Affiliate marketers often debate whether it's better to work directly with advertisers or go through an affiliate network. Many prefer working directly with advertisers because they can pay much higher rates than most affiliate networks offer.
However, working directly with advertisers doesn't always provide the expected benefits for media buyers. In this article, we'll look at several scenarios where high rates, direct contact, and exclusive offers can end up draining a media buyer's budget.
Common Mistakes Media Buyers Make When Working Directly With Advertisers
Since direct advertisers want not just high traffic volumes but also a steady flow of leads, they rarely take on new affiliates who can't guarantee this. Still, even experienced affiliates make big mistakes when sending traffic directly to advertisers. Here are some of the most common errors:
Failing to adequately research advertiser reviews and offer details before sending traffic
Eager for exclusive offers and high rates, affiliates will agree to terms and test campaigns without studying what other affiliates say about working with that advertiser or understanding their compensation model.
Often, unknown or unpopular direct advertisers turn out to be scammers who at best steal some traffic. Usually, especially for traffic from push notifications or TikTok, a shady advertiser will refuse to pay for leads, claiming it's low quality or fraudulent. With a fully managed affiliate network like MyBid where 90%+ of sites are vetted, this argument holds less weight.
In addition to media buyers and teams, even well-known CPA networks are not immune from such advertisers. It's confirmed in negative case study where an affiliate network owner complained that the direct advertiser cheated him. After accepting nearly 100 first-time deposits totaling almost $30,000 AUD from Australia over a month, the direct advertiser claimed that out of those deposits, only 5 players made any repeated deposits. They suggested this indicated fraud and low-quality traffic. The advertiser also considered any continuing traffic after the initial stops to be fraudulent, but did not provide any concrete evidence, and refused to pay out any commissions.
Ignoring hold periods
By sending traffic to offers on an affiliate network, affiliates can choose offers with different hold periods, regularly withdrawing accrued commissions every 7-14 days and reinvesting the earnings into purchasing more traffic. Direct advertisers process traffic faster than affiliate programs and pay out more quickly, but at best only twice a month.
However, their minimum withdrawal amount is often $500 or more, several times higher than the $100 minimum in many affiliate programs.
So media buyers who are working with smaller budgets get a disadvantage as they won’t be able to reach the minimum withdrawal limit in time. Meanwhile, their profitable campaign can be maxed out by competing affiliates.
Failing to optimize profitable ad campaigns
After seeing high conversion rates from a direct advertiser's offer, affiliates often become complacent. They relax and only focus on monitoring statistics rather than actively optimizing campaigns. However, a campaign may burn out even before recouping all advertising costs due to an unwillingness to spend time on routine optimization tasks.
Affiliates who work with traffic sources from advertising networks, and want to devote more time to developing new funnels and angles, should consider using a fully-managed network like MyBid. In this model, the preparation and optimization of online advertising campaigns tasks are handled entirely by a dedicated account manager who is invested in the success of the affiliate's advertising efforts.
Communication with the direct advertiser's manager through online translators
Unlike CPA networks, most direct advertisers do not consider it necessary to hire experienced affiliate managers to assist affiliates with the creative and technical aspects of working with their offer.
Additionally, for regional offers, advertiser managers often only speak the local language or at best English. This forces the media buyer to use unreliable third-party translators, which do not always convey the right message. In the affiliate marketing industry, a single word translated incorrectly can cost the affiliate tens or even hundreds of thousands of dollars in lost commissions.
As an example, let’s take a funny situation that a manager on MyBid shared; One affiliate working on a private adult offer in the USA via push ads with a direct advertiser requested their first payment on December 20, 2022, through the advertiser's representative. They received a response that payment would be made on 01/03/2023. The affiliate thought this meant payment would be in three months, and was upset because they needed working capital.
Only when the affiliate's account manager clarified that in the USA dates are written in the format month/day/year did it become clear the payment was arriving on January 3rd, 2023, not March 1st.
Conclusion
When deciding to work with a direct advertiser, it is always worth remembering that an affiliate, much more often than with an affiliate network, may encounter a lack of payment guarantees, manager incompetence, and even legal problems.
At the same time, affiliates can benefit from higher payments, lower competition, more favorable terms and conditions, and even the prospect of building their own in-house media team by working closely with a single advertiser.
