The Ins and Outs of Activation Campaigns

By Ben Kiel
LinkShare Corporation

Far too often, advertisers focus all of their efforts externally on recruiting new publishers, before looking internally and encouraging their current inactive partners to start producing revenue! While it is important to grow the number of publishers in your program, it is equally, if not more important, to ensure that your current publisher base is active and generating sales on your behalf. An activation campaign can be used to achieve these increased revenue goals by providing an incentive for your publishers to become active. Publishers can become active by putting your creative on their site, improving their placement of your brand on their website, or through other various optimization methods.

The first step to an activation campaign is to determine the type of incentive you would like to provide to your publishers (three popular activation incentives are outlined below). The next step is to acquire a list of publishers in your program that have not produced any activity for a pre-determined amount of time (six months is a good timeframe). Finally, the last and most important step is to present your activation campaign to your publishers either through a newsletter or a personalized email. The communication should remind the inactive publishers of their partner status with you, outline the terms and benefits of the activation campaign, and provide current creative or coupon codes.

Below you will find three effective activation campaign strategies, along with related subject lines that you can use for your communication.

1. General Sales Bonus
This is the most basic of activation strategies; a sales threshold is set for a month, and any publisher that becomes active by hitting this threshold receives a payback.

Subject Line: Activate with XXX: Generate $500 in Sales in November and Receive $50!

2. Commission Increase
If your activation campaign goal is to build long-term value with a publisher, then a commission increase may be your perfect solution. Offering publishers a higher rev share in November for meeting a sales goal in October now encourages your partners to stay active with your program for two months instead of one!

Subject Line: Activate in October with XXX and increase your commission by 2% in November and December!

3. Contest
Offering the chance for one publisher to win one big prize can often seem more impressive than guaranteeing small prizes for everyone. In terms of an activation campaign, instead of offering every publisher who activates $20 for hitting a sales goal, perhaps offer one publisher the chance to win $500. This single prize is much more valuable to the publishers, and the increased incentive will make your activation campaign stand out. Another way to differentiate your contest is to offer something fun or unique as a prize. Gift cards, vacations, concerts, electronics, or other coveted prizes can go a long way in encouraging participation in your activation campaign.

Subject Line: Activate with XXX for a chance to win a vacation!

As we embark into the busy holiday shopping season, it is highly recommended that you implement activation campaigns to ensure you get the most from your publisher base. As a final suggestion, include your activation campaign as a listing in the “Affiliate Promotions” section in the LinkShare Deal Dispatcher. This section is underutilized by most advertisers, and will give your campaign the opportunity to stand out. To submit your monthly promotions for the Deal Dispatcher, go to the Merchant Interface under the “Mail Communications” section.