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Brian Marcus is the Director of the Global eBay Partner Network, where he leads one of eBay's most important and valuable sources of quality traffic. The eBay affiliate program was established in 2001 and has steadily grown to include over 300,000 partner sites in 13 countries. Marcus is speaking at the 2013 Affiliate Management Days conference in San Francisco and below are some questions I decided to ask him before the event.
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Question: If you emphasize one important issue that every affiliate manager should pay more attention to, what would it be and why?
Brian Marcus: This year, we're making sure that we're not only delivering to our publishers, but really focusing on the needs and wants of end customers. I think this is a strategy all affiliate managers can use to ensure their programs really make an impact throughout their entire lifecycle.
We often lose sight of what the customer really needs to be successful, but I think greater success can be achieved if we are all making sure that those customer needs really are the basis for all decisions. So what kind of tools, access and support do customers need, and how can we make the process easier and better for them?
We're thinking about it in terms of focusing on creating great experiences for eBay buyers and sellers, whether they're coming to us directly or through one of our affiliate partners. I think this is a strategy most affiliate managers can apply in their organizations as well.
Question: What do you see as the top areas of opportunity for online and affiliate marketers in 2013 - 2014?
Brian Marcus: Social and Mobile: These two have obviously been great opportunities for online marketers for quite some time now. However, we believe there are more ways for publishers to leverage social and mobile channels to build their audiences and monetize content through new avenues.
Personalization: Currently, there are a number of tools and strategies to create personalized and personalized experiences for customers as they travel from affiliate sites to advertiser sites. This goes along with the idea that we should focus more on the end customer and give them different ways to customize their search and purchase experiences, based on their specific needs.
Networked Wisdom: As technology advances, we now have a lot more information about how online consumers are navigating their experience. With smarter tools and more data insights, online retailers, networks, affiliate managers and publishers can make more informed decisions and constantly adjust and optimize campaigns.
Question: It's not uncommon to hear that since affiliates operate in the mix with other marketing channels that merchants use (paid search, re-targeting, social, etc) with multi-touch eCommerce, that the last-click attribution model is not necessarily a great?
In September 2009, the eBay Partner Network (EPN) implemented Quality Click Pricing (QCP), which essentially meant moving from EPN's previous CPA (cost per action) model to a CPC (cost per click) model. How has the switch to QCP affected your affiliates' performance? What do you think of the last click?
Brian Marcus: Since we can now evaluate and reward publishers for driving higher quality traffic rather than focusing on quantity, the overall quality of the show has greatly increased. Because we're rewarding quality, we're able to drive conversions, reduce dead traffic, and basically level the playing field for publishers of all sizes.
I think the attribution method used depends a lot on the advertiser's business model and how publishers interact within the channel. While the last click may work best for some, it depends on your goals, the type of advertiser, and who your affiliates and customers are. I don't think we need to go to a rigid industry standard; There's a case to be made that we don't all have to choose the same model. EPN is always looking for better ways to tell the true story of attribution. I think the key is having an analytics that gives you a broad view of the entire purchase journey and extracts insights from there.
Question: What do you see as the key areas where affiliates can really help online merchants by adding value to the pre-sales process?
Brian Marcus: Well, the most obvious place affiliates can add value is by helping merchants expand their reach and find new customers that they can't reach on their own. Creating quality content that educates, engages, and ultimately helps guide purchasing decisions is another important area. The best publishers add value by doing both of these things, naturally developing a loyal audience of visitors who trust the publisher to provide quality content and recommendations.
Question: If you were to leave online advertisers, merchants and affiliate managers with one piece of advice, what would it be?
Brian Marcus: My advice is to really take the time to understand why your customers are going to affiliate sites in the first place. Affiliates help fill in the gaps in areas where we may not necessarily excel.
If your customers are going to an affiliate site, they're probably doing it for a reason. By understanding your affiliates' strengths, you can also uncover some of your own weaknesses, allowing you to discover how to work with affiliates to provide a richer overall experience for your customers.
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Visit the Affiliate Management Days Conference website. See the rest of the AMDays interview series here.
