How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Program - Tools & SEM

In my last two posts I spoke directly on the impact the new Google Adword policy will have on Laptops For Less and our Affiliates. I am now going to get back on track on my series of How to Start an Affiliate Marketing Program and that is exactly what I'm going to do. Interestingly enough my next segment in the series will be an integration post on the tools Paul has created and how they impact search engine marketing both organically and through paid models.

Why! Because you can't get too far into Affiliate Marketing without realizing how beneficial helpful tools are when it comes to search engine marketing and your Affiliate marketing program.

Let's first talk about the tools. To find out what they are go to my post on the tools. Tools are important because it allows merchants to distribute their product content out to their Affiliate sales force in a fashion that can be easily integrated into the Affiliate's website. In the program at Laptops For Less we have well over 3000 Affiliates. These Affiliates range in their ability to program and build web pages, but they all have the common bond of promoting our products for the purpose of generating commissions. Moreover, since it is my role to drive the revenue into the company I must assist my Affiliates as much as possible and so I employ the tools.

The tools also provide the back drop to the real prize of Affiliate marketing - content! People love content and search engines love content! By removing the technical obstacles our Affiliates can then concentrate on marketing the products through strategically placed content. Furthermore, by integrating Laptops For Less's product content with the Affiliate's highly optimized page content we are creating contextual relationships that increase order conversions and sales/commissions.

How do the tools help Affiliates who want to bid on keywords? The tools create content rich product-landing pages that qualify consumers, increase conversions, and they help meet Google's new policy requirements.

Interestingly enough I have received a number of questions regarding exactly how I'm going to handle Affiliates who want to bid on our products keywords. I get questions like:

1. Can I get a copy of our keyword list?
2. Will Laptops For Less Bid against me in effect increase the CPC price?
3. How much should I set my budget on a specific keyword?
4. Can I offer bidding strategies at the keyword level?
5. What kind of conversions can I expect?

Well let me answer those specific questions:

1. I will not distribute my entire keyword list. I will however make available a small segmented list based upon product categories that you want to target.
2. No I will not bid against you. If you want to bid on Google adwords ads that use a domain owned by LaptopsForLess.com in your ad I will back off on bidding on the specific keyword in question. To take advantage of this offer, let Paul know which keywords you intend to bid on. We'll then pause our ads on those keywords as soon as we see that you are actually bidding on them. By playing it this way, we make sure that SOMEONE is bidding on those keywords.
3. Each keyword's bidding strategy is different but common to them all is how I come about my business decision. It is by considering many of the variables that you can read about here along with the CPC fee.
4. Again this takes running the numbers and then coming up with something where I'm comfortable. Obviously what I'm willing to spend on a keyword is probably radically different then what you would spend.
5. The kind of conversions you can expect depends on the dynamic nature of the keyword environment. I would consider the product, the keyword, the demand, the costs, the revenue, the need, as well as the competition. Then considering my degree of risk aversion and the known opportunity costs I would cater my numbers to achieve the desired conversion rate I want.

On my next post I will be continuing the series to talk more on contextual advertising from a business development point of view. Until next time!