Commission Junction
Encyclopedia
Commission Junction is an online advertising
company owned by ValueClick
and operating in the affiliate marketing
industry. The company is the largest affiliate network in North America and operates worldwide. Among the top 500 retailers using 3rd party affiliate marketing software, 62% are powered by Commission Junction. Along with being the world's largest Affiliate Network, Commission Junction also provides "performance marketing
solutions". Their corporate headquarters is located in Santa Barbara, California, with other offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Westborough. Commission Junction has also offices in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain. The company has over 1,500 customers including Dell
; Overstock.com
; Home Depot; Zappos; Bed, Bath, and Beyond; and Yahoo!
.
and brother Sam Gerace in 1996. The company went public on November 2, 1999. beFree was purchased for $128 million (in stock) by ValueClick before Commission Junction. Only after the acquisition of Commission Junction did ValueClick slowly transition affiliate programs away from beFree's BFAST technology platform.
Contracts with current beFree merchants were not being renewed and no new merchants were accepted as beFree customers. Once the contract with beFree expired, merchants had the choice to either migrate to the Commission Junction platform or look elsewhere for an alternative provider. This process began around January 2004 and was completed in spring of 2008.
The BFAST platform was closed and no longer available after May 15, 2008, at which time all ad serving and new transaction tracking ceased. Reports were still accessible through June 15, 2008, when the beFree platform BFAST was turned off permanently.
Online advertising
Online advertising is a form of promotion that uses the Internet and World Wide Web to deliver marketing messages to attract customers. Examples of online advertising include contextual ads on search engine results pages, banner ads, blogs, Rich Media Ads, Social network advertising, interstitial...
company owned by ValueClick
ValueClick
ValueClick is a Westlake Village, CA-based online advertising company, which provides online advertising campaigns and programs for advertisers and advertising agency customers in the United States and internationally....
and operating in the affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is a marketing practice in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate's own marketing efforts...
industry. The company is the largest affiliate network in North America and operates worldwide. Among the top 500 retailers using 3rd party affiliate marketing software, 62% are powered by Commission Junction. Along with being the world's largest Affiliate Network, Commission Junction also provides "performance marketing
Marketing
Marketing is the process used to determine what products or services may be of interest to customers, and the strategy to use in sales, communications and business development. It generates the strategy that underlies sales techniques, business communication, and business developments...
solutions". Their corporate headquarters is located in Santa Barbara, California, with other offices in Chicago, New York, San Francisco and Westborough. Commission Junction has also offices in the UK, Germany, France, Sweden and Spain. The company has over 1,500 customers including Dell
Dell
Dell, Inc. is an American multinational information technology corporation based in 1 Dell Way, Round Rock, Texas, United States, that develops, sells and supports computers and related products and services. Bearing the name of its founder, Michael Dell, the company is one of the largest...
; Overstock.com
Overstock.com
Overstock.com , also known by its shortcut, O.co, is an online retailer headquartered in Cottonwood Heights, Utah, near Salt Lake City. Founded in 1997 by Robert Brazell, under the name D2: Discounts Direct, it was a pioneering online seller of surplus merchandise which, upon its failure in 1999,...
; Home Depot; Zappos; Bed, Bath, and Beyond; and Yahoo!
Yahoo!
Yahoo! Inc. is an American multinational internet corporation headquartered in Sunnyvale, California, United States. The company is perhaps best known for its web portal, search engine , Yahoo! Directory, Yahoo! Mail, Yahoo! News, Yahoo! Groups, Yahoo! Answers, advertising, online mapping ,...
.
beFree, Inc. / Reporting.net
The former competitor beFree, Inc. (spelled as one word with lower-case "b") is also owned by ValueClick. beFree was founded by Tom GeraceTom Gerace
Thomas August Gerace is the serial entrepreneur and market-innovator responsible for disruptive innovations such as founding , the first affiliate-marketing company, and SMAC, a committee to create a common vocabulary, standard buying units, and uniform measurement methods for social media...
and brother Sam Gerace in 1996. The company went public on November 2, 1999. beFree was purchased for $128 million (in stock) by ValueClick before Commission Junction. Only after the acquisition of Commission Junction did ValueClick slowly transition affiliate programs away from beFree's BFAST technology platform.
Contracts with current beFree merchants were not being renewed and no new merchants were accepted as beFree customers. Once the contract with beFree expired, merchants had the choice to either migrate to the Commission Junction platform or look elsewhere for an alternative provider. This process began around January 2004 and was completed in spring of 2008.
The BFAST platform was closed and no longer available after May 15, 2008, at which time all ad serving and new transaction tracking ceased. Reports were still accessible through June 15, 2008, when the beFree platform BFAST was turned off permanently.