In the world of affiliate marketing, where “affiliate” websites promote the products and services of other “merchants” for a commission, some of those merchants lay down strict rules about how their products and services can be promoted (i.e.: no using trademarked terms, no promising free gifts (incentivising), etc.). The problem for affiliates is that often those banned methods of promotion are among the most effective for generating leads and/or sales (and therefore commissions). So, rather than playing by the rules, some affiliates have spent their time thinking up creative ways of using banned search engine marketing tactics without getting caught.
Here is a well told story - from a fellow member of a local search engine marketing group - of one sneaky affiliate who got busted:
Hi. I’d like to highlight an experience I just had with an affiliate conducting in late night geo-targeting search campaigns that violated affiliate guidelines, and in my opinion ethics. [NOTE: Geo-targeting is the practice of displaying ads only to people in specific geographies (i.e.: states)]
I was tracking hourly sales for our brand [i.e.: trademarked] terms and there was a noticeable drop in the evening, more than you would expect.
Using Google’s Ad Preview Tool and started to find our ads, replaced by [an affiliate's ads].
These ads were being found in most states outside of California, which is where we are located. The ads only started to appear after 7 pm PST. [The affiliate opted to have his ads displayed outside of California so that the merchant would be less likely to find his ads. Google's Ad Preview Tool lets users see ads in geographies other than their own].
The ads directly violated our affiliate search conditions by using our trademark term anywhere in the ad, including the display url. Plus they claimed to be the “Official Site” which while not illegal is very misleading to the customer.
Because I was in preview I was unable to click on the ad or derive any sort of identification.
Google was also unable to identify the ad and couldn’t do anything to stop it. Citing display url policy, the above is not illegal so long as it goes direct to Snapfish, though they understood the problem especially around the “Official Site” and the tactics being used.
Immediately I increased branded terms that I found his ads on to insanely high rates, but this seemed not to matter, the ads kept appearing.
Finally after some research I was able to get my Google searches to think I was in another state displaying the suspect ad, giving me the necessary details to identify the advertiser.
[Affiliate name] (Commission Junction Publisher ID: [removed]), also doing business as [URL Removed] (Commission Junction Publisher ID: [removed]).
You can read a number of posts regarding [URL removed] if you do a bit of investigating, namely using the above tactic.
If you have this person in your affiliate program, know that he was using the above tactics to glean hundreds of thousands of dollars in commissions and thousands of sales using very dark tactics. Plus harming your brand, misleading customers, and hurting search efforts.
I removed the affiliate accounts from our program immediately and reversed what commissions I could, I recommend you take an evening and see what pops up in places outside of your region in the late evenings.
Thanks.
[merchant name and company name removed]
UPDATE (11/20/2008): I’ve removed the name and URL for the supposed offending affiliates because, althought my sources confirm strong ties between the two dark-tactic affiliates, I’m unable to personally verify the information. I have been contacted directly by the affiliate who denies any wrongdoing, although no further information or evidence was offered by him. At this point, this just remains a story about shady marketing tactics used by affiliates to side-step merchant program guidelines.
NOTE (11/20/2008): The original source of this story sent an update stating that:
“[affiliate name] and their spn off [URL removed] have been kicked out of [the Commission Junction Affiliate Network] as of Tuesday.
If true, this is a great move by CJ. I was hoping for this sort of action, but wasn’t expecting it at all given [affiliate name]’s stature.”
Having worked on both sides of the affiliate marketing fence (as an affiliate and a merchant), I understand that someone might be tempted to use these dark tactics to earn some extra bucks, but it’s a short sighted game plan. If you’re going to participate in an affiliate program it’s best to realize that - as in all business - your reputation is your lifeblood, and you can only get away with using sneaky tactics like these for so long. The game will catch up to you. Even if you have made some money doing it, it reduces the likelihood that you’ll be able to do so in the future. Think long term - it’s not always about the fast buck! I’m glad to hear how the story ended. And I’m happy to do my part to spread the word.
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