The Split commission, the commission dealing among members

In recent weeks has not been talked of nothing else in the field of affiliate marketing. Now is no longer a theoretical scenario to become a commercial reality. The model of “split commission” is an option that had long been in the minds of many in the sector. In fact, it was a reality at the technical level but no network affiliates had dared to offer it. Last June a UK affiliate network announced that implemented the technology commission split, so that the whole industry has begun to analyze what would be other affiliate networks will be added to this strategy since it would entail a drastic change of scene current across the sector being founded based on compensation model “last click”.

What is the compensation model “last click”?

The purchase decision involves a user, often more than one affiliate, but now 100% of the commission was assigned to a single member, who has won the last click.

What members favor the model of “last click”?

All members involved in the final stage of the decision to purchase or “customer journey”. That is, members working with adwords, and particularly to all those whose business model is to offer a discount on the price: cashbacks, reward sites, coupon sites … No doubt this is a wrong model for remunerating to a single affiliate and the affiliate because it often is not provided more value to the purchase decision process. But having said that, it is important to know which is the basis on which has been built across the affiliate marketing industry, so this would play to break the current status quo without a clear if the new resurgence of change would be better or worse.

What is the compensation model of ” split commission “?

It is able to track all members who have participated in the purchase decision phase and split the commission between them. There are several ways to do this, divide the commission equally or to share the commission with different weights (rewarding the first click, rewarding the last click, etc.).

What members favor the model of “split commission”?

In all affiliates located in early and middle stages of the buying decision process. Often these members are those that provide more value, and are even essential to produce the decision to buy, because their business model was usually based on the content, through analysis, comparisons, prescriptions, user feedback, etc. What usually happens is that the user, after having made the decision to purchase through these members, find or convince finished in affiliates that offer a discount on the final price.

What will happen now?

Unfortunately, we cannot anticipate the future. What seems clear is that each party will defend its interests and castle in their positions. The cashbacks existence is threatened because its model is based on receive 100% commission, while content-based members now have the opportunity to increase its share in industry profits and why not say see more justly rewarded their work.

Then there are the affiliate networks, they have to analyze whether this would increase or decrease the volume of business. Obviously if there is a great benefit, it would be absurd to assume a risk that also is not necessary (at least for the moment). On the other hand, the split commission model also means more work on the part of the networks controlling unethical practices by affiliates.

Finally, members are probably more comfortable in the split commission model, as they can optimize business relationships with affiliates who add value (which does not happen in the model of “last click”). Probably even put pressure on the online marketing industry for the split commission model was implanted multi-level, not only in the affiliate-marketing channel.

For those who want to deepen this debate, I recommend you read the talk that kept Affiliates4U on this issue among various actors in the industry: affiliates, affiliate networks, affiliates and agencies. It is certainly illustrative.