IAB to issue industry guides to stop the misuse of online voucher codes
Well the IAB have stepped up and through their Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC) they plan to issue industry guidelines for the use of online voucher codes in the run-up to Christmas to ensure they're not misused by affiliates.
To any affiliate manager or marketeer who manages affiliate programs like myself this is nothing new. I spend days every month checking sites and sending warnings to affiliates. For all my clients I have tight T&C's in place to ensure that any misuse is delbt with in the reversal of sales.
The AMC has identified practices by some voucher code sites that could damage brands' affiliate campaigns. These include registering the cookie that pays the affiliate with the retailer after the consumer has already made a decision to buy. Whilst registering a cookie does not damage a brand it does mean merchants are paying commission on sales needlessly. Where I see damage to the brand is more in the promotion of incorrect and out of date codes which can present to a consumer a very mixed view of the brand and therefore impacting on their brand value in the marketplace.
It's a good move for the IAB to work with networks to agree on guidelines but there is still a great deal of policing to be done which falls on consultants like myself to do for clients.
I think there does need to be a clamp down in voucher code abuse both dropping cookies and promoting codes not issued by affiliate managers. A simple solution is if there are a number of 'black marks' against an affiliate then the network can step in and get involved.
At the end of the day, affiliate managers if you have an affiliate abusing voucher codes and are in breech of your T&Cs then reverse sales against that affiliate. I would like to note there are an abundance of vouchersites and there are some affiliates who DO play by the rules, but i'm afraid there are also some who don't.
To any affiliate manager or marketeer who manages affiliate programs like myself this is nothing new. I spend days every month checking sites and sending warnings to affiliates. For all my clients I have tight T&C's in place to ensure that any misuse is delbt with in the reversal of sales.
The AMC has identified practices by some voucher code sites that could damage brands' affiliate campaigns. These include registering the cookie that pays the affiliate with the retailer after the consumer has already made a decision to buy. Whilst registering a cookie does not damage a brand it does mean merchants are paying commission on sales needlessly. Where I see damage to the brand is more in the promotion of incorrect and out of date codes which can present to a consumer a very mixed view of the brand and therefore impacting on their brand value in the marketplace.
It's a good move for the IAB to work with networks to agree on guidelines but there is still a great deal of policing to be done which falls on consultants like myself to do for clients.
I think there does need to be a clamp down in voucher code abuse both dropping cookies and promoting codes not issued by affiliate managers. A simple solution is if there are a number of 'black marks' against an affiliate then the network can step in and get involved.
At the end of the day, affiliate managers if you have an affiliate abusing voucher codes and are in breech of your T&Cs then reverse sales against that affiliate. I would like to note there are an abundance of vouchersites and there are some affiliates who DO play by the rules, but i'm afraid there are also some who don't.
posted by Helen at 12:44 PM
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