eBay PartnerNetwork Blog

Hi all,

As we expected lots of you have had questions about Quality Click Pricing and we’ve been busy on the discussion board answering them as they come in.  There’s also been a lot of debate in the wider affiliate industry, which we’ve been reading with great interest and there’s one article in particular that we’d like to share with you from the Niche Store Builder blog entitled  “3 Tips To Understand and Succeed with ePN Quality Click Pricing.”

Mark makes some great points, particularly about what he calls the “Visitor Intent Factor” and there are also some great tips on increasing your “Intent Conversion Rate” and ultimately your EPC.  Also, take time to read the comments too, particularly the tip about using the transaction level reports.

Hi all,

Here are all the important dates you need to know for Quality Click Pricing. 

From the last week in August:
• Existing publishers will be able to view a report in the eBay Partner Network interface showing what earnings per click and total earnings will be under Quality Click Pricing.  When the reports are available, we will put up a blog post with more information about them.

From September 1st
• All publishers that join eBay Partner Network after September 1st will be paid on the Quality Click Pricing payment model.
• eBay Partner Network programs will open for eBay Germany, Austria, Switzerland and Ireland.  Publishers will be paid under the Quality Click Pricing payment model for these programs.    Learn more

From October 1st
• All existing publishers* (publishers that joined prior to September 1st, 2009) will move to the Quality Click Pricing model. 

Throughout the transition period, we will be monitoring the boards regularly to answer any questions that come up and we will regularly post related blog articles.

We recommend that you take the time from late August for existing publishers on October 1st to familiarize yourself with the new reports and take the opportunity to analyse the quality of existing campaigns.  During this period, you will be able to test out new approaches to see what impact they will have on your EPC, without it affecting your payout. 

The eBay Partner Network Team

*Note that cashback/loyalty sites will remain on the current pay per action model. Half.com is not changing to Quality Click pricing and will retain its pay per action pricing.

Hello from your U.S. team at ePN. We would like to announce that we will be attending the Affiliate Summit East in New York on August 9th-11th: http://www.affiliatesummit.com/. If you will be attending and would like to stop by to visit, we will be hosting a table at their largest event, the “Meet Market”. This event consists of rows and rows of tables with some of the top affiliate advertisers in the nation.

If you would like to meet outside the conference venue to discuss partnerships or business ideas, send an email to Affiliates-Program-US@ebay.com with your name, publisher email, and what you’d like to discuss.

We hope to see you there!

Kevin
eBay Partner Network Team

Last week we attended the first annual Affiliate Convention in Denver, where senior director Steve Hartman joined Peter Bordes, CEO of MediaTrust on a keynote panel discussing innovation and transparency in affiliate marketing. Other panelists included Steve Schaffer, founder and CEO of Vertive, Rebecca Madigan, head of the Performance Marketing Alliance and Wes Mahler, CEO of Prosper202.

Peter shared several interesting facts about the performance marketing industry, such as:
•    Performance marketing is the fastest growing segment of the exploding online ad industry, making up 57% of total online ad spend (according to PricewaterhouseCoopers)
•    17 percent of affiliates drive more than $600,000 annually in sales to their merchants (this is huge!)

Some of the other takeaways from the keynote included:
•    There is a need for better measurement of the performance marketing industry. Very little data exists. Few merchants and/or networks share publicly what they do have, making it difficult for the industry to measure results and the impact performance (and affiliate) marketing has on merchants and affiliates. Peter suggested finding a way to connect all forms of performance marketing for better measurement and results
•    All panelists agreed that better collaboration should be in order. When affiliates work closely with their network and merchant partners, they have an opportunity to influence policies and innovation, making the entire system work better. Getting to know your partners is key to building a trusted and prosperous relationship for both sides of the affiliate marketing equation
•    Paying for quality was noted by several panelists as the best way to ensure a healthy affiliate program. While some merchants offer as little pay as possible in order to make affiliate marketing a feasible expense, some merchants (including eBay) have realized that paying for quality is a better option. It allows merchants to pay its best affiliates the most, while discouraging lower quality traffic and activity. Affiliates seem to like this also, because they feel they are getting paid fairly for their performance and it allows for a more trusted relationship between the two parties
•    There is more education to be done on affiliate marketing. From the executive suite to reporters, analysts, policymakers and marketers – there is a major lack of understanding of affiliate marketing. The only way we will be able to continue the growth and prosperity of the industry is if we all work to educate the influencers. The more value that is seen in affiliate marketing, the more money merchants will be able to pay out and the more money on the table for affiliates.

After the panel we hosted an impromptu breakout session for affiliates interested in learning more about eBay Partner Network. The result was very valuable for us, and (we hope) for the affiliates, too. We received some great feedback and ideas for our blog, our tools and our reporting, some of which you’ll see the results of in the near future.

Thanks to Peter and the Affiliate Convention for having us, and thanks to everyone who attended our sessions! We appreciate the opportunity to work with you all!

The eBay Developer’s Conference is less than a month away and the early bird rate of $149 will increase to $199 after May 31st. eBay’s Dev Con is the premier event for eBay and Pay Pal developers and caters to companies and advertisers of all shapes and sizes. Learn how to put the eBay and PayPal APIs to work for you and get a first hand sneak peek of what is on tap for the next 6–24 months. eBay’s DevCon is June 17th and 18th and is going to be held in sunny San Jose California at eBay’s north campus, just minutes from the San Jose airport.

Aside from two full days of educational sessions and panels, there are two pre-conference workshops on June 16th, each is an additional $50. Both workshops are three hour sessions from 1:30pm – 4:30pm and they’re both at the same time, so you’ll have to pick the one that most interests you. One workshop is an eBay API platform jumpstart, the other is an eBay selling manager applications jumpstart. These are both great opportunities for new developers to get up to speed quickly on these topics.

DevCon is also a great opportunity for publishers to connect with eBay Partner Network managers and developers, as team members from around the globe will be attending this year’s event. On the first day, June 17th at 2:30pm, Jarrod Schwarz and Steve Hartman of ePN will be giving a presentation on application monetization with high quality traffic, providing insights into determining which marketing methods and traffic provide the the most desirable and valuable customers to eBay.

The day one keynote at this year’s DevCon will be from John Hagel, Co-Chairman, Deloitte Center for the Edge. The title of his keynote is “The Three Elements of Transformation” and is a focus on shaping strategies as technology-driven infrastructures constantly change. John is the founder of two Silicon Valley startups, author of a series of best-selling business books and has won two awards from the Harvard Business Review. The keynote on the 2nd day of DevCon is titled “Venture Capitalism in Silicon Valley: API Developer Stimulus Panel” and will be given by Rob Hayes, Sergio Monsalve and Ravi Mohan. All are well seasoned veterans of the venture capital world. Read more about this year’s DevCon keynotes and speakers here.

As a preview of what to expect, check out this video interview with 2008 eBay Star Developer Award Winner Christoph Buenger of Scendix Software. Keep an eye on the DevCon site, as well eBay Partner Network Blog and the eBay Developers Blog for future updates.

Aside from eBay’s DevCon, there are wide a variety of internet marketing conferences and events scheduled for the month of June. Here’s an overview of what’s happening next month.

SMX Advanced Seattle will take place on June 2nd and 3rd at the Bell Harbor International Conference Center. SMX is one of the most recognized events in search marketing and is well known for their high caliber speakers. Check out the full list of guest speakers and panelists here.

Dr. Qi Lu of Microsoft and Matt Cutts of Google with be giving the two keynotes at the event. Matt will even be doing the interactive “You&A” keynote where he’ll be answering direct questions from the audience. With engaging sessions on paid search, SEO and social media, SMX advanced is one of the premiere gatherings that gets down to the details of search marketing. The expo passes are free unless you register on site, then they’re $50. The full pass to the event is $1495 ahead of time, $1595 on site. Take a look at the full registration information here as well as the agendas for day one and day two of the event.

Coinciding with SMX Seattle on the other side of the globe is SMX Madrid on June 3rd and 4th. Note this event is conducted entirely in Spanish and is focused primarily on the Spain’s internet audience and consumers.

Search Engine Strategies Toronto is a two day conference focusing on a wide array of internet marketing’s latest developments and strategies along with an optional third day of SEM training available from the pros. This year’s event is taking place from June 8th-10th and is being held at the Sheraton Centre Toronto. Now in its 10th year, SES has become one of the top notch events in internet marketing. The sessions and panels at SES Toronto focus on topics including search analytics, information architecture, Canada specific search issues as well as social media developments and applications.

The opening keynote at SES Toronto will be from Tara Hunt, Author of “The Whuffie Factor” and Co-founder & Chief Marketing Officer of Citizen Agency. The day two keynote will be from Emanuel Rosen, author of “ The Anatomy of Buzz Revisited”.

A platinum pass to SES Toronto is $1295CAD and an expo only pass is free if you register in advance. They have quite an impressive list of speakers lined up and you can see the full list here, along with the agenda’s for day one and day two of the conference. Want a preview of what of SES is all about? Check out their free on demand webcasts today.

The first annual Affiliate Convention is taking place in Denver June 17th – 20th 2009 at the Colorado Convention Center, the same week as the eBay Developer’s Conference. If you can’t make it to the eBay Developer’s Conference and you live in the Denver area, Affiliate Convention is something you should consider attending. Kris Jones from PepperJam is kicking off the event with his keynote address on the future of affiliate marketing. Other notable speakers include Linda Woods of PartnerCentric, Heather Paulson of PMG, Peter Bordes of Media Trust and Gillian Muessig of SEOmoz. Check out the Affiliate Convention promotional video and the agenda for the full details or head over to the Aff Spot forums for the latest discussion.

This new affiliate marketing event is being promoted as “free to affiliates”, while merchants, agencies and others will be charged the normal conference rate of $700. After June 12th, the full conference pass goes up to $850. Affiliate Convention is being put on by Daron Babin of Webmaster Radio, Aunesty Jannsen of AffSpot and Marc Lesnick of Ticonderoga Ventures

Many of you have asked us about resources and conferences to help you build out and promote the websites you use to drive traffic to eBay. There are actually a number of conferences coming up this month and we wanted provide a quick overview of what’s on tap for the month of May.

Streaming Media East is one of the best opportunities around for everyone from seasoned broadcast professionals to viral video entrepreneurs to learn from each other and showcase the latest technologies and trends in streaming media. Now in its 12th year, the event is being held at the New York Hilton on May 12th & 13th. The exhibit hall passes are free, while a platinum pass is $1295, with some mid range options available as well. The Content Delivery Summit is taking place on May 11th as a special satellite event, as well as other pre conference workshops. From the big guys to the up and comers, this year’s event will feature almost 100 speakers, take a look at the full list here

The Internet Marketing Conference San Francisco is taking place Tuesday May 12th at the UCSF Mission Bay conference center. This one day event is $299 and includes a variety of panels and sessions centered around topics like social and behavioral advertising. They have quite a line up of speakers from companies like Yahoo, LinkedIn & Classmates, take a look at the conference schedule here.

Over in Australia the Web Forward conference, part of CeBIT Australia, is taking place on May 13th and 14th at the Sydney Convention & Exhibition Center in Darling Harbour. Day one of Web Forward Sydney focuses on eMarketing & search along with web & mobile platforms and applications. The second day of the conference focuses on social networking and geo targeting trends and developments. For the full scoop, check out this link.

SMX London is taking place on the 18th and 19th of May at the New Connaught Rooms, Covent Garden and is hosted this year by Chris Sherman, the executive editor of Search Engine Land. SMX London is two days of search marketing discussion, education and networking with some of the brightest minds in search. For more details on speakers and sessions, take a look at the agendas for day one and day two of SMX London.

The eBay and Pay Pal developer conference is just over a month away and we wanted to remind everyone that pricing for this event will increase by $50 after May 31st, so it pays to register early. Learn API integration tips and tricks first hand from the pros and eBay’s in house development teams. The DevCon schedule has been updated recently, take a look at the full agenda and list of speakers here. We’ll have more updates on this event in the coming weeks. We look forward to seeing everyone in San Jose from June 16th – 18th.

Hallo from Amsterdam!
 
Thanks to all those affiliates that we’ve met so far this week in Amsterdam – it’s been fantastic to meet so many of you in such a short period time (if very hectic!) If you didn’t get a chance to stop by the stand today or haven’t managed to catch up with us at one of the many parties, there’s still chance tomorrow and we’ll be at the Expo from 8am.  Also, don’t miss out on the chance to win a Nintendo Wii – today’s prize for the fastest lap was won by Mike, so congratulations!

Also happening today, Will Martin-Gill and Chris Howard gave a presentation on Quality Standards in Affiliate Marketing and when the presentation is uploaded onto the a4u site, we’ll share it with you.  It was great to see so many of you staying around afterwards to ask questions and hearing that many of you are thinking along the same lines. 

Further updates from Amsterdam coming soon (and if you’re lucky a photo of the team in their orange t-shirts!)

The European eBay Partner Network team

While the US team is busy packing up their stand at Ad:Tech in San Francisco, the European team are getting ready to head to Amsterdam for the a4uexpo next week (April 28th and 29th). 

We’re looking forward to seeing as many of you as possible at our stand and as an added incentive to visit us; you will have the chance to win a Nintendo Wii!  All the European team will be there, plus some members of the US team and Mark and Colin from R.O.EYE, the agency that supports us in the UK.

Also, Will Martin-Gill and Chris Howard will be speaking at the conference at 11.00 on Tuesday about setting quality standards in affiliate marketing, which will be a great session, so please come along if you get the chance.

We’ll be posting a few posts from the expo, so those of you aren’t there can still get a flavour of what is going on.

Hope to see you in Amsterdam!

Chris, Julia, Paolo, Peter and Mieke, the European eBay Partner Network team.

As we mentioned in an earlier post, the San Francisco ad:tech kicks off today and this years event is packed full of educational and inspirational keynotes, sessions and networking.

Coinciding with ad:tech on April 22nd is ADSPACE, a full day conference focusing on social media, SEM, video publishing and other emerging Internet marketing strategies and technologies. The line up of sessions and keynotes at this years ADSPACE is sure to bring out the top Internet marketers from around the globe. Among the speakers at ADSPACE is eBay’s director of Internet marketing Will Martin-Gill who is participating in the panel “Beyond Text Ads: In Text, Affiliate, Lead-Gen, eBay and More!”. Make sure to stop by the eBay Partner Network booth at ad:tech for your chance to meet the EPN team in person, we’ll be located at booth #2374 on the 2nd floor.

Passes for the full day ADSPACE event are $450($495 on site) and will also provide access to all ad:tech keynotes and the ad:tech expo floor. There will be on site registration available the day of the conference and if you mention the code ADSPACEF, you’ll save an extra 20% off the $495 on site price. If you’re interested in attending, check out the full ADSPACE conference schedule here, as well as the full list of speakers. ADSPACE and ad:tech are both being held at the Monscone Center West in San Francisco CA.

We think affiliate marketing is going to be big in 2009. In fact, we’re so passionate about affiliate marketing as an alternative or complement to traditional online advertising, we contributed an article on the subject to MediaPost’s Online Media Daily, which ran yesterday.

In brief, here’s why we think 2009 is the year for affiliate marketing:

• There’s a lot of money to be made by both advertisers and publishers. At a time when everyone is looking to squeeze out some ROI, affiliate marketing delivers.
• The recession is driving more buyers online, as consumers not only attempt to save money by driving less, they spend more time researching trusted brands, reading reviews and comparison shopping.
• The direct relationship between merchants and publishers and the flexibility affiliates have with their ads allow for better customer engagement.

Customer engagement is key. As more advertisers, networks and exchanges get into the online ad game, it gets tougher to cut through the clutter. Affiliate marketing gives publishers the power and flexibility to capture their readers’ attention while maintaining their trust.

We expect to see more companies putting their ad dollars into affiliate marketing over the coming years, especially as the industry learns how to further reward quality over quantity.

For more of our thoughts on this subject, check out the article. Comment there or Tweet us you’re your thoughts to @eBay_Affiliates.