Merchants, Facebook and Competitions Frustrations
Posted under: An email has just popped into my inbox that caught my eye – mainly because it had something relevant to me in the title. The words “competition” and “win” spring out like a large springy thing in the middle of Spring itself. And then in true spring like fashion I recoiled with dismay. Why? Because the competition is on Facebook!
A lot of merchants are doing Facebook promotions these days (actually a lot of brands are doing Facebook promotions these days) and it’s kind of them to tell their affiliates. But merchants aren’t being particularly helpful when it comes down to these things.
Sorry Jones the Bootmakers but you’ve been chosen as my example!
In their email they tell us “We are currently running a competition on Facebook where one of our fans can win this studded bag worth £95″ and give me a link to the studded bag worth £95 on their website. They even give me an affiliate link for it.
They then give me the link to their Facebook page where the competition resides. To enter their “fans” just have to ‘Like’, ‘Comment’ and ‘Share’ the link until 2pm Monday 21st.
From an affiliate point of view there’s no real benefit of this! Yes I can tell my users and they will enjoy trying to win a studded bag worth £95, but there’s no incentive for them to even visit Jones the Bootmakers. That means absolutely zero chance of buying anything – and even if they did it’s unlikely any affiliate cookie gets involved.
So what would be better?
Well what if Jones the Bootmakers had on their studded bag page a link saying “win this on Facebook”, perhaps along with some entry terms and conditions? Or even better how about a dedicated landing page on their site that has details of the competition and some latest offers?
Why is this better?
Well for one I know that traffic goes via an affiliate link and it’ll go to the website. This means the affiliate is happy. Secondly my users are seeing the site that’s running the promotion and they’re being introduced to offers and details from the promoter. Finally it’s better than going to a Facebook page that is currently awash with “win this bag” posts on the wall. In other words little to engage with!
Sticking a competition on Facebook and telling your affiliates is simply asking for free traffic. Think about it a little, create a landing page, create something much better and intuitive. Think about how visitors see your brand and how your affiliates drive traffic.
We know we can send visitors, we know that for the most part converting them to sales is a bit of a Power Driver to crack an Egg situation – but at least give us a bit of a fighting chance by making the point of delivery of users a little bit better than a clogged up Facebook Wall!
Merchants, you have websites – use them a little bit for your competitions (please).
You can enter the competition here!
Was this one from us Jason? Let me know and I’ll ask the merchant to see if they can get something setup on the site instead. Similar thing with another one of our clients before Xmas actually telling affiliates that there is now an iPhone app to be able to purchase on the go… Great but no commission to affiliates when they are using a mobile app and a link to a the apple store! Lol
These are all really valid points and makes sense from both merchant and affiliate point of view but to set up a landing page, add links or info to product pages etc everytime a competition is run would require too much time and resources. I think if the competition is for big value prizes then this makes more sense, but for this kind of Facebook competition where it is used to increase number of Facebook fans then I don’t think it is particularly necessary. I wouldn’t tend to notify my affiliates about competitions like this though.
@James – no it was an AWin email this time
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@Dani – Zavvi have a competition page (http://www.zavvi.com/competitions.info) so why not use that? That kind of page could easily be done for the rest of your brands… it could include links to Twitter and FB too (which you don’t have).
And imo that kind of thing wouldn’t be time consuming for anyone to do or manage.