Deal and Coupon Affiliates are marketing affiliates that offer coupons for all kinds of things like free shipping and merchant discounts, etc. Prospective buyers of products typically find these coupon affiliates websites by doing a search in the search engines for coupons pertaining to specific types of products and services. This was a very profitable affiliate program for a variety of reasons, but it’s important to note that many merchants and E-commerce managers are not allowing coupon affiliates into their affiliate programs.
That is because when a customer visits a merchants web site through other marketing efforts and discovers a “coupon” field when checking out, they often will go and do a search for a coupon on that product they have already decided to purchase. Instead of completing the sale right then, the customer goes into a coupon affiliates website and clicks on link which gives a coupon code. When the customer puts the coupon code into the shopping cart, it actually gives the coupon affiliate credit for a sale they really didn’t help create. That used to give coupon affiliates very good commission checks without having to put forth the creative marketing ideas other affiliate marketers do, as they simply took advantage at the last minute of the marketing efforts of others. The commission checks could be huge, however, so it has become a popular affiliate marketing channel.
Merchants, however, are losing money on this and are not happy about it. Therefore, many are not allowing coupon affiliates to be affiliates for their products, and they are getting rid of the coupon affiliates they already had. That is not to say that coupon affiliates are not needed or used by the public. It just means many merchants are not allowing you to be an affiliate for their products so you may not be able to make the kind of easy money these affiliates programs have traditionally promised just for merchants having a “coupon” field in their shopping carts. Many merchants are also leaving out the coupon codes altogether.
Compass Marketing spends time following these trends so that we can help our clients avoid making costly mistakes in their business planning. Let us help you today.