What can advertisers do to maximise their affiliate marketing activity in the run-up to Christmas?

The weeks preceding Christmas can be a make or break for retailers.

Consumers start planning their spending well ahead of the festive period, and advertisers must ensure they are well prepared to take advantage of this active spending period. But, how can advertisers ensure their affiliate channel is running at full speed?

Our Head of Client Services, Alona Malinovska, provides her top tips for advertiser looking to take advantage of the festive season.

  1. Promotional Plan

Setting targets is the first port of call when considering the promotional plan. Confirming goals from the outset regarding revenue will enable you to set targets for your publishers, and map out how to meet them. Being selective when it comes to who you work with across your network will allow you to gauge where time and money should be invested and, especially during the final months of the year, this targeting should be done based on the top performing publishers, as well the new players with potential.

  1. Assign a Budget

You can’t make any strategic plans without having a budget in place, so knowing where your money is going in terms of advertisement placements across your affiliate channels up until January is vital. Using case studies and data which show the prior page performance rates of the top publishers will give you a better idea of where to put your money.

And don’t forget, publishers have negotiable rate cards when it comes to advertising so come armed with a plan and an idea of what you want to spend.

  1. Linking Methods

Data Feeds and Messaging

Ensuring your data feed is fully optimised and up-to-date is crucial. One way to make sure that you are getting specific data is to consider creating multiple feeds, such as a Christmas data feed including all your bestsellers, or feed that contains topic-specific data such as gifting products performance. Once you can analyse your data, use your seasonal banners to highlight your best sellers, or prepare the market in case of exclusive product news.

Special Landing Pages and Email/HTML Creatives

Be proactive by creating landing pages specifically for key dates like Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Christmas, etc. and plan the key products that you want to push on each page.

Email marketing tends to perform well over the Q4 period, so planning your sales messaging and promotions and speaking to your publishers well in advance is key.

  1. Publisher Communication

Working more closely with your top performing publishers in the run-up to, and throughout, the Christmas and January sale period will allow you to get key messaging, promotions, and product plans across easily. This can be done by organising an affiliate day to share your marketing calendar, product launches, company strategy and top sellers with your key publishers.