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Voucher Code Bandits could soon be up the river?

Those of us who use CPA advertising in any form (AKA affiliate marketing) which is where advertisers are paid only on sales of those referred through banner and text links should be aware of the new Code of Best Practice that was established for the use of Online Voucher Codes by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and its Affiliate Marketing Council (AMC).

This code, which comes into force in 2009 will effectively remove many ’shady’ practices that voucher code affiliates have been employing for a long time, that many consider outside of the spirit and remit of an affiliate marketer: namely that they work against the merchant partners by promoting the following, which the new Code seeks to ban:

1. The use of out of date voucher codes;
2. Voucher codes intended for offline use (i.e. those form newspapers and other offline advertising);
3. Using “click to reveal” buttons when there is no valid or current voucher code;
4. Voucher code affiliates must clearly reveal the details of the voucher that will be revealed upon clicking;
5. Voucher code directories must contain clear categorization and separation between deals/offers/sales and discount codes.

Within our varied websites, we have lost many thousands of commissions through “Not Last Referrer” or similar reasons - most of these stem from the last minute cookie implementation by voucher code websites. The fact that this occurs has led us in the past to remove many merchant products which simply failed to convert as a result of this, as well as leading us to proactively provide voucher codes before referring any visitors.

However, this Code is a step in the right direction, and helps to reward genuine marketing effort as opposed to a basic and flawed model which serves only to irritate and frustrate a merchant’s other advertising campaigns by claiming a last-minute commission without inducing the sale in the first place: voucher code searches come only once a buyer is due to complete the final stages of a purchase.

We all know who the major players in the Voucher code world are, and many of them will take a severe hit after this announcement. Piecemeal, merchants have been getting wise to this very much of late, but this has only been on a case-by-case basis. This code may well see the big affiliate networks taking a blanket approach regarding breaches: that can only be good for the rest of us; and it must spell trouble for many voucher code affiliates.

An email from Buy.at Head of Affiliate Development, Chris Mockford puts this succinctly:

As a member of the IAB buy.at therefore wishes to give it’s voucher code affiliates notice that they should be compliant with the above guidelines by the 1st January 2009.

Stealing commissions at the last gasp may well become a thing of the past.