Agenda day one « Day one Day two »
Registration (8:00) / Exhibition opens (9:00)
Please bring your ID (business card, credit / debit card) and your booking confirmation number which you will find on your invoice, this will be required to print your badge on-site.
You must collect and wear the supplied wristband throughout the conference to gain access to conference sessions and networking parties.
The Advertisers Guide to the Complexity of the Channel
The affiliate channel is a complex micro-system that needs a careful strategic approach to management to get the best results and ROI. With new types of affiliates being introduced into the channel, this complexity will only increase in 2011.
Learn how the industry is currently made up, where sales are coming from, where the future lies and and what strategy you should be actioning as an advertiser to ensure the long-term growth and survival of your programme.
The Three Pillars of SEO - An Advanced Review
Introduction by Jon Myers
Concentrating on the three core pillars of Great SEO; technical, on-page and off-page techniques, you'll learn the very latest tips and strategies to boost your search engine rank from one of the world’s most respected SEO authorities.
Learn about the SEO tools Dave uses to carry out analysis from many different angles to really get to know the market sector and how to compete effectively. An extremely popular speaker at a4uexpo; if you want a seat make sure you get there early! Dave will be hosting an Q&A session at the end of the hour.
Session TBA
Session synopsis to follow shortly.
Launching a Brand into a Fiercely Competitive Vertical
Launching a new brand within a competitive vertical is fraught with challenges before you can reap the rewards.
In this session, Chris will run through the hypothetical launch of an entirely new affiliate website in a highly competitive vertical such as Finance or Travel.
Discover how a combination of SEO, PPC & Conversion Rate Optimisation should be used when launching your project.
The discussion includes SEO secrets for squeezing the very best ROI possible each month alongside advice on domain name selection, design and branding.
With a comprehensive timeline and sets of milestones to plan for in your own projects in the first year, and how to build a rolling three year milestone map, you will soon be up there competing with the best in your chosen field.
Morning Coffee Break
Refreshments available at all catering stations.
Advanced Analytics for Affiliates
The internet exists to be measured. The ability to track, measure and refine online marketing activity based on real data is one of the biggest differentiators between online and offline marketing. But many website owners don't fully understand how to correctly install analytics and once they have installed analytics they are often at a loss as to how to interpret the data.
This session will give an overview of the basics including how to set up analytics correctly for different scenarios, but will quickly move onto more advanced topics such as how to actually gain insights from analytics data and make decisions off the back of it.
The last part of the session will be devoted to specific tips and tricks for affiliate sites. While this session will focus mainly on Google Analytics, other analytics providers will be covered and the talk is relevant to any form of analytics.
Negative SEO: Online Nightmares Come True
Moderated by Jon Myers
Optimising your pages for great rankings is all very well - but what if a hard-hitting competitor decides to bump you off the search engine results pages via Negative SEO? Yes, it works; and yes again, it is being done.
Open Source and Affiliates
A session discussing the growing trend of technology moving to Open Source (Mozilla and Apple are good examples to draw on)
In a market as crowded as affiliate, it is vital that publishers are exploring as many avenues for innovation, differentiation and value add as possible - How can the market facilitate this change and what are the expected trends from opening APIs and allowing developers access to product feeds (app stores etc).
Included within the session will be a showcase of developers already undertaking Open Source work in the field.
Affiliate Marketing Insights : Retail
With 67% of retail brands planning on increasing their affiliate marketing budget in 2010*, advertisers in the space will be increasingly focused on how to be competitive and innovative in the space.
In this session Affilinet will give an insight into the latest developments in the marketplace and offer practical advice on how retail brands can strategically manage their affiliate marketing program to optimize sales online and return on their marketing investments.
A case study presented by a UK leading retailer will demonstrate what affiliate promotions led to their most lucrative season online to date and will showcase their latest creative innovations.
* eConsultancy Internet Statistics Compendium July 2010
Session Interval
Head to the expo hall and meet our fantastic sponsors and exhibitors.
Using Broadcast and Social Media to Acquire Customers and Win Awards
You've heard the theory, but now you want to see the practice. Broadcast online channels include webchats, web TV, podcast, audio interviews, video links, video product links, facebook etc but can you really monetise them? Yes you can and if you are very clever you can even pick up some awards.
SEO Ranking Factors in 2010
Moderated by Jon Myers
Is the effort you are putting into your SEO strategy paying off? Are you placing too much or too little emphasis on link building, social media, page and link structures?
This session will look at on-page and off-page factors that influence rank, what theory and techniques remain critical leading on to what importantly should no longer be encouraged. The session ends with Q&A's and a concluding discussion on what signals are growing in importance for 2011 and beyond.
Under the Hood Affiliate Management
Effective affiliate program management ensures that your program performs to its full potential. Furthermore, poor affiliate management can have a negative effect on your performance and brand with affiliates!
Learn from leading affiliate and full service agencies the theory behind their day to day strategy and programme management. Learn the unwritten rules, the most effective communication tools and the strategies that can take your program to the next level.
We'll also be discussing the role that agencies should be fulfilling within affiliate marketing and how you can best benefit from their experience, knowledge and skills
The Truth About Cookie Overwriting
Taking data from merchants in different sectors, this session will look at how many affiliates are typically involved in a sale and the extent to which their cookies overwrite each other. What can this tell us about the customer’s path to purchase, the best converting affiliates along this path, and the best ways for merchants to work with affiliates to increase these conversions?
The session will look at what conclusions can be drawn about the effectiveness of merchant promotions amongst the different affiliate sectors: is it true that cookies from voucher code sites are regularly overwriting cookies placed by other affiliates? Finally, this session will examine the implications of such findings for the debate around multi-attribution models.
Lunch
A Hot Lunch and refreshments will be served within the expo hall and at our dedicated catering zones.
What is the Real Value of Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate Marketing has walked the walk and is now talking the talk, generating significant returns for advertisers and publishers alike...especially when you compare it with social media and mobile in terms of proven ROI and long standing success stories.
It is arguable that affiliate marketing seems to have been somewhat overlooked by the wider marketing community in recent years, in favour of burgeoning new channels which have captivated marketers attention . Yet figures from programs run by large brands from all sectors in the UK demonstrate that affiliate marketing works and delivers real value – whether that is unprecedented ROI, swathes of new customer acquisitions or increased transaction values.
Referencing recent market research carried out by affilinet, the session will provide insight in to consumer purchasing behaviour, both online and offline, and how it has changed forever in light of the recession. In light of the research the panellists will discuss their challenges, opinions and experiences in increasing the value & quality of their online customers. The advertisers on the panel will discuss how they integrate their marketing strategies and utilising affiliate marketing to reach the consumer at a variety of stages along the purchasing journey.
Our publisher panel members will discuss how they plan to target customers that offer more long term value to the advertiser and drive incremental sales. We will also be investigating the more innovative side of the industry and what advertisers are doing to bring in more valuable customers through the channel.
Come to the session for an open discussion on the business value of affiliate marketing and to hear how advertisers and publishers are moving to deal with the current challenges they face in using the channel to drive their business forward.
Online Marketing 2020
Affiliate Marketing does not exist in a vacuum and trends which affect online marketing as a whole will definitely affect affiliate marketing.
So what will online marketing look like in 2020? Will all of the industry challenges we have today be tackled or will we still be talking about achieving the holy grail of multi-attribution payment models. And what about our media, we are seeing a convergence of channels now, will TV, mobile and online even be counted as separate channels in ten years time.
Plenty of food for thought as some of the industry leaders in online marketing discuss potential developments.
Successful Information Architecture
Introduction by David Naylor
Using Richard's experience working with "industrial strength" websites of 500,000 to 10 million pages indexed, he will walk the audience through some of the common information architecture issues that can act as barriers to good search engine optimisation. Internal links, page template optimisation, taxonomy issues and tools to diagnose such problems will all be part of the central theme of the session.
Using first-hand experience at the UK's most visible travel industry website, Richard will hand out some tips, tricks and tools that have helped him get the edge in his sector.
The implications of universal tagging and de-duplication for the affiliate industry.
Session synopsis to follow shortly.
Coffee Break
Re-fuel and head to the exhibition hall for a caffeine boost.
Expert Roundtables
For the first time we will be introducing expert roundtables for a set hour within Rooms 6 & 13 at the conference giving you access to experts to help your business. Full details will be announced shortly.
Role of Networks or Industry Bodies in Shaping the User Experience
Where does the role of the network stop and start when it comes to user experience? Whilst it is imperative to offer merchants an opportunity to promote their brand in an environment of high user-experience, the network must also protect its affiliates from new publisher business models which may override last click cookies.
Looking at models such as voucher codes, software and re-targeting a panel of industry experts from all perspectives meet to discuss this controversial issue – much of which will influence the short-term future of affiliate marketing.
The Link Whisperer: Setting Up Your Own Link Building Network
Whether you are buying links via some broker, begging for them on a one-on-one basis or simply exchanging them with like minded peers: one thing you will always be sadly lacking is FULL CONTROL over your incoming links. They are volatile, unstable, unreliable - and they may well cost you a fortune.
Setting up your own proprietary link building network may not come cheap - but it's the Royal Road to link building control. And if done correctly, it can also prove to be a prime Web equity investment with a fantastic ROI.
Wake Up! PPC is More Than Search
A new generation of Ad Formats has appeared, not limited to Video, Sitelinks, Local, Product and Comparison ads. Discover why, how and whether you should embrace these new formats as an affiliate or SEM professional.
In this session discover the pro’s and con’s of each format alongside valuable insights into tremendous revenue opportunities currently untapped by the majority of your peers!
Jon and Ian will run through these and other recent developments including mobile campaigns and how these are converting for B2C activity when smartly executed.
Mobile SEO & App Strategy
Gaming and Mobile SEO Expert Gary Beal gives all the ins & outs of the exploding Mobile market. Affiliates can gain unique insight into how to build an optimised Mobile platform on a shoestring budget, along with Gary's famous Top 12 SEO Tips for the Mobile Markets.
Session Interval
15 minute turnaround before the next session commences.
a4uexpo - The Grill!
In this unique and revealing session our moderator and "Agent Provocateur" Duncan will be putting questions to the Publishing Directors of major UK networks. In a "spin-free" environment, we'll be getting the answers you want, from the people who can give them.
Sure to be controversial, leaving no stone unturned, we'll be covering affiliate payments, closed-groups, confidentiality, vested interests - and anything else you want to know!
Behavioural Retargeting and Performance Marketing
Recent innovations have led to a number of retargeting platforms such as Criteo and Mythingsmedia being assertively introduced to the online market; often with significant success. As the debate continues about Multi Attribution and the possible departure of last click wins remuneration, do retargeting platforms have a valid argument to operate within the affiliate market on a CPA and even Post Impression basis?
If this occurs what consequences will there be for the merchant and traditional affiliate? Should best practice guidelines be implemented, how transparent will the attribution be? Will the innovation simply reward a new breed of affiliate chasing the cookie?
Attending this session will give you an overview of how retargeting currently works and how it’s being used today; Alongside a moderated debate on its suitability and future within the channel.
Affiliate is dead; Long Live Partner Based Performance Marketing
As affiliate marketing has evolved, viewing it as a single channel proves increasingly difficult with so many different business models operating under a CPA umbrella.
In addition, increasingly other online channels are moving towards the affiliate model with search, display, email and social media all moving towards a performance payment metric.
In this session performance marketing consultant Matt Bailey discusses the change that affiliate marketing must make to survive in this increasingly disparate online media landscape.
Re-targeting for Branding and Affiliate Sales in Adwords
The new Google remarketing functionality is a big step forward making this technique easily accessible to affiliates. While it’s obviously interesting in terms of driving direct sales, it can also be a cost effective way of helping to raise the awareness of your own branded affiliate websites for long-term sustainability.
This session shows you how! In this ‘how to’ session, Magnus will cover everything from setting up your first re-marketing campaign, setting an optimal cookie length and partnerships and cross selling opportunities.
Drinks Reception
Head to the Exhibition Hall for complimentary alcoholic and soft drinks and a chance to network with sponsors, echibitors and fellow delegates.
Speed Networking
Webgains, a sponsor of this year’s London a4uexpo are hosting a speed networking event on the evening of 12th October at the Capital Suite in ExCeL.
This exciting evening event offers all delegates a fantastic opportunity to network with the great and the good at a4uexpo London. The evening will begin at 6.00pm, and encourages individuals to meet with Affiliates and Merchants, for a maximum of two minutes, to talk, learn and exchange business cards before moving on to the next partner when the bell rings. It’s fun, fast, exciting and engaging and sure to be very entertaining. Tina Judic from Artemis 8 and Alistair Nichols from Webgains will be hosting the event, and providing useful hints and tips to make sure you get the best out of the two minutes. The event will finish with a drinks & canapé reception and an opportunity to progress on any new leads made throughout the evening.
Black Hat Protection & Q&A
Blackhats or Craphats can pose a threat for your internet projects. In order to be able to defend yourself you have to understand what can happen and learn ways to identify loopholes. We will show with real life examples how Blackhats get SEO and other types of traffic for their shady issues. We will cover topics like Click-Highjacking, RSS-Kidnapping and Link-Spamming amongst others.
Official Party @ The Troxy
Our Inclusive networking party at the Troxy promises to be our best yet! Full details will be released shortly.
