I'd love to love Copeac but they shaved my very first campaign with them to the tune of 30%. I've decided to decide based on the willingness of my affiliate managers to actually give me usable information. Based on that I choose...
None of them.
I've yet to get an AM that had a clue.
Let me summarize the affiliate managers response to all questions: "Ringtones are doing good. Insurance is hot right now. Dating is good."
Are these people actually getting a percentage of my sales and leads?
What the fuck are they here for?
Scuba, I have no clue how your discussions went with the AM's you spoke to, so I'll just give out a general answer.
Discussions with AM's HAVE to be a two way exchange of information otherwise the AM has nothing to work with. I've read several threads here where people get pissed off when an AM asks about sources of traffic, types of sites, demographic specialties, etc. This is the stuff an AM needs to make educated campaign suggestions. When an affiliate is unwilling to provide info to an AM, the AM has nothing to work with and has to give out a stock "ringtones are good" type answer. I'm not saying an affiliate has to give out their keyword lists, provide all their URLs or explain all their BH methods. But they should give enough so the AM can do their job. I've dealt with many conversations like this:
AM: Welcome to my network. What kind of traffic do you do.
AFF: I do PPC on the large search engines like Google, Yahoo.
AM: What kind of keywords do you bid on.
AFF: I can't tell you that.
AM: Do you have site I can look at to get a feel for your traffic.
AFF: Sorry, I don't give that info out.
AM: Have you tried ringtones?
AFF: (thinking) fucking newbie AM
Can you imagine if you took that to the doctor?
DR: How can I help.
AFF: It hurts.
DR: Where does it hurt.
AFF: I can't tell you.
DR: Can I give you an exam to try to figure it out.
AFF: Don't touch me.
Anyway, all I'm saying is if you want to get a little, you gotta give a little. Not ALL AM's are hopeless newbs, but they'll seem that way if they have nothing from you to work with.