Broadly speaking, Artificial Intelligence (AI) is the simulation of human behaviour by machines.

It is present in virtually every aspect of our daily lives, but what interests us most about AI, is how can we apply it to Performance marketing?

The impact AI has on digital marketing is, above all, the power to process the enormous amount of data collected on a daily basis much faster and more accurately than a human ever could. In addition, the information is perfectly organized and segmented allowing us to take full advantage of the data gathered.

This said, the question for us now is how can we apply Artificial Intelligence to Performance Marketing?

Currently, chatbots are the most popular website application. Many companies have integrated chatbots into their websites due to their ability to interact in real time with the user. In many cases chatbots are the first contact between the user and the brand.
Integrating chatbots into an online business is now synonymous with offering quality customer service 24 hours a day. The chatbot´s response is instantaneous and simultaneous; interacting with multiple users concurrently.

Although chatbots still have limitations, thanks to deep learning, the more information they process, the more they learn about consumer behaviour, allowing them to predict the consumer´s needs to the point of recommending relevant products to them based on their interests.

Performance marketing can take great advantage of chatbots, their ability to learn and predict human behaviour allows them to offer or suggest appropriate products or services to the user in a cost-effective manner.

In the case of an affiliate, for example, when a potential customer visits their website and interacts with the chatbot, depending on the questions posed and the answers received, the bot can decide which affiliate program link to send to the user thus facilitating the user´s search process and creating a strong user engagement.

Artificial intelligence plays a big part in programmatic advertising by automating the purchase of advertising audiences, the user is impacted with highly segmented ads, which are applicable to them, thus helping to facilitate the conversion.
If, for example, the user makes a reservation at a hotel, the deep learning algorithms analyse each step that the user has made along the way and will then offer the user related ads that complement the purchase made, such as car rental from the location where they made the reservation. Moreover, as we have previously said, the more data obtained, the smarter the programmatic advertising becomes over time, thus increasing the optimization and ROI.

In short, AI brings to our industry :

- The ability to know the tastes, desires and expectations of the consumer.
- To offer the users what they desire on the most effective channel and at the ideal moment.

Hey Publisher! This is Affilired’s best August deal: Swiss Belhotel International.

End your summer with a bang by promoting our August’s POM. Find out what’s in it for you!

Why did we choose them to be this month’s POM?

Swiss-Belhotel International was founded in 1987 in Hong Kong, currently manages a wide portfolio of hotels and resorts of which Affilired promotes 74 properties.

Since they started working with us in 2013, their affiliate program has been improving on a daily basis, meaning their sales performance has increased 34% in revenue compared with the previous year! In addition, the company has won the award as Indonesia’s Leading Global Hotel Chain for eight years running.

What else makes Swiss Belhotel the best candidate for August’s POM?

6% commission on each validated sale.
5-star and 5-star plus hotels and resorts.
Properties located in both major urban and resort destinations: Australia, China, Malaysia, Kuwait, Qatar, Indonesia.
The website is available in 8 languages: English, Bahasa Indonesian, Arabic, Vietnamese, Bulgarian, Chinese, French and German.
An active merchant who provides promotional material regularly, helping us to manage their campaign effectively.

What does Swiss Belhotel have to say to the publishers?

We have developed a great partnership with Affilired over the past 5 years. The Affilired team, services and especially their tools have helped us to achieve impressive results, more direct traffic and more conversions year after year! We couldn’t be happier with what Affilired has done for us.

Ayu Kartika Sari, E-commerce.

Affilired’s #ffinedays are here and they are global!

#ffinedays are, as we explained in a previous post, the successors to the Affilired Awards. They are a new concept in events and networking. Small intimate gatherings where we have the highest concentration of our clients, giving us a chance to meet with everyone in a more informal setting and a touch of that personal ambience.

We already have the dates and cities for the first 3 ffinedays:

We start in Bangkok!

Our first ffinedays is the perfect excuse to ESCAPE your routine for a few hours. Unwind and relax “a la carte”!

When?
19th September.
Where?
ESCAPE Bangkok.
Time?
From 7:00 p.m.

We continue in Palma de Mallorca!

The second ffinedays is exactly 49 steps above sea level with some incredible views!

When?
26th September.
Where?
49STEPS.
Time?
From 7:30 p.m.

And to end 2019, we jump to Cancun!

For a warm finish to the first year of ffinedays, we will be surrounded by water and a tropical breeze. What more could you ask for?

When?
28th November.
Where?
Hotel Sandos Cancun.
Time?
From 7:00 p.m.

Although these are the confirmed dates for 2019, ffinedays will continue in 2020. So stay tuned and remember, if you want a ffineday in your city, just go to the ffinedays website and fill in the form “We bring the # ffinedays to your city!”

Affiliate marketing campaigns have the potential to boost sales and increase revenue significantly.

However, for most campaigns to be a success, it is essential that advertisers learn in-depth exactly how affiliate marketing works, thus avoiding the most common mistakes that advertisers quite often make.

As affiliate marketing experts with more than 10 years of experience in the sector, we are going to share with you the most frequent mistakes made by advertisers, so that hopefully you do not repeat them, thus achieving maximum performance from your affiliate campaigns.

1.Lack of a consistent strategy.

One of the main reasons why sales are often lost, and why your campaign fails to reach its optimum level, is down to the lack of strategic annual planning.

We constantly see how advertisers launch random promotions, without any prior planning. BIG MISTAKE! Before even launching a program in the networks, you should prepare a calendar for each of your markets, with all the dates of interest for your company and for your potential clients such as: Christmas holidays or Easter, start of summer vacations, relevant national holidays, the well-known Black Friday, Mother’s/Father’s day etc.

The purpose of this calendar is that you can be ready in advance for these dates by preparing specific material that will be of interest to your potential customers, thus attracting them to your website, which in turn, will generate sales. At Affilired, this task is the job of your Account Manager who will recommend the relevant dates and will ask you to send the material needed for the campaign, ideally at least one month in advance, which allows them to distribute the material among the affiliates in time.

An important part of the strategy is to be forward-looking. Remember, just as the saying goes, it is the early bird that catches the fattest worm.

2. Not taking care of your advertising creativity.

The brands that dominate the market are those that have an ongoing maintenance strategy throughout the year.

It is imperative that the creatives that accompany your campaigns are constantly brought up to date by offering fresh original banners, which are in accordance with the campaigns that have been previously established in your strategic annual planning. So, there is no mismatch between your creatives and your campaigns.

3. Not making the most of the synergies in performance marketing.

While it is true that over time your affiliate program will eventually start to work by itself, this doesn’t mean you should stop trying to improve it.

Submerge yourself in the world of performance marketing tools, there is a huge range available, use them with your program/s along with other actions that can also prove very useful such as programmatic advertising, SEM to CPA campaigns by affiliates, onsite engagement tools etc.

Follow the advice of your Account Manager and give your campaign some vroom!!

4. Not considering the publisher to be part of your team.

The relationship with your publishers is vital to achieving maximum exposure of your brand and for your offers on their web pages. You should regard the publisher as an ambassador for your brand, pamper them, be fair in the deals you make with them and with the commissions as well. The basis of successful affiliate marketing is the collaboration between all parties.

For instance, you can encourage your top publishers by offering them a special commission to increase per sales volume, free accommodation in exchange for a specific revenue on specific dates or simply offer them exclusive codes to position your company above your competition.

5. Believing that the return on investment is immediate.

There is a belief that affiliate marketing makes sales soar, and so it does, but not overnight, like most things in life success takes time.

You should keep in mind that when a campaign is activated in the different networks, the time required to achieve a high volume of conversions depends on external factors. If you observe your campaigns closely in certain networks, you should ask yourself questions such as “Is my brand well known in that market?” “Are my offers or is the commission attractive enough for the user? Or, how can I get the affiliate to give my promotion some extra special attention?”

Whatever the case may be, let yourself be advised by your Account Manager and keep in mind that even taking into account all of the above points, a program normally takes a few months to stabilize and begin to be profitable. Patience is the key.

6. Measuring results ahead of time.

Once the program starts working as it should, ideally you should keep it active, the longer the better, because it will be from that point that your revenue should begin to grow.

But that does not mean that you should start measuring results from month to month because seasonality must be taken into account, performance varies greatly depending on dates. The correct thing is to compare at the end of the year the volume of sales achieved with respect to the previous year, it is here you can see the real progression and you can measure the ROI of your campaign/s.