Merchant doesn't allow ppc...
Submitted by profwebs on Sat, 06/21/2008 - 03:42.
I wasn't really sure where to post this. On 1 hand, I wanted to post this in success stories, due to the fact that I've made $93.40 today! (minus ppc costs- less than $10) However, I just received an email from the affiliate network informing me that the merchant doesn't allow ppc at all.
DELIVERY METHODS
* Banner
* Pop
* No Incentivization
* No PPC or Yahoo or Google Content <--- this was just added today
1 question I have is are they disallowing ppc on just their trademarked terms or all keywords?
Second, what exactly is "Yahoo or Google content"? I hope this doesn't mean I can't SEO my site, because I have a real problem with them making a rule like that. This is a product I own and even before I decided to promote it I always told everyone how great it is. If they are dictating term like this, I may just launch a campaign against the company.
I can completely understand not being allowed to bid on trademarked terms or even ppc at all, but to state that a person can't create a highly relevant website, especially one that praises the product, is absolutely ludicrous.
You can always ask your
You can always ask your affiliate manager, but my guess is that "Content" simply refers to PPC bidding on the content (as opposed to search) network (ie. your ads would show up on people's web sites when they use adsense, for example). So, I think you should be fine building a web site, but you won't be able to drive PPC traffic to it.
It sucks that some merchants do this, but if they are already promoting their product on PPC search engines themselves, obviously, they do not want others to compete with them promoting the same product and increasing their costs + have to pay commission in the sales channel they are already active in.
Bart
---
http://twitter.com/barrrt
Congrats on the sale, may
Congrats on the sale, may many more follow!
Here is my question regarding your situation.
Your merchant told you :
DELIVERY METHODS
* Banner
* Pop
* No Incentivization
* No PPC or Yahoo or Google Content
OK...Where are you supposed to put the banner?? On your site right?
They may be able to stop you from bidding on exact trademarks, but how could they prevent, or even be aware that you are bidding on site relevant kw's and driving traffic to YOUR site?
I can understand (sort of) preventing direct linking, and sorry to counter your question with another question, but how can, and why would a merchant prevent a person (site owner) from spending his own money to drive traffic to his/her own site in an attempt to sell product for the merchant?
Barry
$%$%$%$%$%$%$%$
Go'in Deep This Time Up!!
@Bart Yeah I realize that
@Bart Yeah I realize that they have spent a lot of money building their brand up and also spend money on ppc on Google. However, they don't have a ppc campaign going on MSN, which is what I was running my campaign on. So I don't see the point in not allowing me to bid there.
@Barry
They may be able to stop you from bidding on exact trademarks, but how could they prevent, or even be aware that you are bidding on site relevant kw's and driving traffic to YOUR site?
No, they can't stop me from bidding on non trademarked terms, but if their policy is "no ppc" then I assume they can keep any commissions due to me.
I ended up with 10 conversions for over a $100 dollar day. The 1st 2 came while I was sending traffic to my home page for 2 days, the other 8 occurred after I got my landing page done and sent the traffic there. So, at the very least this was a great learning experience and a moral booster. I got to see how much better a landing page converts and on the same note I also realize the reason yesterday was so profitable was due to the lack of competition on my keywords.
Sure would have been nice to have had a month or so of $100 + days, but after I've verified that I can't run ads on MSN anymore I'll move on and post my LP here to be critiqued.
Brian Weaver - Affiliate Marketer in Training
@profwebs on twitter
Brian Weaver on Facebook
Man Brian, what a "catch 22"
Man Brian, what a "catch 22" situation to be in eh?
I would be 100% sure you can't drive traffic to YOUR site using ppc as long as you aren't bidding on your merchants trademark kw's.
I always assumed when a merchant's terms included "no ppc" , that meant no driving traffic to their site using direct linking or a redirect page to basically direct link to them.
Maybe you or someone that reads this thread could explain this to me, as I am not understanding this "no ppc" rule.
Since you own and like the product ( meaning you have knowledge regarding the product), maybe you could seed an article or two with your converting, low competition kw's, submit to a few article sites like Ezine, and drive traffic to your site that way.
Good luck!!
Barry
Merchants often shoot
Merchants often shoot themselves in the foot. I can understand them having a problem with trademark bidding, or maybe not showing your ad above theirs, but it seems ridiculous that they don't allow any PPC bidding?
You're right - they can't stop you from doing it, but you might not want to jeopardize the relationship.
Do they have any competitors in the space that do allow it?
Sorry to hear this - so disappointing after having a profitable day with them. Like you said, it's a good learning experience that has put you on the right path. Not all is lost!
Best,
Jeremy
Sounds weird man. Unless you
Sounds weird man. Unless you can make it work for you, sounds like you gotta jump ship.
got twitter?
www.twitter.com/kensavage
Yeah, I was keeping my head up until..
I got told to take down the offer from my site earlier today. You can read about it on my blog, I wrote a long post on it. magicjack-ymax-horrible-company-to-deal-with
Brian Weaver - Affiliate Marketer in Training
@profwebs on twitter
Brian Weaver on Facebook
Try to find another affiliate network
I don't know if you can find another offer for the same product but on a different affiliate network, but I would look into it. Often merchants will have several different networks that carry their offer and you can easily change from one network offer to another.
This same thing happened to me a few days ago. I had been promoting an offer for months and doing well with it, and then out of the blue I received notice that the offer could no longer be promoted using paid search or the content network. I couldn't believe what I was hearing.
Luckily, there are other affiliate networks that carry this same offer and I was able to change to one of them.
I think the merchant changed their policy to not allow paid search with that specific affiliate network because affiliates were not following the rules that were outlined for the offer. As far as I can tell, the other networks that carry this same offer don't have any limitations on using paid search.
I hope you get it all figured out. That would be a real bummer if you aren't able to find an alternative.
Good luck,
Todd
Thanks for the suggestion..
Yes they are available on another network. Hydra- but I won't do business with them due to the fact that they denied my acceptance into their network a month ago- even though when I applied, I did so with telling them this exact offer I wanted to promote and had the site all set up and ready to go. I guess I'm pigheaded and it might come back to bite me, but I'll never do business with Hydra. I don't see it biting me as there are too many networks and affiliate offers out there to promote. I don't need them, they need me.
As for the magicJack offer, I won't be promoting their company anymore and they also lost me as a customer, I won't be paying for another year of their service, I'll switch to Skype if need be.
Brian Weaver - Affiliate Marketer in Training
@profwebs on twitter
Brian Weaver on Facebook
I still can't get my head
I still can't get my head around this.
Merchant gives you a banner with your affiliate link embedded in it's html/java, whatever.
You put the banner on your site or blog, because that's why the merchant gave it to you in the first place.
One of your site visitors clicks on the banner and buys the product, site owner gets the commission.
How does that merchant know you are driving traffic to your site using ppc?
Just because your site url appears in a paid ad, how would any merchant know you are promoting one of their offers that don't allow ppc??
Do they actually have people clicking on your paid ads, costing you money, to justify their curiosity?
Sounds like a sort of click fraud, above and beyond research. I mean I have always wondered, say out of 100 clicks, how many are from competitors? 5, 10, maybe 25 or more, depending on the market??
Does this make any sense, or am I completely missing something here?
Barry
ps: @Brian - Way to put a ripoff report link on your blog! You will find a merchant to promote that respects your efforts.