Commission Junction’s Lisa Riolo steps into a new role with some familiar responsibilities.
As Commission Junction’s senior vice president of business development, Lisa Riolo is responsible for driving revenue for the sales and business development teams. While she’s not technically filling Todd Crawford’s shoes, Riolo will be the new face of the affiliate network, taking on many of the same challenges as the former vice president of sales, who left in February.
Owned by ValueClick, CJ is based in Santa Barbara, Calif., and has tens of thousands of publishers in its global network. In the six years that Riolo has worked there, she has led the sales, client development, search and product management teams. In her new position, she manages the 25 people who make up the sales and performance optimization departments. Revenue Senior Editor Maria Sample recently interviewed Riolo about her company’s practices and plans for the future, as well as the affiliate marketing industry and the importance of understanding people.
Maria Sample Your predecessor was very active in the affiliate community (i.e., forums, message boards, etc.). Do you plan on continuing to be Commission Junction’s face in those arenas?
Lisa Riolo Actually, the organizational structure introduced by our general manager, Tom Vadnais, positions me in a role that hadn’t previously existed. So, fortunately, I’m not faced with the challenge of having to fill someone else’s shoes. I do recognize that, since its earliest days, Commission Junction has relied upon one or two individuals to convey most of its messages. In the future, I think the affiliate community will hear and see us take more of a team approach.
MS Todd Crawford (the former vice president of sales) was considered the public face of Commission Junction. The downside of that is that he often took the heat from angry and upset affiliates. Are you prepared for that? And how will you handle those sorts of public (and sometimes personal) attacks?
LR I believe passionately that Commission Junction achieved greatness because of the publishers. I’m very open and prepared to listen to them. It’s been part of my role for the past six years.
If I end up the target of discussion, that’s OK. I’ve found that frustrations expressed reveal great opportunities to learn and improve. I tend to worry more about silence than I do about rants.
MS Part of your responsibilities include increasing Commission Junction’s market share. What plans do you have to increase market share over the next 12 to 18 months?
LR Our vision has consistently included a global perspective, and in the last 18 months, we’ve expanded our European presence from the U.K. to Germany and France. In 2006, we plan to launch offices in more countries in Europe, and continue to leverage opportunities we have in Asia.
We’re also committed to improving our clients’ experience in the CJ Marketplace. As we make it easier for them to extract information and interact with our product offering, we’ll attract new participants to our business.
MS What about plans for driving new revenue?
LR Our current plans fall into three categories. Last year, we expanded our service offering to better meet the needs of our advertisers, especially those selecting the CJ Access service level. We see additional opportunities for services that benefit other segments with our client base. Next, we’re exploring opportunities for leveraging new distribution channels created by technology innovation. And finally, we’ve reaped great benefits by collaborating with other teams in the ValueClick family of brands and plan to continue to do so.
When you look at the ValueClick products and expertise, you’ll see we have a compelling story. When you look at the metrics from just a couple of our cross-divisional efforts, you see the type of incremental lift that generates real excitement on our part.
MS What threats, if any, does the sudden proliferation of ad networks present to Commission Junction?
LR Ad networks have existed for years, some of which we’ve had relationships with for a long time. We don’t see ad networks as a threat, per se. They offer value that complements what we do at Commission Junction. We see that from our collaboration with our teammates at ValueClick Media, who run the largest independent display ad network in the U.S. The more monetization opportunities we can offer our publishers, the happier they are and the more they want to work with us.
The fact is, as heard from several outstanding publishers, they go where they get the best return on investment [ROI]. Commission Junction must understand and optimize every component of the ROI equation, from payout to time spent in our member area.
MS Can you outline the risks and benefits of sub-affiliate networks?
LR From an advertiser’s perspective, the benefits are a) you’ve potentially improved your efficiency because you’ve outsourced part of your relationship management responsibilities, and b) the sub-affiliate network may generate significant volume and extend your reach. The two primary risks of working with subaffiliate networks are a) you’re typically paying a premium for “aggregated” transactions, and b) you often do not have good visibility into the promotional methods used by the “subaffiliates” which, in all likelihood, will challenge quality standards.
From a publisher’s perspective, the benefits offered include higher commissions and often, faster payouts. The downside is productive publishers that don’t have direct relationships limit their ability to demonstrate their value. Hence, negotiating exclusive offers or higher payouts is difficult. The other risk for publishers is that, often, the sub-affiliate networks are not only outsourcing to other affiliates, but also competing with them. How often does a subaffiliate’s transaction get attributed to the network or super-affiliate?
MS Andrew Jacob, Leadpile’s CEO, seems to think his company’s Centralized Online Lead Marketplace could take the place of Commission Junction. Recently, he referred to his offering as an alternative to “traditional, old-fashioned affiliate marketing programs like Commission Junction.”
LR Isn’t it fantastic to operate in an industry where someone references a company that hasn’t celebrated its 10th anniversary yet as “old-fashioned?” Anyway, my response in these situations is usually the same: I pay attention. I never dismiss the potential importance of a future or existing player in the space. If you’re still in business, the game never ends. You’re always competing and you always have to scout and monitor what else is out there – and why. You won’t catch me not paying attention.
I do look for potential issues with other networks. For example (and acknowledging that it’s still early on), Jacob hasn’t illustrated how he plans to manage quality and scalability from the advertiser perspective. If you can’t drive and manage large-scale results on a reliable basis, you can’t drive value for your network participants. And a bid-based pricing system alone doesn’t really resolve all of the issues around quality. Nor can he simply assert, “Our sellers provide high-quality leads” with no basis. Even if the prospective customers Leadpile provided to its past advertisers were of acceptable quality, it’s a completely different thing to build a quality network.
So, it’s about quality, efficiency and scale, and no one in the affiliate marketing industry has driven all three of these as well as Commission Junction.
MS What does Commission Junction have that the competition does not?
LR The first thing we have is market-leading scale. Commission Junction is a global leader in performance-based marketing, and is the No. 1 provider of affiliate marketing managed services. Second, our commitment to upholding quality standards within our network of advertisers and publishers is unparalleled. We are the only network that has a team dedicated to monitoring and enforcing our Code of Conduct and Service Agreements. We are a trusted third party that continually strives to build and retain our clients’ (and future clients’) trust and exceed their expectations.
Third, we provide more transparency than the competition. The CJ Marketplace is the only network that openly publishes the performance metrics of advertisers, publishers and ads, allowing for a results-driven environment.
Fourth, as part of ValueClick, we can introduce our advertisers and publishers to a broader set of solutions that help advertisers meet their various online marketing goals and publishers monetize their online presence.
MS Why does Commission Junction use the term “publisher” instead of “affiliate”?
LR When we made the change from “affiliate” to “publisher,” we introduced the CJ Marketplace with the intention of influencing online marketing beyond the affiliate world. So, we adopted terms more commonly used by the ad networks. We also switched from “merchant” to “advertiser.” The strategy worked well and we have caught the attention of a broader group of online marketers.
MS How often do you interact with publishers?
LR During the past six years, my primary responsibilities involved developing our clients – both the advertisers and the publishers. When it comes to personal interaction, client meetings reflect about a 70/30 split between advertisers and publishers. Typically, though, I spend more of my time in the publisher meetings. At our annual client-facing event, Commission Junction University (CJU) and other industry events, I focus my attention almost exclusively on publishers because I need more data points from that group to understand if, and what, trends exist.
MS What makes an affiliate/publisher a “super-affiliate” at Commission Junction?
LR There are several attributes, including commissions earned, that earn publishers a CJ Performer designation. Generally, I’ve found the highest performance levels represent the top 5 to 10 percent of a program or network’s participants.
MS What traits do super-affiliates/publishers possess that separate them from the others?
LR I almost always see a balanced blend of entrepreneurial spirit, technical ability and creativity among this type of publisher. They are goal-driven and usually set aggressive benchmarks. The one unique quality I see in those with a long track record of proven results is a greater focus on flexibility than massive scale.
MS What type of online advertisers/companies do you work with?
LR We work with 1,700 advertisers. There isn’t a specific type of advertiser that we work with – we attract a broad spectrum of advertisers from small, regional businesses to global brands and from all industries.
MS What rate of measurement works best for advertisers? Publishers?
LR ROI and ROI.
MS What do you think publishers could be doing better?
LR On the whole, publishers tend to focus on attracting consumers that have already progressed toward the decision-making phase in the purchasing cycle. I think they could improve their ability to effectively move a consumer through more of the earlier phases in the purchasing cycle.
MS What do you think online advertisers could be doing better?
LR Advertisers should focus on managing their spend and resource allocation across channels. Too often I hear the statement that affiliate marketing generates the best RoAS [Return on Ad Spend] coupled with the assertion that the channel isn’t capable of producing comparable “volume” to their other channels. Managed properly, as evidenced by a number of savvy advertisers in the industry, the affiliate channel can effectively outperform the alternatives – including search and portal deals.
MS What do you like about performance-based marketing?
LR Both the left and right sides of my brain get stimulated by this work. I love the analytics and seeing the big ideas unfold. You might think the accountability in performance-based marketing, with its focus on metrics, would discourage creativity. I think it’s quite the opposite. Driving results, on a pay-for-performance basis, forces a level of effectiveness that demands creativity. I think the publishers are often at the leading edge of change and innovation.
MS What do you dislike about performance-based marketing?
LR When you compare results across marketing channels – the standards set by performance-based marketing should prevail. Yet I still see advertiser clients having to fight, internally, for budgets and resources. If the team involved is properly monitoring for quality, then blowing through a “budget” should equate to blowing through sales goals – and that’s a good thing, right? They should be feeding the revenue machine.
MS Are you involved in Commission Junction’s Internet radio show, “Affiliate Marketing Today”?
LR Yes, I participated in the decision to produce the show and it launched on March 21. Our team changed the broadcast format to take a unique approach in that it covers the continual changes in the industry, with both an advertiser and publisher perspective across beginner, intermediate and advanced levels.
MS What’s happening in 2006 at Commission Junction – any big changes?
LR This year is very exciting for us and our clients. We have some significant projects in our pipeline. Also, I mentioned earlier we plan to launch in some additional European countries this year.
MS Do you think Yahoo’s ban on trademark bidding will have a big effect on SEM?
LR Right now, a conflict exists between brand marketers and performance marketers. The assumption is that you are either creating awareness or driving sales. Actually, both channels should benefit the other. I think pricing models and ROI metrics, rather than restrictions, are the best way to manage the effectiveness of a channel. As marketers’ perspectives on this issue evolve, I think Yahoo may choose to alter their policy.
MS What would happen to Commission Junction if Google suddenly went out of business?
LR At its core, Google is a distributor of information. I don’t think Google created demand that wasn’t already there. Instead, they found a way to effectively supply the information. Initially, Google altered the way people navigated the Web. If suddenly the system being used to access information disappears, what happens? People adapt and find a new source, or sources, to access information. With respect to Commission Junction, we, through our publishers, would adapt. Publishers would find new opportunities to promote offers at the emerging information sources.
You know what? These changes are already happening, but it’s gradual, not sudden. Web users navigate and source information differently today, compared to yesterday. What are we doing about this? Sensing, responding and facilitating changes within our model.
MS How has your psychology degree helped you in your career?
LR A psychology degree wasn’t supposed to help me in business – or so I recall having heard from people more often than not. I remember thinking that studying psychology would help me understand what motivates people. And, it seemed to me, if I was going to be an effective leader within any business, I better understand what motivates people. I think my theory held up pretty well.