David Fiske Affiliate Marketing & Web Development

I've not really had much to do with remarketing. For those not in the know, remarketing (in a nutshell) allows you to show ads to users who've previously visited your website as they browse other websites on the Interweb. Wikipedia has a nice rounded explanation of behavioural retargeting aka behavioural remarketing aka retargeting.

The example I remember seeing was a Firebox ad. I browsed the site and then somehow ended up reading an article on The Times website (back in the day when it was free!). As I read I noticed a great big advert saying that I had viewed ABC product and similar products include DEF and GHI. The banner was run by a remarketing company, the name of which I cannot recall.

Having been on the user side of things, I personally hate the intrusive feel of the ads shown on third party sites as the direct result of visiting a specific retailer. In fact I wrote an article about how to opt out of such ads being displayed - it's relatively simple to do but you need to chase a lot of ads through to find the privacy settings on the networks and then to opt-out.

The vast majority of visitors won't do this, especially the more casual web surfer, so remarketing is big business. So much so that Affiliate Window are now offering all their merchants a value added service called MasterTag. In a nutshell, merchants include a "Master Tag" in their sites that help with tracking, analytics, etc. and within this they can easily swap in and out remarketing code from remarketing companies without requiring any development work. It offers cost and time saving benefits to merchants and will undoubtedly be popular.

But where do affiliates stand in all of this? I interviewed Kevin Edwards, Strategy Director at Affiliate Window, to help answer this question and find out why there's so much buzz in the remarketing sector.
 
I started by asking whether remarketing agencies are actually affiliates themselves, in a nutshell paying for the marketing of banners and in exchange are rewarded by commissions:

Kevin: Yes, that’s correct, they arbitrate between the cost and are rewarded purely on a CPA. That’s not to say companies couldn’t be rewarded in other ways in the future.

This is interesting as it could potentially mean that affiliates lose out. If I send traffic to retailer ABC and the visitor decides not to buy at that moment, they could return later in the day after clicking on a remarketing banner. That said, from a retailers perspective, I may not have driven a 100% pre-qualified purchaser and they may need a little bit more of a nudge in order to make the decision to buy.

So what type of affiliate would lose out? I asked Kevin whether PPC affiliates would take the brunt of the effect thanks to the increased spend by remarketing agencies across banners content networks (e.g. AdSense)

Kevin: The last click rule is still in place – banner impressions are recorded but can never overwrite a click.

Arguably affiliates from different sectors could lose out. Content affiliates could lose out if the remarketing agencies convert the sale (based on last click) thanks to the shopper needing extra buying time. PPC affiliates could lose out thanks to increased spend across content networks. "Immune" affiliates would probably be cashback sites and voucher code sites who may get the last click - unless the remarketing agencies can deliver an all encompassing solution.

The key comes down to the cookies. I asked Kevin if remarketing banners drop cookies on viewing or whether it requires a click to change what may be an existing affiliate cookie into a remarketing reward cookie?

Kevin: They do drop cookies but our system will look to see if an affiliate click exists. If it does the post impression/view click is ignored. If no click exists it will be stored for the cookie length (usually no more than 48 hours for an impression). If a click is subsequently registered within the cookie period for the impression being served, the click will always overwrite. Always think of an impression as a softer action, the click as a harder action. All IAB member networks have agreed to this procedure and a code of conduct will be launched next year following consultation with the retargeting council at the IAB.

It's not all doom and gloom! There is a potential for rogue remarketing agencies to go after any sale but this policy by IAB member networks seems fair.

So is there any way for affiliates to tap into the world of remarketing? I asked Kevin whether he could see this opening up to content affiliates as a commission share, perhaps as a banner display tool run as a 3rd party widget in Awin (run alongside technology solutions such as the PrismaStar widget) whereby publishers could display intelligent banner ads on their sites, promoting remarketing offers for Awin merchants?

Kevin: Longer term I don’t see why not. People are starting to recognise the branding element of affiliate marketing as an important contribution to their marketing. As such there’s no reason why impression cookies or tenancies, placements etc. couldn’t be rewarded. One word of caution, paying on PI cookies is open to abuse and I don’t see a time when we open them up to everyone. If an affiliate can make a good case for being rewarded on it I can see this being rolled out for select partners.

You heard it here first. If an affiliate widget is launched allowing content affiliates to publish remarketing banners on their own sites under a commission split then you know where the idea came from ;-) I'd personally be very interested in something like this but where I was partly rewarded for the sale. In it's current form I feel remarketing, whilst potentially driving incremental sales, could potentially divert commissions away from content affiliates who spark interest in the brand/product/retailer.

Whilst we wait for such a widget I suppose the onus is on affiliates driving better quality traffic through more efficient promotions.

It would be great to hear your thoughts on remarketing. Is it a threat or is it a world of new possibilities that ultimately benefit existing affiliates? Leave a comment below!