Encouraging Affiliate Competition with Brand

Good reasons for it and great reward.. any experience?

[SteveJohnston]

I have a new client who has a SERPs problem due to some investigations into their business practices ranking high for searches for his brand. His own optimization effort is pretty poor, but even with significant improvements he may not outperform the sites with the bad press.

I suggested he setup an affiliate scheme where the affiliates are actively encouraged to optimize in competition with his brand in order to introduce some noise into the SERPs that may reduce the impact of the bad press. The company actively advertises on TV and through direct mail, so the brand is well known to the target audience.

I said he'd have to offer a pretty generous incentive, which he says could be as much as $100 for each acquired customer.

Before I encourage him down this road any further, I'd be interested in anecdotes from experienced affiliates about this kind of approach and whether it is likely to succeed. Clearly most of the time brand owners don't want affiliates competing with their brand name directly, so there may not be many examples.

For now you can assume it is not pharma or adult, that the investigations are not criminal, but it is a genuine and significant consumer marketplace in the US.

Steve

[swirl]

Steve -- is the bad press legitimate? If not, then the obvious route is for your client to pursue legal action against the websites that are spreading libelous comments about the brand in question.

However...

If the claims ARE legitimate, and this new client of yours really DOES have lousy business practices... the bad press appearing in the search results will simply continue to mushroom.

Honestly, the bad press (if legitimate) is a symptom... the disease is this company's business practices, and if you want to give them great advice, advise them to fix what's wrong with their business practices so that the bad press subsides.

Your affiliate concept is the equivalent of a quack cure for cancer. It might cover things up and mask the symptoms for a little while, but the "tumor" will rear itself again unless the disease is cured.

Make sense?

[JollyK]

Actually, on the one hand, I understand why people don't want to compete with their affiliates for their own brand, but honestly, if Mr. Big Corporation can't manage to optimize their OWN site enough with all their millions, then I think the affiliates who can should be able to do so.

I can see policies against outbidding the Brand owner on PPC ads, but on the other hand, if your affiliates are outbidding you, you're getting free advertising!

Heck, I'd be tempted to drop all my *direct* ppc ads if I had affiliates outbidding me. :-)

I've done the affiliate PPC thing on one or two items where the company did allow you to do it as long as you didn't bid more than 10 cents a click (or some other limit) and I still managed to outrank the company's own PPC ads (at least on Google). So, they get visitors they didn't pay for, and I get a commission. Is that so bad for everyone?

I can see it both ways, but I've been more on the affiliate end than on the other, so my attitude there is something along the lines of, "DUDE! I'm working FOR you! I'm selling FOR you! Where does 'competition' come in?" I consider affiliates like outside sales, and think it's silly to tie the hands of your sales force.

I do agree that doing it as a coverup is probably not the greatest idea, but I'm all for unleashing your affiliates in general. :-)

JK

[SteveJohnston]

Hey Swirl,

Yes that all makes sense and I agree in principle. The bad press is legitimate, and the business practices under review. They operate in a difficult area that is highly regulated so it is easy to get noticed even if you simply screw up. So, yes this tactic may cover the bad press for a while and it may return, but they may be happy with such a tactical effect.

JK, thanks for the input.

Guys is $100 unusually big?

Steve

[JollyK]

Steve, it depends on the industry. I'm affiliated with a few companies in whose industries it's not unusual to pay an affiliate around $100 per acquired customer, even if that person doesn't stay a customer for more than a month and even though $100 is MORE than one-year's worth of what that customer pays for the service.

That's defining "acquired customer" as someone who actually purchases.

If you define "acquired customer" as someone who signs up for your mailing list or for more info (basically, a "lead,") then $100 is a bit rare (at least in my limited experience), but again, it depends on the industry.

If you haven't already done so, you might want to look at people in the same or similar industry, see if any of them have affiliate programs, and if so, see what they pay. You may only have to offer $50 if everyone else is offering $10. That kind of thing.

JK