Pulling Levers Blog

According to a recent poll, 95% of B2B marketers are focusing their efforts on SEO, while only 35% are involved in paid search advertising. Based on these findings, it seems like a great time to get a jump on the competition and start building out some B2B-optimized PPC campaigns if you haven’t already.

Creating a successful B2B PPC campaign poses many hurdles for companies. For one, you only have 95 total characters in each ad, which isn’t always enough space to clearly describe your business or product. Also, if your product has a closely-related B2C version, you have to make sure you aren’t attracting the wrong customer. Below are some best practices to consider when creating B2B PPC campaigns and ad copy.

1. Know your competition
Before creating your campaign, do research on your competitors. See what type of messaging they’re using in their ads, and find out what keywords they’re bidding on. In addition to performing your own searches on Google, you can also utilize competitive research tools, including Spyfu and Compete.

Once you know what your competition is doing, start identifying unique qualities about your product or business that you can emphasize in your ad copy. For example, if you offer the lowest price in your industry, make sure to point that out.

2. Know your customers
When putting together a keyword list, consider all of the possible ways your potential customer would search for your product. Think about phrases and key terms that people may use to find your product if they’re not exactly sure what they’re looking for. This will increase your ad exposure and help you capture the most search traffic.

When crafting your ads, make sure to include features that address your customers’ needs. You only have 95 characters to get your message across, so it’s important to emphasize product attributes that your customers will find appealing. Also, when writing ad copy, use only familiar acronyms and short-hand, and avoid abbreviating words just to save space. Here is an example of an ad that addresses a customer’s need – boosting employee loyalty and retention.

3. Load up campaigns with negative keywords
If your product or service has any overlap with a similar B2C product or service, you’ll need to regularly pull search query reports from Google and Bing to identify potential negative keywords. For example, if your company sells high-end laser engravers for industrial use, you’ll want to add several negatives, such as “jewelry”, “photos”, “personalized” and any others that you know don’t apply to your product. This way you can eliminate a lot of unqualified clicks right off the bat, saving hundreds to thousands of dollars in advertising costs.

4. Incorporate business-focused messaging
This is another way to prevent customers looking for B2C versions of your product from clicking on your ads. Including clear, business-focused messaging may result in lower click-through rates, which in turn may lower your quality scores a bit, but the slightly higher CPCs you’ll pay will be much cheaper than spending money on completely unqualified clicks.

Below is an example of a B2B ad for a general, broad match keyword Mobile Advertising. The ad clearly states this is an agency providing services and not a mobile phone provider. It also lists a variety of types of services it provides to capture the correct business audience. This term brings in valuable leads but also finds consumers looking for mobile phones. In the end, you will have a much higher conversion rate by eliminating irrelevant clicks from B2C consumers.

5. Use a clear call-to-action
Including a strong, clear call-to-action is important in both B2B and B2C paid search campaigns. However, you can differentiate your ads even further by including call-to-actions that will resonate best with your potential B2B customer and deter clicks from those looking for a B2C version of your product. For instance, if you sell a high-end product that cannot be purchased online and are mainly concerned about generating leads, you can avoid using call-to-actions like “Shop Now” and “Visit Our Online Store” and focus on phrases like “Request a Price Quote” or “Download More Information”. This will help hone in on the most qualified clicks and contribute to higher conversion rates.

Common B2B Call-To-Actions:
• Request More Info
• Request a Price Quote
• Request a Free Demo
• Download More Info
• Download Product Catalog
• Learn More About…
• Browse Our Products

6. Optimize landing pages and lead forms
If your goal is to generate leads, you’ll want to make sure your landing page includes your lead form or clear ways to navigate to the form. Also make sure the lead form contains enough fields to make it clear that you are selling a B2B product, but not too many to deter potential customers from filling it out. It may also be helpful to display messaging prominently on the landing page or even directly within the lead form that reiterates the fact that your product or service is for business consumers.

Below is an example of a lead form for a company that offers employee recognition programs to businesses. They often have people looking to redeem awards fill out their lead forms, so to prevent this, they’ve added a separate link for them to click on rather than submitting the actual form.

There is a lot of opportunity to generate valuable leads and new business customers from B2B paid search campaigns. Use these tips and other best practices to get optimal results and don’t shy away from search advertising just because you are a B2B business!

Your content is one of many reasons users visit your website, but what happens if your content is designed poorly. Poor readability can cause readers to squint, causing eye strain and frustration and can drive visitors to leave your site. Readable text affects how readers process information and if designed correctly can allow your user’s eyes to flow throughout the paragraphs and retain all your information.

Here are some easy to follow tips on using font on your site for optimal readability.

Using Fonts
A good rule of thumb is to only use a maximum of three fonts throughout your website. For example, one font could be used for headings while another could be used in the paragraphs. Fonts such as Georgia, Times New Roman and Arial are safe for the web. If you want to use a font that represents your brand better try using @font-face to incorporate a non safe font on your site. To utilize @font-face:

• Find a @font-face kit generator such as http://www.fontsquirrel.com/fontface/generator
• Add your font, choose the optimal setting and download your kit. Note: Some fonts may have restrictions so always check the font’s terms or author notes.
• Add the code below to your CSS file:

@font-face {
    font-family: ‘FONT-NAME';
    src: url(‘FONT-NAME.eot');
    src: url(‘FONT-NAME'?#iefix') format('embedded-opentype'),
         url(‘FONT-NAME'.woff') format('woff'),
         url(‘FONT-NAME'.ttf') format('truetype'),
         url('FONT-NAME'.svg#FONT-NAME') format('svg');
   font-weight: normal;
   font-style: normal;
}

• Then add the code below anywhere you would like the font to appear (e.g. heading tag, paragraph tag, form input box…):

  font-family:FONT-NAME, fallback font optional;
  

Font Size
Experts say, for the best readability your content should be a minimum of 16px. Larger font sizes indicate higher priority because it draws the reader’s attention, which is why headings are typically larger and bold or a different color than the content.

Font Colors
Good contrasts makes text easy on the eyes and easy to scan quickly. Choose font and background colors that are easy to read. Black text on a white background is the easiest to read. In college, our final for my first web design class was to create a working website. I will always remember one student’s website because it was a pink background with green text. A great example of what NOT to do.

Font Spacing
White space helps break up large amounts of text and helps the reader’s eye travel through the text. You can achieve this by adding extra padding or margin space between block and paragraph breaks. Line height is the space between the individual lines of text. If the line height is too short readers will have to squint. If line height is too long it will seem like separate bodies instead of one paragraph.

In recent years, it is obvious that the $3 million price tag of a 30-second Super Bowl spot can bring more benefits than the viewers watching the game.  The pre- and post-game online buzz of the best and worst ads brings an extended shelf life and larger audience for the top ads each year.

So, are companies using that high dollar time to capitalize on extended brand engagement through online marketing? 

In 2011, TopRank marketing blog gave Super Bowl advertisers a failing grade when it came to integrations into online interaction and social media. Was there any improvement in 2012?

What companies had the best online integration of their Super Bowl spot?

Online Video Views (Car Companies Ruled):*

1. Jerry Seinfeld’s Acura NSX commercial – 17.7 million views. A big hit among the male crowd, the guys I watched the game with oohed and ahhed over the car when this spot came on.
2. M&M’s “Sexy and I Know It” Commercial – 17 million views. The only non-car brand in the top five, and the only top five video uploaded by a channel other than the brand.
3. Honda’s Ferris Bueller’s Day Off commercial has 14.5 million views. With my circle of friends, this was the most pre-game buzzed about commercial, and maybe it is due to my age group being the generation for Ferris Bueller. But I had numerous friends share this video on Facebook the week prior to the game.
4. The Bar Side: Volkswagen commercial – 14.5 million views. With probably the most successful 2011 commercial, Volkswagen continued the momentum with a few popular ads this year.
5. The Dog Strikes Back: Volkswagen: 10.8 million views

*Numbers based on YouTube.com views as of Feb. 13. Results from general search “2012 super bowl commercial” and only based on 1 video, not a combination of multiple uploads.

Real-Time Buzz:

• According to Brand Bowl 2012, a Boston.com and Mullen advertising agency report using Radian6, Doritos generated the most Twitter buzz during the game. Out of 400,000 tweets monitored by Brand Bowl, The Doritos “Man’s Best Friend” ad (showed early on in the game) was designated most effective brand based on volume and positive/negative chatter. M&M’s had the most positive sentiment tweets.
• According to Google, the most searched terms during the game included: Madonna (which I admittedly searched to look up her age due to a debate among party goers), Halftime show, Patriots, Tom Brady and the Giants. The most popular commercial related searches were for:

1. Acura
2. GoDaddy
3. M&M’s
4. The Avengers movie trailer
5. Chrysler’s Clint Eastwood spot

• Also according to Google, top YouTube searches during the Game were:

1. Bud light platinum commercial
2. OKGo needing getting
3. M&M commercial
4. Doritos superbowl commercial
5. David Beckham superbowl commercial

• Lastly, another look at what drove Twitter conversations during the game, Simply Measured reports:
  • David Beckham, Seinfeld/Leno and John Stamos as the top celebrity ads
  • Doritos was the top brand mention (matches Brand Bowl’s report above)
  • Automotive was the biggest buzzed industry, with Acura and Chevy leading the pack
  • Coke just beat out Pepsi by about 4,000 tweets

Online searches, Tweets and video views are all great, but most of these winning brands had little to do with their online success beyond making commercials worth talking about.  So, which brands took their ads a step further and actually integrated them into online marketing efforts?

Some Stand-Outs:

• Google Paid Search- Car Companies are a step ahead.  After searching about a dozen of the top brands that ran spots during the game, car companies were the only ones running ads for their commercial searches on Google to capture traffic away from blogs and video sites. Stand outs were Chrysler with ads to both their website and YouTube page, Acura with a dedicated landing page and honorable mention to Samsung and Century 21 for running ads on YouTube. Granted, this is a week after the game, so some paid search campaigns may have ended.

• Mobile Interaction – Chevy Game Time mobile app and an Anheuser-Busch Budweiser app were the only non-sports brand driven apps I found from popular advertisers.
    
  One new area of mobile integration, however, that stood out across a number of ads was the use of Shazam to bring you to mobile content without having to type anything into a browser.
  
• Call-to-Action– Many companies fell short of strong online call-to-actions by simply posting a Twitter hashtag and hoping for discussion. Although I think this is the largest area for improvement, there are an increasing number of companies compelling people to visit their site or social account.
  • GoDaddy.com continues their sex-appeal teaser approach.  However, their ads are not very popular across all audiences, and I needed to explain to people at the party what GoDaddy.com was after years of their ads running.
  • Bud Light, on the other end of the spectrum, had a more morally driven call-to-action to their Facebook page for The Animal Rescue Foundation. 
• Website Integration – Probably the biggest area of improvement in my opinion. Some brands worth mentioning, although there are others that can be added to the list:
• Chevy Sonic’s Letsdothis.com interactive site
  
• Best Buy’s new mobile site bestbuyon.com
• The movie Battleship collected email and phone number for future engagement through a Fandango.com sweepstakes
• Coca-Cola had a Polar Bowl site (the company exceeded goals for engagement) that led to the issue of the site being down throughout parts of the game due to the high volume of visitors. Unfortunately the site is no longer live for post-game engagement.

Overall, based on the blogs and articles I reviewed, online marketers like to criticize brands for their lack of integration of Super Bowl ads with the internet.  But I think each year we have seen improvements, companies learning from mistakes and growing goals of engagement and interaction that goes beyond the 30 seconds their ad runs. 

What were some of your favorite online-integrated Super Bowl ads?

Local Search Engine Optimization Is Powerful For Small Businesses

If you are a small or medium business trying to leverage your online presence, you’ve undoubtedly heard of Google Places (also called Google Local). It’s a great free product from Google that creates listings of brick and mortar businesses. These business listings show up in results when people search Google, Google Maps, Google Shopping and Google on mobile devices. These heavily integrated search results are the basis for local search engine optimization or local SEO.

Don’t Get Hurt In The Google Local Rankings

Google Places is still technically in beta and offers little support to users. This causes a lot of frustration for people that encounter errors with their Google Local listing, and for small businesses that don’t have websites or can’t afford SEO services, an error on a Google Local business listing can be the difference between significant revenue. Below I’ll detail out a solution to a common problem – removing duplicate Google local listings. This is important because if your business information is displayed for multiple listings, you are losing trust from Google and you are hurting yourself in organic web and local search results.

I’ll be using the following business information in my example, which I know has a duplicate Google local problem:

White Oak Dental

1580 White Oak Drive, Chaska, MN 55318

(952) 448-2868

Chaskadentist.com

Note: You should only proceed with these steps if your desired Google local is verified in Google.

1. Search your phone number on maps.google.com.
2. You’ll see every business listed under that phone number. Typically it’s the same business with slightly different information. In this case, there are four businesses listed under the White Oak Dental phone number. I know I want result B as the only listing, so the rest of the steps focus on achieving that.
3. Click to one of the undesired listings. I clicked to result A. Select “more” and then “report problem”.
4. Select “Place has another listing”. In the Details box, type the business information exactly as it appears on the correct Google Local listing.
   
5. When you click “report problem” you are done and Google politely thanks you for your feedback. I always select “Send email when the problem is reviewed” because Google does follow up and notify you if action has been taken. Be sure you are signed in to a Google account so you can receive the follow up email.

If you research how long it will take to rectify the problem, you may find some Google help forums ask for 4-6 weeks before you repeat your actions. I’ve seen Google reply in as little as one week, but they put enough disclaimers everywhere so that they don’t have to reply, nor are they required to take any action. However, if your report of an incorrect listing is justified, it is likely to be fixed.

It’s 4:00pm CT on the Friday, we’re taking a break on the blog from the normal business of online marketing and focusing on what everyone else is talking about this weekend- the Super Bowl!

Head over to the Lever Interactive Facebook page and cast your prediction for 2012 Super Bowl champion.

Currently the Giants are just edging out the Patriots in our highly scientific poll. With “Who cares, I’m just watching for the commercials” coming in a close third.

And as someone who grew up almost directly half way between Boston and New York, with my mom from Massachusetts and my dad from New York, my vote could really go either way.  I’m not a fan of either team (Go Ravens! or Jets!), so for me it comes down to which team I dislike the least…the New York Giants.

Stay tuned next week for our blog post about Lever’s favorite Super Bowl commercials and best integrations into online marketing campaigns.

When a well-known, furniture retailer and manufacturer contracted Lever Interactive to manage their paid search campaign, they had several goals they wanted to achieve.  Besides the most common goal we hear from all of our clients (please make our campaigns more efficient!), they wanted to make sure they were spending money in the right locations.  Their unique challenge is that they are in 26 different DMAs across the United States with over 100 corporate store locations, and their goal is driving foot traffic to a store; not an online purchase or lead.

Previous to contracting Lever, this furniture retailer was working with another agency that targeted all 26 DMAs within each Google AdWords campaign.  While it is great that they were targeting each of the markets, there were several problems we isolated right out of the gate.

1)      With all DMAs combined, the retailer had limited insight into which markets where driving conversions or cost. 

2)      They were unable to control budget by DMA; one of the client’s ultimate goals. 

DMAs are different shapes and sizes depending on the area.  We discovered the previous agency was targeting DMAs without consideration of store locations. In one market, for example, they were targeting a huge metropolis but their store location was actually on the very outskirts of the DMA.  The DMA spanned over 100 miles from one end to the other…which is a long way to drive to see furniture!

 

So, after digging into their historical data and identifying their “pain points” and objectives, we started outlining our process for restructuring the account with the following goals in mind:

1)      The retailer needed comprehensive, DMA level performance data so they could make better informed decisions on where to allocate their media spend based on in-store and web traffic.

2)      They needed to know that the users they were targeting geographically were qualified, and most likely to translate into store traffic. (Conversions were tracked based on visits to the store locator page).

In the end, Lever decided to restructure the account based on DMA, with a new account for each DMA, all housed under one MCC. This extensive campaign restructuring, that focused on store specific campaigns and included geo-targeting adjustments, help achieve our client’s goals.  In just a few months, we were able to:

• Decrease CPAs between 15-30% month over month since the account restructure.
• Allocate budget amongst all 26 DMAs with budget goals that are dependent on in-store traffic.  For example, if one market has been having slow foot traffic, then DMA budget is readjusted so that market can drive more web traffic in an effort to increase in-store traffic.
• Reduce spend 44% month over month in their most troubled DMA that was producing unqualified traffic.  This also reduced the DMA’s CPA by 54%.

Congratulations to Danyl Herron, celebrating her 3-year anniversary at Lever Interactive this month. Danyl started with Lever in January 2009.

Now as a Senior Account Strategist, she manages her clients’ online marketing campaigns; including Paid Search, Shopping Comparison, Affiliate Marketing and Email Marketing. At home Danyl enjoys spending time with her husband Mike, step-daughter Abby and one-year-old daughter Anna.

Learn more about Danyl Herron.

 

What they are and how will they affect the Facebook timeline and marketers?

Facebook launched the highly anticipated “Open Graph” apps last week, announcing new partnerships with 60 app developers, with many more to come.  Open Graph apps will enable the Facebook Timeline to track a user’s activity on and offline, with these apps posting on behalf of the user.  Companies such as Pinterest, Urbanspoon and Zynga will proactively engage with a user’s timeline, once permission has been granted, and post interactions that the user has had with products, services, news outlets, recipes they’ve tried and more.

This is a huge step forward for Facebook in its goal to make the new Timeline a true record of a user’s life and times.  But what does this mean for the average user?  Well other than making it easier for users to share and interact with one another (which can be seen as a positive or a negative, depending on with whom you speak), I’m not sure that this strays much at all from the culture that Facebook has already created. 

I remember reading blogs and opinions online months ago when the concept was first announced at the f8 conference of people debating whether or not this was just another way for Facebook to exploit its users and infringe on their privacy.  In my opinion, if you are willing to post the most intimate details of your life anywhere on the internet – Facebook page or otherwise – you’re putting any personal privacy under fire. Plus, as with other apps on Facebook, you will need to give permission for these new ones to work with your timeline.

Facebook has been a little shady in the past with its privacy policies and practices, but they are quick to right themselves – even if it does usually take a severe blasting online and in the media before doing so.  Users need to be careful.  If you’re willing to spend hours of your day on Facebook posting, playing games, chatting and the like – take a few moments every once and a while to pay attention to your privacy settings and you should be fine.

What do Open Graph apps mean for online marketers?

Now going above and beyond the everyday user experience, this does have some possibly major implications for online marketers. Facebook is very aware of the advertising revenue that the site generates each year (over $3.8 billion in 2011, up from $1.86 billion in 2010 according to Emarketer Inc.), and it seems to be constantly looking for new ways its advertisers can better target its users. These Open Graph apps are the latest tool to do that.

Don’t let them fool you. Facebook has positioned itself as the #1 social networking site in the world; however it is also one of the largest advertising outlets as well.  The Open Graph apps will allow marketers to present their products and services in front of the eyes of their exact demographics as they’ve been able to do with Facebook’s intricate targeting options. The interactions with these apps will play on the same concept of the popular marketing tool known as Sponsored Stories, providing outlets for advertisers to market to users who “Like” them and their friends (who will hopefully turn in to more of those who “Like”).  The difference here is the apps will allow the sponsorship to come more directly from the friend instead of from the brand; theoretically having a more powerful effect and endorsement for people seeing these purchases and interactions.

Communities such as Pinterest that are gaining in popularity can (and will) quickly move from a cult following to a sensation. Not only are these apps great for increasing brand awareness, but with so many inbound links the advertising (and SEO) potential on these sites will increase exponentially.

Client: Established in-store marketing company expanding into the online segment of their business with a new website that offers free printable coupons from consumer packaged goods manufacturers.

Challenge: Launching a new website in fall 2010, Lever Interactive’s client was starting from scratch in terms of organic search results. The website’s initial design was developed and launched without taking into consideration basic SEO or conversion optimization best practices. In addition, competition among keywords related to coupons is high and the client needed to quickly establish their brand and website as an online industry leader.

Approach: Lever started from the ground up in their SEO approach since the website was brand new. The first focus was on improving the website and its content, secondly an active off-site link building campaign was launched.

Tactics: Lever Interactive conducted an S.W.O.T. analysis of the website to identify and prioritize ways to improve the site’s content, backend functionality in terms of SEO and visitor usability.

On-page tactics derived from the audit covered a wide-range of SEO best practices, some included:

• Page load time improvements through page size and code weight updates
• Development of new or improved page titles, headings, meta content and on-page content
• New URL structure, 404 error processes, robots.txt and XML sitemap file development
• Target keyword identification and integration into content and interlinking strategies

Off-page link building strategies started off with basic tactics that focused on top priority keywords (did not include any paid link building). Lever then moved into more advanced social link building strategies, such as:

• Relevant article and press release optimization and syndication
• Online video optimization and distribution
• Blog and forum participation

Results: Lever’s SEO team is continuing to work with the client to develop and distribute superior content both on and off the site. In the first 8 months of engagement, the client’s new site saw tremendous organic growth. With no previous keyword rankings, Lever was able to gain page one rankings on several highly competitive general terms such as coupon, coupons, printable coupon and coupons online. Organic traffic increased from less than 2,000 visits per month to over 150,000 visits.

If you’re new to affiliate marketing, you may be wondering where to start. If you’re currently running an affiliate program in-house or through a network, you may be wondering if there’s a better fit out there for you. In working with several different retail clients, the Lever Interactive affiliate marketing team has been able to identify a few main points to consider when selecting an affiliate network as well as the strengths and weaknesses of two of the top networks.

Things to Consider:

1. Network start-up costs

Most affiliate networks charge an initial one-time setup fee ranging from about $500 to over $2,000. This includes the technical set-up of the account and getting new advertisers educated about the network.

Some of the smaller affiliate networks, including LinkConnector, don’t charge a setup fee, but keep in mind that the number and quality of affiliates within the network will most likely be low compared to those in the more expensive networks.

2. Monthly minimun

All affiliate networks charge a transaction fee, which is just a small percentage of the commission paid out to each affiliate for each sale. What you need to look out for is the monthly minimum, which is the amount in transaction fees an affiliate network requires each month. So if the monthly minimum is $100, and you only pay the network $75 in transaction fees, you will owe an additional $25 at the end of the billing cycle.

This varies widely from network to network, so depending on the volume of sales and revenue you expect to come through affiliates, you will want to choose a network with a suitable monthly minimum.

3. Span of affiliate network

If you have certain affiliates in mind, you’ll want to make sure they’re in the network you plan on joining. You can either look them up within each network, or you can contact them directly to find out. However, if you’re new to affiliate marketing, you’ll probably need a network that provides a large affiliate base from which to choose. As mentioned earlier, this could mean higher setup costs and monthly minimums, but it may be worth it in the long run.

4. Ease of communication

Ongoing communication with affiliates is essential to maintaining a successful relationship. You’ll need to send out regular newsletters with tantalizing incentives to ensure you stay top-of-mind within the affiliate community. Read about each network’s messaging capabilities ahead of time so you know what to expect. Make sure there are no costs involved and that the process of formatting and sending out the emails is simple and not time-consuming.

5. Tracking & reporting capabilities

The nice thing about using a network to manage your affiliate program is that they provide tracking and reporting for you. In addition to basic transaction reports, each network has their own unique reporting features, including performance by link type and affiliate first sale reports. Choose a network that will provide you with the type of reporting that best suits your company’s needs.

6. Customer support

If you’re used to running things on your own, this may not be as important, but if you’re new to affiliate marketing, you may have a lot of questions at the beginning. Read up on reviews and ask others in your industry about the customer support they’ve received on their affiliate networks.

7. Multiple networks

If you have the time and money, you can join multiple networks, widening your pool of potential affiliates. However, many of the bigger “super affiliates” are actually members of a variety of networks themselves, meaning you can find them on almost any network you select. Therefore, when managing affiliate programs on multiple networks, you face the issue of duplicate (and sometimes triplicate) transactions. So at the end of the month, there is the extra step of determining which network and which affiliate should receive the commissions and voiding the sales on the other network(s).

Reviewing Two of the Top Affiliate Networks:

Commission Junction

Pros:

• Large number of affiliates within network
• Detailed reporting
• No extra cost for sending newsletters to existing affiliates
• Ability to search for new affiliates within interface
• Ability to auto-approve/auto-decline affiliates based on certain criteria
• New PayPerCall feature offers an additional way to increase sales
• Responsive customer support representatives

Cons:

• High network setup fee
• High monthly minimum ($500 in transaction fees)
• Higher than average transaction fee (30% of commission)
• Historical reports can only be accessed for up to one year
• Cost to implement product fees

ShareASale

Pros:

• Reasonable setup fee ($550)
• Low monthly minimum ($25 in transaction fees)
• Low transaction fee (20% of commission)
• Detailed reporting
• No extra cost for setting up product feed
• Responsive customer support representatives

Cons:

• Smaller number of affiliates within network
• Cannot easily search for new affiliates within interface
• Reports must be exported as pipe-delimited files