The Power Of Combining Affiliate & Mobile Marketing
Posted by Justin on Jun 17, 2009 in Content Publishing, Marketing Strategy, Mobile 2.0, Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Networks, Mobile Partners, Mobile Resources, Mobilize, Predictions
I’ve been involved with affiliate, or performance-based marketing for a long time now. More recently I’ve been interested in advertising models that utilize the benefits of performance-based marketing together with other forms of new-age advertising- primarily mobile marketing.
Taking the obvious benefits from today’s mobile marketing methodologies, and working them into a model that only charges advertisers for results would be a winning combination in my book. Advertisers use affiliate marketing to drive sales, leads, clicks, etc, but only pay the publisher, networks, etc. when they produce results. This takes a lot of the wasted ad-spend away, and significantly increases ROI in almost every situation. This is the reason many small and large brands alike have been using the performance-based model for years and years. Up until recently, however, it was only carried out online.
While there aren’t many services available that take this model into the realm of mobile, they’re starting to emerge if you dig deep enough. One in particular is a company called RevTrax. They’re utilizing mobile marketing, and mobile coupons in particular, together with a performance-based model to drive results to the brands distributing digital coupons or using any form of “customer loyalty” programs.
Here’s how it works: RevTrax has taken the steps to partner with hundreds of media partners, ranging from content sites to coupon sites to mobile marketers and paid search agencies, to distribute a brand’s coupons to consumers in a significant and very targeted way. Collectively, RevTrax estimates that a digital coupon could reach 50+ million consumers each month via its content networks. Instead of paying for traditional media up-front, the brands only pay RevTrax and its media partners for each in-store sale that is tracked using its patent-pending platform and technology.
It’s a great idea, and while only a start, it’s bound to catch on in the mobile world. In addition to mobile coupons, almost any other form of mobile marketing campaign could benefit from using a performance-based model to drive results rather that paying up-front for traffic, various media, etc. We’ll have to wait and see what evolves within this new model.
Jason Cianchette | Jun 17, 2009 | Reply
Great post. Our company is focused on mobile lead generation. The market is definitely not as developed as the PC web, but we are very hopeful about the potential.
Phil Stricker | Jun 18, 2009 | Reply
New tactics in mobile marketing are always interesting. One hump you always have to get over is “What context will the end-user be exposed to marketing efforts?” Typically, mobile data is accessed on the go. How can you get the end-user to pause take note of what you have to say?
CT Moore | Jun 18, 2009 | Reply
Thanks for linking my post on Revenews. It’s interesting that you referenced it in a post about mobile marketing because I also covered the mobile affiliate marketing session at ASW09 for Revenews.
But back to Revtrax, after their CEO gave his presentation on offline affiliate marketing, I also got a chance to video interview Jonathan Treiber, and he took the time explain how offline affiliate marketing works: http://www.gypsybandito.com/offline-affiliate-marketing/
What Jonathan is doing is something that, I think, will really help bring affiliate marketing into the mainstream. I also think that it’s going to be an integral part of mobile affiliate marketing, if only because mobile web users are kinda mobile/offline by nature.