Less than an hour ago HasOffers has announced the launch of Adtribution, its new development called to fix what’s “broken” in present-day “online advertising” [source]. Intrigued I reached out to Peter Hamilton, Partner and CMO at HasOffers, and asked him a few questions about their new development… Here is an exclusive interview on the subject:
GP: First of all, congratulations on the launch of Adtribution! Excellent name idea, by the way. I have three follow-up questions for you.
You’re using some strong language in your today’s press release. Do you really believe the current affiliate marketing model to be “broken” or was that more of a PR technique?
PH: We truly believe that online advertising (especially affiliate marketing) has been operating on old technology that can’t provide enough insight to everyone involved. Otherwise, why wouldn’t every advertiser be pouring money into performance advertising. In theory they should only be paying for real sales and leads right? There should be no end to there budgets, but we know that’s not the case.
Furthermore, if several publishers influenced a user to purchase something, why should only the last one be compensated and the others left out in the cold? Or worse, if each publisher is on a different network (with separate cookies), why should the advertiser pay out 2 or 3 times on top of the pay per click, SEO, and display budgets they’re already shelling out? In order for online advertising budgets to grow, advertisers must be able to compensate publishers based on their contribution to the user’s buying decision. The greatest barrier to moving forward with this idea has always been tracking technology.
GP: I agree with the premise that many more than one affiliate participate in the pre-sale process, and when we compensate just one (be it the one who sent the first click, or the last click), we’re essentially making a judgement saying “ok, you’re the one who influenced the customer most; therefore, you deserve the full remuneration”. Your press release said that the “new cookie-less technology” will actually enable merchants “to see the true influence of multiple affiliate and publisher relationships on a single user.” How exactly? How do you measure “the true influence”?
PH: We can’t really give away our secret sauce yet, but I can tell you that we have developed a way to very accurately track users across publisher/affiliate domains. This serves as the building block for applying our own attribution algorithms, based on a number of criteria. Measuring the “true influence” will certainly be an art and science to be perfected over time, but we are able to get really close already. I can’t wait to see how it continues to develop as we have more data to work with.
GP: Lucas has mentioned the fact that merchants “are often double and triple paying for acquisitions while some of the most valuable publishers are losing out big on commissions”. Let me turn that statement around, and look at it from a different angle. Will your new platform/technology work with merchants’ other channels (e.g.: display, paid search, retargeting efforts, etc)?
PH: Clever you…
In fact yes, this new technology will account for influence from external channels and apply that influence to the compensation model. Again, you’ll have to wait for more details on that, but I’m really excited about this facet of Adtribution because it allows merchants to better take into account their overall CPA’s and increase their budgets accordingly.
We do not intend to become an aggregation tool to manage all of these external advertising channels, but we do plan to provide analytics and adjustments based on the influence of those additional channels.
Wishing HasOffers luck with this. It’s always good to see progress in our industry.
This is great… now cpagoat.com, cpalion.com, cpatreasures.com, cpabuck.com, cpaearn.com and ‘networks’ of the like that have created business with zero investment can really bring on those big tier 1 advertisers this industry is thirsting for!?
HasOffers is destroying this industry and any company that uses this technology is only fueling the downfall of performance marketing. Sound too harsh?? HasOffers is the very reason why big advertisers don’t play in this space. Fraud networks are created on a daily, if not hourly, basis for free on HasOffers and attempt to wrangle money out of advertisers in any conceivable way, then fail to pay their affiliates keeping all commission for themselves, and shut their operation down only to start a new network the very next month. Advertisers get fooled once, and the ‘fool me twice’ model doesn’t apply as they choose to spend their budget elsewhere. There are ebooks written about this model and how easy it is to make a quick buck through frauding advertisers.
Legitimate tracking platforms in this industry have already built technology that is claimed to be ‘new’ in this article. Its a clever bit of smoke and mirrors claiming something to be ‘new’ when in reality it already exists as standard functionality in systems like DirectTrack, OpenX, and Clickinc.
In order for this industry to grow, HasOffers needs to go away as fast as possible. Until then, Fraud will continue to be rampant and we will be stuck in a perpetual spin of low end advertiser offers and stagnant revenue generation.
Wow, I’m sorry you feel that way Gary. I suppose we have a difference of opinion on this.
What is it specifically about our “technology” that is fueling the downfall of performance marketing? Ultimately we are working to provide accurate and scalable tracking for any party involved in the industry. Certainly their will be people that attempt to use technology in a way that impacts advertisers and affiliates negatively, but it is not the fault of the technology. I would argue this is similar to blaming Google for organized crime because they use Google Apps for their email servers.
We completely understand that the current model allows for many levels of exploitation, which is why we are releasing Adtribution this summer. I would love for you to take a look at the new model when it is available to judge for yourself rather than assume it is the “same old same old.” We have some pretty incredible large brand advertisers giving us feedback as we move along in this project. In fact, these are the companies that inspired us on this trail, and I can assure you they are excited about getting involved.
Ultimately Gary, I would question your assumption that less “investment” to get started equals fraudulent intentions. In fact, those with very deep pockets are often the best at swindling the money of Advertisers and Affiliates but on a much larger and more dangerous scale.
Bottom line. Never do business with someone you don’t have a trusting relationship with. The only thing you should judge about their tracking platform is whether it is accurate.
I agree you with in the sense that HasOffers is not intentionally trying to destroy the integrity of the affiliate industry. I don’t imagine you’re plotting behind closed doors on how best to fuel fraudulent activity, steal advertiser budgets, and screw over affiliates. In reality, this is exactly the type of activity that you are facilitating, and it is only getting worse.
“Bottom line. Never do business with someone you don’t have a trusting relationship with.” Point very well taken, and I agree with you. However, HasOffers has dilluted the industry with thousands of ‘affiliate networks’ that exist for the sole purpose of stealing advertiser dollars and usurping affiliate payments.
With that in mind, who should an advertiser or affiliate trust anymore?? Established networks that have been in operation for years and years with a stellar reputation of timely payments and exceptional advertiser ROI? HasOffers can’t claim a single client that falls into this category, so by very definition, you are confirming that HasOffers clients cannot be trusted to handle money or pay partners.
Going back to my original point… the existence of this model will forever prevent big budget advertisers from entering this industry. The industry is now so incredibly dilluted, just by the sheer numbers of fraudulent HasOffers networks that exist, advertisers are bound to get burned and legit affiliates will begin dropping off.
All of this being said, please explain how HasOffers is not leading to the demise of the affiliate marketing industry that others have worked so hard to build (including the very author of this blog)?