This is another post from the experience I’ve been having in the last months with European- and US-based affiliate networks.
What makes European Affiliate Networks less attractive to Search Engine Marketers than US-Networks?
- They don’t have affiliate managers for each and every affiliate.
Either you have to be already pushing hard through that affiliate network to get anyone from them on the phone or AIM. There is no person you can directly reffer to when you want some new shiny offers that are doing well. Also you’re screwed if the advertiser’s site is down or their tracking sucks since you will need to mail the account rep for the offer you’re having trouble with. That is, if she/he decides to answer your mail after like 1-2 weeks.In comparison: If I’m having any problem on an US offer, I just call up my affiliate manager. No matter how much money I’m making on that network, he’ll/she’ll look it up.
- Payterms
If you’re doing more than 500$ a day, you can pretty much score weekly payments without big issues on any major affiliate network (if you haven’t been the biggest douche to your affiliate manager, they’ll give you bi-weeklies on even less revenue). In Europe, thats almost impossible. I honestly don’t even know how much you need to rank monthly or daily to get on bi-weeklies. - Offers
There are a lot lead-based offers in Europe, but most advertisers here want to play safe and actually will only pay a few euros for a lead. If you’re lucky, they’ll get you a few % on the final sale. This can be a good or bad thing, depending heavily on what you’re promoting. - Lead confirmation
In any US Affiliate Network I’ve been in, sales and leads are instantly accepted. In Europe though, the advertiser has to accept them first. Depending on the advertiser’s lazyness, this may take weeks. Or months, if you’re on certain networks.
Think about it: You spend a few grand on adwords, being all happy about how much ROI you’re getting on that offer and in the and the advertiser just declines every lead. Why? You’ve broken some branding rules.
Only a few thoughts on how affiliate networks like Zanox and Affili.net are being ignorant. If I’d have the time
