BDR Blog - Cashback Sites

This weeks BDR blog revealing the inner thoughts of an Internet advertising agency is on cashback sites. Affiliate marketing management is changing due to the increasing popularity of cashback sites. They are aggregators of deals and often deliver higher volumes of conversions than non-cashback sites.

More people than ever are shopping online and with the current economic climate being what it is, Internet users are even more offer hungry. The principle is simple, cashback sites share the commission they obtain from the advertiser/merchant with the user. This provides the user with a saving. Some cashback sites choose to give back all of the commission and charge a membership fee and or the advertiser a listing fee. Others only offer 50% cashback.

BDR and other internet advertising agencies that provide UK affiliate management services are seeing more and more cashback sites pop up and it seems every major brand is jumping on the band wagon from Microsoft to The Mirror. Most brands are seeing it as a good revenue generator but also as a way to differentiate themselves as well as be seen to add value to the customer through offering savings.

However, it could be said that cashback sites are destroying the industry for the average affiliate who has a couple of sites and makes some extra pocket money. Some people are protesting that cashback sites are not necessarily making their commission fairly. The argument is that users are researching elsewhere and then purchasing via the cashback sites. This may be the case but as it stands the last click wins and unless exposure to conversion commission attribution comes in to place, this not going to change anytime in the near future.

The cashback site is here to stay it seems and I'm sure over the next couple of years we will start to see more and more 100% cashback sites pop up, the only question is "what will be the next big thing after this, will it be a voucher code/cash back site hybrid?"