At the 2013 cleverbridge Networking Event (CNE) in Rome, cleverbridge co-founder and Building Keystones Chief Blogger Craig Vodnik facilitated a panel discussion about topics impacting European affiliate programs.
Joining Craig on the panel was Alexander Schwarz, VP business development and co-founder of Softonic, Lucian Bitai, Digital Distribution and International Sales Manager at Chip Xonio Online, and K.C. Motamedy, Marketing Services Manager at cleverbridge.
This discussion was a continuation from a previous panel that focused on North American affiliate programs.
The video below shows the full panel discussion. Below the video is a summary of the key questions and take-aways from the panel.
What are the key aspects European affiliate programs look for in partnering with independent software vendors (ISVs)?
Lucien Bitai
It’s important to understand that CHIP Online is not strictly a download portal. It’s also a review site and the reviews we publish have earned us trust and authority with consumers.
In that sense, we are driven primarily by user experience as opposed to monetizing everything we can get our hands on. Our goal is make our site experience as user friendly as possible. Therefore, our ideal partner is someone who has an established brand in Germany already. Their product should be something that users know and love and has already been reviewed on CHIP.de.
If it hasn’t been reviewed by our editors or users, it would be difficult to give that product a buy button on our site. In fact, a product with good reviews will speed up the process of approval for being included on our site.
Alexander Schwarz
The main thing we ask is, “Does this product work as advertised?” The product we sell must be a viable solution. We then also need market data to find out how we can make this product a best-seller, so company transparency with the vendor is an important issue.
In this sense, our editors also need as much input as they can get. So whenever there is a new product release or a price change, it’s best if we as affiliates know in advance.
We also prefer companies to provide us with marketing materials such as promotional videos, sweepstakes and giveaways, and serial codes that allow our editors to test the products we are displaying.
Also, and this is especially important with international selling: We need the best payment methods available for each region which can differ a lot.
K.C. Motamedy
Affiliates in the US tend to be a little more money hungry, driven more by revenue sharing and CPA as opposed to CPM which is dominant in Europe. Europe is a little different: the market there seems driven more by mutual trust and strong relationships.
In the US, marketers are less cautious in their selling and consumers are less cautious in their buying habits. In that sense, there are more opportunities in the US market, but those opportunities are not necessarily as highly qualified as European ones.
Should links on an affiliate program’s site send a visitor to a landing page or straight to a shopping cart?
Alexander Schwarz
It really depends on the brand. Microsoft can send clicks directly to a shopping cart because their brand is so strong.
However, if you are not sure what the right choice is and feel the need to optimize, I would recommend testing a German or Japanese audience if you can.
I’ve discovered that Germans and Japanese people are the most cautious type of online shopper – more hesitant to click on links when they’re not absolutely sure what is behind it. So if a strategy works in Germany and Japan, it will probably work anywhere because the standards of quality in those regions are very high.
Lucian Bitai
It depends on the link. If we’re talking about a “Buy Button” then yes, the link should send the user straight to a shopping cart outside of the affiliate’s website. In our case we will send a buyer to the vendor’s site. Because of our association with editorials we don’t want users thinking we’re paid to give these reviews.
If we are talking about a link that leads to a demo version of a product, then of course, the visitor should land in a download link and be ready to use the program with an affiliate ID built in. In this case, the user stays in our site because we host all the downloads which come from our servers.
When it comes to links involving promotions and coupons, that’s where a landing page might be useful because it gives the user additional background information before having to purchase. This allows the user to be more comfortable once they actually arrive at the shopping cart.
K.C. Motamedy
This choice really comes down to what type of affiliate we are dealing with. If the affiliate hosts a download portal that’s one thing. The user is engaged by reading reviews and maybe has tried the demo version. So if there is a “Buy Button” for that product, it might be appropriate to send them to a checkout process.
But if it’s a paid search ad campaign, don’t take the clicker straight to the shopping cart. That would be a waste of money.
Instead, take the visitor to a landing page with the necessary information: reemphasize what they saw in the ad and then lead them through the checkout process toward the shopping cart.
When looking through the marketing materials provided by a vendor, what do affiliates need to successfully promote a vendor’s product?
K.C. Motamedy
Companies can do a lot more when it comes to seasonal promotions. Yes, Black Friday and Cyber Monday and Christmas are huge, but what about other holidays? We’ve done some tests and have seen that there is a lift in conversion rates when you engage consumers through a special time on the calendar.
So it behooves companies to create seasonal promotions not just for their home markets, but for every market they sell in.The US has its holidays, but Germans celebrate different holidays than Americans and the Japanese celebrate different holidays than Europeans. Knowing your audience and becoming familiar with these different seasonal holidays can be very beneficial to online companies.
Lucian Bitai
Related to K.C.’s point about holidays: Our site is very focused on content and the majority of our revenue comes from premium ad placements. One service we have is an events calendar which a vendor can use to promote their software through free downloads in the days leading up to a major holiday.
We are even open to the idea of using this program around seasonal events to let our partners give users a free full version of the previous version of their product. The hope would be that the user will upgrade to the latest version and there would be a revenue share for that.
Alexander Schwarz
Regarding marketing materials the more the merrier. One option could be to provide exclusive interviews with high level executives that we can post to our blog. Another option is to have exclusive launches of a product through Softonic for certain regions for a limited time. We would then promote that product through social media with lots of calls to action.
We are very proud of the fact that we don’t just say, “Give us your money; give us our share.” We prefer to have an engaged partnership with lots of communication and cooperation on improving results. It’s very important for our editorial team to gain access to the marketing departments of our partners. It helps us understand the value of a product and how that value changes depending on which country you are selling it in.
Keystone
There are key differences between the US and the European affiliate market both in terms of how partnerships are formed and how revenue is shared.
Watch the entire video for additional answers to questions like:
- What mistakes should vendors avoid while working with affiliates?
- What is good advice for a vendor looking to launch their product in a new foreign market?
- What are the three most important metrics that affiliates monitor on a regular basis?
- How do you handle the tail end of products?
- Do Europeans prefer working on a CPA or CPM model?
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