Commission Junction in the UK
I’ve been a CJ affiliate for around 4 years now. I don’t earn a vast amount of money with their network (maybe a few £x,xxx a month) but I am a 5 bar affiliate according to their own Performance Level metrics. Despite this however I do not know 1 person at CJ. I don’t have an account manager and I don’t even know any of their staff, not even the account managers for the programs I promote.
Yesterday I had a phone call from an account manager at CJ which was a surprise in itself but the attitude of the person who called was also not really what I’d expect. This is how the call went:
CJ - Hello it’s xxxxxx from CJ, is that Kieron?
Me - Yes, hello how can I help?
CJ - Well we’ve noticed that you are using CJ links and (another network’s) links for the xxxxxx program. Would you be able to swap all your links to us?
Me - Why?
CJ - Well by using 2 networks it is causing tracking problems, so can you move your links to us please?
Me - OK I understand the tracking issues but why should I move all my links to CJ and not the other network?
CJ - Well, what are you working on now?
Me - (after a lengthy discussion I tell CJ that I mainly concentrate on PPC, especially where high CPA’s are available and even better if I can brand name bid)
CJ - Errm OK well merchant X doesn’t have a brand name bidding policy so maybe you could push them?
Me- Yes but merchant x doesn’t offer a high CPA and I was really looking for a bit of help with some other programs that actually do fit in with my business model.
CJ - OK I’ll pass that on and see what I can do for you.
My main problem with the whole conversation was that the CJ member of staff didn’t make any effort to understand my business or to build a rapport with me. They just assumed that I would happily swap my links over to them if they simply asked. Now I’m not asking for any preferentiall treatment but after 4 years of being a CJ affiliate you would think they would reach out to me and at least try to grow our business together? After all I have personal contacts with every other affiliate network in the UK, even ones that I earn less money with.
So why do CJ seem so remote to me?
I also have to attribute this to the fact that despite having their own sub forum at Affiliates4U they rarely if ever contribute to the forum. Again, they are the *only* UK network who do not contribute. Why wouldn’t they participate? Surely its a fantastic way to communicate and grow relationships with affiliates?
It would seem that its not only me who has this opinion of CJ. This week I spoke to a contact at a media agency who wanted some feedback on all of the UK networks for a program they are going to launch this year. BTW this program is a huge global brand, a household name all over the world. Anyway, we discussed every UK network at great length…except CJ. And at the end of the conversation my contact said “We’re not even going to consider CJ”. “Sure I agree” I said. And that was it, that was the whole discussion regarding CJ. It was kind of an unspoken agreement that CJ wouldn’t even be included in the mix.
I really don’t know what the problem is with CJ in the UK. Maybe they are too busy trying to win big advertisers that they don’t focus on affiliates? Well without affiliates you won’t have a business. And don’t they know that some affiliates have very good relationships with agencies, merchants and networks and that we all speak and share our experiences? On more than one occasion I have recommended a network to a merchant and they have gone with that network. I know plenty of other affiliates who have too.
So come on CJ why don’t you reach out a bit more in the UK affiliate community? Make the effort to contact your publishers, get involved on the forums and lets start a 2 way dialogue.
What I’m listening to right now: Carl Thomas - “Let’s Talk About It”
Affiliate Marketing - Commission Junction
Saturday, May 6th, 2006 at 12:44 pm and is filed under Uncategorized. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.
Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I run UK Offer Media Ltd. I thought it would be fun to post a daily (well hopefully daily) blog, writing about my experiences in Internet Marketing and more specifically Affiliate Marketing. I'll include some personal stuff too, probably about my other passions, music and cars. Please feel free to post your comments and thoughts too.
May 7th, 2006 at 12:37 am
I agree with you 100%. It’s not just the U.K. though, they are horrible for the U.S. too. They focus on everything BUT the affiliate. Their attitude(s) are horrible and I have moved all my business away from them. They seem to have a god complex and forget that there are several BETTER options for affiliates out there…
Great blog btw. It’s great to hear what the big hitters are doing/thinking.
May 7th, 2006 at 10:57 am
Ditto here, I dropped them a few months ago to go with other networks who at least answer emails and treat you well.
Ive worked from the merchant perspective with them as well and its the same, they don’t help at all.
May 7th, 2006 at 5:17 pm
god complex ?? !! :=) Lol yeah i agree with that
May 8th, 2006 at 12:06 am
One thing we can draw from this, is that you did not get any preferential treatment and we can all sleep nights now, knowing that no matter how much income any affiliate brings in, they will still be impervious to you all. :0)
Maybe by the nature of what I do, I have a really great relationship with the guys and girls at CJ.com UK. I think when Jonathan Forster arrived on the scene, many people expressed their feelings about CJ.com being
a) A victim of their own success in terms of software reporting and all round inflexibility.
b) General communication.
C) Antiquated procedures.
For a while there the dialogue was open the upshot was I was able to get a better understanding of the problems from their perspective and to realise that they were just as frustrated with their limitations. The main issues for the UK office was and I still believe to be the case, that they are intrinsically tied to the US for everything. Until CJ UK can declare independence and get some autonomy, they will always have CJ US as a millstone about their necks. The folks at CJ UK are really nice, I am hoping that this person that contacted you was having a bad hair day. If you ever need to talk to any one there, talk to Kevin Addley, kaddley @ cj.com Any hoo Jonathan is now based in Sweden, shame… he almost had it.
“So come on CJ why don’t you reach out a bit more in the UK affiliate community? Make the effort to contact your publishers, get involved on the forums and lets start a 2 way dialogue.”
Keiron, they used to be active on the forum but it was one slating after another. Same way that TD only speak through Nick and that’s on occasion. In fact most networks keep a pretty low profile these days, I don’t really blame them, nature of the beast perhaps?
Would you agree though, that some merchants and agencies (the odd affy consultants) that run affy programs think you are the cat’s pyjamas?
jx
May 8th, 2006 at 12:07 am
Kieron
I’ve been with cj for over 3 years. They were very stroppy with me the other month - threatening to ban me ‘cos the level of traffic I sent to one particular programme looked less than genuine (though the merchant subsequently confirmed all was ok thank heavens).
Recently gone full-time myself. Relevant blog coming soon. Keep up your good posts.
May 8th, 2006 at 1:13 am
Jess, thanks for your comments. I think your post speaks for itself when you say “maybe by the nature of what I do, I have a really great relationship with the guys and girls at CJ.com UK”.
The fact that you act on behalf of merchants is why (in my opinion) you have a relationship with CJ. For us mere God-fearing affiliates we have no relationship. Judging by some of the comments here I’m not alone in feeling this way too.
I appreciate that they are tied to the US somewhat but surely they can be given some slack to actually create relationships with affiliates?? I’m not asking too much am I?
P.S. Not sure about the pyjamas but the whiskas…definitely!
May 8th, 2006 at 1:14 am
JC, nice one on going full time. I look forward to your blog.
May 10th, 2006 at 12:09 pm
I have all but given up on CJ, they won’t convert my account from US Dollars to UK Pounds as the US who tell the UK what to do don’t see converting all the UK Affiliates (some 25% in a recent poll) to the local currency as a big deal. This in turn has caused issues with VAT as they don’t do the invoices for the converted amounts correctly still, a major headache. To any merchant just on CJ alone I say, more fool you I know hundreds of people not using them due to various reasons, give Affiliates a choice and find any other UK network to work with (maybe not DGM for just now until they are fully back to normal again) simple fact is Affiliates all have favourites and while joining them all is just foolish, give a choice of 2 is smart.
By the way using a merchants links from more than 1 Network is never an issue if they setup local cookies correctly, if they not set them up correctly then you shouldn’t be promoting them as their will be other stuff wrong.
May 10th, 2006 at 9:17 pm
From an agency’s point of view - more and more I’m feeling that CJ offer nothing but a tracking and reporting system - along with a pile-load of publishers. Some merchants are drawn to CJ because of their thousands of potential publishers but eventually realise that a lot of them are un-reachable and not worth it - you end up spending a lot of time weeding out the baddies. I’m just not fond of their hands-off approach - for all sides of affiliate marketing.
May 16th, 2006 at 5:00 pm
Hello!
my name’s Andy and I look after the marbles credit card affiliate program. You’re not going on about us are you? (the fact that we’ve got a program on CJ and have just launched on Buy.at too??)
We found that CJ’s account support was pretty naff, so we began doing the work ourselves - contacting our top affiliates and opening a more direct relationship. We launched on buy.at in the hope of incremental sales, as well as allowing affiliates to choose their preferred network. I must say though, CJ have really got their act together since they found out we were on Buy.at! they’re actually quite proactive for us now, and i think they’ve hired more staff. Plus we’ve got a very well established program with them (over 5 years old) and it’s been working really well.
I love the blog - good luck with the future.
May 16th, 2006 at 11:52 pm
Hi all
i find you comments very strange as i have had really good relationships with CJ. I have many calls/voice messages from them inviting me to join different programs and emails etc and must say they all are a nice bunch of people and their tracking technology is the best that i have come across. I once had a similar conversation about joining two programs from a merchant on another network and i do believe many merchants want us affiliates to work with one network. I guess there not a nice way to discuss that type of topic if you are on two different network promoting one advertiser!!!!
it would be nice for CJ to post on the forum i agree with that comment