[pgweb]

Hi, what i notice that first few month you join hotels combined program, your lead value will about 0.50 or more per lead, but once you have put all the effort they will reduce your lead value to less than .10 usd per lead. In addition, even for booking there is no additional income that you get. It is totally unethical and worthless to join in the first place. They will come up intelligent answer to make us stupid.

[Convergence]

Most affiliates earn an average of between USD $0.50 and $1.00 per lead. The exact value of each lead depends on the type of user you send to us and the capacity of your traffic to generate bookings for our suppliers. Our model is performance based, the higher the quality of your visitors, the more you earn per lead.

Welcome to the world of hotel lead gen...

[EDIT] Don't see anything unethical here.

[pgweb]

Have joined their program? What is the lead value you're getting the first month and now?

[Convergence]

No, have not joined their program. Yes, do other forms of lead gen but not hotel reservations. Have our own travel reservation website - have found no need to join them.

Just saying, in lead gen it's all about the quality of the leads...

[ThatMichaelKid]

Originally Posted by pgweb

Hi, what i notice that first few month you join hotels combined program, your lead value will about 0.50 or more per lead, but once you have put all the effort they will reduce your lead value to less than .10 usd per lead. In addition, even for booking there is no additional income that you get. It is totally unethical and worthless to join in the first place. They will come up intelligent answer to make us stupid.

Wow, that's ridiculous. Thanks for the warning, I haven't joined the program, and definitely don't think I will be now.

[Jordan@hotelscombined.com]

Hi,

I am an account manager working for HotelsCombined.com, and wanted to explain what exactly occurred with your lead values. Upon initially joining the affiliate program, you are paid an average per lead value, which is varies from USD $0.50 - $1.

After several weeks we usually have enough data to more accurately determine lead value. At this stage, our algorithm can analyze the data and provide an accurate remuneration value based upon your traffic quality. There are multiple factors considered within this algorithm, but the primary factor is lead to booking conversion rates. An allocated lead value of USD $0.10 indicates that conversion of leads to bookings is quite low, and that is the reason for the drop you saw.

We are always available to help our affiliate partners improve their performance by offering advice on marketing and advertising strategies, as well as provide technical support as required. Feel free to touch base, and make the most of our affiliate program. You can contact us at any time on affiliate@hotelscombined.com and we’ll get back to you within 24 hours

Thank you

[Chuck Hamrick]

Jordan do you send a notice to your affiliates when their lead rates change?

[rematt]

Originally Posted by Jordan@hotelscombined.com

Upon initially joining the affiliate program, you are paid an average per lead value, which is varies from USD $0.50 - $1.

After several weeks we usually have enough data to more accurately determine lead value. At this stage, our algorithm can analyze the data and provide an accurate remuneration value based upon your traffic quality. There are multiple factors considered within this algorithm, but the primary factor is lead to booking conversion rates. An allocated lead value of USD $0.10 indicates that conversion of leads to bookings is quite low, and that is the reason for the drop you saw.

Jordan, a wise affiliate once said "the more complex a compensation plan, the more likely affiliates will get screwed". Frankly I haven't seen a reason for any affiliate with more than 2 active brain cells to touch a program with a variable rate commission, especially when they have zero insight as to the "multiple factors" in your algorithm. What is it about your program that would differentiate it from the programs that should be avoided?

I'm also really curious as to the amount of profit you receive on a booking; that you don't share with affiliates, as opposed the amount of exposure you have on leads; which affiliates bare the brunt of.

-rematt

[Jordan@hotelscombined.com]

Chuck Hamrick,

Due to the size of our affiliate network it is not feasible to inform each individual affiliate when their lead value changes, as this is happening all the time, across all our partner accounts. Our algorithm continuously updates lead values according to the performance of the visitors for each affiliate profile. This is reflected instantly in each affiliate’s statistics, which are accessible 24/7 through our affiliate portal.

Rematt

We are very open as to which factors influence the lead values and constantly work with all affiliates to help with best practices and drive the quality of their traffic up, thereby helping to increase their lead values. I completely respect your personal scepticism about this type of remuneration scheme, but since we have thousands of active affiliates, many of whom are very happy with our program, I can only assume that it works for some.

I don’t know which specific programs you refer to that should be avoided, but to answer your questions about how we differentiate ours: we have the best quality hotel content, offer a variety of implementation and integration options and due to the fact that we pay per lead – a unique and generous remuneration strategy. There are plenty of affiliate testimonials that say so.

I cannot for obvious reasons reveals how much we earn per booking, but the simple fact is that we pay affiliates for leads that don’t even result in bookings, assuming that a portion will end up converting to sales. I don’t know of any other CPL program in travel that does that. In addition, since we pay per lead, affiliates don’t need to wait for booking check out or for hotel to pay commission months down the road, they get paid sooner. So affiliates don’t “bear the brunt” of anything, they in fact get paid for driving quality traffic.

I hope this all makes sense, thank you

[rematt]

Jordan you have a lead gen program and by it's very nature it should pay solely on a pre-defined measurement of a leads quality.

From Wikipedia®:

Online Lead Generation is a marketing term that refers to the creation or generation of prospective consumer interest or inquiry into a business' products or services online. Leads can be generated for a variety of purposes - list building, e-newsletter list acquisition, building out reward programs, loyalty programs or for other member acquisition programs.

A lead usually is the contact information and in some cases, demographic information of a customer who is interested in a specific product/service. There are two types of leads in the lead generation market: sales leads and marketing leads.

Sales leads are generated on the basis of demographic criteria such as FICO score, income, age, HHI, etc. These leads are resold to multiple advertisers. Sales leads are typically followed up through phone calls by the sales force. Sales leads are commonly found in the mortgage, insurance and finance leads.

Marketing leads are brand-specific leads generated for a unique advertiser offer. In direct contrast to sales leads, marketing leads are sold only once. Because transparency is a necessary requisite for generating marketing leads, marketing lead campaigns can be optimized by mapping leads to their sources.

If conversion is a factor of quality then you no longer have a lead generation program, you have a pay per sale program and should be paying considerably more commission then your current plan. The fact that you apply an unknown "algorithm" to determine a leads quality can ONLY result in affiliates making even less money.

And I'm sorry, but "thousands" of satisfied affiliates means absolutely nothing in this context (even though I would like to hear one or two of them speak up (100 posts or more please)), there are in fact millions of satisfied crack users, I don't necessarily consider their drug use as an endorsement either. Mass idiocy is not validation.

My recommendation (for what it's worth) to any affiliate considering promoting Hotel Combined would be to shine it on and look for similar programs that are more affiliate friendly.

JMHO.

-rematt

[Jordan@hotelscombined.com]

Rematt

Your thoughts and opinions have been noted, Thank you for your valuable feedback.

Have a nice day and all the best