As most people who know me could verify that the one aspect of affiliate marketing that really pisses me off (big, big time) is a lack of transparency on closed BBG. Last night and this morning there seemed to be an influx of blogs about the new promotion form DFDS Seaways, a very nice paid trip to Affiliate Summit in Boston. Hmm, I think lets have a looksie at this and what do I find, a brand bidder sitting on the DFDS and DFDS Seaways brand - fine think I, I’ll not waste my money pushing this program to any extent (as I hate to line anyone else’s pockets) and look at it again later / tomorrow. Anyhow, I’ve checked the program details at both Buy.at and TradeDoubler only to find there is no mention of a closed bidding group. I called TD to confirm that and was told - yes, there is a closed bidding group on the program. Transparency - where is it? Am I alone in my anger when these things happen and to be honest it’s not a once in blue moon occurrence it’s getting to be an every day thing.
New rule here, every time this happens I’ll let you all know about it.
Fair comment but its the law of the land. Don’t get me wrong, I think you’re right to be angry/frustrated and support you for taking a stance.
Is it fair though Mark? Networks should inform affiliates of the terms on all programs not just the ones they want to. We need transparency they keep saying they do, but we know they don’t.
Jules
Why is a brand name bidder stopping you from promoting DFDS. I am a bit nieve I think how does it effect you. As if it effects you probably effect me too.
A brand name bidder is not stopping me from promoting DFDS Martin, as a ppc affiliate I don’t want to spend my money on paid search and have my cookies overwritten by a brand bidder. I would like to know about closed groups as I can then make a decision on whether or not to promote that merchant via ppc, by just have a standard link on my site or my favourite option - not at all. A survey suggested that BNB groups overwrite between 20 - 75% of content and ppc affiliates cookies - even if you take the lower level it’s unacceptable to be losing sales to a closed group you were not notified about. I hope that explains my stance a bit more.
Thanks Julie I understand this more now, it seems more merchants have closed BNB groups than not, interesting times
As the webmaster of a site that was contemplating promoting DFDS, I can no say we wont be touching it.
Brand name bidding should be banned.
Dave
Hi Julie,
As affiliate manager for DFDS Seaways I can confirm there is no close BBG group, and we don’t allow any affiliates to bid on “dfds” “dfds seaways” afraid TD have informed you wrongly, which I have followed up with them. Good luck with the promotion, and please feel free to drop me a email if you have any questions. regards tom
Hi Tom,
Thanks for the input, however could you explain the affiliate link appearing on google for the terms, I know you’ll say it’s yours, also the the one appearing on DFDS seaways on Google at the weekend and redirecting via http://www.dsconnect.co.uk. I look forward to your response and wish you well in the promotion.
Jules
Thank you for your comments.
As I am sure everyone is aware, affiliates do sometimes break the rules of the programme and we operate two warning system. If an affiliate continues to brand bid we remove them from the program.
I can assure you that there are no brand bidding groups on Buy.at or TradeDoubler and this can be confirmed by both networks.
A slight confusion might arise from the fact we use TradeDoubler Media Toolbox for our own internal tracking - this is a different use of TradeDoubler to that of an affiliate network.
This really is a great promotion, and it is worth everyone promoting it.
If anyone has any comments, please email me at andrew.cooper@dfds.co.uk
Best wishes,
Andrew Cooper
Online Marketing Executive
Hi Andrew,
The question I’m asking which nobody seems to be answering is why we have seen it re-directing through http://www.dsconnect.co.uk out of hours occasionally and who are dsconnect?
You say there are no brand bidding groups which can be confirmed by both networks, yet I was told by TD there was a brand bidding group, obviously a mistake was made by TD there. If the networks cannot provide correct information, how are we supposed to know?
Jules
Jules,
Thank you for your comments.
DS Connect are an affiliate on Buy.at, who we have worked with for some time. DFDS Seaways take all brand bidding very seriously and give affiliates warnings if they are caught doing so. They are given 2 warnings and then removed.
I can assure you that there is no brand bidding group and no brand bidding allowed on either network. If someone has said this at TD, then it is incorrect. I can only apologise for the inaccurate information.
Kind regards,
Andrew Cooper
http://www.DFDS.co.uk/summit
Hello again Andrew,
I can tell you that while you may not allow BNB I saw the ads myself and also got the link properties. For any good promotion that will involve extra pushing I always check on SE’s to ’suss’ out any competition and I found them appearing on your brand. I can only tell you what I saw, I am not in the habit of concocting stories.
Jules
Okay, so as the other thread was temporarily taken offline. We had on an ad on brand & variations which the affiliate & network (not surprised) claimed wasn’t there when there were enough witnesses to view the url properties to claim it was.
That is not the start of the coincidences.
Then by coincidence the owner of this domain had the same surname, which is an unusual surname as the affiliate manager of he DFDS affiliate program. The domain name owner lives in glasgow. On this site were also Buy.at links for Expedia, so this would be a program to keep an eye out on for closed groups. Who manages Expedia aff prog & paid search??
Now as a merchant this was claimed to be coincidence again which is possible though an unusual surname. However …… The agency apparently managing the paid search for the merchant is also based in glasgow.
All coincidence all the way?! With denial from some quarters! All quite Intriguing.