Coupon Site Affiliate Marketing

I have managed several large affiliate programs and have a love/hate relationship with most affiliates.  I love the concept of a robust affiliate program.  Having niche sites generate brand awareness, traffic and revenue while I encourage them with a fair compensation package.  These niche sites provide content or other value to the visitors of their sites and expose them to my brands - an audience which I may have trouble reaching.

In reality, very few affiliates are content based.  The most successful affiliates are coupon sites.  Coupon sites often optimize pages for merchant brand names and drive traffic from brand searches on search engines such as Google.  Let's perform a Google search on Bath and Body Works at this time the number 3 result for natural search is for the coupon site Retail Me Not.  The copy for this result promotes an "average discount of $12.55 with these Bath and Body Works coupon codes and promo codes" delivers a strong message to shoppers.  A searcher interested in joining discussions about aromatherapy or skin treatments find value in a visit to Retail Me Not, no.  Retail Me Not only has appeal for shoppers already aware of a brand.  The structure of coupon sites does not lend themselves to new customer with navigation which often lists brands alphabetically, not even by category.  

Do not count on Retail Me Not or any other Coupon Site to deliver incremental business to your web site.  That does not mean they do not have value in customer retention.  Customer retention is a valuable contibution that coupon sites can make to an affiliate program.  There are shoppers who are committed users of coupon sites and their orders would be at risk if you removed coupon sites from your affiliate program (something I have actually done in the past).  I recommend keeping coupon sites in your program and holding them to the same standards you would other retention efforts.

I recommend segregating coupon sites from other types of affiliates (such as content sites or loyalty sites) and setting a commission rate which is appropriate for the value they add to your program.