Whether you love it, or whether you think its an overpriced iPod, the fact is that the Apple iPhone will be
MASSIVE this Christmas.
In the USA it sold 270,000 in its first 2 days of launch. And up until September 29th 2007 they have sold 1,119,000 in total so far. So, it would be foolish to ignore the iPhone on our sites as UK consumers WILL be looking for it.
So how can affiliates promote the iPhone? Given that it will only be available to buy online through the Apple Store, O2 and the Carphone Warehouse, this is how I see our options:
1. Apple Store through Tradedoubler. 3% commission is availabe so if its done as a flat 3% of the £279 price then thats £8.37 commission per iPhone. Woop.
2. Carphone Warehouse on Tradedoubler and Buy.at. CPW have a CPA of between £45 and £60 per sale (depending on volume) on both networks. Note that the £45 to £60 is per sale, so expect reversals which can be anywhere between 25% and 70% in this industry.
3. O2 on Buy.at and Commission Junction. O2 have a CPA of £35 per application, so no reversals.
So it looks to me that the sensible place to promote the iPhone would be either Buy.at or CJ. sure the CPA is a bit lower than the CPW but at least you don't have to worry about reversals. A big plus if you are running PPC campaigns. Unfortunately the Apple Store looks to be totally out of the running with a measly £8.37 per sale.
Speaking of commission, I very much hope that Apple, O2 and CPW don't do a "NEXT". I.e. drop their commissions on this particular product as its going to be popular and in-demand. I can just see the network emails now can't you? "Unfortunately Apple/CPW/O2 have had to lower their normal commission rates on the iPhone as it will be in short supply/high demand. But hey it doesn't matter as its such a good brand/product that everybody wants one and you will sell lots anyway". Even though in the USA, Apple makes at least
$831 profit per iPhone, and seeing as we always get charged more over here I bet its more profit per UK iPhone.
What really surprises me though is that this is the biggest gadget of the year, bar none. Its released in 10 days, has as much hype and buzz about it as anything I've ever seen - so why can't we promote it yet?? Why haven't the Apple Store, O2, or the Carphone Warehouse got creative available pointing our customers to pre-order landing pages where they can say make a £50 deposit and reserve a phone? Or if not then why haven't they got campaigns in place where they will pay us per lead for anyone who signs up to the pre-registration pages where they can leave an email address? After all,
Apple,
O2 and
CPW all have these pages. Its an ideal opportunity to target the early-adopters who don't care what the price is, just that they have the newest gadgets first. Surely we're missing a huge trick?
I really really don't understand these companies at all. Its the Jesus phone! Its massive!! There are thousands of affiliates with mobile phone sites/iPhone domains and blogs etc. who are chomping at the bit to promote this phone. So why won't you let us?? Its almost enough to make you want to put up an iPhone site featuring a huge "sign up here for the best iPhone offers" email form and gather your own customers isn't it? ;)
What I'm listening to right now: Sunshine Anderson – "Sumthing I Wanna Give You"
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Welcome to my blog. My name is Kieron Donoghue and I am the founder of ShareMyPlaylists.com.
I asked buy.at about this last week at Carphone won’t confirm the commission until 9th November.
I’m not sure if it will be the same deal in the UK, but there was no creative available to promote it through CJ in the US until 4 weeks after it went on sale.
If that happens to you guys, you can concentrate on the accessories for the iPhone, which are big, too.
And the accessories pay much higher commissions.
A cynic might suggest that the hype is so great they’re expecting to sell shedloads without having to give those “grubby little affiliates” any money.
No commission will be paid on the iPhone contracts because the user doesn’t sign up for the contract via the retailer (o2, CPW etc) in the usual way. So, regardless of who you promote, you’re still only getting a commission on the handset.
The no preorder thing is down to Apple – they want the publicity of people queuing at stores on the 9th.
It wouldn’t surprise me if commission was lowered, what with such great branding and huge amounts of press coverage who needs the affiliates to sell it.
I think the iPod Touch will eat in to some potential sales.
The keyword policy for PPC bidding on Apple-related terms is one factor that I am interested in. I believe it to be very rigid not leaving lots of space for affiliate marketers.
Do you really think this way? If you do, maybe it is wiser to direct one’s energy towards the ipod touch whilst the majority dabbles with the apple iphone.
I’m more amazed by the fact that Apple is making at least $831 per phone, that’s staggering!
Could agree more. Its something I raised on the A4U Forums back in September, and also asked if pre-order was available. Sadly it wasn’t. Like Shawn says, I’m not expecting anything to be ready before it goes live – they can sit on the hype and buzz that surrounds it as it is…. sadly
Apple built the iphone and the people will come, regardless of what marketing takes place by affiliates etc. plus who knows what closed room discussions regarding marketing take place that we aren’t privvy to, is it price fixing, non compete pricing etc. in play ?
the product is going to sell itself and there are only 3 places you can buy it from currently !? so they probably think or have agreed to not drive the cost of marketing it up by competing on it via on and offline channels perhaps
are apple really making $831 per phone or is that the sales cost minus the component production cost ? or does that including any glossy marketing campaigns and the R&D costs (which must be kajillions of $$) etc ? If the $831 is after all costs then that’s a huge wedge … take your hat off to them if they can get away with it I guess, microsoft’s been doing it for years with software.
I just bought one from the states today as I hate being taken for a ride as it is on mobile contracts and being made to have a tariff that doesn’t suit me isn’t going to happen just to get an iphone so I bit the bullet and ebayed one over from the good ol (hundreds of pounds cheaper) USA
Just noticed something that needs to be raised with TD about leakage…
If you send a visitor to Apple via their TD programme, and say that visitor then clicks on the O2 logo (Tarrifs – bottom left)…. guess what… You are taken directly to the O2 website.
Here is the page I am talking about;
http://www.apple.com/uk/iphone/
Leakage?
Chris – I’d be very very careful with that site of yours, I just had to settle to the tune of £6,500 with o2 for running a iPhone site with a much less infringing domain than that!
LB – thanks for reminding me I had an iPhone related domain .. had being the key word!
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The key thing is that it IS NOT a contract handset, and the margins available to both O2 and CPW are probably fairly small. Add in Apple’s zealotry when it comes to brand protection and you’re probably looking at a few weeks after launch before you can do anything – and I’d expect commissions to affiliates to not get much above £15 per sale.
If it were me, I’d go for the Apple deal – at least you know what it is.
If it’s really true that Apple will be releasing, new, more powerful iPhones (business-class devices),
Personally I don’t get the excitement with this thing. It’s an average phone with a poor camera and questionable usability. It was beaten hands down by the Nokia N95 on a test by the Gadget Show and I’ll certainly be sticking to my HP Smartphone PDA.
As with most things from Apple, it’s another example of style over substance.
Mr Daz, I agree. I’m hearing good things about the Nokia N81 too.
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