Though Facebook and affiliate marketing haven’t been married long, they’ve definitely had their fair share of “speed bumps” since the inception of their relationship. Though, the term “marriage” may be a little bit of a stretch in describing them, let’s take a look at this “serious relationship”
In speaking with numbers of affiliate marketers on a day to day basis, the one thing I hear over and over is “feedback.” And the feedback, isn’t good. From what I understand, Facebook does a pretty good job of being unresponsive to affiliate marketers in getting their offers up. Beyond that, they seem to have been rather inconsistent about which ads they’re approving. At least that’s what affiliates (who are presumably running into these issues with Facebook on the day to day) are saying.
Recently, Facebook has been changing, and it’s creating some strain on its relationship with affiliate marketers. They’ve tightened their ad approval process banning any offer advertising anything that is “free” to the user. They’ve also taken steps to reduce the amount of deceptive ads on their network.
Facebook, staying true to its user base, knows that for an ad platform to be successful, they need to retain their users and maintain their unparalleled growth. In making sure users are not put off by offensive, or deceptive ads, they’re looking out for their best interest and protecting a large part of their value their users. They recently sent out notice to their marketers asking them to adhere to their set of guidelines, threatening to limit advertising spends, as well as threats to take away their dedicated account managers.
From an affiliate marketing standpoint, this inconvenience, or “road bump” in the relationship may not be the greatest in the short term. However, on the long term path to marriage, bringing affiliate marketing into virtually one of the biggest publishers of all time can do nothing but help the industry scale. Facebook’s guidelines are pushing affiliate marketing towards more transparency, and bringing a positive light to the industry as a whole. A success story for Facebook and affiliate marketing will bring with it advertising dollars into the industry, and continued long term growth.
So what’s a couple more road bumps now if it equates to a successful relationship down the road?