Churned Affiliate

Affiliate churn is traffic that quietly walks: last month’s FTDs came, this month’s didn’t, and the links now point elsewhere.

Diagnose before you win back

The three churn causes need different medicine. Competitive loss (better terms elsewhere) responds to renegotiation; capability loss (rankings collapsed, site sold) responds to nothing you control; dissatisfaction (payment delays, tracking disputes, ignored tickets) responds to fixing the grievance, credibly and first. Programs should alarm on leading indicators — declining click share, removed placements — rather than discovering churn in the monthly numbers, two placement cycles too late.