Commission Junction (CJ) Introduces Paid Placement Ads

If you have ever dabbled with affiliate programs, I’m sure you’ve heard of Commission Junction, or CJ. If you have not, they are the largest affiliate program network in the world. Advertisers sign up with affiliate networks to generate sales through their pool of approved publishers or affiliates. Publishers, on the other hand, get paid commissions by promoting 3^rd party products or services on the Internet.

Last week, CJ launched a new feature called Paid Placements which gives publishers more flexibility when it comes to offering ad spots or placements on their website. I think this is a win for both advertisers and publishers. Advertisers benefit because they can potentially get more traffic and conversions by creating custom deals with publishers. Publishers can potentially make more money by opening up more revenue opportunities on their websites. Paid Placements would also allow publishers to charge a fixed rate for ad placements, which is something rarely heard of in affiliate marketing. The fixed rate advertising model is typically used by general ad networks like BlogAds, BuySellAds, and MatomySEO (formerly Text-Link-Ads).

For small businesses, the entry barrier may be a bit hefty on the advertiser side because there is a $3,000 setup fee and a $3,000 deposit, along with other minimum requirements. However, if you own or manage a website and want to make some money through affiliate programs, you can sign up for a free publisher account at CJ.

Here are the instructions on how to set up a Paid Placement:

Advertisers often allocate a portion of their budget to have banners, links, coupons codes, and more displayed on a publisher’s website, in e-newsletters, on a mobile app etc. If you offer advertisers the option of paying a flat fee or a commission increase to have their banners and links displayed prominently so their program stands out, you can leverage features within the Placements tab to promote your placement opportunities within the CJ network. Navigate to Placements > Opportunities to start creating your paid placement opportunities.

Create a New Placement Opportunity

To create a new placement opportunity, click on the create new opportunity icon in the upper right. You may create a single placement (e.g. home page banner), a package (home page banner and newsletter), or upload a full rate card which would include information about all site, email, mobile, social or content placements you are offering to advertisers. After selecting the appropriate opportunity type, proceed with entering more information.

 

Step	Description
Step 1 – General Placement Info	This is where you specify an opportunity title for your placement, select on which websites to promote to the advertiser, and specify which advertisers will get to see your placement opportunity within the interface.Title: Specify a unique and descriptive name for the placement title to assist advertisers in finding your placement opportunity. (e.g. If you are creating a rate card opportunity for Q4, it could say Q4 2015 Rate Card)Websites: Select all websites on which you offer paid placements.Visibility: Specify if you want the placement opportunity to be visible to “all advertisers” in the network, “your joined advertisers”, or “specific advertisers” selected.
Step 2 – Timing	Time frame: Specify the duration of your placement.Seasonal Events: Occurrences to which the placement is related. This is helpful for promotions or for being able to group placements by holidays.Promotion Type: Select an appropriate promotion type for the placement — coupons, free shipping, etc. if applicable
Step 3 – Types	Placement Types: Select the placement type and position that best describes the placement opportunity you want to promote. If you’ve selected rate card or package as the opportunity type, you can select all applicable placement types as part of a package or within your rate card.Creative Size: Select all creative sizes applicable for the banners / logos you will need from the advertisers.
Step 4 – Pricing	You can charge a fixed fee for your placement and / or request a commission increase for the duration of the placements. For fixed fees, select a price range if you’ve selected “rate card” as the opportunity type.
Step 5 – Final Details	If you are creating a rate card placement opportunity, you can upload your rate card document and any additional documentation, such a site profile document, screen shots of the placement opportunities, etc.You can include your contact information and any additional notes for the advertiser.
Steps 6 – Review	Review your placement information and go back to any previous steps to make changes if needed. Once reviewed, hit submit to save the placement opportunity, making it visible to advertisers.