Tag: hydra

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Affiliates Need Face Time

ADOTAS – Even though it’s early February, you might still be recuperating from Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas. If you weren’t there – big mistake!! The affiliate community was out in force (more than 4,600 delegates), taking part in the mayhem that Vegas has now become renowned for – endless seminars, impromptu networking, crazy parties and casino games beyond your wildest dreams. Safe to say, you need a vacation after the show to fully recharge your batteries before you can get back to business, but it’s so worth it.

For affiliates who work independently or with a small team, a conference is paramount to maintaining their sanity and reigniting their zest for the career they have chosen. You could feel the buzz in the air during the entire show, and one can only sympathize with the other Wynn guests who weren’t part of ASW; there was a perpetual sea of bodies in every bar, restaurant, meeting area or hallway with those tell-tale Summit badges.

A quick scan of a badge and you’re instantly chatting with a super affiliate, a blogger, your affiliate manager, etc. Everyone is really approachable and down-to-earth, no superstars here.

For those of you spending your days pouring over performance metrics, having face time with your account manager is really important to be able to get a network-wide perspective of trends or opportunities you may see. Yes, much of this can be done by e-mail or IM, but we all know that sitting down with someone in front of data is a whole different experience than the sound-bites you might pick up when multi-tasking.

A Reciprocal Arrangement

Ad networks require truly effective listening skills to be able to deliver exactly what their affiliates need; is there a more efficient forum than a private meeting or dinner at a trade show?! If you’ve expended the time, energy and finances to attend, you should demand a positive return and assume the responsibility for achieving that.

Your physical presence will increase your recognition amongst the strategic partnerships you wish to develop and continue, which in turn may result in preferential treatment plus more regular attention from your AM.

Effective Time Management

Once you’ve made the decision to attend an industry event, don’t just leave it to chance to have a productive experience. Plan your time wisely to cover as much ground as possible and ensure that your interactions leave you with actionable take-aways, and you return home buzzing with fresh ideas to implement.

Some things to consider:

  • Schedule meetings with your network AMs, and if possible get an introduction to their Department Head. Find out what’s hot on their network, successful campaigns with other affiliates working in your space, discuss your anxieties about testing new categories and get their opinions. Are there any product enhancements in the pipeline and how can you get advance notice of such developments? Identify some common ground, maybe a sporting interest, leisure pursuit – this will give you an edge and help put you on their radar of “memorable” clients.
  • Attend relevant workshops. Identify key industry trends (blog monetization, the impact of social) or regulatory updates and see which sessions can make you more efficient and productive in the pursuit of your revenue goals.
  • Networking. Whether you target some key super affiliates (maybe you’re looking for a mentor?) or just want to meet like-minded individuals to brainstorm and share ideas with, this is the real beauty of a trade show.

The next time an “Affiliate Dream Team” is assembled, use the opportunity to block out some time and consider it a worthwhile educational/networking expense; better still, include it in your personal ROI calculations and await the returns. If 2011 trumps last year’s online sales, you’ll want every tool possible to claim your slice of the pie.

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Greg Bayer is general manager of the affiliate division for Adknowledge and has over 15 years experience in affiliate marketing and digital media.

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Hydra rises from the ashes and Greg Bayer tells us how.

If you weren’t really paying attention the last 18 months, you probably didn’t hear about all the drama surrounding Hydra Media. If you did follow the soap opera drama, the company basically went belly-up after two of the founders left, founded another company and a war between all parties involved started. Hydra, despite being one of the big names in the industry, looked as if it was going to be a footnote in our industry. Then along came Adknowledge, the Missouri performance marketing company to rescue them. We wanted to know what was happening with the product, so we asked Greg Bayer, general manager of Adknowledge’s Affiliate Division what was going on, what to expect of Hydra and if we can trust them again.

What can you tell us that will make people feel comfortable with working with Hydra again as an affiliate network?

Adknowledge acquired Hydra in June 2010 for several key reasons. The acquisition allowed Adknowledge to move into the CPA space to complement its affiliate CPC offering. This includes an arsenal of new affiliates in Email as well as other distribution types like search, display, co-reg, etc. expanding our base of affiliates. Since the acquisition we’ve worked hard to make sure that our affiliate managers are properly cross-trained on both networks, and affiliates can access both CPC and CPA offers. Affiliates are paid by Adknowledge for both CPA and CPC revenue, and gain the benefit of the CPA network being closely integrated within one of the largest privately held ad networks. We’ve also been able to retain, and add to the great roster of affiliate marketers behind the Hydra product.

What does Hydra provide to affiliates that no other affiliate network provides?

– Top quality offers across hundreds of advertisers, including branded offers such as AT&T and Sears plus top direct response advertisers.

– Leveraging Adknowledge’s large advertiser base to bring forward even more attractive and top performing ads.

– Tested and vetted offers from across different areas of Adknowledge to ensure high success rates and competitive pricing.

– Best trained affiliate management team who can work with the affiliate to determine the best yield whether CPC or CPA.

What does Hydra provide to advertisers that no other affiliate network provides?

– Top quality e-mail affiliates plus broad distribution across search, display, social media, co-reg, etc.

– World class compliance team to screen and monitor affiliate activity creating a strong balance between high but controlled distribution.

– In-house full creative department ready to meet any needs the client may have.

– Top producing sales team that works closely with the advertisers to tailor campaigns that meet or exceed their expected ROI.

What is Hydra currently doing to prevent affiliate fraud? How are you keeping out the bad affiliates?
Adknowledge has a rigorous affiliate vetting procedure which analyzes more than a dozen data sources in deciding who should be admitted to the network, in addition to conducting personal interviews with applicants. We also have a large database of historical information on applicants as well as active and de-activated affiliates that allows us, in many cases, to identify the “bad affiliates” even when they try to pose as someone else, so that we are able to proactively screen out and protect the network against would-be fraudulent affiliates.

What major changes do you see with the performance marketing industry in 2011?

– Outlook for new categories Diversification into other categories, in particular those appealing to the Boomers/Senior sectors

– Further consolidation as some of the smaller networks combine together

– CPC and CPA blending together more. Revenue share networks like CJ, LinkShare, Google will continue to appeal to a very specific segment of affiliates.

If there was a solution that you could invent for performance marketers, what would it be?
The perfect e-mail deliverability tool which only sends top quality clicks. Advertisers would keep raising their bids and everyone would see the pool float higher!

Your parent company, Adknowledge is very much involved in incentivized marketing, what steps are being taken to ensure that incentivized marketing remains legit, and the traffic quality is good?
Audiences are shifting their time from traditional media sources like television to online games. The shift is rapid and dramatic and SuperRewards provides advertisers a way to reach this engaged audience. Advertisers receive a highly transparent offering in which they pay on a per action basis. There are a combination of internal systems (fraud control, throttling, machine fingerprinting) and external consulting (ensuring secure checkout processes, lead scrubbing) we provide to increase lead quality. Additionally, social games with virtual currency do not have cash out mechanisms; this single item has a huge impact on improving lead quality.

If you could move your office to anywhere in the world, where would it be?

Well, we just moved offices in December to combine the former Hydra team with the existing Adknowledge team in Westwood, LA and that’s about as good of a spot as any! Most of the rest of the affiliate team also recently moved into a new office space in NYC’s SOHO, also a great place to be. Then of course there’s our headquarters in KC where you can’t beat the BBQ and the Royals’ Kauffman Stadium. Although it would be great to have everyone in one place, travelling to these three spots are a nice change of scenery!