Selasa, 24 November 2009

Google Affiliate Network Winter Holiday Retail Insights

As we head into the busy holiday shopping season our water-cooler conversations turn to prognostications about the upcoming seasonal peak. With a vast publisher network helping consumers find offers and product information, the affiliate channel is typically a very accurate reflection of ecommerce trends, particularly during peak shopping seasons. And of course the most interesting change during the holiday season, we (online marketers), really look forward to Mondays!

Cyber Monday is a widely accepted phenomenon and it's dueling with its offline counterpart, Black Friday, for attention from shoppers and advertisers. But November 30th is just the first of the exciting Mondays during the online shopping season. The most important indicator of the holiday shopping peak is the calendar. It all depends on where the holidays fall relative to shipping deadlines. Google Affiliate Network captures a summary of our advertisers shipping deadlines to help affiliate publishers with their optimization schedules. Publishers can access the shipping deadline calendar in the Google Affiliate Network user interface. Sign in and visit the announcements section on the publisher home page.


During the holiday season we see activity accelerate around the first of November and that trend continued this month. We look at four key indicators: visits, conversions, average order size and conversion rate. Visits peak first, with the spike in conversions lagging by 2-3 days. Conversion rates peak just before the average shipping deadline as last minute shoppers move into transaction mode. Average order size has proven to be a good indicator of the overall e-commerce environment, as in 2008 we saw the average order size drop pretty significantly over previous holiday seasons. The consensus at Google Affiliate Network is that we'll see the most significant spike in volume on November 30th but we anticipate the following Mondays (Dec. 7th and Dec 14th) will rival Cyber Monday in overall volume and conversion rates will peak on Monday, December 14th as the shipping deadlines loom.


Note: Data presented represents "Google Affiliate Network's Same Store Sales" to illustrate affiliate channel trends. The trend data is based only affiliate programs in place during the previous year, it does not include new advertisers and excludes certain anomalous publishers.

Senin, 23 November 2009

Google Affiliate Network Publisher Terms and Policies Update

In August, Google Affiliate Network updated the terms and policies for new-to-network publishers to better reflect our integration with AdSense. We also recently released the updated terms and policies to all publishers who joined Google Affiliate Network before August 12, 2009. These new terms and policies help streamline and consolidate a number of issues that are now shared between Google Affiliate Network and AdSense. Since our affiliate terms and policies are largely based around existing AdSense terms and policies, we are making it easier for the one million+ AdSense publishers -- largely content websites and blogs -- to participate in affiliate marketing for the first time.

However, while we believe there is an opportunity to expand the affiliate opportunity to traditional AdSense publishers, affiliate ads and AdSense ads are different. The updated Google Affiliate Network terms and policies explicitly address the important differences between cost-per-click and cost-per-action advertising. For example, publishers running AdSense ads may not click on their own AdSense ads (or encourage users to click on their ads.) In the affiliate channel publishers may encourage users to convert through their specific Google Affiliate ads (and this is what many affiliates do best!)

Another change to highlight is our Google Affiliate Network software applications policy, which clarifies some of the previous rules around software applications and toolbars while focusing on increased transparency and choice. This new software policy is heavily oriented around protecting end users from unwanted, deceptive, or malicious software. Publishers who use, distribute, or generate traffic from applications that do not meet this policy may have their accounts immediately disabled.

We encourage all affiliate publishers to review these new terms and policies closely to understand how they may impact you. If you happen to be one of the many Google Affiliate network publishers who has experience with AdSense ads, these affiliate network terms and policies should be quite familiar. If you are a Google Affiliate Network publisher who is new to AdSense and who chooses not to run AdSense ads, that's okay too (you are under no obligation to do so). But it is important that your AdSense account remains in good standing.

Publishers will be prompted to review and accept the terms and policies upon signing into the Google Affiliate Network platform.

We thank you for all of your patience through this period of transition and wish you a happy (and productive) Q4!


UPDATE:
Google Affiliate Network publishers must read and accept the updated terms in the platform by 1/31/2010

Posted by: Your Google Affiliate Network Team

Kamis, 19 November 2009

Make Sure You Update your Payment Preferences

Affiliate publishers have new payment options through the integration with AdSense. As we head into the busy holiday season, please take a few minutes to check on the status of your payment preferences.

Publishers can view payments that have been posted to your AdSense account in the Google Affiliate Network platform; on the "Home" page click "Payments." This view captures all payments and a detailed breakdown of your earnings per advertiser.

Payment information is stored in your AdSense account and Google lets you select your desired form of payment. Publishers can currently choose to be paid by electronic funds transfer, check, Western Union Quick Cash or Rapida. Check out the Help Center for a detailed overview your options.

Note if you see a message in your AdSense account prompting you to complete your payment information, it's important you act quickly. This message means that there is some information missing in your payment profile and action is required to avoid payment delays.


Rabu, 11 November 2009

Google Retail Advertising Blog Provides Insight

We are avid followers of the Google Retail Advertising blog and wanted to share some posts that are particularly insightful as we move into the holiday shopping season. Search interest is a leading indicator of consumer trends. Check out these recent posts...


With consumers both savvier than ever online and turning to the web for free shipping, discounts, and deals, coupons and promotional codes are also driving substantial search interest. In the Google Insights for Search graph below, searches for coupons are growing fast in 2009, even compared to 2008 when the recession was nearing its worst. And, as we head into the holidays, 68% of consumers report that they plan take advantage of coupons this season...


Even in a recession, consumers have shown that they will buy if they are given a reason or incentive to do so. Programs such as Cash for Clunkers have breathed life into the Auto industry, generating 700,000 new car sales and jetBlue's 'All You Can Jet' promotion ran in August and was so successful, they sold out their airline passes in 2 days. So even if money is tight, consumers respond to a strong value proposition.

A simple way to capitalize on this consumer behavior is through advertising your discounts and free shipping online. 87% of consumers plan to take advantage of price discounts or sales this holiday season [2] and, as we see in the
Google Insights for Search graph below, search interest in 'discounts' is consistently trending above 2008 levels online...

Black Friday Shoppers Already Searching For Deals (posted Nov 6)

Earlier this week, we saw that search interest in Black Friday is starting earlier than ever. Today’s consumers invest more time searching for a bargain, and Black Friday has proven to be a key example of consumer savviness. In fact, using Google Insights for Search, we see that over the last seven days, 50% of the top ‘Black Friday’ related search terms include ads, sales, and deals...



Posted by
Kristin Hall, Google Affiliate Network Team

Rabu, 04 November 2009

AdSense Payment Integration

Google Affiliate Network publisher payments are now delivered through Google AdSense. In order to retire the legacy payment systems, all Google Affiliate Network publishers were required to link their affiliate account to an approved AdSense account before October 31, 2009. This integration is central to the development of our affiliate network and it provides a foundation for future growth and further improvements.

Nearly all productive Google Affiliate Network publishers successfully linked. Publishers who either chose not to link, could not link because of a previous issue with an AdSense account, or thought they linked but for some reason were unsuccessful have been deactivated. However, missing the October 31st deadline does not mean a publisher cannot continue to work with Google Affiliate Network. Any publisher (with an approved AdSense account) is welcome to reapply through our new-to-network process.

We recognize that change can be confusing and we truly appreciate our users cooperation. We look forward to closing out 2009 with a great holiday shopping season.


Posted by
Chris Henger
Head of Google Affiliate Network