Affiliate Marketing as a Customer Acquisition Vehicle with Leigh Brandt - Episode 79

A PERFORMANCE-BASED MARKETING CHANNEL FOR CONSUMER BRANDS

 

DESCRIPTION

Did you know that affiliate marketing is a major channel for consumer brands? Today we're talking to Leigh Brandt, the co-founder of Affiliate Marketing Dynamics. In today's episode, Leigh and Kiri talk about the affiliate marketing model, how it works at the high-end, how it can become a successful channel for your brand, and when it is appropriate to initiate it. Tune in now and find out more!

Leigh started out in digital marketing interning at a full-service digital agency, called Morpheus Media. It was at Morpheus that Leigh met his current partner, Jamie Driver, who was one of the founders of Morpheus. Morpheus was sold in 2011, and Leigh and Jamie started doing some consulting projects throughout the digital space. One of the projects involved taking over the management of an affiliate program that was managed by CJ (Commission Junction) at the time. It was a women's luxury fashion and accessories company that was primarily e-commerce. They applied a very high-touch approach to managing the program, to create the perfect synergy between the brand and the publisher's audience. In doing this, they managed to increase the performance of the program from $100 000 per month in affiliate revenue, up to $400 000 per month after month twelve. By the end of the following year, they were doing just under a million dollars per month in affiliate revenue. Listen in today, to find out what Leigh has to share about the fascinating world of affiliate marketing.

“A host of publishers will advertise a brand or a retailer, risk-free. But only when a consumer clicks through and completes a purchase on the last click is a commission paid, and that commission is set by the brand.”
— Leigh Brandt

KEY TAKEAWAYS

  • How Leigh came to be the co-founder of Affiliate Marketing Dynamics.

  • AMDX was officially launched in 2016.

  • Leigh explains what affiliate marketing is, how the ecosystem works, and how it makes money for a brand, publisher, or affiliate.

  • The way that affiliates and influencers differ.

  • There are networks of influencers and there are also individual influencers.

  • A successful affiliate program needs to have a variety of the different types of publishers in it.

  • The players that are involved in an affiliate program.

  • How a specialist agency like Leigh's differs from the way that Commission Junction used to work.

  • How to know if an affiliate program is not operating to its full potential.

  • In a recent brand audit, the contribution of affiliate revenue, as a percentage of total e-commerce revenue, was in the low single digits.

  • Leigh gives an idea of the range of incremental revenue that could be expected from an affiliate program.

  • Affiliate marketing is strictly performance-based, so brands are only paying commission on the last-click sale.

  • The varied commission rates that brands pay to their affiliates.

  • What is required to successfully launch an affiliate program.

  • The way that Affiliate Marketing Dynamics works with brands.

MENTIONED IN THIS EPISODE

Season 2Kiri MastersComment