mThink

How do some performance marketing networks keep succeeding against all odds? Why is it that while some CPA networks vanish almost overnight, others survive and grow?

Mary Meeker’s annual Internet Trends report is always the place to look for guidance on where future opportunities may lie. It rewards a full reading (download link after the jump) and is rich enough that I’m not even going to comment on it in this post. I’ll just give you a few of her insights

If you don’t know how to speak Portugese or Chinese now is the time to make friends with someone who can. Two reports this week showed the opportunities in two of the fastest growing economies in the world, Brazil and China. Affiliates and networks seeking new buyers – this is where you can find them.
From Forrester:

So-called Internet marketing "gurus" plague the performance marketing industry, ripping off newbie affiliates with get-rich-quick schemes and BS advice that costs a fortune. So it was interesting to see tech website The Verge release a massive expose of what they called "SCAMWORLD", featuring such well-known personalities as Frank Kern, Andy Jenkins, Yanik Silver and Mike Filsaime.

It’s hard to get reliable insights into the inner workings of networks so I was interested to see TradeDoubler’s recent presentation of financial results. While trying to put a positive spin on things, the quote that sticks in the mind is, "The comparison with the first quarter last year is especially bleak." In examining the figures, that seems a little too pessimistic, but who am I to argue with their own CFO? The fact is that TradeDoubler has lower revenues, higher costs and dramatically reduced earnings (EBIT).

Every day we see more reports on the inexorable rise of mobile. From Apple’s stock price to the market penetration of mobile devices worldwide – see below for an eye-watering statistic – it is ever clearer that mobile is already a key driver of online marketing. If you believe, as I do, that everything is moving towards performance marketing, then the subject of how and where these trends coincide becomes critical.
How about this as a starting point: Mobile is local. Local means transactions. Transactions are performance.

Google has officially thrown open the gates to AdWords for video. You can now make your own video ad and run it as a CPC AdWords campaign just like you currently do with search and display ads.

What this means is that YouTube’s 800 million monthly visitors are suddenly in play for performance marketing media buyers and that we will see all kinds of imaginative approaches being tried. Brands will of course also have a new set of headaches to worry about as their products appear in videos with competitor ads as pre-rolls. It has the potential to be like reverse product-placement.

In news that will surprise absolutely nobody who knows how dating sites work, an expose this week revealed that you can buy the dating profiles of 2,500 lesbians for $120; 70,000 Australians for $95; and gay men for .003 cents each.

The FTC has announced a $1.3 million settlement with Copeac. The settlement figure is derived from the monies allegedly made by Copeac from "deceptive fake news site ads for acai berries, colon cleansers, and other supposed weight-loss dietary supplements; and revenues they received for other products marketed on fake news sites."