However, brands need to consider the returns over the risk when using affiliate marketing for their eCommerce brand. There are certain risks, such as false attribution, cookie stuffing, etc., that brands can encounter with affiliate marketing. These risks can significantly impact your revenue.
Here we will go over why you should reassess your investments in affiliate marketing, along with some alternatives that you can try. It will improve your marketing efforts without negatively impacting your sales or customer engagement. But before that, let's start by understanding what affiliate marketing is.
Many brands today use affiliate marketing to increase traffic, sales, and revenue for their eCommerce store. It is an advertising model where third-party publishers, such as bloggers, influencers, etc., will advertise your goods or services.
The third-party publishers are affiliates, and they would receive a small commission for every sale they generate. Affiliate marketing is a common tactic that many brands use to increase their sales, as they bring in new customers to their websites.
You will have to pay a commission to the affiliate if they bring value to your store, like lead generation or sales. Affiliates will receive a link that will redirect the consumers to the brand's website. This link also helps keep track of all the leads and sales that the third-party publishers generate.
The eCommerce store owners also partner with different platforms, such as CJ Affiliate, ShareASale, etc., to track their commission output. These platforms go by the last-click attribution model, which finds out if the affiliate generated the sale.
Moreover, these platforms use first-party cookies to find out where the customer is coming from. It allows them to know about the affiliate site, advertiser, and the commission rate they agree upon.
Affiliate marketing is a great way to bring more traffic to your website and increase your sales. However, there are a few affiliate coupon websites that use a clever trick to generate thousands and millions of dollars in revenue. They exploit the last-click attribution model and show that they are promoting digital coupons for eCommerce stores.
Let's give you an example of what this means. A customer is planning to buy a pair of jeans, and they enter their items on your website's cart. Then, they go to Google to look for any promotions and discounts. So, they search for the pair of jeans, and it shows them an affiliate website link.
The customers can check the coupons, which will redirect them to your website with an affiliate tracking URL. So, if the customer purchases anything using that link, you will have to pay the affiliate a percentage of the sale.
Not only would you have to pay a commission for a visitor who already went through your website, but you would have to also give them a promo. After all, that was the reason why the customer clicked on the link, and it ultimately led to improved revenue.
Moreover, there is a chance that the promo code would expire and wouldn't work, which could frustrate the customer. Therefore, you could lose a customer who was already willing to buy the product from you at full price.
The affiliate marketing ecosystem is a great way for your business and eCommerce brands to get higher conversion rates. However, it can hurt your brand recognition and impact your equity in the long run.
Nevertheless, you can try out a few things to mitigate the harmful effects of this issue. Also, eCommerce store owners should focus on rethinking their affiliate marketing strategy to ensure that they make the most out of it.
Investing your money in the right place is vital for an eCommerce store. It ensures that the brand is getting a fair value for the money they are spending on different affiliate programs. Therefore, having the right platform by your side is vital.
That is where Conversion Guard comes into play. It is an ideal digital solution to ensure you spend money on affiliates who are advertising your products accurately. Here is what you can get from our solution for affiliate fraud prevention:
