasing the whims & desires of recognised brands and/or agencies without a thought to an affiliate who are more disposable assets.

Having chatted with a couple of Tradedoubler merchants this week, a common thread from both of them without any prompting seemed to be that they (meaning Tradedoubler) seem to be rule unto themselves with little concern for anybody except themselves & the service they are receiving it not adequate enough. Does this suggest Tradedoubler are control freaks and closed shop arrangements all spun very nicely to their clients.

So what does Tradedoubler do to earn their override?

Lets say, hypothetically speaking, last year we earned about £500k in commission via them. As an override (working on a 30% rule of thumb) that would be about £166k to Tradedoubler, enough to pay for about 6 peoples wages full time.

I would be lucky if we had received half a days decent dedicated support in that whole period .. translated I have probably had about £40 worth of affiliate support.

For those kind of earnings would it be reasonable to expect a fully dedicated account manager?

Next topic I will come onto under Tradedoubler are these indepth tender requirements for closed group bidding & highlighting the NUMEROUS discrepancies in their keyword policy information reports across their platform.

I don’t expect any posts to improve the service for us as an affiliate as we realise Tradedoubler are impervious to any comments, but I can add two other networks to this same categorisation & that is DGM and CJ.

That’s dreadful behaviour. I really hope everyone of the affiliates that helped them with their sales completely drop all participation in the programme come the new year. Then let them talk about how much they value the affiliates hard work.