Some affiliates claim incremental sales but only intercept checkout customers. Learn how to spot partners that drive real revenue.
The words “incremental” and “incrementality” get thrown around in affiliate marketing, but they might not mean what they sound like. There may be no increase in actual sales, new customers, or revenue. Affiliate marketers who refer to incrementality often look at it only within the affiliate channel, not across your company as a whole.
To determine whether affiliates are truly incremental, ask a simple question: Would the sale have happened without the affiliate program?
The answer determines whether the partner is bringing you new customers and revenue or simply intercepting customers already in your checkout flow.
Why high-intent traffic doesn’t always mean incremental value
The word “incrementality” in affiliate programs is similar to an affiliate, an agency, or a network using “high intent” to describe the traffic. High intent means the person has a strong intent to purchase, which is a good thing. What is left out is whether that touchpoint would happen if there were no affiliate program at all.
High intent could be used by a coupon site where the touchpoint is a consumer already at checkout, going to Google and typing in “your brand + coupons.” If you close your affiliate program today, these same touchpoints will likely still happen. Your company saves money because you no longer pay commissions, network fees, manager salaries, or agency fees.
Yes, the traffic is high intent. It’s your customers already checking out of your shopping cart. It doesn’t get more “high intent” than that. The touchpoint may be low- or no-value because it happens whether you have a program or not, and you may be losing money on the sale because of it.
Note: Not all coupon sites or deal touchpoints are bad. Some shopping cart interceptions may add value (including brand + coupon), so don’t take action without testing. Use your data and test to see if the same or a similar amount of sales happens without an affiliate program before making decisions.
The more customers checking out of your own shopping cart, the more sales the affiliate in the top positions of Google make. The less you have, the less they make. They rely on you having your own traffic to intercept so they can make money, which is why they are sometimes called parasitic affiliates. And that’s where incrementality comes in.
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