Affiliate marketing in the US is perceived to be a year ahead of Britain and Britain two years ahead of mainland Europe and places like Australia. After having reviewed the largest affiliate network in America, this week’s tutorial provides a similar guide to the major players in the UK.

As explained in the last Master Class, this is only a small selection of the available networks and it is essential when launching an affiliate program to consider all the options available. The recently published E-Consultancy’s Affiliate Marketing Networks Buyer’s Guide (2006) provides detailed information about 18 networks in the UK.

Our review of each network includes the Alexa ranking and number of posts in the network’s section on Affiliates4U. The former is a third party tool to determine how popular a website may be. It is not wholly accurate, but the best independent tool out there. Affiliates4U is a major UK online forum specializing in affiliate marketing.

TradeDoubler
Alexa Ranking: 483
Posts on Affiliates4U: 19,230

TradeDoubler in a European company with headquarters in Sweden, where it floated on the stockmarket in 2005. It has offices in 14 countries around Europe.

With nearly 63 staff members, 1,200 advertisers and 33,000 active publishers in the UK, TradeDoubler is one of the two largest networks in the country. It boasts the biggest and best brands including Dell, Apple and HMV.

Fees are high: £5,000 set up and £300 per month on top of the percentage override. This means that smaller advertisers often can’t afford to join the network. But TD is a firm favorite for many blue chip companies and has a reputation for efficiently dealing with issues.

"TradeDoubler’s expertise within our sector and its reputation for driving great results for major brands made it the obvious choice for our affiliate programme. We can also take advantage of TradeDoubler’s excellent technical capabilities and extensive network of quality publishers. All these elements combine to give us the confidence that TradeDoubler can fully optimise our return on investment." Adam Culkin, Online Marketing Manager, Asda

 

Commission Junction
Alexa Ranking: 434
Posts on Affiliates4U: 11,370

The world’s largest affiliate network opened a UK office in February 2001 and now has 33 employees in the country.

Some of Britain’s best known companies host their affiliate programs on CJ ranging from Betfair to Mothercare to Capital One.

Basic set up fee is either £1,500 to £4,700. CJ provides a wide range of detailed metrics for advertisers and many of them express satisfaction with the service provided. However, affiliates are not as enthusiastic about CJ and regularly complain about links not tracking, compensation not being paid out and an aloof support team.

One of the big disadvantages of CJ UK is that many things have to be run by an over-controlling US head office, which means a relatively small issue can take months to get sorted.

"As our program evolved, we realized there were so many Web sites we could partner with. Commission Junction makes it easy to match successful publishers with similar advertisers and has the global network and services we were looking for to help us expand our publisher base." Jared Williams, Affiliate Programs Specialist, Crucial Technology

Affiliate Window
Alexa Ranking: 788
Posts on Affiliates4U: 10,018

Privately-owned AW is based in Greenwich in South-East London. Set up in May 2000, it has expanded into a mammoth enterprise with over 500 active advertisers. 

The set-up fee is £1,950 for an exclusive (i.e. you are only on Affiliate Window) and £3,500 for a non-exclusive. Monthly rate varies from £200 per month for a self managed program to £500 for a supported program.

Affiliate Window is known for being a pro-Pay Per Click (PPC) affiliate network and one which generates a large chunk of its revenue from PPC affiliates. It will be launching a contextual ad service in 2007 similar to Google Adsense.

"The team have demonstrated consistently that protecting the brand is always front of mind. The account management team shows a real passion to continually drive ROI. Affiliate Window tailor their approach to suit the ever-changing demands we face in a retail business." Andy Hicks, Woolworths Group

 

Buy.at
Alexa Ranking: 10,790
Posts on Affiliates4U: 3,771

Buy.at is a New Kid on the Block. The Newcastle-based network thrust into affiliate marketing in 2002. With a £7.3 million investment from Esprit Capital Partners, the company is cash-rich and has nearly 50 staff members.

The network has a good reputation among advertisers and publishers, with a workforce which actively engages in the affiliate community, although the snail-like progress in many departments causes a great deal of angst. For example, buy.at were the last major network to not allow affiliates to be paid by direct deposit, something they only finally set up a few weeks ago. The interface is the poorest of any major network, lacking a search box, categorization of affiliate programs and other basic features.

Set up is a hefty £3,000, although there is no monthly fee which saves money in the long term.

"We have been impressed with the service delivered by buy.at across a number of our campaigns. Quantum has worked closely with buy.at and together we have delivered strong growth for our clients over 2006. They are also a pleasure to deal with - something which should not to be underestimated!" Rich Way, Affiliate Manager, Quantum Media

 

Affiliate Future
Alexa Ranking: 2,931
Posts on Affiliates4U: 1,086

The network is part of highly successful Internet Business Group PLC which is listed on the London AIM market. Based in Fitzrovia in central London, AF runs regular events for both advertisers and affiliates, including free training sessions for the former.

Because of its low fees (£500 start-up and £75 a month) Affiliate Future attracts a lot of advertisers: the UK business currently has nearly 700 merchants on its books.

The low fees mean that AF is not able to devote as much energy to its advertisers as other networks. Setting up things like data-feeds can be a time consuming affair that requires nagging the limited support staff time and time again over many weeks. The advertiser management interface is also one of the most basic and least user-friendly of any network.

"St Minver is extremely happy with AffiliateFuture and plans to continue to develop its affiliate programme with them in order to continue to attract high numbers of quality affiliates and customers." St. Minver (Littlewoods Bingo etc.)

 

Although not as large as the Big Five, PrimeQ is worth investigating if you are looking to get involved in performance based marketing in the UK. Despite having lower fees than any of the above networks - £250 start-up and £50 monthly – it specializes in employing cutting-edge technology to generate leads for clients through a range of channels.

You may find out more about PrimeQ’s affiliate network here. Should you have any enquiries about PrimeQ UK you may email either JJ or Reza. Their email addresses are jabadom AT primeq.co.uk and rvinkes AT primeq.co.uk and the number to call is +44 (0) 20 7061 3190.

Nadeem Azam, PrimeQ
Public Relations Manager
nazam@primeq.co.uk

Expansion of PrimeQ UK Continues with Move into New Offices

PrimeQ’s UK arm moved into new London offices on December 7 which are eight times bigger than the previous ones. The move reflects the significant growth the company has enjoyed in 2006.

The new 1,500 square foot headquarters are a mere ten minute walk from the previous location. The area is called the West End, known for having the most expensive commercial real estate in the world. 

“We outgrew the previous offices and were in desperate need for an enlarged space,” explained Murray Newlands, Vice President of Sales. “It was not easy finding an office the size we required in central London, but were lucky to come across Dragon Court. The move has not been easy and there have been a lot of upheavals, but we are delighted to have finally settled into the new place”.

The new PrimeQ headquarters are based on the first floor of three storey office block. Ironically, another affiliate network, Webgains, are based on the third floor. “We should grab Webgains’ clients on their way up to the third floor and entice them onto our network,” joked one of PrimeQ’s staff members.

The new contact details are:

First Floor
Dragon Court
27-29 Macklin Street
London
WC2B 5LX
United Kingdom

Tel: +44 (0) 20-7061-3190
Fax: +44 (0) 207-681-2897  

Google Adwords to Provide Landing Pages for Small Businesses

Google is lowering the bar to entry for local businesses to use AdWords. For new customers wanting to generate leads online, the company will help create a landing page and host it for them.

Google AdWords is not charging for the "hosted business pages" service, which is being called a feature of the AdWords Starter Edition package, according to Jon Diorio, senior product marketing manager for Google AdWords.

"Once you've created your ad, and it's time to send people to a Web site with the ad you've created, it asks you if you have a page and will create one for you if you don't," Diorio said. "One of our goals is to empower the long tail of advertisers. Helping those small businesses that may not have an Internet presence, still source customers and make it as easy as possible."

The hosted business pages are not full-featured web sites, but rather landing pages with basic information such as phone numbers, addresses and simple images.

The feature, which Google began testing in October, joins a growing list of service options for local businesses. These include the ability to update their listings on Google Local and providing printable coupons. With local online ad spending expected to double in the next five years, it's clear Google wants to attract as many small- to mid-sized businesses as it can. But Diorio insists the move is altruistic.

"There are a lot of small local advertisers who just want a simple way to run one of those ads," he said. ''This is part of our effort to further democratize online advertising. It was available for a long time only to people with a lot of money and resources, and our goal is to make it available to everybody that needs it."

Courtesy ClickZ News, © Incisive Interactive Marketing LLC

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