White paper: Addressing incrementality in affiliate marketing

Feb 23, 2012 | Uncategorized

For advertisers, assessing return on investment from revenue generated through affiliate marketing can be a tricky process. Is the affiliate driving new sales, or are they claiming sales that would have happened anyway? This in-depth white paper from Affiliate Window addresses the issue head on, and provides practical ideas that affiliate managers can implement to […]

For advertisers, assessing return on investment from revenue generated through affiliate marketing can be a tricky process. Is the affiliate driving new sales, or are they claiming sales that would have happened anyway? This in-depth white paper from Affiliate Window addresses the issue head on, and provides practical ideas that affiliate managers can implement to boost incremental sales.


The place of the affiliate channel in an advertiser‟s online marketing mix is broad but complex.
The average affiliate will promote an advertiser in a way that mixes a multitude of different promotional methods and breaches the boundaries of traditional affiliate categorisation.
In deciding how to apportion spend and resource to each online marketing channel, advertisers need a clear view not just of the volume and ROI each produces, but the effect of these channels on each other.
In the affiliate sphere, as elsewhere, advertisers raise questions bearing on the extent to which the sales they receive through this channel are incremental. These are often phrased in the following ways:
• Would the customer have bought already?
• How do I know I am not paying for sales that I would have got anyway?
• Are affiliates capitalising on promotions that are financed by our business to give their own campaigns a boost?
Thw White paper below seeks to:
• Address the questions above and the concerns they sometimes give rise to.
• Suggest types of questions that advertisers might ask of their affiliates‟
activity to assess the degree to which it is incremental.
• Provide practical ideas that affiliate managers can implement to boost incremental sales.
The white paper looks at:
• Cashback sites (along with 2 case studies)
• Vouchercode sites (Red Letter Days case study)
• Behavioural Retargeting
• Paid Search & SEO
Please click here to download the full report

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