Questions about marketing fees

[Van]

1. If a customer searches or browses the Zazzle marketplace and buys a product, it that purchase subject to the new marketing fee? (Say they typed zazzle.com into their browser, did NOT get to the website by following any link)

2. Also, items promoted/advertised/suggested etc. from the landing page for Zazzle.com, are they subject to the fee? For example the "new on zazzle" or "shop our top gifting ideas", if a customer clicks on , say "gifts under $50", orders a product from there, is there a fee?

I see a good many designers commenting that since the changes 3rd party sales have greatly increased so I was wondering...So much info overall about these changes, I'm unsure if these questions have been asked.

[Sara_H · Accepted solution]

@Van 

1. Yes (unless they have cookies blocked in their browser) they'll get a cookie from zazzle and if they buy something of yours and they haven't come through someone else's link - the 3rd party referral will be zazzle and you'll get charged a marketing fee (depending on the department your product is in)

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/30810357489175-Ambassador-Referral-Commissions-Creator-Roy...

2. Yes - See 1

[Van]

I thought that is how it might go. That explains why people say so many more of their sales are now 3rd party. Maybe it's always been that way but not so painful b/c the clawback was less.

It's probably coincidence but since back when they asked us to create mockups for products, advertise more, etc. both my views and sales dropped a lot and Since April 1st they are even worse. I really like the selection of product Z has for us to design on and am not "giving up", will still design some here but in light of this "pay cut" I'm having to rethink how much time I can- literally- afford to spend working on my Z store. 😞 I'll definitely avoid the 50% bracket as much as possible, 35% is bad enough. I hate this, Z had always been my favorite pod.

[Sara_H]

@Van  Yep - you have to decide if the juice is worth the squeeze

[CrazyMermaid]

It is my understanding that they have more ways to track customer activity than just "cookies." There are other more reliable tracking mechanisms that affiliate program rely on to ensure that affiliates get their commissions. No professional affiliates would participate in a program that used cookies alone. 

[Sara_H]

@CrazyMermaid  I know my terminology is incorrect. Thanks!

[Connie]

@Sara_HThat shouldn't be the case, though. If a customer comes directly to Zazzle without clicking on any marketing link, that should be "None." Zazzle shouldn't put their 3rd party cookie (or other tracking mechanisms) on that order when they didn't do any marketing for it.
(I'm not saying you are incorrect, I'm just saying that it's wrong on Zazzle's end.)

[ColsCreations]

Once people are on the Zazzle site, it doesn't matter what they look at on-site before buying. What matters is how they entered the site and what, if any, "cookie" they picked up doing so. If they somehow got here as a NONE, they'll stay as a NONE during their session. The whole referral system is built on tracking external links that bring people into Zazzle. I have a lot of questions about NONE but that's for another day; I would be legit shocked if NONE visitors were somehow picking up Z as 3rd Party from within the site during their session.

[Windy]

I have seen all the questions being asked. I have not seen Zazzle answer these at all.

It would be nice if Zazzle would spell things out because designers are not understanding what is happening. And affiliators have no idea if there is any point in promoting any products because it's unclear where the referral fees go. Creators have tested this among themselves and have reported they do not get a referral on sales they have referred to other creators.

[DesertSky]

I'm still unclear on a few things also, so please forgive me if these have already been asked and answered, I would just appreciate clarification. Here are my questions:

1.) Does every purchase made from a clicked link (even if it's not the product that was promoted) generate a 35-50% marketing fee that's deducted from the product creator, for up to 45 days? In other words, am I correct that every existing link is a marketing link and there is no way to avoid a marketing fee if the purchaser arrives at Zazzle through a link?

2.) If we email a product link to someone, will that also generate the marketing fee?

3.) If we create a link to a collection rather than to a product, and a customer purchases something from the collection or from a different creator, does that also generate the 35-50% marketing fee to the product creator?

ETA:

4.) What if the link was created by someone who isn't in the affiliate program, does Zazzle still apply the marketing fee?  

Thanks in advance for the clarification.