Sky affiliates increase sales by 105%

The challenge: Improve efficiency

Sky had been managing their affiliate campaign in-house but had encountered Search marketing problems. Searches on the Sky brand returned mixed results with listings appearing for advertisers who were not connected to Sky and unauthorised affiliates displaying messages for offers that were out-of-date. Sky found themselves in a bidding war with their own affiliates. The sheer scale and active management required for affiliates meant that search spend was being compromised by unmanaged affiliates preventing Sky search ads from appearing against terms that drove conversion.

Our strategy: RADAR - Reward, Authorise, Defend, Assess, Refresh

Reward - We established closed groups of affiliates who were delivering top results. These affiliates were given permission to bid on brand terms subject to certain conditions, including the condition that affiliates should always bid below Sky Search ads.

Authorise – We gave all affiliates strict operational terms and those who failed to comply were warned that they would be removed from the programme or have their commission set to zero until they followed the terms we had set.

Defend – We sent a trademark protection request to Google to prevent bids using Sky’s brand name.

Assess– We assessed the search environments twice daily (plus ad hoc checks throughout the week).

Refresh – We identified those affiliates that were not generating results and weeded them out of the closed group to be replaced with more effective affiliates. 

The results

Trademark protection led to a 40% decrease in cost-per-click on brand terms. Active management for brand terms allowed more effective control across the campaign. Proactive management of the affiliate programme actually improved relations and subsequent performance of affiliates for Sky.

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