| |
POOR |
NEEDS IMPROVEMENT |
TYPICAL |
BEST PRACTICE |
| CPA (Cost Per Action) |
Unrelated to goal attainment |
lower than necessary to reach goal, due to insufficient budget |
effective but inefficient: higher than necessary to reach goal |
effective and efficient: just high enough to reach goal |
| Program Management |
your volunteer Affiliate Manager is unresponsive to Publisher questions |
your volunteer Affiliate Manager is reactive to Publisher questions |
your Affiliate Manager gives proactive, systematic encouragement via email |
Your Affiliate Manager gives proactive, systematic encouragement via email supplemented by follow-up phone calls with the highest performing Publishers |
| Publisher Recruitment |
Open acceptance. Passive recruitment. |
Automated screening of applications using rules-based criteria. Passive recruitment. |
Affiliate Manager personally reviews all Publisher applications and proactively recruits in-network Publishers |
Affiliate Manager personally reviews all Publisher applications and proactively recruits in-network Publishers and "Super Affiliates" |
| Publisher Motivation |
no feedback other than online reports |
incentives offered but not focused on inspiring the highest priorities |
incentives targeted to the highest performing Publishers that contribute 80% of the leads |
tiered reward scale; incentives targeted for recruiting, retention of highest performers, and re-testing by lapsed Publishers |
| Banner Ad Format |
non-standard formats; or filesizes larger than industry norms |
meets standards, but formats are randomly selected |
meets standards; formats selected based on industry norms for highest performance |
meets standards; formats selected based on your own testing |
| Banner Ad Copywriting and Design |
bland or vague |
compelling message |
compelling message and visually captivating |
compelling message, visually captivating, and coordinated with the call-to-action destination page |
| Banner Ad Continuous Improvement |
Stale |
refreshed sporadically |
refreshed regularly but subjectively |
refreshed systematically, based on Earnings Per Click (EPC) performance or popularity |
| Monitoring Publishers |
no monitoring |
reactive to complaints |
proactive and frequent monitoring via automated reports |
proactive and frequent monitoring via automated reports, as well as ongoing review of Publisher websites and newsletters |
| Landing Page Conversion |
the call-to-action is not reinforced and the registration form asks for unnecessary information |
the call-to-action is not reinforced or the registration form asks for unnecessary information |
the call-to-action is reinforced compellingly and the registration form requires the minimum necessary information |
the call-to-action is reinforced compellingly, based on split-cell testing, and the registration form requires the minimum necessary information; an exit pop-up offers a second chance to end-users that abandon the registration form without submitting it |
| Referral and Conversion Tracking |
Unreliable |
third-party verified, but without protection for outage risk |
third-party verified, with outage-risk transferred to the Publisher |
third-party verified, backed-up by separate conversion tracking for validation, with outage risk transferred to the Publisher |
