I presented this at the Travel Distribution Summit on May 19th 09. The presentation discusses the intricacies of the travel sector, the implications this has for affiliate marketing and what I think makes a successful campaign in this sector.

1. Affiliate Marketing
How to Execute a Successful Campaign

2. Agenda
 My Background
 Travel Sector and Affiliates
 Key points for a successful affiliate campaign
 What stage is the travel affiliate channel at?
 Summary
 Questions

3. About Me
A Life in Affiliate Marketing
Helen Southgate
 Head of Affiliate at dgm
 Nearly 7 years in the Industry
 Variety of Sectors
 Current Travel Clients

4. Agenda
 My Background
Travel Sector and Affiliates
 What makes a good campaign?
 How can the sector improve?
 Summary
 Questions

5. Travel Sector - Trends
How do Customers Search?
 On average customers:
 Make 12 related travel searches
 Visit 22 different websites
 Take 29 days to purchase
 Visit the purchase site 2.5 times
 Use a generic term at the start of their
search 54% of the time
 10% of time don’t use a branded
search at all (i.e. Easyjet, Thomson)
 29% of searches start with a non-brand
term but finish with a brand term

6. What does this mean for Affiliate Marketing?
 The Importance of having an
affiliate campaign in the travel
sector
 You want to have touch points at
the beginning of the search
 You need reach across a wide range
of long tail terms
 You need your brand to interact as
many times as possible within the
customer search
 You want the customer to trust your
brand an affiliates reinforce that

7. Agenda
 My Background
 Travel Sector and Affiliates
What makes a good
campaign?
 How can the sector improve?
 Summary
 Questions

8. What should you expect from an affiliate
campaign?
 Affiliates drive incremental sales
 Affiliates add value to the customer purchase
 Affiliates promote your brand ethically
 Affiliates are rewarded for sales that they can reasonably justify that
they have contributed significantly to

9. The Cookie
 Cookie period in travel is important
 29 days average purchase time
(click to sale)
 Most travel campaigns are 30
days, should this be reviewed?
 PI cookies
 De-duping

10. The Affiliate Mix
Super Affiliates
Large Affiliates
This sector of affiliates is key
Medium Affiliates for a travel affiliate campaign
EARNINGS
Long Tail Affiliates
AFFILIATES

11. Types of Affiliate
Content Affiliates Brand Affiliates
Partnerships & Email Reward / Incentive / Voucher Sites

12. How can you attract affiliates?
 Competitive EPC
(earnings per click)
 Rewards / Incentives
 Promotional Materials
 Communication
 Account Management
 Bespoke management

13. Competitive EPC
 Affiliates compare campaigns
using Earnings per Click
 How can you influence the EPC for
affiliates?
 Increase the commission
 Increase your on site conversion rate
(OSC)
 Landing pages / deep linking
 Increase the affiliates Click through rate
(CTR)
 Influencing the affiliates CTR
 Regular updates of copy / creative
 Interactive creative (i.e. searchable
banners)
 Analysing creative / content

14. Motivating Affiliates
Think of your affiliates as your sales force, how would you motivate your top
sales person?
 Salary
 Bonus
 Perks
 Status
Different affiliates will be motivated by differing levels of reward:
Top Affiliate + =
Top Affiliate + =

15. Promotional Materials
What is key?
 Make it easy for affiliates to promote
you
dgmKnowledge
 Offer promotional materials that aid
conversion
 Regularly review materials
 Look to use API / RSS / Product Feeds
for “real time” data / availability
changes
 Update your affiliates with all new
promotions / offers

16. Communicating with Affiliates
 How do you break through
the noise?
 Use all channels
 Make sure you have a consistent
message
 Find out what channel your
affiliates would prefer to use
 Monitor the effectiveness of each
channel
 Email is a necessary evil
 Communicating effectively and
regularly, but not too much!

17. Account Management
 It’s not a myth that relationships
are key to success
 Good account management is:
 Talking regularly to key affiliates
 Supporting smaller affiliates
 Being responsive
 Being pro-active
 Problem solving
 Innovative
 Communication
 Treat affiliates as you would your
sales force

18. Bespoke Management
 One size fits all affiliate campaign
has been and gone
 Need to work with affiliates on a
bespoke basis:
 Communications
 Commissions
 Promotions
 Incentives
 Relationships
 Remuneration

19. Pay on all Actions
Holiday
Booking
More information
request
Brochure
Request
CPA
Repeat
purchases
3rd party sale (airport
parking, insurance)

20. Monitoring Quality
 Risk factor = commission paid on booking not
fulfilment of sale
 How to limit the risk:
 Check all applications – know who you are doing
business with
 Monitor quality of sale
 Ensure you can validate all sales
 Assess any loopholes in payment process
 99% of affiliates are ethical but you need to
watch for that 1%

21. Agenda
 My Background
 Travel Sector and Affiliates
 What makes a good campaign?
Where is the Travel Sector
now?
 Questions

22. Where is the Travel sector?
 More scope to innovate & improve
 Understanding the consumer journey and adapting to this is key
 Last click model
 Long tail growth

23. Summary
 Understand the customer journey for your product
 Tailor your campaign
 Know and understand your affiliates
 Treat your affiliates as your sales force
 Don’t be afraid to innovate

24. Agenda
 My Background
 Travel Sector and Affiliates
 What makes a good campaign?
 How can the sector improve?
 Summary
Questions

25. Thanks for your time
Helen Southgate
Head of Affiliate
Direct: +44 (0)20 7943 4270
Email: helen.southgate@dgm-uk.com
Web: www.dgm-uk.com