For Publishers and Advertisers
The number of performance marketing networks has gone through the roof in the last year as the technology needed has become more accessible. There’s no reason not to work with several networks at once but you should bear the following points in mind:
For Publishers:
- Talk to one of the affiliate managers. They’re the people who can really make a difference to your earning capacity.
- Examine their payment policies and check out the forums to see if there have been any payment problems.
- Compare their offers to others in the industry. The highest paying offer isn’t always the best. Conversions are what counts.
- Do a reputation check by talking to industry colleagues. There are lots of ways networks can rip off their affiliates, so be aware.
For Advertisers:
- The rule of thumb is that CPS gives you higher quality, CPA greater quantity. All things being equal the difference should simply depend on your conversion rate.
- Check everything you can: applicants, lead quality, sub-IDs, ROI by publisher, etc. Don’t rely just on the network to pick up problems.
- Look at the network’s fraud prevention systems and at the staff running them. Fraud is widely prevalent and you need a network that is alert and protecting your interests.
- Look at where the traffic is coming from and what control you have over it. Be careful of networks that are simply acting as brokers or that are buying cheap traffic from unknown sources.