Google Gives Advertisers the Power of Remarketing
Successful marketers have known for a long time that the more often you can get your product in front of potential customers, the more likely they are to buy. For traditional marketers, this has usually been accomplished by methods such as print, radio, or TV advertising.
In a move that should benefit affiliate marketers and vendors, Google announced yesterday that they’ve brought this same ability to remarket to customers to PPC advertising.
Basically, in your Google AdWords account, you can specify that you want to display ads for your products or site to people who have already visited your site from a paid click. Your subsequent ads will be shown to them in the Google Content Network, when they’re browsing other sites related to your product. This gives you a great opportunity to remind people of the benefits of your product, or offer them a reason to come back and check out your site again. It’s possible that the first time they visited your site, they just weren’t ready to buy, but after browsing around online, a well-written ad could be just what it takes to get them to come back and buy this time.
If you do AdWords advertising, be sure to check it out!
In a move that should benefit affiliate marketers and vendors, Google announced yesterday that they’ve brought this same ability to remarket to customers to PPC advertising.
Basically, in your Google AdWords account, you can specify that you want to display ads for your products or site to people who have already visited your site from a paid click. Your subsequent ads will be shown to them in the Google Content Network, when they’re browsing other sites related to your product. This gives you a great opportunity to remind people of the benefits of your product, or offer them a reason to come back and check out your site again. It’s possible that the first time they visited your site, they just weren’t ready to buy, but after browsing around online, a well-written ad could be just what it takes to get them to come back and buy this time.
If you do AdWords advertising, be sure to check it out!
ClickBank Sticks by Colorado Affiliate Marketers Despite New Tax Law
While Amazon.com moved swiftly last week to halt its business relationships with affiliate marketers in Colorado, ClickBank officials vowed to continue to work with affiliate marketers located in the company’s home state despite a new law that taxes affiliates’ sales.
Amazon terminated its marketing affiliate program in Colorado just eight days after a new law took effect that will tax affiliate sales. In what was viewed as a surprise move by some of the estimated 4,000 online affiliate marketers in the state, Amazon distributed a letter to affiliates saying the company would immediately cease doing business with them because of the new tax law.
But ClickBank, a global online retailer headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., says it has no intention of terminating relationships with affiliates or discontinuing its longstanding policy of collecting and remitting taxes to the appropriate tax authorities in various domestic and international jurisdictions.
“We will continue to honor our agreements with affiliates in Colorado and all other states in the U.S., and will continue collecting and remitting taxes in compliance with the new laws affecting affiliate sales,” said Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales and business development.
Amazon terminated its marketing affiliate program in Colorado just eight days after a new law took effect that will tax affiliate sales. In what was viewed as a surprise move by some of the estimated 4,000 online affiliate marketers in the state, Amazon distributed a letter to affiliates saying the company would immediately cease doing business with them because of the new tax law.
But ClickBank, a global online retailer headquartered in Broomfield, Colo., says it has no intention of terminating relationships with affiliates or discontinuing its longstanding policy of collecting and remitting taxes to the appropriate tax authorities in various domestic and international jurisdictions.
“We will continue to honor our agreements with affiliates in Colorado and all other states in the U.S., and will continue collecting and remitting taxes in compliance with the new laws affecting affiliate sales,” said Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales and business development.
ClickBank VP Appointed to Advisory Board of European Affiliate Marketing Conference a4uexpo
ClickBank Vice President Dush Ramachandran has been appointed to the advisory board ofa4uexpo, a European conference focused on bringing together top affiliate marketing specialists to discuss global industry trends and business opportunities.
Ramachandran joins other leading affiliate marketing experts on the a4uexpo advisory board including Sabine Haase, director of marketing & performance technology at affilinet GmbH; Alison Guise, general manager at ValueClick; and Missy Ward, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.
“Dush gives the board an added dimension,” said Matthew Wood, founder and managing director of Existem Events Ltd, the company which coordinates the highly-successful series of a4uexpo conference events. “He has a considerable amount of practical experience and industry knowledge, not to mention a network of more than 100,000 affiliates to tap into. This is complementary to the many resources that existing advisory board members bring to the table.”
Wood said affiliate marketing opportunities in Europe are numerous and extremely diverse. The advisory board, he said, helps ensure that conference agendas, presentations and panel debates remain current and relevant.
“I look forward to working with the extremely talented and knowledgeable members of this board, and to helping ensure that a4uexpo remains Europe’s premiere affiliate marketing event,” said Ramachandran.
Ramachandran joins other leading affiliate marketing experts on the a4uexpo advisory board including Sabine Haase, director of marketing & performance technology at affilinet GmbH; Alison Guise, general manager at ValueClick; and Missy Ward, co-founder of Affiliate Summit.
“Dush gives the board an added dimension,” said Matthew Wood, founder and managing director of Existem Events Ltd, the company which coordinates the highly-successful series of a4uexpo conference events. “He has a considerable amount of practical experience and industry knowledge, not to mention a network of more than 100,000 affiliates to tap into. This is complementary to the many resources that existing advisory board members bring to the table.”
Wood said affiliate marketing opportunities in Europe are numerous and extremely diverse. The advisory board, he said, helps ensure that conference agendas, presentations and panel debates remain current and relevant.
“I look forward to working with the extremely talented and knowledgeable members of this board, and to helping ensure that a4uexpo remains Europe’s premiere affiliate marketing event,” said Ramachandran.
Important Changes to Product Test Process for Vendors
Starting early next week, ClickBank will improve the way vendors place test orders for their products.
Currently, each specific product is placed in Test Mode using the My Products menu. In the new testing method, vendors can generate a test credit card number that is usable only for their products, and which expires after 24 hours for security purposes. This card information is generated using the My Site page, and can be used to place test purchases for any product in the vendor’s account, whether it has been approved or not.
This new testing method will allow vendors to place test purchases of their products while they are still available for sale, which was not possible before. In addition, we will now send Instant Notifications for test purchases, allowing vendors to verify that Instant Notifications are working properly.
We will include more detailed information in your account once the test mode process changes.
Currently, each specific product is placed in Test Mode using the My Products menu. In the new testing method, vendors can generate a test credit card number that is usable only for their products, and which expires after 24 hours for security purposes. This card information is generated using the My Site page, and can be used to place test purchases for any product in the vendor’s account, whether it has been approved or not.
This new testing method will allow vendors to place test purchases of their products while they are still available for sale, which was not possible before. In addition, we will now send Instant Notifications for test purchases, allowing vendors to verify that Instant Notifications are working properly.
We will include more detailed information in your account once the test mode process changes.
ClickBank Recommends Best Practices for Continuity Program Merchants
In the wake of several merchant account closures due to what major credit card companies consider ambiguous continuity program terms, ClickBank, a global online retailer, is offering several guidelines regarding best business practices for continuity program merchants.
Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales and business development, says clarity is key.
“If you are engaged in a practice in which goods or services are provided automatically, and the customer must either pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing, you must be very clear and upfront about it,” he said. “This type of practice is not unethical unless buyers do not fully understand the terms or sellers do not accept the consumer’s decision to discontinue the service or return the product.”
Ramachandran said the need for transparency and a willingness to accept cancellations also hold true for offers with confusing terms or delayed charges. “Credit card companies are no longer going to support merchants engaging in ‘free’ offers that are not actually free.”
Finally, he said, customers must receive goods or services in exchange for a credit card payment and, for any offer, must provide an affirmative consent such as a mandatory “I agree” statement checkbox where the customer acknowledges the terms and conditions of the offer and consents to be entered into a continuity program.
“At ClickBank, we’ve found that the best way to avoid compliance issues and keep our client’s continuity programs up and running without interruption is to be completely transparent with consumers regarding the terms of continuity programs.”
Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales and business development, says clarity is key.
“If you are engaged in a practice in which goods or services are provided automatically, and the customer must either pay for the service or specifically decline it in advance of billing, you must be very clear and upfront about it,” he said. “This type of practice is not unethical unless buyers do not fully understand the terms or sellers do not accept the consumer’s decision to discontinue the service or return the product.”
Ramachandran said the need for transparency and a willingness to accept cancellations also hold true for offers with confusing terms or delayed charges. “Credit card companies are no longer going to support merchants engaging in ‘free’ offers that are not actually free.”
Finally, he said, customers must receive goods or services in exchange for a credit card payment and, for any offer, must provide an affirmative consent such as a mandatory “I agree” statement checkbox where the customer acknowledges the terms and conditions of the offer and consents to be entered into a continuity program.
“At ClickBank, we’ve found that the best way to avoid compliance issues and keep our client’s continuity programs up and running without interruption is to be completely transparent with consumers regarding the terms of continuity programs.”
New FTC Endorsement Rules
The U.S. Federal Trade Commission continues to make internet commerce a top priority. The FTC recent issued new regulations that govern the use of “endorsements” to promote products. Those regulations can be found at 16 C.F.R. § 255 or here. Note, the new regulations are effective December 1, 2009.
The new regulations cover all sorts of third party testimonials and endorsements—by consumers, experts and celebrities. If your promotions use customer or consumer endorsements, the FTC requires that the results described must be typical or, if not, you should “clearly and conspicuously” disclose that the results presented are not typical. Also, such customers should be “bona fide” buyers of your product, and not, for example, a fictitious person or your cousin who is doing you a favor. For expert endorsements, the person involved should have special knowledge that qualifies him or her to make the endorsement, e.g., if you use a doctor to sell a diet plan, that doctor shouldn’t be an eye doctor, but have special knowledge in the area of nutrition.
Also, the FTC requires all endorsements to disclose any “material connection” between the vendor and the advertiser. For example, if an affiliate runs a website offering an “independent review” of two products and gives a favorable review of one, they should disclose the fact that they are receiving a commission from the sale of that product. These rules also apply to third parties, such as bloggers, who receive a free product and are asked to do a review. Under the new FTC rules, not only should the blogger disclose he got the product for free but the vendor who gave him the product should make some effort to make sure that the blogger makes that disclosure.
Please review these new rules yourself and if you have questions, please ask your own legal counsel. ClickBank cannot and does not give legal advice to our vendors or affiliates, and our approval of your product does not constitute an approval of any specific marketing, promotion or endorsement used to sell the product.
The new regulations cover all sorts of third party testimonials and endorsements—by consumers, experts and celebrities. If your promotions use customer or consumer endorsements, the FTC requires that the results described must be typical or, if not, you should “clearly and conspicuously” disclose that the results presented are not typical. Also, such customers should be “bona fide” buyers of your product, and not, for example, a fictitious person or your cousin who is doing you a favor. For expert endorsements, the person involved should have special knowledge that qualifies him or her to make the endorsement, e.g., if you use a doctor to sell a diet plan, that doctor shouldn’t be an eye doctor, but have special knowledge in the area of nutrition.
Also, the FTC requires all endorsements to disclose any “material connection” between the vendor and the advertiser. For example, if an affiliate runs a website offering an “independent review” of two products and gives a favorable review of one, they should disclose the fact that they are receiving a commission from the sale of that product. These rules also apply to third parties, such as bloggers, who receive a free product and are asked to do a review. Under the new FTC rules, not only should the blogger disclose he got the product for free but the vendor who gave him the product should make some effort to make sure that the blogger makes that disclosure.
Please review these new rules yourself and if you have questions, please ask your own legal counsel. ClickBank cannot and does not give legal advice to our vendors or affiliates, and our approval of your product does not constitute an approval of any specific marketing, promotion or endorsement used to sell the product.
Online Retail Giant ClickBank Expands Services to International Markets
Serving more than 114 countries on 6 continents, ClickBankannounced today that the company has taken great strides toward globalization of its platform in a continued effort to expand services offered to the company’s international markets.
ClickBank officials say they’ve taken a phased approach to this endeavor, starting with the translation of the order form and all customer related material such as receipt emails and customer service content into German, Spanish and French. Having completed that phase last year, the company moved onto phase two—translation of the entire ClickBank site outside the login into the same three languages. Work on this phase has just been finished and the new pages are live as of today.
“More than one third of the 26,000 transactions ClickBank processes each day are made from outside the U.S.,” said Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales, marketing and business development. “It is important that we continue to cater to international markets. The globalization of our platform is just one of the many benefits we offer our global vendors and affiliates.”
In addition to offering content in multiple languages, ClickBank has made significant improvements to its payment processing and accepts 13 international currencies including the Euro, the British Pound, and the Swedish and Danish Kroner.
With our release on October 26, 2009, you will now be able to differentiate rebills from sales that occur on the ClickBank Order Form. We have added two new fields in analytics called Initial Sales Count and Initial Sale Amount. These fields represent sales made on a standard product and the initial sale of a recurring billing product. These fields also replace Gross Sales in the conversion statistics (Hops Per Order, Earnings Per Hop, and Order Form Sale Conversion).
Coming in the near future, we will also introduce new analytics reports designed to further inform our clients on their recurring billing promotions.
Source: ClickBank
ClickBank officials say they’ve taken a phased approach to this endeavor, starting with the translation of the order form and all customer related material such as receipt emails and customer service content into German, Spanish and French. Having completed that phase last year, the company moved onto phase two—translation of the entire ClickBank site outside the login into the same three languages. Work on this phase has just been finished and the new pages are live as of today.
“More than one third of the 26,000 transactions ClickBank processes each day are made from outside the U.S.,” said Dush Ramachandran, ClickBank vice president of sales, marketing and business development. “It is important that we continue to cater to international markets. The globalization of our platform is just one of the many benefits we offer our global vendors and affiliates.”
In addition to offering content in multiple languages, ClickBank has made significant improvements to its payment processing and accepts 13 international currencies including the Euro, the British Pound, and the Swedish and Danish Kroner.
ClickBank Analytics Improvements
Recurring Billing
You have spoken and we listened. We’ve made changes to our analytics tool that will help vendors and affiliates who promote recurring billing products. Previously, it was not possible for you to differentiate between sales made through the ClickBank Order Form and rebills on recurring billing products you sell or promote. This made the conversion statistics (Hops Per Order, Earnings Per Hop, and Order Form Sale Conversion) difficult to work with when reporting on recurring billing products.With our release on October 26, 2009, you will now be able to differentiate rebills from sales that occur on the ClickBank Order Form. We have added two new fields in analytics called Initial Sales Count and Initial Sale Amount. These fields represent sales made on a standard product and the initial sale of a recurring billing product. These fields also replace Gross Sales in the conversion statistics (Hops Per Order, Earnings Per Hop, and Order Form Sale Conversion).
Coming in the near future, we will also introduce new analytics reports designed to further inform our clients on their recurring billing promotions.
Vendor Tracking ID
Our October 26, 2009 release will also be the introduction of reporting by Tracking ID for our Vendors. This feature has been, and will remain, available for our affiliates.Source: ClickBank
