REVENUEperformance Monetization & High-Performance Marketing Harvest Big Profits From Mobile A Year in the Life of Performance Marketing • Succeeding with Mobile Apps The Future of Mortgage Leads Fall 2013 : Vol. XI : Issue 16 t3leads-ase-ad_16x10-75_PP_v01_crvs.pdf 1 7/25/13 2:40 PM C M Y CM MY CY CMY K t3leads-ase-ad_16x10-75_PP_v01_crvs.pdf 1 7/25/13 2:40 PM C M Y CM MY CY CMY K Expand Your Global Reach Experience world class affiliate marketing Service • Solutions • Support • Education Ranked Best Aliate Network 2012 & 2013 The BLUE BOOK Awards for Best Performance Marketing Networks www.linkshare.com REVENUE Dedicated To Monetization + High Performance Marketing performance Contents PUBLISHER & EDITOR Chris Trayhorn DIRECTOR OF ONLINE 360 Days in the Life of Performance Marketing . 4 Sheila Fox By Peter Klein, MediaWhiz PRODUCTION desiGN Rick Greer Succeeding in the New Mobile App Economy . 6 Revenue Performance is published by mThink 55 New Montgomery, Suite 617 By Eric J. Gerritsen, Pulse Mobile San Francisco, CA 94105 mThink: Intelligent Performance Marketing Jumpstarting Your Mobile Affiliate Strategy – CHAIRMAN AND CEO Chris Trayhorn the 7 Keys to Success . 8 VICE PRESIDENT, MARKETING By Lisa Mollura, Rakuten LinkShare Yvonne Schellerup DIRE CTOR, WEB DEVELOPMENT Ron Snow The Past and Future of Online Mortgage Leads . 10 Advertising Index: By Robert Karaguezian, T3Leads Adscend Media ............................15 DiabloMedia ............................... 5 Understanding Contractual Fluent .....................................11 Indemnity Obligations . 12 iBallers.com ...............................7 By Richard Newman, Hinch Newman LLP MaxBounty ..............................IBC What Affiliate Marketing Can Learn From MediaWhiz ................................13 The Voice . 14 Millionaire Network. OBC By Matt Frary, SmarterChaos.com Rakuten Linkshare ..........................2 T3Leads .................................IFC Max Men, Why Do Some Networks Thrive W4 .......................................9 While So Many Die? . 16 By Chris Trayhorn SPECIAL PRODUCT REVIEW While every effort has been made to ensure the accuracy of the content of this publication, the publisher will accept no responsibility for any errors or omissions, or for any loss or Mobit: Changing The Game In Mobile Media? . .20 damage, consequential or otherwise, suffered as a result of By Chris Trayhorn, Revenue+performance any material published here. The information published in Revenue+Performance is not intended as a substitute for legal, accounting, tax or other professional advice. The publisher assumes no responsibility for statements made by advertisers Examining Content Locking as an Alternative in business competition. All editorial submissions, whether solicited or unsolicited, become the property of mThink. State- Visitor Monetization Method . 24 ments and opinions expressed herein are not necessarily those of Revenue+Performance, mThink, its affiliates, advertisers or By Tony Cohn, Adscend Media any other agent. The name “Revenue+Performance” and the phrase “Super-Affiliate Insights” are the intellectual property of mThink. The entire content of this publication is protected by copyright; full details are available through the publisher. All rights reserved. These trademarks or copyright materials may not be used in any media for any purpose without the express written consent of mThink. Disclaimer: Revenue+Performance and revenue.mThink.com include editorial and/or advertising that refers to affiliate programs © 2013 mThink ISSN: 1549-7615 that often include many different websites. Occasionally those programs may include websites offering education in casino or Cover Image: © Cprevost525 card games. In such cases no promotion or endorsement of those sites should be inferred or implied – our editorial coverage and/ or advertising relates only to the affiliate program itself. Revenue+Performance magazine and revenue.mThink.com do not accept advertising that promotes online gambling. revenue.mThink.com 3 Industry Insights – Peter Klein, MediaWhiz 360 Days in the Life of Performance Marketing By Peter Klein, MediaWhiz The past year was tumultuous for the industry; 2014 should be As such, stand-alone affiliate networks can either stay small better but it won’t be without its speed bumps with low overhead and a small number of partners and/or As this issue of Revenue+Performance highlights the best- continue to serve a niche vertical, or become large as part of a performing cost-per-action (CPA) and cost-per-sale (CPS) bigger service offering to clients. There really is very little middle networks, it seems a good time to reflect on the past year in ground remaining for affiliate networks. Given how tough media performance marketing and to look ahead to 2014. buying and mailing has become, I also see many solo players as potential targets to partner up with a network or larger The performance marketing industry has undergone massive performance marketing company. changes in 2013. Many companies within the industry have been acquired or have gone out of business. Success in third-party Mobile continues to grow, but it should not be confused with email delivery has become increasingly more elusive. All this its own vertical, since it is part of the performance marketing while governments throughout the world have become more mixture. These types of networks/companies will also find it involved in specific verticals and consumer privacy. tough to survive without proper partnerships. Despite these significant headwinds, the performance Overall, there remains a strong within the industry on marketing industry continues to grow. According to the 2013 achieving true ROI for clients while not trying to build another competitor from scratch if it is outside of a core competency. A IAB Internet Advertising Revenue Report, performance marketing solid example of this would be the online marketing monolith accounted for 66 percent of the $36.6 billion spent on online in Google, which shuttered Google Affiliate Network (GAN) advertising in 2012 in the United States. last July. One would think that a media monopoly trading at Additional positive indicators are beginning to emerge. $900 a share could dominate just about anything, but without Facebook and Twitter have introduced new ways to increase lead a dedicated focus from established its affiliate network never generation for brands advertising on their platforms. gained significant traction. Fueling much of the industry’s growth is increased client Marketing Services spend on mobile campaigns. One of the more significant growth sectors in performance Given all of these significant changes, I foresee 2014 to be marketing will continue to be SaaS and lead-verification a potentially challenging year for the performance marketing products. These help performance marketers and advertisers industry. The prevalence of various international laws and monitor and optimize for best quality. regulations governing nearly everything related to privacy, combined with the splintering of consumer attention across On a platform basis, tech-focused tracking platforms such as social media platforms and mobile devices, will require Cake will continue to be critical for running an affiliate network marketers to be smarter, more analytical and utilize deeper or becoming an advertiser as we enter a cookie-less world. DSP targeting. Additionally, it will be interesting to see what new offerings that conduct real-time bidding (RTB), such as Appnexus services and acquisitions occur from all of the change coming in and Convert Media, will help advertisers garner more cost- from every angle. effective leads. Most importantly, quality will be the driver of all marketing campaigns. Scale is great but no longer at the sacrifice Analyzing 2013 and predicting 2014 is no small task even of good quality to hit ROI targets. for the best of marketing prophets of profit. In this article, I attempt to break down the industry’s major trends into several More online marketers will turn to companies like CPA areas, including companies, services, social media and mobile Detective to ensure the authenticity of incoming leads and, marketing, and government regulations. therefore, quality. The MediaWhiz Affiliate Network is one such example of many, in that we rely on CPA Detective in real time Companies to keep our Advertisers happy and our quality at the high end of The performance marketing industry is likely to see a the scale. Services like LeadID have also slowly become a seal of continued and more aggressive consolidation. We need not approval in verticals like education in an effort to create online look further than my own company, MediaWhiz, which Matomy trust from both the lead provider and buyer. In many cases Media Group, a global performance marketing company, utilizing a service such as LeadID is a requirement of working acquired last January. Seven months later, mobile affiliate with a college or university. Marketers working within the network MobAff joined the MediaWhiz and Matomy families. education, finance and other regulated verticals should get used Combining the best capabilities, expertise and networks to verifying the quality of their leads via lead scoring. of companies such as these is a sign of things to come in Given all of the changes in online marketing, it is clear to performance marketing. me that database management platforms (DMPs) and similar 4 REVENUE+performance – issue 16 segmentation services will