Dave Davis is no stranger to the affiliate channel. His Dublin, Ireland based online marketing business, RedFly Marketing, has successfully combined core client work with a number of global affiliate sites for six years. RedFly’s content sites generate between 3 and 4 million unique visitors per month.
Davis partners with the major networks, using a mashup of data feeds to give visitors the best choice. He joined the eBay Partner Network in April 2008, and currently eBay generates the largest share of RedFly’s revenue.
In May 2009 the company joined eBay Partner Network’s Quality Click Pricing beta and hasn’t looked back since. “We were able to raise our EPC by a whopping 20 percent under the new system,” says Davis. “This is a huge difference considering the volume we do.”
This was even more impressive as initially Redfly’s EPC had decreased, but Davis quickly mastered the concept behind the quality-based payout system and began to reap the benefits.
He believes affiliates will appreciate the simplified commission structure. “The eBay Partner Network team have made a huge effort to get their publishers thinking in terms of quality over quantity,” he says. “This realignment of the publisher mindset has made the transition pretty painless.”
Davis credits eBay with more granular, transparent data than other networks – data he uses to drive up his profits. RedFly applies eBay Partner Network’s custom ID tracking and segments its traffic using campaigns.
“No other network we work with allows this,” Davis says. “This has been the key to increasing our quality, EPC and ultimately our bottom line. We can track exactly what traffic is the highest quality to eBay and focus on driving more. In exchange, we get paid more. It’s a win-win situation.”
RedFly starts by ensuring the traffic source is assigned to an eBay Partner Network campaign ID, and that a creative ID or keyword is assigned to a custom ID. The company then uses its own tools to identify and remove non-performing keywords or creatives from each campaign – although Davis says Excel can do the job as well.
Copy adjustments have helped as well. RedFly split-tests copy and encourages users to buy benefits, not features.
Recession-battered buyers often seek deals or quality second-hand goods, Davis adds, advising affiliates to emphasize the quality and savings available on eBay, along with the site’s purchase protection, a relatively new feature that provides a unique selling point.
Davis says that with eBay’s support, RedFly has raked in more than $100,000 per month during peak periods this past year. With Quality Click Pricing underway, he sees nothing but more growth ahead.
“I have never been more excited about the holiday season as I am this year,” he says.
Thank you Dave,
The eBay Partner Network Team
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This is a very inspiring story about affiliate marketing. Congratulations RedFly Marketing!
Good stuff, was interested to see how people were getting on with the new quality pricing system.
Thanks Penny and Jesse. I think EPN have really done their affiliates a service with the QCP release. I feel that an awful lot of the spammy type cookie sprayers are getting squeezed out allowing EPN to pay their affiliates more for revenue generated as a direct result of the traffic that those affiliates sent.
Consistency, segmentation and testing has proven very valuable under QCP.
We have been members of the eBay affiliate program for years and are continually amazed at the creativity used to maximize affiliate revenue.
What great inspiration for all of us!
Excellent review of a company doing well with the new pricing structure. Unlike a lot of partners who have experienced drops in their earnings, this new smart pricing has forced me to focus more on EPN given the fact that it is out performing other networks like Adsense.
Excellent review of the company.