Affiliate Customer Insights Offers a Competitive Edge

Marketers' spend in the affiliate channel is expected grow to $5.4B in 2017 and $6B in 2018 (on pace for a 10% CAGR between 2016 and 2020)*. It's no secret the affiliate channel has long been an ROI leader.

And since so much future investment is targeted for this channel it’s critical to understand the true impact it has on key indicators, including but not limited to: consumer influence, new customer acquisition, offline purchasing, and lifetime value…especially as affiliate relates to other marketing channels.

CJ Affiliate is and has been a differentiator in the industry as we are able to harness the vast consumer profile data of Conversant, whose warehouse is among the top three on the Internet. That data consists of 160+MM online shopper profiles across all channels (including on and offline).

The really good news? Our combined consumer profile and affiliate order data allows for game-changing, deterministic transparency into affiliate's impact on the KPI's that matter. We call it Affiliate Customer Insights.

For a large sample group of varied clients, we now have some incredible results to share.

What we found: Affiliate outperforms other online marketing channels by double digits

What this means**: Consumers introduced through affiliate during 2016 (meaning their first purchase with the brand is via affiliate) went on to place more orders, and at a higher price point, than those introduced through other aggregated marketing channels. Specifically, affiliate is showing a 21% higher AOV, 31% higher per customer order average, and 58% higher average customer revenue—including initial and subsequent purchases—across all of the advertiser's channels. 

What we found: Affiliate dominates in high value new customer acquisition***

What this means: In addition to having a higher percentage of new customers than those driven through other marketing channels, the new customers acquired through the affiliate channel bring more value in their first year. Specifically, affiliate is showing a 7% higher annual rate of new customers. In evaluating the value of the new customer's purchases, an 18% higher AOV is combined with a 19% higher rate of orders per customer (including initial and subsequent purchases). Simply put, affiliate initializes more revenue, more often, from a more valuable customer.

What does this mean for clients?

For the first time, Affiliate Customer Insights gives marketers a reliable, data-based view into the influence and incrementality the affiliate channel delivers. These key insights directly impact budget allocation, strategic program implementation, channel effectiveness, attribution methodology, and affiliate channel perception.

In other words, marketers will have a better idea on:

• How much to spend
• Which partners drive the behavior they're goaled against
• How they can measure the affiliate channel's influence
• How to articulate the channel's results, alone, and in comparison to other online channels. 

Let's face it, if your share of $5.4B dollars is being laid on the line, don't you want your data and insights to confirm you're making the right decision? 

Click here for infographic that details the successes recent clients had with Affiliate Customer Insights.

Sources:
*Forrester, Jan 2016
**Based on sample of 30+ brands
***Using the advertiser's definition of new customer