Leading mobile commerce technology company, Button has announced the launch of ReachTM, the company’s newest product that offers its deep linking and app-tracking technology as a service to affiliate network traffic.
As part of the launch today (July 14), global affiliate network Awin has been confirmed as the first partner to integrate with Button through ReachTM to unlock app installs and drive incremental growth for their brand partners.
With this exclusive partnership, Awin’s brand partners now have the ability to optimise mobile traffic through the higher-converting app channel.
ReachTM enables brands to capture higher-value users through installs and improve the accuracy of affiliate tracking in their app. Furthermore, publishers will benefit from higher payouts through purchases made by app shoppers, with consumers to get a more seamless shopping journey on mobile.
As a result, Awin for instance, can successfully track app installs and sales for its partners.
The stats
According to Button, early ReachTM tests revealed that a brand partner on Awin’s affiliate network was able to outperform standard mobile web affiliate traffic by 50%.
Furthermore, it was proven that 10% of shoppers who made a purchase had installed that brand’s app and that 60% of shoppers who installed that brand’s app made a purchase within 30 days.
Overall, this demonstrates the effectiveness of unlocking app installs and sales, enhancing the mobile shopping experience for partners, and getting accurate app tracking—driving incremental growth by tapping into the full potential of mobile affiliate traffic.
What the experts say
Upon hearing the announcement, PerformanceIN reached out to Button co-founder and CEO, Michael Jaconi and Awin global head of strategic partnerships and innovation, Paul Stewart to discuss the launch of ReachTM, their partnership and what this proposition means for affiliate in-app tracking going forward.
What’s the strategic goal behind Reach and its place in mobile affiliate?
Michael Jaconi: Reach™ enables brands and advertisers to optimise their affiliate traffic to drive more revenue. Through Button’s link optimisation technology, Reach™ is driving an increase in revenue of 50% per click for our retail partners. Apps convert on average 300% better than mobile web according to Button data, so if you’re a retailer with an affiliate budget and an app, you should be using Reach™.
Combine that with the fact that Reach™ is empowering marketers to acquire app users through their existing affiliate traffic, and that these installs perform better than installs from search or social, CMOs are realising that affiliate can become a powerful channel for app acquisition.
With boycotts and increasing costs on the major platforms, installs through the affiliate channel are going to prove to be a big investment area for mobile marketers.
Paul Stewart: Tracking activity from web-app or app-app is complex and difficult to achieve at scale without compromise on either the publisher’s or retailer’s side. What quickly became apparent to Awin was that for the performance industry to capitalise on the huge opportunity that in-app represents there was no room for poor customer experience, or for requiring manual updates from publishers: it should just work.
This is what our integration with Button has enabled – with a number of clients already benefiting. What today’s announcement represents is the next stage of our partnership, making it easier than ever before to ensure that the true value of the performance channel can be optimised to grow sales wherever they occur and with all reporting centralised within the Awin UI.
What opportunities does it present for networks?
MJ: Reach™ helps networks seamlessly provide its advertisers with the best app tracking and app install solution built specifically for the affiliate channel. As a result, advertiser partners are able to drive higher revenue in mobile—the fastest segment of growth in their programs.
By leveraging the publisher footprint of a global affiliate network and Button’s cutting-edge new Reach™ technology, affiliate marketers can now be important contributors to their CMOs’ mobile strategies.
How do you see this scaling mobile app tracking in the affiliate channel?
PS: By removing the need for publishers to update links and ensuring that retailers have a clear way forward this partnership removes one of the last big obstacles to mass adoption – it moves the conversation from ‘how can we?’ to, ‘why should we?’ – and from the results that Awin see replicated across multiple clients, the benefits are consistently compelling, with higher AOV’s, conversion rates and a host of new publisher types that can be brought on to a programme. In summary, there has never been a better time to capitalise on the opportunity.
MJ: Reach™ has proven to increase revenue while improving the accuracy of app tracking. Most importantly, Button’s link optimisation technology makes the user experience far more seamless and enjoyable.
Another great development is that Button has partnered with leading mobile measurement partners (MMPs) like AppsFlyer and Adjust, and more to be announced soon, to ensure that these MMPs can provide advertisers with a holistic view of all marketing spend including affiliate, which has historically been a gap in visibility.
By using Button’s in-app mobile affiliation and link optimisation technologies, advertisers can begin driving revenue growth overnight, building stronger relationships with their affiliate networks, and viewing all of their data in MMP dashboards.
