From my experience, an affiliate program can be treated as a smaller version of your overall business. Using your Mediaplexa affiliate program, you advertise/market, secure new players, and make transactions based on the success of your players. Consequently, it can make both an excellent testing ground for your entire business. The data that comes out of the Mediaplexa affiliate program and can be invaluable in helping you reach targets and stay ahead of market trends.
There are two main factors we at Mediaplexa found to be particularly useful in monitoring the roll out of new campaigns and products across other online channels: data associated with creatives, and players. In the Mediaplexa affiliate software, for example, there is the ability to run any of the critical reports by creative, player, period comparison and earnings. All of these reports provide valuable insight on two key components of the conversion process: acquisition and ROI.
The Creative Report
The Creative Report offers you insight into what actually happens with your target marketing. Mediaplexa affiliate manager will set up targeted campaigns for your banners. By comparing banners that convert to those that don’t, not only do you gain knowledge on which banners to drop and keep, but you also know what elements to incorporate into the future development of additional creatives. While your reports can tell you what banners attract depositing players, it does not tell you anything about the players themselves.
The Period Comparison Report
The Period Comparison Report allows you to put your finger on the pulse of your affiliate program and therefore your entire business. This set of reports allows you to A/B test (rotate) banners and/or landing pages from one month to the next or any time period you require. For instance, you can compare how a certain brand performed from one month to the next, before and after its landing page changed, or vice versa.
The Earnings Report
The Earnings Report allows you to monitor the two main influences on your site such as creatives and landing pages. Using this information you can compare the conversion success at the click, registration, and new player level. The data gives you insight level of player acquisition, letting you analyze where your strengths are in the acquisition process.
Once you have gained confidence that a certain campaign or promotion is optimized and ready to meet your own business goals, you will be able to roll it out through other channels and increase the exposure – such as online media buys, print campaigns, and whatever other marketing channels you might use. Since you are already sure that it appeals to your targets demographic, the risks associated with deploying a new campaign into these other channels will have been minimized. Contact your Mediaplexa account manager for more info!
