is this a normal de-duplication policy

[fresh79]

Im with a merchant on AWIN who i shall not name,
this merchant is, as far as i can see allowing itself to cherry pick what commission they would like to pay/not like to pay by using this rule in the PPC terms:

If a customer clicks through an affiliate link and then returns to purchase via a generic keyword from XXX's own search campaigns the affiliate will not be awarded the sale.

I don't use PPC btw

from my point of view, im seeing referrals & sales in my awin panel, then they are getting voided under this rule with no other evidence submitted or shown to me in my panel..

Anyone had this before?

 

[ian]

I think all affiliates experience similar. I tend not to look at the reports now as most get declined for similar reasons (usually duplicate affiliate links rather than PPC links).

It is frustrating though. If you send a visitor to a site they wouldn't have known about otherwise, then later on they search for that site and click through an adwords campaign for them for example, you don't get the commissions, yet you put them in touch originally. I guess maybe it is hard to manage but still isn't right.

 

[dazc]

from my point of view, im seeing referrals & sales in my awin panel, then they are getting voided under this rule with no other evidence submitted or shown to me in my panel..

Unfortunately this is quite common. Unless your sales are being rejected at an abnormally high rate, or you have evidence (say, a few test purchases) to back up a challenge there isn't much you can do other than to not promote them.

 

[Retired_Member38]

That term seems fair - If you send them to Bobs Electrical Store and they don't buy anything, then your cookie will be set. If they then go on Google and search for "50 inch plasma TV" and click on one of Bobs Electrical Store ads... then I don't see why you'd be due anything at all.

The scummy way of deduping is if you send them to Bobs Electrical Store, they don't buy anything but next day search for Bobs Electrical Store by name or url, click a PPC ad and you are then deduped against that. That is unfair, as you've sent them there then they specifically tried to go back to complete the transaction.

 

[martin-s]

Deduping should be done by the affiliate network, rather than the advertiser surely?

 

[Retired_Member38]

Whether its the merchant or the network is immaterial really, its still the same issue. Plus the merchant chooses what data to pass back to the network so ultimately they control it.

 

[fresh79]

Thanks for all the replies,
Spoke with merchant and expressed my concerns, they were transparent enough and showed me analytics screenshots to back up to transaction/referral.
They said its unusual to see this kind of violation, which is a small condolence I suppose.

Now I'm thinking, what's to stop them from using keywords from previous 7 days traffic from affiliates, and loading those into the campaign,

It's a high price item, so the ppc cost in doing this would prob be marginally cheaper than the % owed to affiliates, plus a good coverage from using those keywords anyway would drive more sales.

Anyway, they know who I am now and that ill quibble anything, so hopefully I won't see more of those violations,

 

[Retired_Member38]

Now I'm thinking, what's to stop them from using keywords from previous 7 days traffic from affiliates, and loading those into the campaign,

How would they know what keywords you sent the visitors from ?

 

[fresh79]

How would they know what keywords you sent the visitors from ?

By the URL of the aff link

 

[Retired_Member38]

By the URL of the aff link

You've lost me. I don't see how they'd get it from that either?

If you're passing keyword info to the merchant you're doing something massively wrong. That should never be given up.

 

[fresh79]

In the friendly URL , a product name/brand ect.
Wouldn't be hard to strip the domain & characters and be left with a text list of keywords from affiliate traffic, that has yet to convert into a sale.

 

[martin-s]

If you're talking about the referrer url, maybe you should be using Javascript to forward the visits on instead?

 

[Retired_Member38]

In the friendly URL , a product name/brand ect.
Wouldn't be hard to strip the domain & characters and be left with a text list of keywords from affiliate traffic, that has yet to convert into a sale.

You're still not making much sense here

They will see the referring url - not the keyword that brought them to that page in the first place. So all they know is that you sourced a visitor from somewhere that was interested in a Panasonic 50 inch tv. They have no idea where that person came from previous to that, or how they arrived there.

You could use a redirect to not even show them what page on your site referred the traffic - but if you're going from your Panasonic 50 inch tv page to theirs, common sense would tell them thats what page sent it, even if you obscured it. But knowing the page that sent it doesn't help them that much... unless their is a painfully obvious main phrase that that page could generate traffic from. And if its that obvious, they'd know it anyway.