All questions I wish I had the answers to.

The focus of affiliate marketing is changing and as merchants become more switched on, questions about quality are being asked more and more. The last click wins model and multi channel attribution models are among the hot topics that will continue to be debated during 2010.

How does affiliate marketing solve the problem of quality traffic?

Well, what is quality traffic?

This is down to the merchant to decide what they deem as quality and how they want to measure this and reward accordingly. Some merchants simply look at the bottom line i.e. what do I spend and what do I make? If one number is higher than the other then its working.

Other normally larger merchants have new customer targets; they want to ensure that any advertising or promotion results in new customers and have strict CPA targets.

Some merchants analyse every single channel and touch point to determine its success and have the resource and knowledge in-house to manage this.

The first stage is surely to decide what you as a merchant determine what quality is to you. There is no point in a traditional network developing their tracking to reward affiliates for quality if it’s a one size fits all solutions. The network would have to determine the quality metrics and those metrics may not suite a large number of merchants.

Amazon’s affiliate programme has something called a session cookie which does exactly what is says on the tin, expires when you close your browser and end your current session. Arguably Amazon has done this from a quality point of view. If the affiliate has done a good job in the presale then as soon as someone lands on the Amazon site they should have their credit card in hand ready to buy. If not then that affiliate has not driven quality traffic and they are not rewarded.

EBay famously changed their commission model to reward affiliates for quality over quantity and no doubt many merchants would like to do the same. The eBay payment model is a CPC model that rewards affiliates more for higher quality traffic. The quality of the traffic is assessed by looking at both short term and long term value to eBay.

In a nutshell if someone lands on your affiliate site that promotes lawnmowers and then clicks through to eBay and purchases a bike, this is seen as less quality traffic than if someone had purchased a lawnmower.  There are a number of other factors involved in eBay decided what it deems quality and a great resource can be found here.

Ebay have determined there own quality metrics and this has been possible due to them moving away from a traditional network and developing their own in house network, the eBay Partner Network. Not a luxury all merchants can afford and it is why we, as industry must take measures to ensure quality can be measured.

Tell us a little bit about yourself. Who are you and what do you do?

I am Matt Swan and I am an Account Manager at dgm. I have been working at dgm since I graduated in 2006 and look after some of our key accounts.

Outside of work I am a bit of a football fanatic and have a season ticket at Spurs (for my sins!).

What is your day to day role?

I head up the key accounts team at dgm, taking care of some of our larger clients such as JD Williams, P&O, WWF, Haven Holidays, Wilkinsons and Orange to name a few.

I am responsible for providing reports to my clients on their affiliate activity while also working closely on the strategy in place for our clients – looking at how our clients can increase the reach of their affiliate campaign by working closely with a number of different affiliate types.

What was your previous job and was it related to affiliate marketing?

Prior to dgm I worked for a year with Screwfix on a placement, where I was involved in their online marketing. This is where I first heard of dgm, and when I heard they were recruiting for their graduate programme I was interested in getting more experience in dealing with a wider variety of clients. Learning about other business models and the commercial challenges that merchants face has always been of interest to me. Helping merchants to effectively monetise their affiliate campaigns is a constant challenge which I thoroughly enjoy.

What do you love about affiliate marketing?

The fact that it doesn’t stand still – no day is ever the same. There are always new opportunities for you to explore and to get the most out of for your clients. The affiliate landscape has changed so much since I started back in 2006 and it is definitely for the better.

The fact that affiliate marketing is so measurable makes it satisfying when you can actually see that your hard work has paid off, whether that is in terms of increasing traffic to a merchants website, increasing basket values and ultimately delivering more sales.

What do you hate about affiliate marketing and what would you change if you could?

Dropped tracking tags and last minute changes to programs are always frustrating. It puts us in a difficult position with our affiliates if we are not notified of changes in advance so that we can ensure that our affiliates are well prepared for any changes to a campaign.

Another thing that I hate is fraudulent affiliates. These guys give our industry a bad name and it is good to see networks/agencies working together to eliminate them.

List your top 5 resources that help you with your day to day job?

In no particular order:

-          The staff here at dgm are a massive help and very knowledgeable about all things affiliate. Being able to call upon our search team and our technical experts certainly makes my life a lot easier. A special mention has to go out to Jess Nathan and Ben Cockburn for all of their help.

-          Affiliates – if it wasn’t them helping to promote our campaigns then we would be fighting a losing battle

-          The A4U Forum – always good to find out what the hot topics are and the affiliates opinions on the various networks. Affiliates are always quick to post on the forum if there are any problems with our campaigns so we are able to pick up on these quickly to rectify them.

-          Affiliate blogs – always good for catching up on the latest news in affiliate marketing. Favourites include http://www.onelittleduck.co.uk, http://www.lammo.net/ and http://www.here.org.uk

-          Google Alerts – helps to pick up on any news that may be relevant to a particular merchant or sector

If you were an affiliate how would you help someone in your role?

I would always try and provide examples of where I have worked effectively on a similar merchant or within a similar sector to highlight what I could do on the campaign. We always have affiliates that are looking for an exclusive whether that is a code or an increased CPA, and it would be easier for us to sell into our merchants if we had some stats to back it up.

We are always asked for figures by our clients and if affiliates could provide us with as much visibility as possible it would definitely make it easier to secure some exclusives.

In your opinion what is the future of affiliate marketing and how can affiliates take advantage of this?

I think that there are a few things that are really going to shape the industry moving forward…

The “last click wins” debate has been going on for a long time now and I think we will be moving further towards an affiliate contribution model where affiliates that play a part in a sale are rewarded for their work.

Obviously this is not going to please all affiliates as there are a lot of affiliates who are currently the last click that don’t want to see part of their commission given to others. It will be very interesting to see how this pans out in 2010.

Here at dgm we have an affiliate contribution model in place on JD Williams. If an affiliate plays a part in a sale but the last referrer is ultimately one of their PPC ads, the affiliate is still awarded a commission. If they are the sole referrer, this commission will be upgraded. This has been in place for just over a year now and has worked well for affiliates as well as the client.

I think that behavioural re-targeting is also going to be on the rise in 2010 and this is something that a number of clients are keen on. It is becoming more difficult to sell ad space on a traditional CPM model so there are more and more companies looking to work on a CPA deal which is beneficial to merchants.

Another thing that we are going to see is more strategic use of voucher code/cashback sites. In the past networks may have been quick to recommend these without really giving much thought to how they best fit in with a clients strategy. We will see these types of affiliates being used more strategically whether this is to aggressively take market share away from competitors or increase the average basket size of customers.

What is on your Ipod?

Anything and everything really. Been getting into Mumford and Sons recently – thanks to Kevin Sutton for recommending that one.

How can people get in touch with you?

By email is probably easiest and I will try to get back to everyone as soon as possible. Matthew.swan@dgm-uk.com. Failing that I am on IM – mattswan40@hotmail.com

How do I get my site on the first page of Google? Good content? Lots or relevant backlinks? Good site structure? The answer is yes to all of them but truth be told no one really knows how much of each you need to apply to your site to ensure good natural results. It’s safe to safe a combination of all three will set you in good stead.  There was once a time when webmasters would simply tell you that all you need is a few relevant keywords in your keyword meta tag and bingo,  you are away. Not so it seems.

Google’s own head of webspam Matt Cutts has confirmed that Google completely discounts the keyword meta tag for its main core search results. That’s not to say that other search engines don’t take this into account.

Google does however take into consideration other meta tags, including the description meta tag for example. A good useful meta description will ensure Google returns a snippet of that meta tag in its search results.

Now I don’t pretend to be an SEO expert so I would get it straight from the horses mouth and Matt Cutts blog is well worth reading.

As the keyword meta tag doesn’t seem to harm search engine rankings I wouldn’t leave it out all together, consider it meta tag insurance.

Feel free to comment with any experience you have had.

This years A4U Expo is just around the corner and the agenda is jam packed with fantastic figures from the world of affiliate marketing, SEO, blogging and search. This event offers a wide range of information from seasoned affiliate professionals such as Kieron Donoghue, Dave Naylor and Duncan Jennings.

You can view the full agenda and attendee list here.

Whether you’re new to affiliate marketing and looking for advice or a super affiliate looking to meet like minded figures and discover the next big thing then this event is for you.

R.O.EYE and I will be present at the expo with a team of dedicated affiliate mangers on hand to answer all your questions so don’t hesitate to come and speak to us. If you are not yet registered, then what are you waiting for.

See you all there.