{"id":59030,"date":"2025-01-31T02:35:47","date_gmt":"2025-01-31T02:35:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/peraltafinancing.com\/analytics\/greatest-twitter-marketing-thread-ever\/"},"modified":"2025-01-31T02:35:47","modified_gmt":"2025-01-31T02:35:47","slug":"greatest-twitter-marketing-thread-ever","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fivemor.com\/?p=59030","title":{"rendered":"Greatest Twitter Marketing Thread Ever"},"content":{"rendered":"


\n<\/p>\n

\n

Just read the entire thread … every word (click here)<\/a>. Every word, please.<\/span><\/p>\n

Don’t have Twitter? I did you a solid … here is the text. Everything that is wrong about digital marketing, corrupt vendors, and muttonheaded marketers at brands who can’t be bothered to ask simple questions is on display here.<\/span><\/p>\n

My team built the leader competitor to <\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

This “scam” story is absolutely wild to me.<\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

In his video today, <\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

makes two claims about Honey’s foul play:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Honey effectively steals commissions from their affiliate partners by being the last to drop their cookie when a user checks out.<\/i><\/p>\n

2. Honey’s value prop to retailers is dubious since they are giving customers discounts on products they were already about to buy.<\/p>\n

So, why is this wild?<\/p>\n

Because this is exactly how it has been since the beginning<\/span>.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In 2016, I was at a startup that aspired to take on Amazon by consolidating every product on the internet via a Chrome Extension.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Turns out that’s pretty hard to do, and after working at it for years, we were coming up short.<\/i><\/p>\n

Our business team noticed another e-commerce Chrome Extension (guess who?) seemed to be making waves and growing fast.<\/p>\n

They dug in a bit, and while I wasn’t in the room, I gather their reaction was something like this:<\/p>\n

They’re getting paid HOW MUCH to do WHAT?!<\/p>\n

From the start, it sounded ridiculous.<\/p>\n

A user on the checkout page is at the bottom of the funnel.<\/p>\n

They are the highest-possible-intent customers. Right on the cusp of purchasing of their own free will. At full price.<\/p>\n

Of course consumers were loving it — it was the closest thing to “free money” they could get.<\/p>\n

But the retailers? Why the hell were they paying for this?<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

It all makes sense — sort of — when you understand how affiliate marketing works.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

(Feel free to skip this part if you already know it)<\/i><\/p>\n

The original purpose of affiliate marketing was to enable hardworking content publishers (like Marques) to get paid for referring customers to retailers (like Best Buy).<\/p>\n

(This is just an example, I don’t know who he has affiliate agreements with, if anyone).<\/p>\n

It’s a brilliant idea, and it makes quite a lot of the internet go round.<\/p>\n

It’s largely done via “affiliate networks” — companies like Rakuten, Impact Radius, CJ Affiliate — who make it easy for retailers and publishers to pay and get paid.<\/p>\n

It’s quite obvious why Best Buy would want to pay someone like Marques (again, just an example) for referrals — he *sends* customers who otherwise wouldn’t be shopping right to Best Buy’s door. That’s value!<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

I’m not an expert on the history of Affiliate Marketing, but I gather it went roughly something like this:<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

1. Some time in the early\/mid ’90s: Affiliate Marketing invented.<\/i><\/p>\n

2. Affiliate Marketing catches on like wildfire since it drives tons of new customers to online retailers and is much easier to measure ROI than, say, television ads.<\/p>\n

(Somewhere in here, Affiliate Networks are invented)<\/p>\n

3. Online retailers begin hiring Affiliate Marketing Managers — and even entire departments — thanks to its overwhelming success.<\/p>\n

4. Affiliate Marketing Managers are granted increasingly large budgets to spend on Affiliate Marketing initiatives.<\/p>\n

5. … <\/p>\n

6. Honey is accused of massive scam<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

1. User lands on retailer (Macys, Foot Locker, etc) checkout page.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

2. Chrome extension pops up, saying “We found N coupons. Want us to try them?”<\/i><\/p>\n

3. User clicks “Yes.”<\/p>\n

4. –This one is critical<\/span>– Chrome extension marks its territory by:<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span>a) redirecting the browser with a retailer-specific affiliate link, or
\nb) dropping a cookie, or
\nc) running some custom javascript in the page.<\/p>\n

Importantly, only one publisher can get attribution for a sale. And it’s always the last one.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span>5. Chrome extension tries coupons, and applies the best one if any.<\/p>\n

6. Customer finishes checking out (with their coupon discount, if applicable).<\/p>\n

7. Retailer forwards sales data back to Affiliate Networks, who pay out commissions to publishers like Honey (and influencers like Marques).<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

So, why were retailers like Best Buy, Macys, Home Depot, etc paying Honey (and us) to give discounts to customers who were already about to buy a product at full price?<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

For us, the pitch was straightforward: “You’re already paying Honey for it; why not pay us too?” (Thanks, Honey!)<\/i><\/p>\n

But for Honey? The trailblazers?<\/p>\n

In short: bad incentives, and incompetence.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

Note: This is a bit of speculation on my part. I’m not referring to any one person or organization here — this is broad strokes.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Here’s how (I think) it went down:<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Retailers set Affiliate Marketing budgets for the quarter or year. Their Affiliate Marketing teams are encouraged to spend — if not rewarded for spending — their entire budget<\/span>.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span>Bonus points for discovering trendy new channels that customers love!<\/p>\n

Honey had a great brand, great user growth, and (I can only assume) a killer sales team.<\/p>\n

Some affiliate manager probably got promoted for bringing Honey on early!<\/p>\n

Honey’s pitch?<\/p>\n

Something like:<\/p>\n

“Customers are more likely to convert (buy the product in their cart) when they’ve tried coupons first. It gives them confidence that they’re getting the best deal!”<\/p>\n

Note: This is a completely testable hypothesis…<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span>I am 99% certain that Honey was *never* challenged on that claim by any of their retailers.<\/p>\n

Why am I so certain?<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n

In the throes of building our Honey competitor, I once asked our (absolutely killer) BD guy:<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

“How many retailers have asked you for <\/span>hard data<\/span> showing that trying coupons on the checkout page actually increases conversion rates?”<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

Those were data that we could easily collect.<\/p>\n

It’s the obvious litmus test of whether we’re adding real value, or if we’re just parasites exploiting a (what we believed to be short-lived) loophole.<\/p>\n

His response?<\/p>\n

“One.”<\/p>\n

Thousands of e-commerce retailers paying us to try coupons on their checkout pages, and <\/span>only one ever asked us to back up our central (dubious) claim.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span>It was site #537 or so in terms of priority. Boutique farm equipment reseller or something. The guy who asked was the CEO, if I remember correctly — the kind of person who would actually care, or even think, to ask about ROI.<\/p>\n

Our BD guy’s response to this CEO’s more-than-reasonable request for evidence?<\/p>\n

“Go pound sand!” (in so many words).<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/span><\/i><\/span><\/p>\n

The crazy part about this Honey story coming out now is that we all saw it coming back in 2016.<\/span><\/i><\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Quite frankly, we thought this moment was so right-around-the-corner that we nearly didn’t bother building the thing ourselves.<\/i><\/p>\n

8 frickin’ years ago.<\/p>\n

But we did, and we got acquired for it.<\/p>\n

So did Honey, to the tune of $4 billion.<\/i><\/p>\n

<\/span><\/i><\/span><\/span><\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Just read the entire thread … every word (click here). Every word, please. Don’t have Twitter? I did you a solid … here is the text. Everything that is wrong about digital marketing, corrupt vendors, and muttonheaded marketers at brands who can’t be bothered to ask simple questions is on display here. 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