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For a few different reasons, I have been looking deeper into Affiliate and Search Marketing this week. As it turns out, this story has many twists and turns. The relationship between online merchants and their affiliates is pretty love- hate, and it doesn’t look like its going to get any less complicated, anytime soon.

While Affiliates still make up about 10% of all traffic driven to a typical eCommerce site, many marketers have shut the door on allowing their affiliate partners to conduct e-mail campaigns on their behalf (CAN SPAM).  To add insult to injury, some merchants are now also refusing to compete with affiliates on keyword buying.  Trouble is, this keeps those same merchants from dominating the search page on trademarked brands and products.

Wait a minute, aren’t multiple listings one of the keys to lead generation success via paid search?

What are your thoughts on this? Is your organization part of the “more the merrier” set, or do you refuse to pay commissions on a tactic that you can do yourself in house?

How do you feel about competing with your own affiliates on keyword auctions?

Posted at 07:15 AM in Online Marketing | Permalink