NEW YORK — The Direct Marketing Association has released a document highlighting best practices for online advertising and affiliate marketing networks.
The document, from the DMA’s Internet marketing advisory board, provides guidelines for online advertising and affiliate marketing strategies. It stresses responsible advertising and brand protection in an evolving interactive market.
Central to the guidelines are the concepts of legitimacy and legality. The DMA advises marketers to get assurance from ad and affiliate networks that they fully comply with the law. Marketers also are urged to perform due diligence on firms.
Getting details of the agreement in writing gives marketers a tool to enforce placement, duration and formulas. The DMA states that altering an offer by an ad or affiliate network is prohibited and is grounds for contract termination.
Agencies should implement an in-house process for accessing ad placements and contracts with the ad network and affiliates.
The DMA document is available at http://www.the-dma.org/guidelines/onlineadvertisingandaffiliatenetworkBP.pdf
