a4uexpo will start with the usual Ignite Party the night before the conference starts. Then there will be two days of sessions and exhibit hall with a big party on the second day and a calmer fade-out event on the third day.

I will be attending a few sessions. However, most of the time you will be able to find me at the Sponsormob booth during the day. Mobile affiliate marketing is no longer a niche but becoming mainstream so we are taking our business to the main events.

Back in the dark ages of online marketing it was alright to associate an online transaction with the last traffic source previous to that purchase. Having some data was better than having nothing. But customer behavior and online marketing techniques have evolved. Also, online marketing budgets are significantly higher these days, so we need to be a lot more acurate now. All this lets the principle of “last cookie wins” look antiquated.

Here are some facts I picked up at the latest a4uexpo affiliate marketing conference in London. During the “Affiliate Apocalypse Panel” Julia Stent of Vodafone UK shared some insightful data with us:

• In general there is a 20% overlap between affiliate and paid search traffic.
• In only 21% of all affiliate sales, the affiliate is the only person involved in generating that sale.
• For 72% of online sales in the travel industry where a user has visited an affiliate site at some point, affiliates were not rewarded due to the last-cookie-principle.

Currently we attribute a transaction (lead or sale) to one traffic source only. But given the previous facts, that actually ignores valuable data and leads us to miss the bigger picture completely. All marketing activities are inter-related. That goes for offline vs. online and also for within the online sphere.

However, today’s world, especially in online marketing, is still driven by the old principle of “that sale is mine.” In numerous companies I’ve seen internal fights about this, display vs. search vs. affiliate managers. Instead of cooperating they often work against each other, accusing each other of stealing sales. It’s usually the affiliate marketing people that have to defend their affiliates and themselves.

“That sale is mine” can no longer be our mindset. Instead we need to find ways to distribute commissions among all parties involved in the decision-making and buying process in a fair manner. We need to measure the true influence of an advertising channel and the parties involved instead of relying on the last-cookie-counts principle.

This would also remove the issue of chasing the last click, something that affiliates have become extremely good at through coupon sites or cookie spamming in the form of layer ads, pop-up windows, adware and other forms of forced clicks.

What we need is cross-channel tracking on the side of merchants and affiliate networks turning more into technical solution providers. We need to be able to split commissions for the same transaction among several traffic sources. Something we probably won’t see anytime soon, but this is where it needs to go.

On Tuesday between 2pm and 4pm you’ll have the opportunity to get some free one-to-one consulting on mobile marketing and mobile advertising. You will be able to find me in the expert surgery zone. Details can be found on the a4uexpo blog.

• Judith Lewis – SEO Director, i-level
• Shakil Khan- co-founder and Managing Director, Card Smart
• Missy Ward – co-founder, Affiliate Summit
• Ciaran Norris – SEO & Social Media Director, altogether digital
• Todd Crawford, ToddTalks.com
• Marcus Tandler, Mediadonis
• Joris Toonders – Managing Director, Yonego
• Joost de Valk – Founder, Yoast.com
• Jon Myers – Head of Search, MediaVest Group Ltd
• Kieron Donoghue – Director, UK Offer Media Ltd
• Mike Allen – CEO, Shopping Bargains
• Matthew Wood – Managing Director, existem
• Irfon watkins – CEO, Coull
• Peter Glaeser, Sponsormob
• Kevin Edwards, Strategy Director, Affiliate Window
• Julia Stent – Affiliate Manager, Vodafone

The Amsterdam trade show is a continuation of the very successful a4uexpo London. There were a bunch of Dutch and German guys at the UK events, so it makes perfect sense to organize another event on the continent. However, the show will be interesting for British online marketers too. Nevertheless, Amsterdam is always worth a visit.

If you register by the end of February you can save 100 euros. The full pass for affiliates is then only 179 euros!

The crowd of attendees and speakers was quite international. So I ended up hanging around with the German crowd. You guys were fun to be around, especially during the Thames cruise and the drinks at the Novotel afterwards. What happened to Michael? I hadn’t seen him all morning.

I enjoyed a4uexpo a lot and recommend anyone to go. It costs a little bit of money but the investment is definitely worth it. If you’re a beginner it’s really worth attending the sessions. Otherwise you can also hang out in the conference area and get to know new people. Everybody will get something out of the show.

Matt announced that a4uexpo will be expanding to the continent. The first non-UK a4uexpo is going to be in Amsterdam. You should consider Munich or Berlin too.

I’m sure there will be more blog posts, photos and videos published soon. But here are a few pictures from the trade show and the parties: