The world of partnership and affiliate marketing is no longer relegated to digital.
In the early stages of affiliate marketing, publishers strictly used digital spaces and online environments to drive conversion and sales to brands. This was mostly because of the tracking limitations and the need for a click to record to attribute conversion activity back to a publisher and apply compensation.
However, we’re now living in an increasingly omnichannel world where from the consumer perspective, the line between what constitutes online versus off-line, serves the general expectation that completely seamless experiences are the norm. A notion that supports partnerships proliferating all types of distribution channels and mediums.
Take for example the rise of podcasts in recent years. Many are all too familiar with the advertising tactics that are utilized during a podcast segment that markets a particular brand and associates a discount to the brand for the listeners by way of advertising a discount through a unique promotion code or URL for that brand. Partnerships have also infiltrated podcasts as they’ve become increasingly popular. But it’s not often readily known how to leverage partnerships in advertising on podcasts whether live or pre-recorded.
Partners are arbitraging podcasts by placing brands’ ads into these podcasts and using exclusive codes to provide a direct response opportunity for them. This is not all that different from what happened in the world of paid search whereby partners were simply advertising on behalf of a brand on the SERP and hoping that the dollar they were fronting to be placed in the search ad, would simply be outweighed by the commissions earned for driving conversions from this channel.
Classic arbitrage is often considered to be associated with negative terminologies. However, if you can increase your brand presence in awareness in all different distribution channels and mediums, why wouldn’t you follow suit? In this case, the same is taking place in the world of podcasts, which is often an unexplored territory for brands.
As these shifts occur, what is interesting to consider is that the same tactics can be applied to nearly any medium. Consider outdoor advertisements, not only in the form of billboards but also in the form of mobile advertisements, stands, flyers, and more. Partnerships are extending beyond the digital confines that have traditionally been established helping brands to increase their awareness with consumers while also driving a direct response simply by expanding the tracking mechanisms available to a pay-for-performance model from a URL and click to code-based tracking.
As brands struggle to quantify the impact of their omnichannel or off-line advertisements, they would be wise to consider implementing codes or LBC tracking to get better insight into the performance of these off-line ads utilized either themselves or by their partners.
For some partners, particularly those in the podcasting space, the ability to provide their audience with exclusive promotional codes can prove to be an invaluable tool in creating solid partnerships with brands. To aid in creating these relationships, Partnerize gives marketers an easy way to set up and assign exclusive codes to partners, for their sole use.
Exclusive Codes are voucher codes assigned uniquely to one partner, given that partner exclusive rights to promote this code to their audience. This means that the partner will always receive commission whenever the code is redeemed with a purchase, and for podcasters, all they have to do is pass it on to their listeners, and Partnerize’s tracking will do the rest.
The most attractive part of exclusive code use is that it provides for clickless attribution, so even in instances where the partner linked to the exclusive code wasn’t involved with the click or driving the traffic, they will still be credited with the sale. Further, the exclusive code will override any other partners that may have been involved if the code has been used during the conversion process, and the assigned partner will receive 100% of the commission.
It’s common to see unauthorized partners promote your discount codes which in turn, dilutes both your offer’s value and the value of your partnerships. To combat this, exclusive codes are often employed to prevent this dilution so the rightful owner is awarded 100% of the commission–regardless of who drove the clicks. This action greatly reduces the incentive for unauthorized partners to promote such discounts.
If you are interested in learning more about utilizing exclusive codes to track your offline partnerships, contact us at marketing@partnerize.com