Case Study

Brief

When eGroup partnered with Commission Junction in early 2007, their objectives were straighforward:

• Recruit new publishers
• Activate existing publishers
• Motivate publishers to increase performance
• Increase sales volume

Strategy

Getting the balance right
Commission Junction and eGroup worked on a strategy of recruiting a good balance of publishers. They focussed on three key areas:

• Content and Paid Inclusion – 40%
• Incentive sites such as Cashback and Reward – 30%
• PPC (Pay Per Click) - 30%

The combination of these publisher business models proved successful as each business model provided different benefits:

• The PPC model drove a high volume of traffic directly to eGroup’s multiple sites generating
more opportunity for direct sales. Commission Junction worked very closely with eGroup’s external search agency to ensure that there was minimal duplication
• The incentive sites offered attractive rewards resulting in customers converting immediately as opposed to browsing for further products or deals
• The content sites helped to bring brand awareness

Execution

Reactivating and motivating publishers

As the initial objective of publisher recruitment had been ticked off, the next focus was on re-activating publishers who were dormant on the programme (almost 50% of the publishers. Specific campaigns and competitions were devised to encourage re-activation.

This happened in tandem with the development of activity to improve conversion rates, including the introduction of smart performance incentives for publishers where they received additional reward for reaching pre-defined thresholds.

All in all these activities have made the programme much more attractive to affiliates and proved successful. The strategy avoided any need to increase the CPA and ultimately maximised eGroup’s profit margin in the long run.

Results

In a twelve month period over 2007/2008 eGroup recorded a 508% rise in affiliate sales.
“In many cases it takes up to three months of a programme to really get off the ground as you are reliant on publishers placing your text links and banners on their websites. Within two months eGroup had more than 1,000 affiliates signed to its programme with more than one third of these affiliates being active.”

Emmanuel Ogidan, Account Director, Commission Junction

“Sales levels picked up as soon as the programme commenced”

Stacey Alexander, Affiliate Marketing Manager, eGroup