Building affiliate campaigns have been part of the backbone of the expanding Lowcost Travel Group.
Paul Greenhalgh joined LCTG in January 2005, working initially as a consultant, and is now direct marketing manager.
He said: “We treat the affiliate the same way we treat a travel agent and pay them commission.
“We are trying to have more one- to-one relationships to incentivise our top core affiliates with special offers, bonuses and free holidays. Business from affiliates accounts for 10% of our direct business, and is increasing.
“We probably got it wrong at the beginning – believing the more affiliate marketing companies (networks) we were on, the more business we would get, we’ve probably been on all the networks.
“But we learnt that too many cooks spoil the broth. If too many networks are involved it dilutes your offering and brand. Having different commission levels across different networks means the affiliates will just move across to the network paying the most money or won’t bother with your campaign.
“This wastes a lot of time and energy. Now we work with just two companies, the main one being Affiliate Window. It’s easier to target the super affiliates, incentivise them and put more energy to specific campaigns with far better results and we still have over 1,000 affiliates promoting our brand,” Greenhalgh said.
Since making that decision, affiliate business via Affiliate Window has gone up five-fold in the last 12 months, making LCTG one of Affiliate Window’s key travel merchants.
“To support affiliates in driving traffic and sales the merchant must ensure our own sites are user-friendly, that we provide an up-to-date data product feed and are competitive.”