Is My Affiliate Manager Snooping Or Is This Normal?

7 replies
I'd like to be left alone to my campaigns. And that's usually the case with all of my networks but 1. In 8 years, I've never raised a single red flag. I make them money, they cut checks. When I need them, I call them.

But with 1 network, every time I've started a relatively successful campaign, my affiliate manager hits me up by phone AND email, asking broad questions about what I'm doing, how's my ROI, how can he help me ramp thing up, etc. Nothing too unnerving, but pretty annoying. I just don't like that feeling like someone is watching over my shoulder and babysitting me.

Things feel a little extra intrusive with my most recent campaign though. I got off to a $1k start on my very 1st day. Not really mindblowing when you consider the payout is $50 per sale. The next day, he's blowing up my phone and left 2 messages. Then he sends me an email congratulating me on doing great with the offer, and that he needs more details about how I'm promoting so he can "keep it on their records". He wanted to know promotion method, which approved creatives I'm using, and my traffic source. He said he needed that info quickly by THE END OF THE BUSINESS DAY. I replied to him with my promotion method, which creatives I have been rotating, but I was vague about my traffic source and simply said "a banner network". He replied and asked "what banner network specifically?". I haven't replied yet.

This is a per-sale campaign, so not really much chance of fraud unless I'm using a whole bunch of stolen credit cards. I assume if the customers I'm sending are of low quality, the advertiser would boot me off the offer (it's happened before).

Please give me your opinion...am I crazy for being a little bit suspicious of my affiliate manager's actions?
#affiliate #manager #normal #snooping
  • Profile picture of the author gruss
    At $50 per sale I would say they are protecting their interest first of all, as they will be paying back the commission if it was someone scamming the system with stolen cards. Their advertisers may also not want traffic from certain sources.

    I imagine they would also want to know what you are doing, because they would want more people doing it. Most account managers have a good relationship with their top performer, so getting attention if you are doing well is not uncommon.

    You can choose to be defensive with them or work with them to scale your business with this and other offers you can promote for them. There are often benefits in having an account manager supporting you and using them positively can help you do even bigger things.

    They know what is working and what is not and it is because they keep in touch with their top performers.

    Your choice how you want to deal with them, but if you're doing something good, get them to help you do even better. They will always help their performers, as it means more $$$ for them.
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    • Profile picture of the author ChadOath
      Originally Posted by gruss View Post

      At $50 per sale I would say they are protecting their interest first of all, as they will be paying back the commission if it was someone scamming the system with stolen cards. Their advertisers may also not want traffic from certain sources.

      I imagine they would also want to know what you are doing, because they would want more people doing it. Most account managers have a good relationship with their top performer, so getting attention if you are doing well is not uncommon.

      You can choose to be defensive with them or work with them to scale your business with this and other offers you can promote for them. There are often benefits in having an account manager supporting you and using them positively can help you do even bigger things.

      They know what is working and what is not and it is because they keep in touch with their top performers.

      Your choice how you want to deal with them, but if you're doing something good, get them to help you do even better. They will always help their performers, as it means more $$$ for them.
      Thanks for your perspective. Would you give them your specific traffic source? To me, that sounds like an open invitation to have your source flooded with competition and your costs driven up. I wouldn't want that kinda info being passed along and taken advantage of by their other "top performers".
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  • Profile picture of the author lotsofsnow
    If it is a per sale offer and you tell them and show them what creative you use and there are no refunds the affiliate manager is most likely a little bit to nosy.

    Yes, the network wants to make sure they are covered but too detailed questions should raise red flags.

    The way you describe it looks like that particular affiliate manager is trying to gather data either for the in-house campaigns or for his own benefit. Both things are not something that I would consider ethical.

    You should find another networks or at the very least friendly ask to talk to a supervisor.
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    • Profile picture of the author ChadOath
      Originally Posted by hpgoodboy View Post

      If it is a per sale offer and you tell them and show them what creative you use and there are no refunds the affiliate manager is most likely a little bit to nosy.

      Yes, the network wants to make sure they are covered but too detailed questions should raise red flags.

      The way you describe it looks like that particular affiliate manager is trying to gather data either for the in-house campaigns or for his own benefit. Both things are not something that I would consider ethical.

      You should find another networks or at the very least friendly ask to talk to a supervisor.
      This is exactly how I feel about it. I've run several per-sale offers through them. If there was fraud, the advertiser would experience abnormally high refunds and chargebacks. I've been booted off an offer that paid out more than the upfront cost per user, because the traffic I was sending wasn't converting on the upsells like they wanted. Even then, I wasn't interrogated to this degree.

      This is the 1st time he has asked for blatant specifics. And the urgency was what really made me raise an eyebrow as well.
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  • Profile picture of the author Tsnyder
    This is simple... ask him why he wants to know.
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  • Profile picture of the author mikesdebp
    Hey - I agree with the hpgoodboy post! As an affiliate manager myself I'm interested in the methods that our successful affiliates use and are willing to share. But I know they're not going to part with the exact details of what they are doing, and I wouldn't even ask.
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    • Profile picture of the author ChadOath
      Originally Posted by mikesdebp View Post

      Hey - I agree with the hpgoodboy post! As an affiliate manager myself I'm interested in the methods that our successful affiliates use and are willing to share. But I know they're not going to part with the exact details of what they are doing, and I wouldn't even ask.
      Yeah, I have no problem giving them my broad promo method details. I even told him what creatives are successful (basically free data for them based on my paid split testing).
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