Carphone Warehouse and O2 added to Tradedoubler Ireland
Tradedoubler Ireland seem to have been focussing on a particular vertical of late, and it seems the fruits of their labours are being paid off. Carphone Warehouse have already launched on the network, and O2 are coming soon, with a launch party for the program coming up in the next few weeks. So what are my inital thoughts on it? Whilst it’s good that big brands like these are trying affiliate marketing in Ireland, some elements of the equation just don’t add up.
Carphone Warehouse will have to be my subject for this particular post, as O2 hasn’t gone live yet and i’ve no idea what they will or won’t do. Anyhow, here goes…
Product Datafeeds
Put simply, there just ain’t enough here. The ‘carkits’ minifeed has 6 products, ‘laptops’ has 11 products, ’satnav’ has 4 products, and ‘top 10′ has 9 products - woops. This just simply isn’t enough information for publishers to play with. Mobile comparison sites are huge in the UK, and it’d be impossible to use the data provided to power a mobile comparison site, with tariff information compared etc. There aren’t just enough products anyway, and I can’t figure out why. Data is data, and if it appears on their own website, it should appear in their datafeeds.
Cookie Length
I think 14 days is a little bit stingy, especially considering the program has just launched. It should be at least double that, to attract affiliates and encourage them to really push it as a long term offering.
Bounty
€4 per phone sale just isn’t enough. It should really be a percentage of the value of the sale, and when it comes to signing up contract customers - which will inevitably happen in the future, bounties should be far, far higher than that, in line with usual customer acquisition budgets that mobile operators have. Throw a zero onto the figure offered above, and you’re in the right ballpark for a contract signup bounty.
Banners / Creative
To be fair, it’s a little bit bland and the 728×90 creatives are actually 728×60 - woopsies. Also, there is no mention of free shipping on any of the creatives. Carphone Warehouse offer free shipping on purchases from their website, so why not boast about it?
All in all it’s great to see companies like this taking a dip into affiliate marketing waters, but they really need to put in as much thought to this as they put into all their other marketing channels.