How many of your are affiliate marketers and how many are account managers? It seems that each has their own perspective and rightly so. An account manager is not using his own money, therefore their perspective can be a bit different then an affiliate marketer. Also, an account manager probably doesn't understand some aspects of building a solid affiliate marketing campaign, since their clients might have well established websites already. (They don't build the site for the client do they?) I also know that account managers do get to see lots of different industries and lots of different niches, so that's a plus in their favor. But affiliate marketers get to do that too. I'm not saying one is better then the other here. I'll start, I'm an affiliate marketer, so I admit, I don't fully understand the account manager perspective as I use my own money and build my own sites. This thread is not meant to slam anyone so please don't take it that way, I just want to get a feel for where everyone is coming from. (I'm also trying to do some demographic research, so please vote honestly).
I do both affiliate marketing and account management. However I do very little to light affiliate marketing and do a lot of heavy account management for others. Account managers are unique because we get to touch large budgets and we are working with clients who have real businesses and keep all the profits. So we get to experience and much different side of the story than affiliate marketers. Businesses typically have an ROI between 5 and 10 to 1. Meaning for every dollar a business invests into adwords they get between 5 and 10 back. Affiliate marketers typical ROI is 2 to 1, meaning they just want $2 for every one they invest. Handling fortune 500 and internet business campaigns comes with a lot of stress because the fate of another business rests in your hands. Therefore the knowledge required be an account manager goes much deeper than an affiliates, since affiliates are accustomed to very simplified campaigns. They only have to worry about lead generation where as a business needs to focus on getting the leads and also closing them Many time an account manager is actually a full service marketing solution, such as myself. I do not just get targeted and qualified traffic, but I also help optimize and streamline the sales funnel process. Sometimes I listen in on calls to ensure quality (yeah that's me listening to those conversions), I look at the leads, I read the questionnaires, I monitor the traffic, I find out how happy the users experience is with the whole buying process. Why, because I am looking into what makes the market tick. Generating the leads is easy... making the leads buy and studying the leads to adjust your marketing campaign, keyword, text ad and image ad strategy is a whole new level. Not only does an account manager have to do all that, but they need to know and master adwords, yahoo and MSN so that common issues like slaps and landing page errors or disapproved ads never happen. Imaging telling office depot there site is slapped because we forgot to put a contact us page on the landing page... Its a lot of stress and a lot of responsibility, but with high reward. We are paid accordingly. As for myself, I do enough affiliate marketing to be comfortable but the bulk of my income comes from campaign management. I am always increasing my knowledge about marketing and invest my own money and time to test theories, ideas and offers. I have a long history in internet marketing. I started out on eBay selling home goods and eventually became a powerseller. I then went into ecommerce business startups of which I had many successes. I then created my own ecommerce business which grew that into wholesaling and distribution. That business was in the home improvement market and when the housing market crashed I got out and was picked up by an agency. I stayed they for a couple of years refining my skills and pushing myself to the limit. I eventually went on to pick up side clients and educate other how to do ecommerce and become affiliate marketers. Now I do affiliate marketing, consulting, training and account management for myself. So that's my story... I have been invested into internet marketing for many years. I started back in the goto.com days (if any of you even remember that) and have been doing it professionally and seriously ever since. I know some very successful affiliate marketers, ones that make 10 times more than I do, so affiliate marketing is serious business, but in my opinion, it is a much simpler life... (Not that that is a bad thing)
I won't make a post quite as long as the one you've previously read, however I am an account manager trying to learn affiliate marketing. You've actually seen the inside of one of the accounts I manage Coach, and I'll admit its my 'troubled' account right now. I've stayed in the same niche as I've had the last several years to build experience with it, and haven't really dabbled in others, which I think has hurt me alot. I just recently signed up for PPC-Coach and can tell you that its been a wonderful experience, with the tools, video's and alot of forum help its been making my transition to affiliate marketer quite easy. I can tell you that the main difference I see besides spending the clients money and not your own, is the fact that you don't have quota's or a deadline that you have to reach, unless of course you set one for yourself. I know for me, I'm tired of working 20 hours a day so someone else can get rich, and I make a small % of what there spending, I'm ready to do it myself.
I'm an account manager, although I've tried affiliate marketing I've signed up to PPC-Coach, registered domains, signed up to networks and downloaded scripts but I find it very difficult, confusing + a lack of time.
Excellent post, thank you for that. You pointed out a couple items that I didn't even consider before. I have a new appreciation for account managers and admit that I didn't before and I was wrong...
Well I am just an affiliate marketer right now,promoting products,making money and gathering experience with adwords and all what comes with it. I was thinking about being an account manager but I need at least a year or two of experience more than I have now,so account managing can wait a bit. Really nice post robertpriolo.