University Master Thesis Topic: Performance Marketing. (6)
hello guys,
I'm not even sure if this might be the wrongest place I could start this topic but I felt like if I can find people who were or are in the same situation as I am (or are just happy to help), I would find them here.
So just a few lines about me:
I started affiliate marketing on January 2016 and I'm still in my corp job. My main goal is / was to find freedom by working for myself and leave this corp world behind. So I quitted my job at the end of march 2016 and have to work until June 2016. I'm willing to take the risk and go for this journey. Nevertheless I studied on parallel to my corp job an MBA at a university in Germany (btw: hopefully to see some people at Affiliate World Europe in Berlin!). What I'm still missing though is my master thesis and I asked my professor if I could write about performance marketing and he agreed. So maybe some of you might ask why I would do that:
The reason behind it is that I wanted to kill two birds with one stone. My time is currently very limited and my day looks like this:
7 o'clock wake up
9 - 17 corp job
18 - 24 AM
sleep, repeat.
And this is fine, it works for me. But it wouldnt work if I would have to write my master thesis about a complete different topic.
So what am I looking for?
First of all I'm searching for cool people who have the time to help me out by suggesting what I could do - for example I need some kind of case study from the view of a product owner (I already saw that there is a product owner section). So let's say someone here knows someone who owns the flashlight offer - it would be like the best case scenario for me if I could interview this person and create a case study from their point of view. On the other hand I'm struggling because I'm thinking that people aren't willing to share any information on how to setup the whole process. From creating the product to connecting it with affiliate networks and creating the funnels and answering strategy-related questions like which role performance marketing plays in their marketing mix and if there are any marketing channels they rely on etc.
What I have so far?
So basically my professor and I made something like a table of contents for the thesis and currently it looks like this:
(1) Analysis
- Theory behind performance marketing (how does everything work, like from offers, traffic sources, affiliate networks, launching a campaign, optimization, tracking etc.)
- Expert interviews: Ask an expert interview open questions about affiliate marketing (so things like how does the decision process look like to promote an offer, what is important in general to an expert affiliate) & expert interview with someone from an affiliate network (so what is important for them when adding offers to their network)
- A Case Study from the view of a product owner. It could be mobile app installs, e-commerce product (which I find the most interesting because all the stuff related to refunds, shipping, logistics, import & export), or a lead-gen based thing. I think this is the main problem here I have: to find someone who is willing to share. If I can't find someone I think I have to do the case study from the view of an affiliate marketer and make some assumptions about product owners.
For example I don't even know who handles the payments when a product owner adds his product to an affiliate network. Who is handling the shipping? How are the systems connected? (I have some ideas how it is working, but I can't just say, yeah this is how you do it and in real life it's the complete opposite).
(2) Learnings
This part is summarizing the learnings from the analysis part. So basically the results and how things should be done.
(3) Own Part
Use those learnings to create something like: how are these facts influencing the business model canvas? So how are things changing if I sell my product over affiliates - how is it affecting my business model regarding pricing, revenue streams, cost structure, product, logistics, etc.
So my real problem is the Case Study. Finding a whitehat product owner who successfully implemented PM in order to scale business.
I hope that I can find at least one single experienced person who can help. It would also help a lot if someone knows some resources to tackle or people I could contact. I know that I'm asking for a lot and I'm willing to give back anything which I can if someone can help me here.
I hope this is not the most wrong place I could start this topic.
Thanks.
Hello,
I think you need to re-think the project. AM is a lof about walking in the GREY zone and as such, you will have problems finding anyone who'd be willing to unfold the cards for you. What you are asking here for, is getting access to someones know how and I doubt anyone will show you.
But I very well understand why you chose this topic for the project, I did exactly the same in university - all my projects were about internet marketing because I was already involved with it 
I suggest you do this :
1. change the focus as you suggested, analyze the topic from your own point of view - so from the perspective of an affiliate marketer.
2. The theory can stay, explain how AM works - creative-traffic-offer ... You can write a lot about this : digital/tangible products, traffic delivery methods, conversion types SOI, DOI, sales ... I can imagine the whole project to be just about this
3. You can write about as many verticals as you want, but pick one vertical and dedicate the rest of the project to it. I would suggest e-commerce as its the most whitehat affiliate biz you can find. Describe "solo" e-shops VS multi platforms like teespring or
4. Explain how the commission system works, put it in comparison with advertising costs - eshops can either advertise themselves or give affiliates a share of profit and let them do it on their own, which gives them more time to focus on the back-end. Mention dropshipping too. Compare it with platforms like teespring where you actually develop your own product and set the profit margin yourself by increasing the price ... Compare free (site owners) and paid traffic.
5. Describe different traffic types and why some work better. google search = highest quality and precise keyword targeting. Facebook = superb targeting, social factors. Various display sources = lower quality and targeting but lower price ... You can talk about optimization too - some banners work, some dont. Mention the use of landing pages (use special discounts as an example). Mention tracking and how retargeting (remarketing) works.
6. Try to look for some case studies on affiliate campaigns, maybe some e-shop or e-commerce platform has done a study like this. You need to explain why its actually good for them to have affiliates : they pay after a sale is made, not before. Some sites don't sell traffic to ad networks so the only way to get their traffic is to get them as an affiliate. Affiliates can bring in way more traffic than the shop would do on their own ...
I could go on but don't want to waste my time and yours at this point ... what do you think about changing the approach this way?
Hey matuloo,
thanks a lot for your detailed reply!!! makes a lot of sense what you wrote down and I will use this as an outline for my master thesis. Think it makes a lot of sense what you wrote down as it also includes somehow stuff from a product owner perspective (like the view from the eshop). I found this case study online which could be a good reference --> http://www.digitalmarketer.com/ecommerce-advertising/
so makes much sense to me. just need to find good literature which "proves" the stuff about the theory. any recommendations?
Originally Posted by fatcow
How's the write-up going fatcow? Curious to hear what aspects you've decided to focus on.
A master's thesis is no small feat. Goodluck.
hey bobliu
I'm still searching for literature - already found some stuff to underline the theory but this is what I'm planning to write about:
Part 1:
1) Theory behind performance marketing (so basically explaining the in's and out's of AM to someone who is new to the topic, like a newbie course)
2) Expert interview with an experienced affiliate marketer and an affiliate manager from an affiliate network
3) Case Study (using the one I posted from Ezra Firestone) in combination with a skin offer we promoted as affiliates.
4) As matuloo suggested I'm focussing here on 1 vertical (skin) in combination with 1 traffic source (I think Facebook) and go deeper in information on both these topics. So in (1) I'm talking i.e. about Traffic Sources in a more general manner and then go into details when starting the Case Study.
5) Maybe also write some stuff about Sales Funnels / Email Marketing as this is also part of the case study.
Additional stuff:
6) Direct-Response vs. Brand Marketing (making Marketing measurable, maybe using this as some kind of introduction)
7) Mobile app installs as a vertical
And also use this tip from matuloo:
"Explain how the commission system works, put it in comparison with advertising costs - eshops can either advertise themselves or give affiliates a share of profit and let them do it on their own, which gives them more time to focus on the back-end. Mention dropshipping too. Compare it with platforms like teespring where you actually develop your own product and set the profit margin yourself by increasing the price ... Compare free (site owners) and paid traffic."
Part 2: Learnings / Results
This is like the results part of Part 1. Like the best practices how to achieve success when starting as an affiliate but also talking about the perspective of a product owner and intensify on
Part 3: Creating a piece of "own intellectual property"
This part is currently planned to be something like using the Business Canvas Model and apply it to a
I didnt start writing yet, so maybe things will change a lot. But this is my current plan I hopefully can stick to. It would be much easier if I had someone who is an ecommerce pro and would share information but as matuloo already said it will be tough to find someone. So I'm already happy with the one case study I found.
Hope I can deliver on time 
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