Got Rogue Affiliates?

OPW - Aug 30 -A rogue affiliate is running this ad on Facebook. We removed the identity of this site to protect the [somewhat] innocent. The site in this ad is definitely NOT 100% free. Its a paid dating site. This is NOT COOL. It's not good for the idating industry as a whole when affiliates falsely represent dating sites. How can you/we possibly police against this practice? Affiliates often find innovative messaging and methods to get high click through rates and conversions. This is great for short term profits for both the affiliate, and the dating sites. But the industry suffers when rogue practices mislead people. Users remember that they had a bad experience with 'internet dating' and we all suffer, in the long run.

When I was an affiliate manager at FriendFinder in 2003 we had to police affiliates who used email, and then CAN-SPAM came about. FriendFinder could not risk breaking CAN-SPAM rules. So the FriendFinder edict was, if affiliates used email their affiliate accounts would be cancelled. Affiliates were not permitted to use email to promote FriendFinder. It was relatively easy to monitor. If an affiliate had bursts and lulls of traffic that was an indication that they were using email promotion.

Dating sites can use similar edicts to get the attention of affiliates. Your brand related ad messaging should be consistent and pre-approved on all site promotions. If an affiliate mentions your internet dating brand name in an ad, that ad should have been approved by you. Protect your brand! Protect this industry from misleading, rogue affiliates.

Comments

[Combson at Yachts]

This is risky business and everyone should take care not to force any more restrictions and regulations! More respect for the visitors, more money at the end!

[David Evans]

Every dating site with an affiliate program has a few if not many rogues. If it drives members, dating sites tend to turn a blind eye. I think you will agree that most dating site affiliate ads are not very good, surprising and how little effort is placed on such an important marketing channel. Look at Fling.com, there is a reason why they crush it, dynamically-generated ads based on location and lots of different types of ads.

[Markus]

Depends how you define rogue. The majority of affiliates are doing this.

[David Evans]

Good point Markus. There are a lot of gray areas when it comes to affiliate marketing that are always being exploited. FB takes down thousands of ads every week that don't meet their guidelines, let along finding improper affiliate ads.

[Mark Brooks]

A rogue affiliate is one who uses marketing tactics to mislead users, and/or sends junk or scammer traffic. Basically, the traffic converts in the short term, just long enough to get the affiliate paid, but leaves the brand in jeopardy long term.