Your Affiliate Manager is your WORST Enemy
March 19, 2008 · Print Post · Bookmark post
Isn’t your affiliate manager supposed to be your best friend? Always there helping you and getting your issues resolved in a timely manner? Maybe even giving you advice and troubleshooting your campaigns and creative. But some (generalizing) maybe just lazy and maybe do not even know what they are talking about. Worst, they probably will pass you off to another affiliate manager with some knowledge. Shouldn’t an affiliate manager have knowledge of their system and KNOW what affiliate marketing is?
Past 2 days I have had the worst experience with a network, won’t say who it is, but they seriously need to get their act together. I literally spoke to 4 people on my issue, a simple issue at that! I felt like I was talking to a customer support somewhere in India because of all the transfers and idiotic questions and responses I was getting. I am not an expert in affiliate marketing nor do I claim to be. I do not even portray myself as a know all of affiliate marketing! I just wanted a simple answer and I got a stupid response.
My Situation:
I was doing real well on a specific campaign, getting a very good conversion. Usually late at night, I check my subids from the specific campaigns I was running. I like to track every click and thanks to Tracking202 it does just that. So I made $XXX.XX amount that day, so checking my subid report - I was horrified - I wanted to kick my computer. I saw nothing! I was like the angry German kid from youtube.
So I sent an email and IM to my affiliate manager, it was the weekend I knew he was on a trip, so I calmed down and waited till Monday to get in contact with him. He said he is looking into it and asked me several questions. I have nothing against this guy but the answers that were given and me being passed around was just poor managing. I was piss the people I was talking to knew I was piss. So I simply asked “Why are my subids not being tracked within their interface?” All I wanted was a simple answer, if it is broken cool - I will pause the campaign until it is fixed. I would have actually been fine with that answer. BUT to go ahead and research and get back to me like 2 hours later and tell me its ready to run, finding out it still doesn’t work, piss me off! (I tested the link again - just to make sure) So I bitched and complained again, I was more in a settled mood because I didn’t expect much from them anymore.
Another dumb answer I received was you need to append an alphanumeric characters after the equals’ sign, no sh!t - why do you think I am asking you why my subids are not being tracked, when last week they were being tracked!! I was like dude, are you serious on that question? So off they go to try to find a fix and see what the problem was.
The next day I just gave up. I didn’t even try to rerun the campaign even though it was converting before, I really do not care. If I do not have data what is the point of trying to promote it. My affiliate manager IMed me and said is everything running, I said no. I told him I am not running anything until I know your tracking is working properly. I asked for any updates and yet again nothing. I called him this time and was like dude what is going on. Now here is another dumb response I got from his whole team. He tells me that the ‘&’ should not be part of the link, their system does not generate the link in that fashion. I was laughing. I told him yes it does, your system generated the link this way, the reason why I am using it! Explained to me it shouldn’t, then pass me off to another guy. Spoke to the guy, re explained my situation and then told him the ‘&’ was showing when I generated a subid within their system.
He swears it should not be happening, walking to his desk tries to log in, system is whack, loads slow even on their end. I told him the specific campaign; he generates the subid link and surprise to see it. This is friggin pissing me off, not only does some people within their network know what a subid is or does. They don’t even know their damn system!
I was then asking if I was the only one and apparently I was. I also was asking about delay in subids, jokingly saying if it is 48 hours, he responds it is all real time. If there is a delay it is 15 minutes. I again was piss at the response time on this issue and the fact that I was getting retarded answers. Again I am not an expert nor do I claim to be, the person I am talking to should know the basics at least, most importantly know their NETWORK!
Resolution: None
This by far is a first time bad experience with this specific network and first experience really drives a person if they should continue with their decision. My affiliate manager is a great person, the network it self needs more knowledge in the industry and literally their own network. I like respectful answers and straight to the point, do not try to give me an answer that I would want to hear. If it is broken cool - don’t beat around the bush to find a gullible response. I like real people and real networks - again if I am doing something wrong let me know - I like to learn and failing first is a positive experience.
I am speaking from an experience point of view. I am not an expert in PPC or affiliate marketing. I know the basics and have had the experience to know what certain things are. If the network isn’t knowledgeable on a beginners level, I do not see the point to continue with them.
March 19th, 2008 11:58 am
I feel your pain.
Affiliate managers are typically good at what I like to call “schmoozing” but are not necessarily good at anything else. They’ll call and chat you up, but they are often ignorant about what will make you more money.
But on the plus side…if you have a relationship with a manager and have produced for the company you can sometimes negotiate a better CPA or commission.
March 19th, 2008 5:20 pm
After seeing the german kid, I’m speechless. Can somebody PLEASE translate and tell me what the hell he was so irate for?
Either way, my take on affiliate managers is that they should be screened and certified before allowed to join ANY network, this way the publishers have better experience and the merchants can rest assure that the publishers are getting the necessary help, enabling the network to generate MORE merchants and MORE money.
Just my .02 cents.
March 19th, 2008 5:42 pm
The funniest part about all this is that your manager says you’re the only one experiencing this but that’s what every manager will say. Most likely even if you’re not, it’s not like they will tell you that their system is full of BS. Not to mention they won’t know if another affiliate is having this problem under a different manager. The fact that they don’t understand their own SubID generator says a whole lot about what they know is going on.
Sad to say, people who don’t have an adequate way of tracking their campaign generally will never realize these things exist and will have a hard time knowing their getting scrubbed by a network until it’s too late. Or too late may never come if they never suspect such a thing exist in the first place.
July 3rd, 2008 4:20 am
Hi,
I just read this and whilst I feed your pain, and frustration, speaking as both an affiliate AND and affiliate manager, I’d say that its a bit of a sweeping statement that ALL affiliate managers are useless and fob you off with generic answers that don’t get any results.
I’ve been working in affiliate marketing in the UK for a good 3 years now, heading up the affiliate management and network department for an agency, one thing that you have to realize is the massive shortage of decent and educated staff in affiliate marketing, affiliate managers are highly sough after, and even 6 months experience seems to merit £30k (£60K+) salaries in this space, whilst I agree this isn’t ideal its a simple case of supply and demand, there arn’t all that many decent affiliate managers who would be able to help on both tech based and program base issues
one of the things I believe should happen is that affiliate managers should be certified or have to pass through some sort of training program before hitting the ’shop floor’ the problem is, who should be responsible for this training?
In a nut shell, speaking as an affiliate, i wouldnt want an affiliate manager whom didn’t have an affiliate site of their own, at least that way its an identifier that they know how it feels to be an affiliate themselves.