Case Study: From Network to Agency Management: Implementing Custom Solutions to Exceed Fiscal Goals

Overview

We took over management of a well-known and distinguished retailer who had, until then, been managed by a traditional affiliate network. This iconic brand has been instrumental in providing lasting rugged work clothing to Americans for over 120 years. While under network management, the client expressed concern that they would miss their annual fiscal goal since they needed to generated at least $1MM in sales in the six week period between mid-November and December to meet their goals for the channel. Unforntently, they were projecting to fall 50% short of that figure despite the busy holiday season. Additionally, they felt that their program wasn’t being optimized to its full potential wanted to see if any agency could provide a more tailored approach.

“PartnerCentric took the time to understand our goals and they were able to help us exceed them. Because our brand gets an entire team of industry experts to assist with our program, we know that we are always getting the most innovative solutions.” Anna, Director of E-commerce

Approach

When we started working with this client, it was surprising to see that for such a strong vertical and a recognizable brand name, the affiliate program was only accounting for 6% of online sales but had been establishing for many years. During that sales process, a gap analysis was conducted to see what revenue impact our team could have on the program in the last two months of the year. This allowed us to make custom suggestions, including having a paid placement budget for prime exposure during key dates. Our team was able to secure $25k in placements within 5 days. Finally, we suggested incorporating the rights of publishers for the program who could generate the most revenue. In addition to recruiting key publishers by leveraging our internal database, we increased loyalty partner commission rates to ensure this client was in line with competitors.

Results

We officially took over management of this client’s affiliate program in Q4, and within less than a month, they successfully reached their annual fiscal goals. The client was able to hit their targets a full 10 days before the end of the fiscal year when they were primed to miss them completely just a few weeks earlier. Furthermore, 43% of sales were generated in the first 45 days of us taking over management. In Q1, the program beat the $1MM goal the client had for the recent holiday season. The YoY sales growth for Q1 was 22%, and the YoY growth in sales and sales revenue since we started managing the program in Q4 has been 43%.