One of Little Red Rooster’s key values is its tailored approach to PR and social media. We nurture our close media relationships by understanding -then delivering – what people need. Happy media means better coverage for our clients, now and into the future.
Monetising content remains a huge priority for media, as everyone from traditional publishers to content creators chase new revenue streams. And affiliate marketing is now only part of the story; more strategic models are taking shape. We’re here to tell you why that’s important for your marketing and PR strategy – and how Little Red Rooster can help make the most of these new opportunities.
We’ve written both here and for PR Week about how affiliate marketing revenue is crucial for publishers, and hosted a panel session on the subject at our Summer Showcase last year. This model typically works on a Cost Per Action (CPA) basis, with publishers receiving a percentage of the purchase price of goods or sign-up value of services resulting from affiliated links in online content. Everyone from national newspapers and huge magazine brands to specialist blogs and social media content creators are increasingly busy crafting content designed to drive affiliated sales.
With multiple affiliate marketing networks available, plus bigger brands moving to introduce their own affiliate programs, chasing down those opportunities can become very time-consuming for media. Enter team Rooster, keeping the media informed with relevant affiliate information for our client brands, smoothing the way for additional coverage and more targeted retail links.
Some larger publishers, including Conde Nast, have streamlined the process by partnering with Skimlinks – one of the affiliate pioneers, which now offers automated affiliation of content. Brands and retailers using a wide range of affiliate networks, including Awin and Rakuten, can join the party by approving Skimlinks as a publisher in their affiliate program and ensuring it is deeplink enabled. Skimlinks claims it’s then just two working days before brands are open to all Skimlinks partners, including those valuable media titles.
As well as the CPA model, Skimlinks handles Cost Per Click (CPC) options. A mainstay of digital advertising, CPC allows brands to run fixed-price campaigns that focus on interest and discovery, not transactions.
The CPC model – and CPM (Cost Per Thousand) options – is also used by Linkby, a more recent arrival that reboots the age-old ‘advertorial’ or ‘pay to play’ approach to media coverage Linkby acts as a broker between brands and media ; partnering publishers include Hearst (Esquire; Cosmopolitan; Good Housekeeping; ELLE and more), Mail Online and the Independent.
Brands can choose the topic they want covered, the publishers they’d like to cover it, then dangle a fat digital revenue carrot – campaign budgets typically range from $2500-$10,000 – via Linkby. If a media title bites, they then write the story in their house style and get paid for the traffic they send to the brand via a bespoke Linkby link.
Brands choose a set budget and CPC rate, – Linkby suggests $1.50 CPC, with a minimum rate of $1 per click – and the timeframe for the clicks to be delivered. They only pay for the clicks that land during that timeframe and are billed by Linkby in $500 increments. If the preferred publishers don’t choose to run a campaign, brands can choose additional target titles and/or revise their proposition.
Once the story is live on the publisher’s website, brands are alerted via Linkby so they can fact-check and request amends if needed. Only inaccuracies can be corrected: the editorial angle and tone of voice remains in the power of the publisher. When the revenue target has been hit, the story may be unpublished or archived, though some pieces may remain live.
Again, as part of the wider range of media partnership management options offered by Little Red Rooster, we can manage the Linkby process for brands, dovetailing this paid-for activity with existing PR outreach for a fully aligned approach.
Get in touch if you want to find out more about the ever-evolving media landscape and how we can help you navigate it successfully. In the meantime, we’re off to keep those vital media relationships thriving.
