TripAdvisor will be unveiling yet another revenue stream later today as it looks to build on the example set by book retailer Amazon by entering the affiliate marketing sector.
The programme is being run by Commission Junction and looks like being a major part of the TripAdvisor’s new strategy to push into new revenue areas following the launch of its Business Listings and Tourist Board Pages.
The global programme replaces an existing but lighter version.
Affiliates will be able to take a 50% commission on revenue generated via TripAdvisor commerce links, presumably their existing advertising.
The programme will include a variety of what it calls “banners, widgets, logos, text-links, content and custom creative(s)” available to affiliates to place on their sites.
TripAdvisor says its entire portfolio of products, including 500,000 hotel and destination pages, will be available for deep-linking in the scheme, as well as an incentive scheme beyond the rev-share model.
Aimed squarely at websites in the leisure and business travel space, TripAdvisor appears to be copying the well-worn but successful strategy pioneered at such a large scale by book giant Amazon.
Amazon affiliate links adorn thousands of third party websites around the globe and the programme is now seen as a standard for others to follow.
However, the devil will inevitably be in the detail. It will be interesting to hear what kind of revenue an affiliate eventually receives given that the cut is 50% of the existing click value.
Nevertheless, TripAdvisor is not alone in the move to launch affiliate schemes for third party websites – Canada-based online travel agency FlightNetwork also unveiled its own programme this week, allowing website owners and bloggers to participate with deals on flights, hotels and other travel products.
Related posts:
- When the affiliate marketing community turns on a travel company
- What is take-up of TripAdvisor Business Listings product? [Updated]
- TripAdvisor adds another paid-for service – tourist board pages
- Budget Center implements affiliate pact with HotelsCombined
- TripAdvisor to add direct business listings for hotels globally
Interesting they’d be using commission junction if this is a major part of their strategy. There’s a whole legion of benefits involved with rolling your own program, not least in the SEO department, which tripadvisor has always focused *heavily* on. My experience with affiliate programs is that the most succesful ones are managed in house, and the company as a whole has to be behind them. It doesn’t make sense to me but maybe at golive it will…
The decision to go with CJ is an interesting one and seems to indicate TA’s desire to focus on mass affiliate volume, rather than customized (but fewer) affiliate partners. I wonder what the second wave of their program will look like further down the line.
Interestingly, CJ’s program overview mentions TA’s average visitor monetization rate is 75%, which – if it holds up for affiliates – could be compelling. Especially for sites that assume TA is an unavoidable stop along the purchase process, might as well get a cut rather than not, right?
It will be interesting to see whether sites pick this up at the expense of hotel reservation partners or, potentially, even Adsense. At the end of the day it’s about revenue and if they can offer a more lucrative alternative, then more power to them.
As TA already had extensive experience with an in-house managed affiliate program (an excellent one, btw, from the pov of the publisher as it was ppc) i am sure their decision to partner with CJ was well planned tapping 1000′s of new potential affiliates at a lower price that would otherwise not be aware of the program.
btw, i’m looking for an old affiliate account if anyone wants to get rid of it…
Depending on availbility of deep-linking, creatives etc could be a viable swap out for nickel & dime Adsense slots on publisher sites. Regular users will be hard pressed not to click on a paid listings/advert somewhere on TA — just because there are so many of them, often quite well masked. Friends who used the old aff programme said it was a reasonable earner. Interesting.
Just a follow-up on this. TripAdvisor is either not using Adsense any more, or it is no longer advertising to Indonesian IPs. It used to as they were one of the most common ads I’d see on TF. They’re all gone.
I just spent a half hour rolling through the regular suspects (LP, TravelPod (owned by TA), World66 etc) who would normally have a lot of TA Adsense listings — they’re all gone.
SO maybe I missed the announcement or TA have decided to shift from Adsense to an affiliate model.
Hmm I take it back, must have just been some Saturday-morning-wierdness. the TA adsense ads are back.