Why You Shouldn’t Go Direct To An Advertiser

Many times people think going direct to advertisers is where you “arrive” at a new level of the Marketing totem pole. For those who don’t know, going direct to an advertiser means that you go directly to the website that you’re promoting through an affiliate network and essentially bypass the affiliate network.

I’ve been there, done it a few times now and here are some of the reasons why I think it’s not a good idea and should be done with caution.

First, You can get burned a LOT easier. I am actually owed over $8,000 from a campaign I ran direct back in February, 2009. The company had some issues with their payment processor and because they had the issues… Guess who is having trouble getting paid?! Now almost 5 months later, I am working on everything needed to get paid. Boo. Apparently this same company owes some affiliates over $600,000. I know that if that were my business, I would be extremely crippled from not being paid $600,000 for that much time.

With an affiliate network, they almost always will still pay you because they want to keep you as a publisher. They will pay you and fight for the money from the advertiser very aggressively. Makes sense.

Next, The payouts generally are not much better. These advertisers generally know what the affiliate networks are paying. So unless you’re a huge advertiser, chances are, you’re not going to get a much better payout that you could get at a network. Every time I have run an offer directly through the advertiser, the payout really has not been different enough that I couldn’t ask for an increase from the network or could justify the risk.

Finally, Payout terms are generally a lot harder to negotiate. Advertisers, in my experience, are more about numbers and less about working with you. So payment terms are very strict unless again you’re one of their top publishers.

All in all, I don’t recommend going direct as an affiliate with an advertiser. It’s just not worth the trouble and risk.