Working with Publishers
Introduction
Adding Publishers to your campaign and providing them with promotional materials is essential for running a successful Affiliate & Partner Campaign.
Types of Publishers
There are many different types of Publishers to work with. We've selected a few below of the more prominent groups below and described how you may want to work with them.
Loyalty & Reward
Loyalty & Reward Publishers offer a variety of ways to incentivse a user for making a purchase through your site. This could be in the form of Cashback, Points for a loyalty scheme (derived from the Commission that is paid for a successful sale) or an Employee Benefits scheme.
Loyalty & Reward sites have very large, loyal user bases and can be a key asset on your Campaigns.
Many Cashback websites offer tactical promotions such as sponsored placements and short-term commission boosts/uplifts that can boost your visibility and drive additional conversions and revenue for your Campaign.
How does it work?
Cashback website rely on being able to identify the exact user that generated a sale so they can award the commission as cashback. To do this Cashback Publishers send a unique reference in the UID parameter of the Tracking URL.
Missing Sales Enquiries
Missing sales are a part of Cashback Campaigns. Sometimes a sale may not track correctly for a user and most cashback websites support users in raising an enquiry to ensure that the correct cashback can be claimed.
Optimise provide processes and technology for automating and managing Cashback Enquiries.
Content
Content Publisher produce content about products such as reviews or editorial. This can be focussed around a specific niche or category, ranging from small blogs to large multi-national publishers such as newspapers and magazines. and . An Affiliate or Partnership Campaign is a great way to advertise across the unique content of these websites and apps and for Publishers to monetise their content through additional advertising revenue.
How does it work?
Publishers will take Optimise tracking links for campaigns and generate deeplinks to products on Advertiser websites. This can either be a manual process, using a tool like Optimise Linkables or via 3rd party tools that aggregate Affiliate links and help Publishers integrate across their media.
Influencers & KOLs
Social Media Influencers and Key Opinion Leaders (KOLs) across platforms such as Instagram, Tiktok, Youtube, Facebook & Twitter can be great ambassadors for your brand and products reaching hundreds, thousands or even millions of followers.
How does it work?
Influencers operate on a variety of commercial models such as a Cost per Post, Cost per Click, or Cost per Sale.
Influencers will use deeplinks, ads, editorial & voucher codes to promote your products and brands. You can search for Influencers in Publisher Explorer or invite Influencers to join your campaign with Optimise.
On-site Tech
On-site Technology Partners provide a range of solutions that will usually integrate into your site and directly influence the user experience. eg. Chat/Sales Assistant tools, exit strategies/overlays, retargeting and re-engagement of customers.
How does it work?
This will often involve inserting a piece of code belonging to the Publisher onto your site so that they can perform the necessary functions. The Optimise Universal Tracking tag acts as a 'Container Tag' simplifying the setup and providing controls for On-site Technology Partners.
Price Comparison
Price Comparison Publishers use tables to compare product features or product prices across different Advertisers. Widely used by consumers they may use wizards and datasets to tailor the results to a specific user. eg. Broadband availability for a certain address.
How does it work?
A Publisher may source the comparison data themselves or they may look to obtain this from a Product Feed. This will be combined with Affiliate Deeplinks ensuring a user is directed to the product as an informed decision improving conversion rates.
Voucher/Coupon
Voucher & Coupon Publishers provide users with a discount offer or voucher/coupon on the Advertiser's site. Many voucher websites have large, loyal user bases
Voucher Publishers will often employ a click-to-reveal method to ensure that they are correctly attributed for a sale originating from their media or utilise Unique voucher codes combined with Voucher Code Attribution.
Optimise were a co-author in developing the IAB Voucher Affiliates Code of Conduct written so that a common standard of best practise is adopted across all Voucher & Coupon Publishers.
How does it work?
Providing a feed of Vouchers, Offers & Discounts to your Voucher Publishers is an essential component. Optimise provide a toolset for uploading and sharing vouchers via a CSV & API enabling real-time distribution.
Additional tools for enabling Voucher Code Attribution campaigns, monitoring mis-use of unique voucher codes and reporting are all available in Optimise Dashboard.
Finding Publishers
Adding Publishers to your Campaign is one of the first tasks you'll want to undertake. Take a look at the Publisher Explorer to search our Network of Publishers and invite them onto your Campaign.
Inviting Publishers
Using the Communications Tool you can invite existing Optimise Publishers to join your campaign.
For new Publishers, not already with Optimise, simply send the new Publisher the following link https://www.optimisemedia.com/apply?MID={MID} replacing {MID} with your own MID/AdvertiserID inviting them to join. When they are approved, they will automatically join onto your Campaigns.
The quickest way to do this is:
- Click the + icon at the top of the Dashboard
- Enter the URL or search by Publisher name
- If the Publisher is already on our Network then you can invite them via Publisher Explorer
- If the Publisher is not found you can use your unique application URL. Send this to them and invite them to join Optimise. Once they are approved to join Optimise, they'll automatically be applied to your Campaigns.
Approving Publishers
When a Publisher applies to join your Campaign you will need to review their application and decide whether they are suitable.
Select Campaigns > Applications from the Menu to get started. From here you can review the application, check the Publisher's profile and Accept/Reject the Publisher.
Click the Profile to see more details on the selected Publisher.
You should always provide a Rejection Reason from the list when rejected a Publisher application.