On the 4^th of September 2019, we got together to talk strategy, tips and good practices for the upcoming 4^th Quarter. Aka “The last 4 months of the year”. We also discussed the menu for Black Friday – more about that in a sec.

The event took place at the Universe Palace – a space where both affiliate-passionate people and lovers of knowledge gathered talk shop. From advertisers to affiliates and business people, everyone who’s anyone was there. Opportunities were knocking on our door(s), and as Dorin Boerescu urged us – we each had to go home with a minimum of 10 new contacts.

If you actually completed the quest, good for you! If not, no worries – we’re planning even more exciting, networking driven events in the future.

Now that we’ve set the scene, let’s talk Q4. Our first speaker, Dorin (CEO at 2Performant and a decent tennis player), explained why we should treat this next few months wisely.

“If every trimester were as Q4, then we would have 29% more annual sales.

If every month were as November, then we would have 75,8% more annual sales.

If every day were as Black Friday, we would have 10 times more annual sales.”

If you’d like to find out more about what he shared with us, make sure to watch our live broadcast, here.

As for what we mentioned earlier – the menu for Black Friday – we got our inspiration from Irina Dumitrașcu, CTO @ 2Performant. Irina takes care of all the behind the scene action, as in “the nerdy stuff”, and she has one wish: that her team gets bored on Black Friday. Oh, and that they eat well.

Because of this, she’s offering tips for preparing this glorious event. Tips that should be implemented at least two months in advance. Even starting today, if possible.

To further exemplify, she talked about how she expands her server fleet for Black Friday – and not just that – she has another one on stand-by, ready for the unpredictable. Wow!

Here are some recommendations that’ll help you be more prepared for this month:

• Allocate time and money to monitor and scale the resources;
• Optimize servers, traffic sources and interests;
• Take your time to communicate with your partners and establish new connections.

Later, we gathered an amazing panel to discuss plans and perspectives for the upcoming Q4. It was composed of 3 top-tier names: Roxana Crahmaliuc, from Decathlon; Milena Gît, from Answear; and Irina Munteanu, from Vivre.

These marketing experts shared with us the expectations (and dissatisfactions) usually experienced by advertisers during this trimester. As well as some of the promotions we can expect from them. Lastly, some differences between Romania and other countries – when it comes to affiliate marketing.

Here are some key ideas from each speaker:

• Milena(Answear) revealed that Q4 and, specifically Black Friday, bring on new costumers. Sports, fashion and home & deco categories are preparing dedicated fall-winter season categories and products;
• Irina (Vivre) desires, from an advertiser-perspective, to be supported and promoted accordingly – and they’re ready to offer the proper information and materials to make this happen;
• Roxana (Decathlon) explains how online, most conversions happen within 12-14 days. During Q4, conversion rates increase.

Before the break, Octavian Jomir, Owner @ Esteto, shared his path from affiliate to advertiser; how he saw collaborations then vs. now, and how he feels about PPC (spoiler alert – it’s a positive outlook).

He explained how without PPC in affiliate marketing, you’re basically giving up 60% of traffic and conversions. PPC brings on huge volumes of traffic and is profitable in affiliate marketing because it has low conversion costs (20-50% less than your own PPC campaigns).

As per usual, we finalized this first half with a Q&A, so everyone had the opportunity to chip in, ask questions, clarify stuff. And by the way, we’re preparing a detailed interview with Octavian this month – stay tuned!

Our half-hour break consisted of wine, water and juice, networking and continued mini-speeches, inspired by the ones we just listened to. If you haven’t managed to gain 10 new contacts, beware – exam retakes will be held soon.

And now, we’d like to offer a special mention to Lucian Ionescu, Strategy Manager @ District Conversion. As we’ve noted before his appearance, this was his first time on stage. He overcame his fear of public speaking just to tell us how he managed to produce 4 million euros from sales generated through affiliate marketing.

Lucian, the first time is always a drag – but you performed like a pro! Congrats!

He also told us about how to convert using PPC in a smart way, how to know when to choose between it and organic traffic, and what’s the difference between the two, depending on the advertiser.

Even more, he recommended affiliates to aim a bit lower – often times, advertisers from lower positions produce bigger profits than the ones from the top. Oh, and you must test – constantly. Lastly, be careful to the campaigns you create and advertisers’ TOS!

And because we felt like he was starting to enjoy the spotlight, we invited him to join two other experts for our second and last panel of the evening – Do’s and Don’ts in Q4.

Alongside him, we invited Mihai Croitoru, Owner @ Croif Web Solutions and Dragoș Bunea, Affiliate Guru.

This affiliate marketing powerhouse offered valuable insights into Q4 strategies, past mistakes they’ve made and how we can use Black Friday to our advantage.

More specifically, here are some highlights:

• Dragoș is looking for new advertisers with potential for the upcoming Q4 – ones that he will promote in November and December. He noticed that conversion rate is increasing on Instagram, something that’s not yet explored to its full potential in Romania. During Q4, he’s focusing on IT&C, but also testing other categories as well. And a great recommendation for advertisers: stop organizing Black Friday events since October – this dilutes the impact that this event can truly have on the month of November.
• Mihai has been in the content marketing business for 5-6 years and has written hundreds of articles. After all this time, he concluded that high volume means low quality, inevitably. When it comes to content, the investment is long term, as opposed to PPC. And yes, traffic increases during Black Friday, but dedicated articles rarely bring the desired outcomes.
• Lucian, when preparing for Q4, analyzes the stats from previous years. It’s a great opportunity for him to try new collaborations, because this is the best conversion period. And if he manages to configure good campaigns during this time, he’ll extend promotion for the rest of the year. And lastly, for Black Friday, he has a great tip – he sends PPC to his dedicated website – and there, he converts. His desire (and for a lot of affiliates, we’re certain) is for advertisers to announce changes in a timely manner and to avoid decreasing commissions.

2Performant Conference: How to have a profitable Q4 in affiliate marketing was a success. We combined valuable information with open discussions and wine. Such a good match is hard to come by.

Don’t forget to check out the live broadcast, here.