It’s fair to say that agencies have been criticised in the past for their role in the affiliate marketing mix and some have even suggested there is no need for them.

Working in an agency environment I’m obviously likely to disagree with this statement and thought it would be a good idea to list some of the reasons why I feel that when an agencies offering is setup correctly can be a benefit to the industry as a whole:

1) Virtually every successful affiliate program has a good affiliate manager behind the scenes.? ? The problem is that there are numerous merchants out there who do not need a full time affiliate manager.

2) The fee structures can better fit the clients business.? There is an urban myth that agencies are far too expensive and it’s cheaper getting in a dedicated manager for the job; this is often not the case.? More often than not it will work out far more profitable for a client to use an agency and many will work on a performance related basis.

3) Network account management doesn’t always work – at eyefall we have a maximum of around 6-7 programs per affiliate manager whereas many networks have over 20 clients per account manager.

4) Perhaps the most important point is that the type of clients launching programs though agencies are helping to develop the industry itself - big brands continue to work with agencies and the more big brands that affiliate marketing continues to attract the more the industry should continue to develop.

As far as eyefall goes our objective is to maximise our relationships and make sure that our service is providing a profitable growth to our clients business and build strong, long term partnerships.

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