Ok so this subject has been covered a lot in fact there is barely a week that goes by when there isn’t a new article talking about culling affiliates so being someone that’s work as an Affiliate, Merchant, Network and Agency I’m in a rear position to tell everyone out there to STOP going on about it and STOP Culling affiliates there is simply no need and no point to it.
The truth to it is that a non-active affiliate is ZERO threat to your brand “because there not active” just think about that statement before you try to question it for a second… right now let’s move on.
Work load is often used as a reason to cull affiliate, again i must point out that an affiliate that is making ZERO sales will result in ZERO work, all affiliate networks allow you to filter your reports so you only see active affiliate or affiliates that make sales and if your network doesn’t offer filters like this in there reports maybe you should be looking for a better network to work with? (Just a suggestion)
One of the wonderful things with affiliate marketing (and this applies to all parties) is that an affiliate signed up to a programme can make you sales at some point (this is a positive thing for all parties as sales are generally seen as a good thing) but an affiliate that has been “culled” form your programme will never make a sales and more so if that affiliate grows to become the next MoneySuperMarket (or similar) you chances for getting good promotion on their site has just dropped to almost nothing, yep your cull could cost you big in the end, that’s right no one like to be rejected.
Now a few of you may have notice that this article is in the WTF Agencies, WTF Merchants and the WTF Networks categories and this is simply because I’ve seen this “culling trend” defended by all 3 parties and for no good reason but I’m not going to point any fingers on this because all of these parties who supported it should be hanging their heads in shame (and they know it).
Affiliate T&C’s change and when these rules do change some affiliates might not be the type of affiliate a merchant is looking to continue with and this is their prerogative, in these cases some time ending a relation with some types of affiliates (for example PPC affiliates) is require and this is fine, but when you do this you should always end the relation whilst treating the affiliate with the same respect you’d like to be treated with, just because rules change now doesn’t mean you should upset people or burn those bridges.
right so now you all know the honest answer to the question of “when should i cull my affiliates” which is simply “you shouldn’t” we can all get on with our life’s and work towards bettering the affiliate industry by writing some great article about how affiliates can help to add value to merchant and how merchant can attract affiliates to their programme that add value to the customers journey.
you have interesting points here. Thanks for sharing it.