Based on event sessions and networking opportunities, there are three prominent trends set to strengthen and drive forward lead generation and distribution in Europe.

ONE: Affiliates maximizing the value of first-party data

Within performance marketing, affiliates are compensated for driving consumers directly to an advertiser’s landing page where they hopefully go on to convert. This method is still largely in existence today, however, a shift is taking place where affiliates are also collecting their own first-party data. In other words, affiliates are becoming brands by building a database of consumers that they can connect to lead buyers, nurture, and remarket to over time.

With their own database, affiliates know exactly who the consumers are, what made them convert, and the products and services they are looking for. This approach is very powerful for affiliates interested in creating emotional, long-term, and profitable connections with consumers that were previously anonymous to them. The information tells affiliates:

• How to sell the lead to the best buyer for the highest profit
• How to follow up with the lead once it has been sold
• How to remarket to and monetize the lead again in the future

When affiliates create an emotional connection with their customers the affiliate becomes a trusted source that customers will continue to rely on to curate the best deals for them. For affiliates, the expansion towards customer loyalty translates into greater returns and a more predictable revenue stream.

TWO: Trust and transparency are non-negotiables with lead distribution

A successful lead distribution program requires a mutual understanding between lead sellers and lead buyers that the data being acquired and sold is high quality. Europe has paved the way for brands to utilize affiliate marketing through ecommerce by developing an emotional connection with consumers. This connection creates trust between the brand and consumer. As a result, the demand for transparency has become hardwired into the European consumer experience.

When it comes to lead distribution, European performance marketers are taking what they know from the ecommerce sector and demanding the same level of transparency. Lead sellers want clarity into where the lead came from, the lead acquisition cost, and the ability to deep dive into the data. Lead buyers want assurance that the lead is from a trusted, verified source. In summary, for lead distribution to gain momentum open communication is essential between lead buyers and sellers. This can be solved by leveraging lead distribution technology that enables marketers to optimize lead acquisition efforts and provide insights into the original traffic source, buyer lead statuses, and lead quality reports.

THREE: Multi-selling leads is a new approach in Europe

The goal of lead distribution is to sell leads for the highest possible price while ensuring lead buyers are satisfied with quality. Though there are two main lead selling approaches (exclusive (1 to 1) and multi-sell (1 to many), the majority of lead distributors and buyers in Europe work on an exclusive basis. Culturally, the perception in Europe has been that multi-selling leads is not fair to the consumer or buyer.

Fortunately, the converse is actually true. When a lead is sold multiple times this results in consumers receiving multiple quotes for the product or service they are interested in. Consumers can then confidently select the option that best fits their personal criteria and budget. As more performance marketers recognize the value of connecting customers to multiple buyers who can provide competitive quotes, multi-selling leads will become a new standard in Europe.

To learn more about getting started with lead distribution, the important role technology plays in driving transparency, and how to ensure the highest profit per lead, download the whitepaper below.

Better Together

Adding Value to Your Affiliate Program With Lead Distribution

Other content you might be interested in:

• Lead Distribution Trends and the Growth Potential for the UK Market
• Adleadr Improves ROI by Streamlining Its Lead Distribution and Affiliate Programs on a Single Platform — CAKE
• How to Run a Successful Lead Generation Program on CAKE

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Aside from eating tapas and navigating through the nine exhibit halls, the CAKE team met with clients, prospects and partners so a big thank you to those who visited us!

Now that the event curtain has closed, we caught up with three of the CAKE attendees Benatun, Nicola and Silvia to get their thoughts on MWC 2018.

CAKE: What was your highlight from Mobile World Congress this year?

Benatun: I am always amazed by the friendly and sociable side of the event. A four-day long tradeshow can often be so tiring but everyone at 4pm is still friendly and the booth parties were great for networking and winding down.

Nicola: I enjoyed taking a sneak peek at the new technological launches such as the S9 phone, and learning that a spaceship communication from Earth to Mars takes 24 minutes which the company championing this, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, thinks is still too long!

Silvia: My highlight was engaging in discussions about cryptocurrency. Within the mobile space this can be tied to app coins which I think a lot of companies will implement in the near future.

CAKE: Did you attend any presentations, and if so what did you find interesting?

Nicola: I attended the Internet of Things tour and the most interesting aspect was that 20 billion micro-devices will be connected to the internet by 2020, meaning that in the future brands will try to crack this industry to get in touch with the customer through these multiple “devices,” that will go beyond the phone/laptop/TV screen we are using today!

CAKE: How do you see mobile developing within the performance marketing industry?

Benatun: I think there is going to be a bigger shift from display advertising to performance-based in-app marketing. This practice provides better return on ad spend overall and more companies are becoming aware of its value. Affiliate marketing relates to the strong partnership between advertisers and publishers, and this is where the ROI is more appealing to advertisers because they can pay on performance.

Nicola: I have noticed that big players within this space are trying to test things within performance marketing. They like to see what is happening, what is going right, what is providing them with key return on investment, etc. Therefore, business models will change soon. I think we will see programmatic, retargeting and pay per view becoming bigger.

Silvia: Whilst walking the show floors I saw companies that are trying to build personas of consumers in which they can pass onto the brands. These personas involved indoor tracking of the user’s age and gender to allow personalised notifications/messages at the right time. For example, one company told me it could send reminders to a user to go to the gym, as they could identify that he/she was currently at home. As they pointed out how it would not be valuable to send a gym reminder if the user was already at the gym. Utilising geolocation targeting is therefore key here.

Mobile World Congress overall provided the team with some valuable insights into the world of mobile technology, and food for future thought. It was also a great chance to catch up with our friends in Barcelona and we look forward to seeing if these predictions ring true in the near future!

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Many of the conversations taking place at iFX centred around the new regulations and on how the industry can adapt and remain profitable. These conversations are very timely and pertinent as failure to comply with the new regulations will lead to huge penalties. It is more important than ever for marketers to take control. In the online trading business, new client acquisition is critical, and having the right tools at your disposal will make the difference between success and failure.

At CAKE, we work with a wide range of clients in the financial sector across 80 countries including Investment Banks, Forex Brokers, Affiliate Networks, Media Agencies and Fintech firms. Our technology was built with the idea of servicing enterprise companies who face challenging regulatory and market conditions. For companies facing new regulations, below are some best practices to help navigate the shifting ecosystem:

1. Marketing Regulation and Compliance

• Geo redirects: Flexible country and city level rules that ensure your traffic is relevant and compliant
• Referer whitelists: Restrict affiliate referrals to specific landing pages and URLS
• Blacklists and Blocking: Control where your traffic comes from and switch off affiliate campaigns, sub-affiliates, referrers and IP ranges. Switch off creatives, affiliates, campaigns, sub-affiliates, referrers, geos and more in one click
• Ad Copy compliance: Work with a company like BrandVerity to identify non-compliant website content and unauthorized ads
• Traffic Blocking:

Numerous discussions about the top online trading platforms expanding into new, untapped markets particularly in LATAM and APAC also took place during the two-day conference. When considering your acquisition strategy for these markets you must consider if your affiliate program can achieve its desired reach:

2. New markets, New opportunities

• API integrations: Can you work with networks with the largest market reach, can you integrate via API?
• Translations: Is your affiliate portal suitable for international introducing brokers (IBs) and affiliates?
• Currencies and payouts: Can you pay each local partner in their own currency? Do you have the flexibility to create custom deals for each affiliate (Hybrid, CPA, Rev-share, CPC, CPM etc.)?
• Attribution: Do you understand the influence of each partner on the sale? Do you have an unbiased view of performance across all marketing efforts?

There is a tremendous amount of growth and potential in the online trading industry, we look forward to partnering with new and exciting companies and helping them remain complaint whilst scaling their user acquisition and growth. We also look forward to participating in next year’s iFX and see how the new regulations regarding compliance play out.

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CAKE Happy Hour and Dinner

To kick off ad:tech New Delhi, CAKE hosted an event at Pier 38, that brought together clients, new acquaintances and industry thought leaders to help facilitate networking opportunities in a casual setting. Additionally, the event served as the perfect opportunity to thank our amazing clients in person for their continued support over the years and allowed them to connect with representatives from our California office, including, Santi Pierini, CAKE President; Garth Harris, VP of Client Success and Dave Stewart, CTO. We were thrilled with the turnout and it was the perfect start to an incredible ad:tech New Delhi.

ad:tech New Delhi Panel Presentation

CAKE President, Santi Pierini joined panelists Sumeet Singh, Chief Marketing Officer of infoedge; Prasad Shejale, Co-founder and CEO of Logicserve Digital; Hand Sun, CEO of India for Yeahmobi and Hitesh Malhotra, Chief Marketing Officer of Nykaa.com on a panel titled “The Top Challenges of the Performance Marketing Revolution.” During the session, attendees received insights into the obstacles performance marketers must overcome to maximize return on adspend, enhance market positioning, better segment customer profiling and build out robust optimization strategies. Furthermore, the panel explored the shift from traditional performance marketing and challenges associated with single channel, silo-based reporting, to a new standard that now incorporates multi-channel campaigns with robust attribution modeling, customer profiling and greater optimization strategies. The panel also:

-Shared how data-driven algorithmic attribution can identify steps in the anonymous customer journey

-Conveyed how each step impacts conversions and determines where additional spend will deliver maximum impact

-Covered the challenges associated with overcoming transparency and traffic quality issues to boost overall campaign performance

We are looking forward to seeing everyone next year at ad:tech New Delhi 2018!

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CAKE exhibited in Hall 8.1 “App Planet” where we explored our mobile tracking functionality and new features with clients, prospects and industry leaders.

The show traditionally attracts big names within the mobile marketing sphere and this year was no exception. The highly anticipated session was host to Reed Hastings, Founder and CEO of Netflix who spoke about the importance of spotting trends and disruptions within industries in order to capitalise. Other keynote sessions centred on the theme of content becoming secondary. People want to physically see new releases and products shown in the exhibition halls and on the booths as opposed to online.

The Next Element

So what is “The Next Element?” Overall, this was in reference to mobile, and mobile connectivity. Mobile connectivity is becoming a fundamental part of our lives. This is not just limited to mobile phones and tablets; it also includes cars, homes and energy meters. This can be classified as a personal “internet of things,” as these are objects that will touch your everyday life. Ultimately, the products on show are based on a network of devices, vehicles and building sensors that collect and exchange data, thus giving it the name the “internet of things.” Some notable showcases included driverless cars and Kolibree introduced a smart toothbrush that measures how well you brush your teeth and sends the statistics to your smartphone!

VR and AI

Virtual Reality (VR) and Artificial Intelligence (AI) were the dominant themes again at this year’s event. Immersive technology devices were so prominent on the show floor with 360-degree video and the age recognition cameras seemed to be the most talked about products. For example, Samsung unveiled a 360-degree virtual travel app designed to allow people to travel back to past experiences and explore new worlds. The growing trend of virtual assistants, through the use of AI, was prominent on the show floor with many companies trying to replicate the highly successful Echo and Alexa from Amazon. A trend we can only predict will be seen globally, very soon.

5G

The introduction of 5G is essential in helping to deliver these immersive technologies, and of course this needs to be done in a smooth way – especially on a mobile device. However, 5G will not be rolled out until 2020 and coverage will depend on the availability of handsets and access to spectrum bands. It is expected that these “internet of things” services will support massive machine-type communication services once 5G has been fully implemented globally.

Overall, the event provided the team with great insights into new technological developments and an opportunity to discuss how our clients can maximise their usage of CAKE’s multi-channel mobile tracking abilities. We cannot wait for the additional MWC shows throughout the year!

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Affiliate Networks have mastered this discipline for many years since its inception in 1994. Now with the potential for mass revenue growth it is time for the brands to sit up and take notice of the successes of internet retailers as it pertains to the Affiliate channel.

To start the conference off, CAKE’s President, Santi Perini participated in a panel session which included panellists from the following companies:

• Kevin Edwards, Global Strategy Director, Affiliate Window
• Helen Southgate, Managing Director, Affilinet
• Pete Newman, Commercial Director, Optimise Media
• Sean Sewell, Co-founder and Vice President of Revenue EMEA, Performance Horizon

Throughout the panel, there were a few key themes discussed which included:

Trust and risk

Companies new to the affiliate marketing sphere are worried about the unknown. Affiliate marketing is not an area they have invested time or money into before so taking the first steps can bring about fear. Therefore, it was suggested that these companies need to build strong relationships with the media, search and social channels, in order to manage and monetise their CPAs. They need to be able to accurately determine which affiliates should be paid, and in what amount. Affiliate marketing can offer guaranteed return on investment. It provides companies with a stable and almost risk-free solution. However, there is still a reluctance with affiliate marketing, as companies worry they will be taken advantage of. This segued into the next discussion point: education.

Educate

Our duty, as performance marketers, is to educate others on the affiliate model and how this channel can drastically enhance ROI. Additionally, it is also important to educate the industry on the value of tracking conversions, and quickly determining what campaigns are successful and which ones are not as this immediately impacts ROI.

Customer Journey

The industry has moved from solely focusing on the last touch point in the customer journey to now considering the importance of all touchpoints. It is widely accepted that the buying process occurs on a variety of levels and across multiple channels. Performance marketers need to see how all of the digital channels fit together as a whole, instead of in silos and accurately measure each step. This need for measuring data is driving a demand in performance marketing and it is essential to understand that affiliate marketing is not just about quantity but also quality. Analysing the life-time value of customers is essential in building strong client relationships and ensuring customers keep coming back.

Challenges

The silos within digital marketing need to be removed, and the performance of campaigns across all channels needs to be viewed holistically.

The day continued to explore other issues surrounding the fashion and travel verticals with speakers from Secret Escapes, INTU Digital, BT and Trinity Mirror Group to name a few.

There were also discussions around how The UK and Germany are well established, and how key players, within the affiliate marketing sphere should educate and share their knowledge with others looking to break into the affiliate marketing mix. Another key issue discussed was personalisation. Consumers want great experiences across all devices. They want to see relevant content that is tailored to their interests and past purchases. Tracking platforms need to track conversions across all devices and campaigns need to get personalisation right in order to entice customers to come back.

In conclusion, the conference left us with great insights into the importance of affiliate marketing and also some considerations for the year ahead. We are looking forward to participating in additional IAB events throughout 2017!

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Meet Market and Exhibit Hall

During the meet market and exhibit hall, our sales team was busy meeting with new prospects, passing out swag and showcasing the new and enhanced capabilities of the CAKE SaaS platform. Over the course of three days, our team met with more than 300 Advertisers, Affiliates, Networks and strategic technology partners. As our first time exhibiting at this event, it was a huge success and we are looking forward to having an even larger presence at Affiliate Summit East 2017.

Speaking session by CAKE Executive

CAKE’s CTO, Dave Stewart presented with Aceable’s Affiliate Director, Brandon Myers in a joint educational session titled “Expanding Reach: How Affiliates and Social Drive Together.” The session took place Monday, January 16 at 10 a.m. PT, in the Champagne 2 room at the conference.

In their session, Stewart and Myers discussed how the scope of affiliate marketing is broadening, and showed how combining affiliate and social media strategies can help marketers expand their reach and increase ROI. Topics they explored included:

-How affiliates and social work together

-The importance of tracking the entire customer journey

-Messaging and how to optimize from experimentation

CAKE Customer Happy Hour

On the second day of the event, CAKE hosted a client appreciation happy hour at the Chandelier Bar located inside the Cosmopolitan Hotel. With more than 200+ in attendance, we had the opportunity to meet up with our Network, Advertiser and Affiliate clients in a more relaxed setting. It was an incredible event and we were thrilled with the turnout. Thank you to everyone who stopped by.

In summary

This year CAKE attended Affiliate Summit West with the goal of providing our clients proper facetime and support.  In addition, it also proved to be a great event for our sales and marketing teams as well. We are very excited to announce that CAKE will be a Bronze sponsor at Affiliate Summit East in the summer and we look forward to seeing you there!

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As exhibitors of the event, CAKE had the opportunity to meet with mobile leaders from across the globe. In addition, Ben Cockburn, Senior Account Manager, of the London office participated in a panel discussing “The State of Attribution.” Joining Ben on the panel were representatives from AppsFlyer, Facebook Israel and FOCUUS.

The panel focused on Attribution from a mobile perspective, concentrating on linking the follow on actions of the user after they have converted to the paid traffic source. One of the most valuable insights garnered from the panel discussion is the importance of calculating the Lifetime Value (LTV) of users as they often turn into repeat customers.

LTV is generally hard to work into performance marketing payouts, because budgets are typically spent up front to source the traffic. There usually needs to be a trade off between the Advertiser paying for that pure performance and the priorities of the Affiliate needing to maintain their traffic levels.

Advertisers’ most important priority should be collecting LTV data, because the bigger the data set the better the insights. In order to take advantage of these insights however, real-time tracking and detailed analytics are key for identifying LTV trends and serve as the infrastructure for optimizing performance.

In addition, Ben spoke about tracking LTV in relation to CAKE and explained how CAKE’s technology can link not only the lifetime value of the user to the paid touch, but also other interactions in the digital sales funnel that brought that user to the Advertiser. This allows users to view the “unrewarded” traffic sources contributing to sales, so that users can better incentivize those accordingly.

Overall, the session concluded that the Lifetime Value of a user is vital in establishing how successful online digital marketing campaigns can be. We enjoyed our time in Tel Aviv and catching up with clients and other industry leaders and are looking forward to the Israel Mobile Summit in June.

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RD Summit has been growing in attendance year over year, which is a true display of the market growth in Brazil. During the Summit, the CAKE team had the opportunity to meet face-to-face with current clients and gain a new perspective on where Brazil’s digital market is currently at and what direction it is heading towards. One of the most notable takeaways from the event was the Advertisers and Brands eagerness to innovate their business offerings. In response to this, RD Summit has taken a very respectable approach within their market by providing a large range of educational talks and material.

Throughout the event, I had the opportunity to attend a few sessions and ultimately walked away with the understanding that Brazil is well primed to emerge as a leading market and that they have already garnered international interest and support. Some of the most notable sessions included:

-Will Reynolds, Founder of SEER Interactive who delivered a session offering best practices to answer your customers’ questions through PPC.

-Matt Doyon, VP of Sales of Rock Content provided insights on how to fully understand your customers in order to address their needs and ensure your business goals are aligned with what customers care about.

-Neil Patel, Co-Founder of Crazy Egg & Hello Bar, shared his thoughts on Growth Hacking and tips on how to increase user acquisition through novel and cost effective means.

I also had the opportunity to sit down with Matt Doyon of Rock Content and Mirko Mayeroff, Director of Buscapé Company and what they shared was truly insightful. When asked about the future of Brazil’s digital market, both Matt and Mirko shared a similar vision and genuine excitement for the future of Brazil. They believe growth and market maturation will appear once the digital hurdles are solved and Brazilian advertisers advance in ways that other markets around the world already have. When asked about the benefit of international companies offering to help Brazil’s market, Mirko provided the following quote:

“A lesson to learn, you need to come and learn the market. You need to understand taxes and the cultural ways. There is an evolution in the market and we (Brazil) are not part of it yet. The US is 1-2 years ahead of what Brazil is doing today. We understand the benefits companies from the US can provide, but the market still needs to learn about the benefits you offer and understand their value.”

After the event, it became clear that Brazil is a maturing market with a large opportunity for growth and the adoption of new technology, including marketing automation and performance tracking solutions. There is an exciting market on the horizon in Latin America, and our team is well equipped to support their growth.

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Social Media Advocacy

CAKE recently launched an advocacy program on Influitive’s platform, which made the theme of advocacy all the more relevant and timely. It was interesting to learn what industry leaders recommend in establishing a successful advocacy program.

Advocacy has moved from a stage of simply wanting content to be shared by employees to achieving engagement at all levels. Speakers focused on the importance of consistency and keeping advocates sharing content. Which triggered the question, how do companies actually keep people engaged and focus on a consistent stream of content? These were the many questions raised by talks from Business Edge Technologies, Juniper Networks and Tremolo Software.

It is important to note that advocacy is not just something we should focus on with our employees, it should also include channel partners and of course clients. This means that content needs to be relevant and cover a wide variety of audiences. This, in turn, can be tricky. However, if it is executed correctly it can be highly effective. How do we achieve this? One solution is by making sure the content produced is shared in the spaces where people from your industry are talking and the debates are taking place.

Here are some other tips to help with social media advocacy:

• Engagement – engage with already socially active advocates. This is much easier than trying to convince someone who is not fluent, or active, on platforms to take part.
• Time Zones – position people in different time zones so your brand is always speaking in the spheres/debates you want to be a part of and are on hand 24/7 to support customers/prospects with queries.
• Ease – sharing content needs to be easy! Make sure the platforms have “share now buttons”.
• Content, content, content – these tips may be very helpful but useless if there is no content to be shared!

The Marketing Cloud All-Stars Debate

One notable keynote session held a debate with representatives from Salesforce, IBM, Oracle, Abode and Marketo.

They opened the session with the statistic that in the UK, 55% of people do not want to give data to marketers, as they don’t see the value in giving up their data. So how do we, as marketers, overcome this challenge?

Teamwork and Alignment

Marketing departments cannot be the only ones who change and create customer experiences. Marketers lead with the data, but it is vital to decipher what the data shows and therefore capitalise on it. The representative from Oracle emphasised the need for all teams to work together. This means that IT teams and data analysts need to work with marketing teams – in other words, break down the team silos.

Experiences

Throughout the debate there was a focus on AI in everyday life. Within the MarTech industry brands feel they need to deliver this type of technology but they do not have the capabilities to do so. Therefore campaigns fail. Instead, there was a call to focus on people’s experiences, tailoring ads to individual users, capitalising on data and maximising retargeted ads. This way brands can talk to their consumers on their preferred channels – making the user experience smoother.

Overall the event provided a great opportunity to listen to the upcoming trends and concerns surrounding the MarTech industry. It also gave insights from industry leaders on how to maximise and run a successful advocate program, as this is something new we are exploring at CAKE. Ultimately, the keynote debates could not emphasise how important it is to produce interesting content, share said content on the correct channels and connect with your existing customers.

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