Comments on: Toys R Us affiliate program sucks

By: gadget

gadget — Fri, 21 Aug 2009 15:40:01 +0000

I know this is an old thread but it gets even worse. I’m currently promoting the new PS3 and found Toys’r'Us to be the lowest price, albeit by only £5. So off I go to look for their affiliate program, bump into this post on the way, and find it on AW.

I was just about to add it to my site when I notice that whilst their level 1 commission is 3%, their commission for games consoles is 0%.

By: Toys R Us affiliate program now sucks even more

Toys R Us affiliate program now sucks even more — Tue, 20 Nov 2007 21:28:03 +0000

[...] only do they have ridiculous “we haven’t got a clue” ppc rules but they also only offer 3% commission on sales. Most other toy retailers offer between 5% and [...]

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 04 Jul 2007 23:36:08 +0000

Worse..

Not only ToysRus.com offers a poor 3%, but now their Return Days is at 0.958 (23 hours). It’s not even one day!

By: Kieron

Kieron — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 12:00:34 +0000

Moose, I've just looked on the 247 Blinds program terms (on affiliate window) and can only see the following restrictions:

Affiliates are requested not to bid on brand name terms:

247 Blinds
247Blinds

There is no mention of generic terms such as "blinds". However if there were then in answer to your question, yes that would be very silly.

By: contact

contact — Sat, 02 Jun 2007 08:04:05 +0000

Hi Kieron,

Whilst attending the emails this evening we came across a merchant called 247 blinds, who amongst their keywords they were restricting affiliates on were “blind” & “blinds”, now we might bid on these two keywords & send to a page listing various merchants & products which may include them amongst these. Now we could assume that they mean in relation to any direct to merchant ppc activity, however on the merchant infromation page these are not mentioned.

Would you consider this comparible to unecessary restrictions?

Moose

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Fri, 25 May 2007 11:31:07 +0000

Kieron, have you seen how high this page is ranking for the term Toysrus?!

By: Axod

Axod — Fri, 18 May 2007 10:31:29 +0000

That is atrocious. Next they’ll say you can’t advertise your website in certain magazines…

I’m sure it’s probably a case of some Manager somewhere hearing bad things about PPC (perhaps trademark bidding), and thinking “ah all PPC is bad. We must not allow anyone to use PPC”.
Like you I’m a little surprised AW didn’t educate them on what a stupid policy it is though.

By: Simon

Simon — Thu, 17 May 2007 06:20:27 +0000

AW were probably so grateful to have such a global brand on their books that they accepted this without much discussion. IMO.

By: Bob

Bob — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:32:15 +0000

It is just a case of a big company that doesn’t understand online marketing and isn’t willing to learn it.

I think any company that won’t even allow you to do ppc is a dinosaur and is run by dinosaurs who have no clue how google is making billions per quarter but they sure do have it in their own personal stock holdings.

By: Frostie

Frostie — Wed, 16 May 2007 21:31:12 +0000

No it means if you want to continue advertising ToyRUs on your website, and you PPC your own website in anyway, then you should keep quiet.

This actually stems from a conversation I had with AWIN about it, and couldn't quite believe what I was being told. Checked with Kieron and he too was gobsmacked.

The fact that I was denied in October last year annoyed me, but now knowing the restrictions in place, I am not the slightest bit interested in pushing ToysRUs until they change their policy, or until AWin educate them on how Affiliates work.

Basically they only want their banners, products etc appearing on website that has 100% organic traffic! AWin should have stepped in and, if they have knowledge of the affiliate industry, informed ToyRUs that there are no such affiliates.

Certainly infuriated me!