E-commerce Link: Generate Traffic Without Getting Run Over

2. Cover yourself. Establish terms and conditions (T&Cs) for publishers. These should address fraud, site content, marketing practices, creative, etc. Mandatory T&Cs set a precedent requiring sites to abide by the terms; a signature by the publisher may be warranted. This can take the form of an affiliate agreement or an insertion order.

3. Control your message. Require sites to use only approved creative ad units. This includes text links and e-mail copy. Since publishers frequently look to develop their own, it’s also important to require prior approval of these custom ad units. Monitoring is crucial if your messaging is sensitive to your brand integrity.

4. Monitor placements. Monitor ad placements on publisher sites. Regularly check where ads are being displayed and how. Prioritize monitoring of publishers and frequency based on impressions, clicks and order volume. Even if you can’t monitor every site, at least check the ones driving traffic.

5. Check the user path. Monitor referring URLs. Check to see where traffic to the advertiser’s site originates. This will identify publishers running ads on sites not approved by the advertiser. Referring URL data should be available on your own site or through your tracking technology provider (if you use one).

6. Verify performance. Manually review sale and transaction data. This helps identify fraudulent orders, frequent returns, duplicate orders, etc. If your affiliate agreement or insertion order allows you to cancel invalid transactions (and it should) then doing this can be critical in hitting your target cost-per-acquisition for valid performance.

7. Deter spam. To protect your company from spam violations through this channel, you must do everything in your power (and be able to prove it through documentation) to ensure you comply with Can Spam and any other spam laws. Steps include:

* ensuring Can Spam is addressed in your T&Cs,