Affiliates in the Avangate Network already know this, but here’s the “official” announcement: we’re going to Affiliate Summit West 2012, set to be the largest event of such kind to date. And, of course, we hope to see you there, chat and maybe close some deals ;)

This will be our first Affiliate Summit West after 2 consecutive experiences on the East coast. To tell you the truth, we already have quite a busy schedule, filled with event-related activities and meetings we’ve set up there.

Avangate will be present in the Meet Market area on Sunday, January 8th 2012, between 12 PM and 6 PM – we’re waiting for you to drop by our table (#95) and we will be more than happy to meet you there during the summit.

Then, on Monday afternoon, I will speak about promoting software products as an affiliate based on some best practices from the Avangate Affiliate Network . You can join the discussion in the Ask the Experts Roundtable area starting 5 PM.

So, stay connected with our social media channels (Twitter, Facebook) for the latest updates related to our participation at Affiliate Summit. Whether you’re a software vendor, affiliate interested in promoting software or want to open a business partnership with Avangate, drop me a message to request a meeting at the summit – my colleagues and I will be more than happy to meet you there.

Viva Las Vegas! :)

Indirect sales channels have always been attractive to companies seeking to augment their sales force, increase market share, remain competitive, and keep in-house employees focused on product development. The traditional downside was loss of insight into customers, fractured pipelines, missed opportunities, diluted branding, and market share cannibalism.

Contemporary technologies and best practices now allow companies to manage not only their partner relationships but partner operations as well, supporting them with proven go-to-market strategies that increase lead-to-win ratios. Will this technology remove the limitations on successful partner relationships? If so, how quickly will each side be willing to adopt?

To find answers to these questions and see how your experiences in partner relationship management and adoption of best practices and technologies compare with those of your peers, read on.

Avangate has partnered with Aberdeen Group, who is conducting a study on “Partner Relationship Management: Channeling Better Sales Results”.  This study will provide recommendations for channel sales managers and partners to work together to achieve higher top-line revenue and greater market share.

To thank you for taking 15-20 minutes to answer this survey, Aberdeen will provide you with a complimentary copy of the final report, which is expected to be available after February 29th, 2012. Here is the link to the survey: www.aberdeen.com/survey/0403-Avangate/

Do not worry, individual responses will be kept strictly confidential, and data will only be used in aggregate.

What is Real-Time in Google Analytics?

Google Analytics (GA) has changed the world of tracking for millions of websites owners and marketers alike. GA has always given powerful insights on data/performance from the past. Now there is something new to benefit from – the Real-Time data, available on the new version of Google Analytics and for administrator access.

Real-Time starts tracking data automatically for any page that has the Google Analytics code. No changes to the tracking codes are required. It shows data with only 60 seconds delay. This Real-Time feature tracks immediate impact of the visits on your site or specific pages of your campaigns. Real-time tracking allows analytics users/owners to see what their web traffic is doing while on their website.

Benefits of using Real-Time in Google Analytics

Using the Real-Time feature marketers can now see where the site traffic is coming from, the path this traffic followed to get there and the actions taken on the site at that instant.

The Real-Time data covers three dimensions:

• Location: Provides information about geographic location of the visitor.
• Traffic Source- Showcases information about visitor’s source.
• Content- Displays information about the pages the visitor is visiting.

This feature gives access to real-time stats on:

• Visitors
• Percentage of New & Returning Visitors
• Pageviews
• Traffic Sources (referrals, direct, campaigns etc)
• Active Pages

Here are a few major advantages for marketers:

• This feature helps one understand the impact of a new campaign in real-time. When a new campaign is launched, it’s a huge benefit if we can understand the performance immediately rather than waiting for a day or more. Real-Time reports tell you in seconds if you are getting the desired performance or not.
• The real-time data helps in understanding the popularity of particular content on the site in real time. This information can be used to optimize placement of the content, or publicize the content to create buzz and optimize ad revenue.
• It helps provides visitors information by location in real-time, i.e. a geographic breakdown of where the visitors are coming from is provided.
• Another useful application of real-time is the measurement of the immediate impact of social media. Whenever a new blog post or a tweet is up, we can now see the immediate impact to the site traffic. This also helps in knowing when visits from the tweet or blogs dropped, hence giving you opportunity to reengage with your audience.
• This data provides information on the most popular pages in real-time so marketers can optimize the ads on that particular page & generate more ad revenue.

However we need to keep in mind that the Real Time reports are not filtered. Even if a profile filter is applied, the real-time data is not filtered.

Accessing Real-Time data in new Google Analytics

So how does one gain access to this great new feature?

Sign into your GA account. Make sure it is the ‘new version’. If you have multiple accounts, select the one you want to view Real-Time data for. In the ‘Home’ tab, click on ‘REAL-TIME (BETA)’ button in the drop down menu to the left. You should now have access to GA’s real-time data.

Happy analyzing!

Relevant and targeted keywords are crucial for a PPC campaign. Equally important are negative keywords (or negatives as they are commonly called). Negatives are word filters that disqualify text ads from triggering for specific search queries.

For instance if you are a iPhone reseller and “iPhone” is one of your keywords, each time somebody does a search for that keyword your ad will be displayed- this is a good thing. What is probably not good is if your ads also showed up for a search on “iPhone problems”. To avoid this and bloating total impressions with irrelevant searches it’s important to add “Problem” as your negative keyword. This way “iPhone Problem(s)” search query would not trigger your text ads.

Every search engine advertiser should use negative keywords in their Pay Per Click (PPC) account. A comprehensive list of negatives helps ensure targeted visits to your site which will in turn significantly improve not only your CTR, but also your overall conversion rate.

Not using negative keywords can mean that your ads show to users who aren’t interested in your business or service. This untargeted traffic could lower your keywords Quality Score and negatively impact your return on investment.

How to find negative keywords idea:

• Google Keyword Tool: Place your keywords in the keyword tool. Google shows keywords related to your products or services. Check the Keyword column for any search query that is irrelevant to your business and that you wouldn’t want triggering your ads. Click the downward-pointing arrow in the Keyword column for each keyword that you want to be added as a negative. Select that keyword and it is added as a negative.

• Search Query Report: Pull a search query report at regular intervals to check what keywords trigger your ads. The new Google interface has a feature which is somewhat hidden, but it helps you run a search query report at the ad group level without actually running a full-blown report to find additional keywords or negative keywords.Here’s how you can access that- under the keywords tab, click the “see search terms” drop down and click “all” or “selected” (be sure a date range is chosen). You will see the actual search queries that displayed your ads. Search queries that are not relevant to your product/services can be added as a negative keywords right from this window.  Just click the box next to a particular keyword and click “Add as negative keyword“.

• Analytics: It can be an amazing source of negative keywords. Look at your organic data and not just your PPC data. If you are unsure of any terms, do a simple search for the keyword and see what results pop up.

• Use A Thesaurus: Run your main keywords through a Thesaurus. This not only helps in expanding your negatives but also helps with main keyword list.

• Industry Analysis: Use your product and industry knowledge and think of words that are similar or spelled similarly to your product or service names. Remember that there are products released every day, so set up Google Alert for your keywords.

Conclusion:
Once you’re done with adding negatives at your campaign or ad group level, check for account performance. Look for improvements in CTR, quality score and conversions. Here’s a list 150+ Negative Keywords for Software Selling AdWords Campaigns with examples  to add to your PPC groups.

Adding negatives is an ongoing process. Depending on your product you might need to look at new negatives every day.

Today around 30 percent of all software is distributed online and predictions are that it will account for 70 percent of all software sold in 2 – 3 years. Clearly, the cloud has changed virtually everything in how software is developed, distributed and consumed. Most importantly, it has given customers much more control: whether B2B or B2C, buyers want instant gratification and “frictionless” self-service transactions.  This disruption is also affecting pricing models as customers become more demanding about subscriptions or pay-as-you-go models.

This unprecedented amount of change is a good thing for industry innovators, as their new business models and technologies are born into a market eager to trying new products and services.

Why struggle with the transition alone?

So what about existing businesses? How do you adapt and change successfully? Do you once again chase the early majority and risk cannibalizing your present sales, or do you stay and try to hold onto the laggards? How are you taking advantage of international markets – optimizing your existing sales channels or onboarding new ones that have marketing strength and local knowledge?

At Avangate we see more and more ISVs transition from perpetual to pay-as-you-go models such as freemium, rental, or subscription; experiment with new channels, partners and affiliates. Try, test, measure, decide. How better than with a single, modular platform, providing the operational agility to do all of this with minimum effort and risk?

This is what today’s launch of our SkyCommerce™ Suite is about: helping software and SaaS vendors take advantage of these disruptive changes, get to market faster, complement their

The wave is coming. Learn to surf!

existing systems, and manage their end-to-end subscriber lifecycles, offering a consistent customer experience at every channel.

We are just scratching the surface, as there is plenty to talk about on these themes. You will hear more from us on this blog.

In the meantime, we want to hear what YOU think.  Share with us your opinion on what disruptions you see in the market – are they opportunities or threats for your software business?

The software market today is driven by the rise of cloud computing, forcing independent software vendors (ISVs) to fight commoditization-driven margin pressure, expand to new channels and markets, and move to “frictionless” self-service transactions. These new delivery models have irrevocably altered how software is developed, distributed and consumed…

… that was the heavy “marketing” intro. Now to the real world!

Actually, the truth is that the software world has changed and continues to change at a rapid pace. So let’s not just talk about it, let’s get together, learn how to understand the market challenges from the best in the industry and from each other, adapt these to our own reality, and do better.

So Avangate is inviting you to join us for a series of events during November and December – pick the location closest to you:  US, UK or China:
•    San Francisco: Thursday, November 10th, 2011, Zibibbo Restaurant
•    New York: Friday, November 18th, 2011, Crown Royalton Hotel
•    Beijing: Saturday, November 19th, 2011, Beijing Huang Yuan Hotel Ballroom
•    London: Thursday, December 8th, 2011, the Hospital Club

We’ve invited great speakers: Brian K. Walker, Vice President & Principal Analyst, Forrester Research, Inc., R “Ray” Wang, Principal Analyst and CEO, Constellation Research Group, Geno Prussakov, Affiliate Marketing Expert, AM Navigator LLC – check the links above to learn who is speaking at each location.

We’ll bring to the table not only great food, but also tips and guidance (and more!) on how to sell software and SaaS solutions in a world of many channels and many models.

Next step: register here. You’ll hear back from us – a friendly warning that places are limited and filling up fast!

Looking forward to meeting you there!