Looking back at 2019 I’m proud to say that we’ve accomplished a lot here at FMTC! We are constantly making improvements and brainstorming different ways to expand our services. Curious to know what we’ve done within the last year? Here is a recap of some things we accomplished.

Merchant & OPM Account Feature Improvements

If you have a program manager account with us, you may have noticed some new features we added. These include:

Deal Alerts

This premium feature highlights offers at the top of the publishers’ dashboard homepage. There is also an option to display them on FMTC’s social media pages. To make it easier to submit these deal alerts, we made it so when you’re selecting a date, you’ll get a notification if all the slots on that date are taken before you submit. Additionally, if you select the “Share via Social Media” box, a message will appear if the social media spots are taken (learn more and see examples here).

We also added the list of deal alerts that have been submitted. Users can now see Pending Alerts, Current Approved Alerts, and Past Alerts (learn more here).

Ongoing Deals Report

This report will send you information on all the ongoing links we have in our feed for your program(s). These links do not have a known expiration date so we want to make sure they are still valid.

If any of the links need to be removed, you can email support@fmtc.co and let us know the Deal IDs of the expired links. Then, we can get that updated right away for you. The report looks like this:

Real-Time User Reporting

This report is only for our premium merchants & OPMs. It provides a count of how many publishers are accessing your program’s links via our feed. See an example below:

Additional Milestones

A couple of other notable accomplishments are worth mentioning. The first is that we focused on integrating new merchants and reached over 13,000 integrated programs. Right now we have a total of 13,794 affiliate programs in our system and that number is growing each week.

In addition, we made significant improvements to our processing times & had a very successful Black Friday/Cyber Monday. We broke our record in how many deals were processed on Black Friday at 8,227. There were also 2,717 active deals reviewed and the team resolved 94 tickets that day. This was also the first year we completely cleared out our processing queues on Black Friday, which is a hard thing to do on the busiest day of the year.

2019 was a very successful year for FMTC and we look forward to providing additional improvements in 2020.

The post 2019 FMTC Recap for Program Managers appeared first on FMTC.

FMTC’s New Features and Products From 2019

Check out a list of our newest features & products for affiliate publishers and merchants. If you haven’t visited FMTC in awhile, chances are you’re missing out on some fantastic tools to make affiliate marketing easier for you. 

Affiliate publishers and merchants alike will benefit from these new features. Check out the list below and let us know if you’d like more information on anything you see. 

For Affiliates/Publishers

Focus/Turnkey Solution

FMTC now offers a turnkey solution to host and display your coupons. We have partnered with Focus, a skin of the Thesis theme available on WordPress. Focus is a clean and simple skin designed to display coupons from your selected merchants. You’ll have control over which merchants you display. You’ll also have control over design options such as adding your own logo, custom site colors, navigation, and more.

[Read More]

FreshReach® Monetization Platform

FreshReach® is a new content monetization platform from FMTC. Links are distributed through the FMTC deal feeds, which reach millions of shoppers each month. Additionally, we have partnered with Trackonomics to offer robust reporting and analytics to sub-affiliates.

To learn more, please contact sales@fmtc.co. 

Product Feed (New!)

Our newest offering is a product feed, with over 20 million products across about 1400 merchants. Our product feed also offers the ability to import products based on your selected merchants or brands.

To learn more, please contact sales@fmtc.co. 

For Merchants & Agencies/OPMs

FMTC’s Merchant Hub is Now The Directory

If you haven’t noticed yet, we updated our Merchant Hub and it’s now called the Directory. Although our directory primarily consists of affiliate programs, we also have an OPM Directory. This includes details on the agencies we work with in case anyone is looking to outsource their program management.

If you’re logged into your FMTC account, you can view programs by clicking on “Directory” under the Links & Tools tab.

[Read More]

New Program Descriptions Now Live

We’ve started providing more affiliate program details on the Directory profile pages. The update includes a program description field that now appears on the right side of the program info. This new description will appear with any merchants that have a description option available.

Program descriptions let affiliates know more about your brand and what your affiliate program offers. Additionally, the Directory provides visibility to current affiliates and potential partners that may not be part of your program.

This is available for both basic and premium merchants.

[Read More]

Directory Profile Update: Network Permissions and Restrictions

Our Directory is a central place that affiliates can use to search for thousands of affiliate programs and learn more about them. This includes basic information about the website and details on the affiliate program.

If publishers want to sign up for the program, we even include “join” links for any network(s) the program is on.

We recently added the ability to include a program description to merchant profile pages. Now, there is also a Network Permissions and Restrictions section.

[Read More]

Need more information?

For more information on any of FMTC’s products or services, please contact support@fmtc.co. We also have a live chat feature on https://www.fmtc.co if you prefer that option. 

The post FMTC’s Favorite New Features and Products From 2019 appeared first on FMTC.

As you get your holiday recipes prepared, I wanted to give you some quick tips on making the most of your partnership with FMTC. For the most part, getting your links into our feed is very automated and streamlined. Our system pulls in any text or coupon/deal links you post in the network via the network APIs. Not only do we pull in new offers, but we also update current offers. All you have to do is make the changes in the networks and we’ll update our feed.

What You Can Do

Even with our system constantly pulling in link info, it’s a good practice to check in periodically to ensure our feed is accurate. The easiest way to do this is through your merchant or OPM account (simply go to Browse Deals under the Links & Tools tab). Don’t have an account? Let us know and we’ll be happy to make one for you! If you ever need any links added, removed, or updated ASAP please email support@fmtc.co and we’ll be happy to help.

Another thing to do is be sure to keep your links updated in the network. The networks are where we get all of your deal and program information from. It also helps to add start and end dates to promotions. This helps make sure that we don’t post deals early or keep them up too long.

We also are always looking for new programs to add to our system so if you are launching any new programs or want us to join current ones, feel free to send us invites in the network. For any other questions or requests about our partnership, contact us anytime and we’ll get back to you as soon as possible.

The post Recipe for the Optimal Partnership with FMTC appeared first on FMTC.

Create Your Own Holiday Affiliate Gift Guide

Some shoppers have likely finished their holiday shopping, but others have yet to begin. Publishers can benefit from sharing gift guides to help out busy shoppers.

Unsure your audience will benefit from a gift guide? Check out what Awin says about the matter:

“Essentially a gift guide removes the need to scour the internet to find the perfect gift for someone’s mom, dad, child’s teacher, new coworker…. because you’ve already done that and rounded up the best of the best for your readers to choose from.”

Featured Gift Guides

Still need some inspiration? Here are some gift guides from some of our favorite merchants. Consider creating your own twist on gift guides. Be sure to feature lists for different recipients to make shopping easier for your audience. Include an image and most importantly, a monetized link directly to the product. 

Shari’s Berries Christmas Gift Boxes

Shari’s Berries offers a multitude of delicious seasonal gift options. These delicious chocolate-covered strawberries will fit well on almost any gift guide.

View Links & Join Affiliate Program

Peter Millar Gift Guides

Peter Millar offers multiple gift guides with a variety of options. Whether you’re creating a gift guide for travelers, golfers or simply just for him and her, you’ll find some great candidates here.

View Links & Join Affiliate Program

Paula’s Choice AU Holiday Kits and Gifts

Paula’s Choice AU also offers multiple gift guides. These guides are conveniently categorized by price thresholds (under $100 and under $50) as well as best sellers and holiday kits. 

View Links & Join Affiliate Program

Roots US Collections

Roots has put together a few gift guides featuring different collections. Check out these collections of plaid, salt & pepper, Canada collection, and more.

View Links & Join Affiliate Program

Create Your Own Affiliate Gift Guide

We hope this gives you some inspiration to create a gift guide of your own. Check out all of our merchants and make sure to grab those affiliate links either through Publisher Toolkit or an enterprise feed subscription. 

The post Create Your Own Holiday Affiliate Gift Guide appeared first on FMTC.

Black Friday and Cyber Monday included a record number of deals processed for FMTC. Our team collectively processed 8,227 deals on Black Friday — almost double what we processed in 2018. However, our team smashed this record on Cyber Monday with a total of 10,025 deals processed. That’s a lot of deals in one day!

Data Processing Highlights

Our data processors test coupon codes as well as fix grammar errors, standardize labels, categorize, and more. During this process, we find many humorous mistakes that somehow made it through QA. Here are a couple of our team’s favorites:

Merry Chirsmas, anyone?

No matter how you spell Christmas, that still looks like a good deal to us!

What the fgsdsg?

Seems like someone was in a hurry to get home and start cooking the turkey!

Our virtual team working together

Our team called an “all hands on deck” and members outside the data processing team began learning how to process deals as well. Although we all work remotely, we all had a sense of camaraderie as we pitched in to help each other:

Happy Holidays from FMTC

We had a successful Black Friday and Cyber Weekend, which means we did our part to help our publishers’ success as well. Our team continues to work tirelessly throughout the entire Q4 shopping season to deliver the cleanest data as fast as we can. 

Happy Holidays!

The post FMTC’s Black Friday and Cyber Monday Recap appeared first on FMTC.

Our Most Deals Ever Processed in November

Our Q4 started off with yet another record in deals processed. This past month, in November, we processed even more deals — including the most deals processed in a single day ever. 

We’re pleased to share another report of our data processed. Compared to 2018 we saw a 4.6% increase in deals processed, a 6.7% increase in incoming deals, and a huge 80% increase in merchants added.

November Data Infographic

Thank You, Partners!

A special thanks to our data processing team as well as our partners for making this Q4 a great success so far.

The post Recap of Data Processed in November [Infographic] appeared first on FMTC.

Getting Deals from FMTC for Enterprise Publishers

Publishers, don’t miss out on these fantastic Black Friday Deals from some of our favorite FMTC merchants! Each item on the list below is just a sample of the plethora of deals available for our publishers. 

Subscribers to FMTC can easily tap into over 180,000+ deals via API. These deals are already categorized, standardized, tested for accuracy, and even monetized with your affiliate ID. 

Deals from Publisher Toolkit

Also included in the information below is a preview of our Deal Bank which is available through our Publisher Toolkit (insert link to sign up). Our Toolkit is perfect for bloggers or smaller publishers to hand-select deals from favorite merchants, and is even integrated with Skimlinks. 

Black Friday Deals from Preferred Merchants

Ready for deals to share? Check out the information below, and don’t forget to sign up to join these affiliate programs if you haven’t already: 

butter LONDON: 

[View butter LONDON & join affiliate program]

Harry & David:

[View Harry & David & join affiliate program]

Udemy:

[View Udemy & join affiliate program]

Tory Burch:

[View Tory Burch & join affiliate program]

KitchenAid:

[View KitchenAid & join affiliate program]

Tips for Merchants & OPMs

Got any Black Friday deals or sales you’d like included on this list? Contact larissa@fmtc.co today to inquire about becoming a premium merchant. If you’d like more information first, click here to view details about our tools and services to make affiliate marketing easier for merchants and OPMs. 

The post Black Friday Deals and Merchants for Publishers to Share appeared first on FMTC.

The busiest week of the year is here so I won’t take up too much of your time with this week’s post. I just wanted to give a last-minute call to upgrade to our premium merchant or OPM account to access the Expedited Deal Processing feature, along with many other features. Expedited Deal Processing means that all of your program’s offers will go straight to our premium processing queues. These queues are TOP priority and are processed before our normal queues.

We even guarantee that your deals will be added to our feed within an hour! This is during normal business hours of 8 am-5 pm CST but we are all working overtime and weekends during the busy season. You can see all the details of our guarantee here. You’ll be able to relax knowing your deals will be added to our feed and uploaded onto publishers’ sites ASAP.

If you’d like more information about the premium account or would like to upgrade, please let us know! You can also view our premium deck that includes information on each feature, as well as pricing, here. Subscriptions start at just $50/month and are month-to-month.

Let us know if there is anything we can do to help during the busy season!

The post Last Call to Upgrade to Expedited Deal Processing Before Black Friday! appeared first on FMTC.

The Value of Cashback and Coupon Affiliates

Most of us have heard the news this week that PayPal is set to acquire browser extension Honey in a $4 billion deal. This news was likely surprising to some. 

According to TechCrunch, “Honey has flown under the radar to some extent since its founding in 2012.” For those unfamiliar with Honey, it’s a browser extension that automatically searches and applies coupons to your shopping cart. 

How does Honey compare to other coupon affiliates?

While Honey performs a little differently than most affiliates, they still rely on making a commission off using merchant’s coupon codes. 

According to Gizmodo, “Honey alerts online shoppers to potential deals like coupon codes on products they are viewing, as well as offers comparative pricing, sales alerts, and price history charts in the hopes of letting users know when they’re getting ripped off.”

Many merchants are still resistant to working with coupon affiliates. Perhaps this deal is an example of the value of coupons when it comes to online shopping. 

What are some benefits of working with cashback or coupon affiliates?

Benefits of working with coupon or toolbar affiliates include reducing shopping cart abandonment, and creating a smooth process to encourage more transactions. 

In fact, according to the TechCrunch article, coupons can help reduce shopping cart abandonment: “Originally only a web browser extension, Honey tracks sales and retailers’ promo codes, as a rival to RetailMeNot and others. What makes the extension so useful is that it automatically tries all the eligible promo codes for you during checkout then selects the one that provided the most savings and applies it on your behalf. This helps shoppers feel more comfortable with their purchases and reduces shopping cart abandonment.”

An article from Wired confirms answers the question about why stores would offer commissions to let consumers purchase items at a discount. The answer? It’s “for the same reason they pay credit card companies and payment processors like PayPal: to make your experience as smooth as possible, and to do everything to prevent you from abandoning your shopping cart, even if that means offering you a lower price.”

Other benefits of working with coupon publishers

Merchants may be unaware of the benefits of working with coupon publishers. Earlier in this post, we shared how coupon affiliates can reduce shopping cart abandonment. However, there are several more reasons why some may want to reconsider their stance on not working with coupon publisher.

An article from Entrepreneur on shopping in India states, “Affiliate marketing led by cashback and coupons is a win-win situation for everyone involved. Online customers can save money on their purchases, while e-commerce companies can improve key metrics such as sales/transactions and user acquisition. Publishers can also monetise their online traffic, driving revenue growth and profitability.”

How to work with more coupon affiliates

If you’re a merchant looking to partner with more coupon affiliates, FMTC’s premium merchant services can help. We offer avenues to target publishers through spotlight posts, deal alerts, publisher outreach, and more. View our Merchant or OPM Services site pages or email larissa@fmtc.co for more information. 

Sources:

• https://techcrunch.com/2019/11/20/paypal-to-acquire-shopping-and-rewards-platform-honey-for-4-billion/
• https://gizmodo.com/paypal-to-shell-out-a-whopping-4-billion-to-acquire-sh-1839972838
• https://www.wired.com/story/paypal-honey-4-billion-dollars/
• https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/335340

The post The Value of Coupon and Cashback Affiliates appeared first on FMTC.