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I think a lot of us affiliates tend to think too small. Even if we are doing well, we often have a narrow scope and stay in our comfort zone. For most of us that comfort zone is PPC, social traffic, or SEO and that’s it. I know I am guilty of this thinking too. But as large as the Internet is, there is only so much traffic you can get especially from PPC.
So here is an example of thinking really big. I’m sure most people have seen the catchy TV commercials for Freecreditreport.com. This company is spending millions of dollars per month on a multi TV network ad blitz. The commercials are even getting a secondary boost as a viral hits on Youtube. Basically a marketers dream come true!
Who are they:
Freecreditreport.com or consumerinfo.com is Experian’s own affiliate to drive traffic to the Triple Advantage subscription service. (Subscription services are king for money makers). So even though you can get an actual free credit report by law every year, people are signing up for this subscription service for credit monitoring. This is the exact same service on Commision Junction’s network that you can promote to earn $12-24 per signup.
Their site is another example of a super clean landing page with a single clear call to action:
You and I could do this!
Freecreditreport.com is essentially a real world blueprint of how to scale an affiliate campaign to an extremely large level. They aren’t doing anything that all affiliates couldn’t do. Now obviously you don’t jump straight into a mulit-million dollar TV campaign. But if you have a successful campaign running and you know it could appeal to people offline as well, this is a great way to start thinking. With disciplined savings of PPC profits over time, you could eventually invest in this kind of big time advertising. Then the sky really is the limit.
I know this is the route I hope to take eventually with the affiliate business. How about you!
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It’s what I’ve wanted to do all along, but my thoughts weren’t so much in the strict TV commercial arena. I had always thought infomercials were a great way to really leverage any campaign. Look at those Learning Professor infomercials…
Only problem is that it takes huge bucks to get started.
I met that guy at affiliate summit west. Nice dude and really smart!
I love those commercials! And yes, a VERY nice job by the affiliate!
One of these days I’ll have commercials and catchy jingles for my site…
Good point, although sort of a bad example.
Experian can afford to take a hit or merely break even on customer aquisition because of that backend.
As an affiliate making under $25 per signup - I don’t think it’s feasible to scale to that level…
Now if you setup your OWN product/service the sky’s the limit…
I agree, you couldn’t just scale up to that with a typical affiliate arrangement. But you could have a partnership with the merchant and set something up. It would take a lot of work, and close relationship with the merchant but I think it can be done without owning a product or service.
That commercial drives my mother-in-law crazy(er). She hates the old woman in the booth at the crab shack. Me… I’m lovin’ that commercial even more now that I know they are a SUPER affiliate. Very Cool.
So instead of looking fly and rollin’ phat… My legs are sticking to the vinyl and my posse’s getting laughed at!
Interesting idea combining TV adds with affiliates but it got me thinking about legal liabilities. Unlike online, TV is more strict with the FTC policing them. But what kind of legal liabilites do we take on as online marketers?
Since your a super affiliate what do you do to protect yourself? Do you have a legal team that reviews all your ads and landing pages? Have you ever had issues with the products or services you have promoted. I’ve always assumed we are fairly safe as marketers since its not our product we are promoting. I thought any blame for a faulty product or service falls on the merchant.
I’ve never consulted a lawyer on this since I’m just a small time affiliate but was wondering how a huge affiliate like yourself researched it and what your lawyer said.
*If I ever start making more than a few bucks I will consult with a lawyer, just wanted to see how someone doing tons of volume limits their risk or knows if there is any risk at all.
It always amuses me how often affiliates get trapped in the online bubble you described.
Remember, the second word in affiliate marketing is…wait for it…MARKETING!
In the business world the sky is the limit and while it could take a while to save up for something such as this main stream media blitz, there are several services (Google included) that offer the opportunity for radio or TV advertising for cheap. Your ads will likely not win you any awards at Cannes but if you are targeting the right audience it can be a VERY good investment and your CPA can be much lower than many forms of online advertising.
Of course it only makes sense for certain markets. The company used in this example is in an extremely competitive market where PPC is ridiculously overpriced and saturated, as are most other online channels. However they have the pockets to break away from the trash and go on TV which in turn sets them apart and gives them a level of credibility that the host of other credit report affiliates cannot hope to match.