According to Wiktionary, CAEs (Customer Acquisition Exchanges) can be defined after understanding what Customer Reciprocation means.



Customer Reciprocation (n): The process of two parties (affiliate marketers) partnering to become each other's customer. It is largely dependent on the use of affiliate programs as a primary tool of customer acquisition by merchants.

Customer Acquisition Exchange (n): The means by which the process of "Customer Reciprocation" can be facilitated.

Now that CAEs have been defined, let's begin the comparison by examining the pros and cons of Affiliate Networks. This guide will greatly assist you when deciding which affiliate network to join should you not yet belong to any.

Features and benefits of top rated Affiliate Networks as far as merchants are concerned:

Per Click, Per Lead and Per Sale campaigns.

Fraud protection.

Affiliate ranking.

Provide targeted media by category, conversion, and even local geographic focusing.

In house design media provided in HTML, RichMedia, and Email marketing.

Detailed post analysis on all campaign performance.

Provide a suite of sophisticated real-time deep statistical reporting.

Skyscrapers, text-links, banners, co-reg, pops, contextual and search should be covered in the network.

Efficient, reliable third party tracking of all traffic.

Country-wide exposure on websites targeted to your audience.

Maximise your ROI with dedicated account management and support.

Run multiple campaigns from one account - multiple campaigns for different URLs under same account.

Secure live Order logging.

Secure Client Fund management.

Co-branded sign up page. Ability to recruit affiliates from your site.

Manual or Auto approve affiliate that apply to join your campaigns.

Network marketing tools and options to maximize Publisher exposure.

A tiered payout system to help Advertisers drive performance and reward performers.

Affiliates should not have to link to your home page, any page within your site (such as specific product pages) should be linked to directly by your affiliates.

Provide affiliate links that are not long, cumbersome, unsightly and overwhelming; links that won't be split and rendered useless by e-mail clients.

Examine the performance of each piece of marketing material, including information on the affiliates who are using the links.

Actively seek and recruit new affiliates.

Create links to your latest promotions and specials, new banners and HTML marketing material.

Development of a one page sales guide allowing your affiliates to learn more about your product and how to sell it effectively.

Review of your current affiliate marketing model and affiliate incentives.

The shortcomings of less desirable Affiliate Networks as far as merchants are concerned:

Can't run multiple campaigns from one account.

Affiliate link hijacking.

Can't contact affiliates directly.

Affiliates can only link to merchant's homepage.

Provide affiliate links that are long, cumbersome, unsightly and overwhelming; links that will be split and rendered useless by e-mail clients.

Restricted affiliate choice.

Restricted types of campaigns they can run.

Media alignment can result in kickbacks leading to less than optimum ROI performance.

Can restrict your participation for a variety of reasons.

Affiliate links for web pages are obviously affiliate links.

Many are tied to just one performance based media channel lacking flexibility.

You share affiliates who sign up to other merchant affiliate programs within the network many of whom may compete with you thus diluting their effectiveness.

Many charge a monthly fee to activate merchant's account. Others charge a fee if your merchant account is inactive (i.e. not generating any revenue) for a period of 30 days.

Many don't have unique IP address verification procedures in place, therefore, exposing the risk that repetitive clicking will rack up commission on a PPC campaign.

Many don't have a system for detecting if the tracking code has been sub-hosted on another domain to rack up false leads/sales.

Some networks require exclusive affiliate marketing contracts. This restricts the option of working with other Affiliate Networks should you so choose.

Pay for results on a cost per action basis: for sales, leads or other actions when you may prefer to pay purely for sales.

Many require an upfront deposit for leads/sales generated, this deposit is then reduced as leads/sales are generated and can be topped up at any time in the secure merchant login area.

What CAEs offer to merchants that they don't get using Affiliate Networks:

A potential customer/sale each time the merchant intends purchasing anything online.

A potential customer/sale each time an affiliate of the merchant intends purchasing anything online.

The chance to super-leverage their affiliate asset base.

The chance to gain a customer/sale merely by entering referral URLs into the database without intending to purchase anything.

From the affiliate marketer/publisher/webmaster point of view, Affiliate Networks offer pertinent information about the advertiser/merchants in their particular network.

CAEs on the other hand, offer a totally unrestricted choice of advertiser/merchants with which to partner with (promote) or purchase through.

How Affiliate Networks view CAEs and how they incorporate it into their merchant solution strategy:

They should perceive them favourably for a number of reasons:

They may realise the advantage they offer merchants as a way of super-leveraging off the purchase intentions of their affiliates provided the network allows direct communication between merchants and affiliates.

They should see CAEs as a complimentary service for their merchants and affiliates alike rather than a competing one. This is because CAEs offer new and previously unavailable benefits for merchants and affiliates independent of whether or not they belong to any Affiliate Networks.

Because CAEs are non-exclusive entities, there is no incentive or disincentive for Affiliate Networks other than to point out to their members the benefits of CAEs as a tool to aid in their marketing efforts. By including them in their marketing tools and resources section they would effectively enhance both their affiliate and merchant solution strategies.

CAEs represent one of the newest and fastest-growing affiliate communities specializing in cost-per-acquisition (pay for performance) marketing.

CAEs employ Cost-Per-Acquisition (CPA) pricing models for merchants and affiliates alike. This means that clients only pay when they acquire a new customer through their proprietary technology. This structure provides zero risk for clients while at the same time guaranteeing a great ROI for their online marketing dollars. CAEs assume the risk so clients don't have to.

CAEs deliver consumers directly to the merchant's website. Once the consumer reaches the merchant's website the consumer has the opportunity to become a paying customer for the product or service offered. The client only pays for customers acquired.

CAEs, as the name implies, are solely focused upon customer acquisition whereas Affiliate Networks tend to split their focus between direct customer acquisition and brand awareness.

In summary, being part of one or more Affiliate Networks will provide a degree of organic growth in your affiliate marketing results; however by using a CAE as a complimentary tool, you can successfully take your online marketing performance to a new level with a greater degree of confidence.

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