How long have you been working at Webgains?

I’ve been at Webgains for just over a year and a half – it’s gone so quickly! A lot has changed since I joined; the team in France has grown lots and Webgains has had a new website, new platform and new feel. I have always worked in startups and Webgains is big enough to invest and make changes but small enough to get to know everyone.  

What made you jump from working in the hotel industry to the world of performance marketing?

To be honest, it was completely unexpected. I had a friend that worked at Shopcade and she used to talk to me about digital a lot. One day she said another department was recruiting, why don’t I try and apply for the sales job, so I did and got the job. After that I knew I wanted to stay in digital as there are so many things to learn. It was an unexpected but good change!

How does your background in events management compare to working in the digital industry?

So, I used to work for the F1 Monaco Grand Prix. It was very stressful as I was managing lots of people on site at a young age. However, it has comparisons to my current job as you still have to build a relationship with the people you are working with. The challenge is the same as you have to convince them to fully trust you.

With events, you have to be super organised and really pay attention to the details. This experience helped me a lot when I moved into a commercial and account management role at Webgains. I am now more detail-oriented, overly organised, and put all my attention into clients’ needs and objectives, focusing on performance at all times – which you really need to do if you want them to succeed!

Can you describe a typical day in the office?

Every day is different. I move around a lot – sometimes I am in the London office, the next I’ll be in Paris or travelling to see my clients. My job is split 50/50: I look after the sales strategy in France and also run the account management for some of our top clients, so my days are very different, having to balance both parts of the job. I try to organise the two – whether that’s making calls to pitch clients, preparing a strategy or ensuring I hit my targets.

What do you enjoy most about your role?

The fact that I have a hybrid role. It is very exciting and challenging ensuring those jobs have been executed properly. I also like the fact that when I sell to a big client I become the account manager for them, following them from the first call to seeing through their online performance.

I’m the only one to undertake this role at Webgains – I wanted to do both as I think it’s important to maintain and build the relationship with the client.

And the challenges you face?

My challenge is more on the sales side of my job as it is very competitive. Webgains is not as known in France as it is in the UK, so organising myself to ensure I hit targets, achieve sales and make people aware of us in France is a challenge. 

How has affiliate changed the performance landscape of the French lifestyle industry?

French behaviours have changed a lot. I work on a fashion programme and when people want to buy a product, they check if a blogger is wearing and promoting the product etc. or search for a voucher code. Before, nobody would have done that, so affiliate in the lifestyle industry is becoming more common in France – even five years ago, people weren’t aware of what it was. Now it is a necessity as French behaviours are changing.

What’s so great about working in digital?

You get to meet lots of people and lots of it is about building great relationships. I’ve learnt lots at Webgains –The Webgains Academy gives us access to great free courses, industry-leading workshops and events, which is great. The French market is growing a lot so am proud to be one of the people helping the French market be where it is today!

Do you have any tips for those looking to enter the performance marketing industry?

Being open-minded is important because things change daily. It is a competitive market so you have to be creative in your approach. The industry is young and dynamic and so many things can happen – being flexible and adaptable is key to keep learning.

Also, never think that you know everything! Even if you have years of experience in the industry, you can still learn.

Three words that best describe you:

It’s hard to choose just three words! I am positive and enthusiastic, for sure. I’m spontaneous (which can sometimes be good and bad) and competitive. I play lots of sport, so the fact that I am competitive helps me in my professional life as I always want more!

Lastly, are there any exciting developments from Webgains you can share with us?

So many things have changed at Webgains – the people, processes and product have all developed this last year to ensure we grow our strategy for 2019. Most importantly, the advertiser platform has changed. Webgains is moving towards a deeper level of detail and an intelligent, predictive model of data management. Two areas we’re really excited about are a multi-channel attribution model and an AI-driven onboarding process.

Lots of exciting things are in the pipeline, so keep an eye out for upcoming news. Come and see us at PI LIVE – we will have a great stand and Richard Dennys is talking at the event. I am sure he will share more news at the event!

The post Coffee Qs: Cecile Billiet, Webgains appeared first on PerformanceIN.

When did you join the Webgains team?

It’s been exactly a year since I joined Webgains! It’s gone really quick.

What drew you to work in the performance marketing industry?

I finished university a year ago, where I studied journalism with public relations, which included marketing modules – the modules were so interesting and I really wanted to pursue something in this industry because it is still so young. There is still a lot to learn, so much to explore and a lot of room for creative thinking in terms of optimisations, which is very interesting.

Describe your typical day-to-day in the office?

It is always busy! I work in the client support team and we have around 400 self-managed clients across all territories, so you can imagine there’s never a quiet day! I help my clients with the technical queries they have, which is mainly to do with tracking as well as support with performance. Some of them need some help in terms of what they can develop and who they can work with.

We have self-managed clients from various categories so it is very important that I order my day correctly so I am giving suggestions that are bespoke for that particular client.

You’re part of the client services team – what do you enjoy most about your job?

I like the fact that our clients are so varied and come from all business sectors, from fashion and gardening to niche sectors such as insurance. If you have an open mind, you can learn so much about different businesses and how they work.

What’s been your career highlight to date?

I have recently been given my own portfolio of supported clients – they expect performance advice from me and it’s my responsibility to find the right partners to improve their performance and help them grow their affiliate channels. I am really proud of it as it shows that hard work pays off – I am at the beginning of my career and I am still learning a lot but it gives me more responsibility.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening in the performance marketing industry?

Everybody seems to be talking about Google Shopping Services offered by price comparison websites. Being able to have Google ads on a cost per action (CPA) basis will certainly be a game changer for some smaller brands that can’t afford to pay fixed prices on cost per click (CPC), which is such a good opportunity. The price comparison site will do the work for you. It is a lot to learn and understand but everyone is talking about it.

The influencer industry is also a talking point – big brands can afford to pay top influencers but we are thinking how we can incorporate that with smaller clients who may not necessarily have the budget.

And some of the key challenges?

In the industry as a whole – one of the biggest talking points is the challenge of knowing how you use different metrics for different partners because some of them need to be rewarded on a CPA basis and some of them are just emerging in the market. For example, blogger activity needs to be rewarded for upper funnel activity whereas most of the other affiliates can work on CPA. Basically, it needs to be a fixed tenancy for what they could provide in terms of traffic and brand awareness but for some of the smaller brands I work with, a fixed tenancy may seem like too much of a risk.

In my role specifically – I need to manage my time very well because I have so many clients and receive lots of queries; it is a case of knowing when my support has been enough.

Outside of your job, what do you enjoy?

I’m an avid reader – I find it hard to put a book down! I like to travel a lot and always have a holiday planned. I am going to Rome at the end of September!

Three words that best describe you?

Determined, ambitious and curious – I always have questions to ask.

What would be your top tip for newcomers entering the industry?

This is such a young industry, so you need to be open-minded and inquisitive as there is so much opportunity to learn.

The post Coffee Qs: Teodora Bularda, Webgains appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been in working at Tug?

About three and half years. Tug has grown a lot since I started; for example, there was just one person in the programmatic team and now we’re a team of three and expect to expand this further. We also have a large creative team now and the growth of the business and our clients is incredibly exciting.

What’s your typical day-to-day like?

It’s pretty different every day. I do a lot of work in the accounts still so I check in to make sure everything is performing correctly. Sometimes I’ll have client meetings as well as new vendor meetings, brainstorm sessions and doing detailed data analysis. It depends on what we need to do at the time, for instance, with the beginning of the quarter there would be a lot of client meetings and brainstorming but as the quarter progresses we often get to dig deeper into the data to improve our campaigns.

What do you enjoy most about working in performance marketing?

What I enjoy the most is how fast everything has changed. I started off doing PPC and programmatic and now I’m managing programmatic as well as some out-of-home campaigns and looking into audio etc, which is really exciting.

I think that this is what interests me the most about programmatic as it changes so much. Things like video, which when I began three years ago, wasn’t a core channel but now it is. It is also great to see out-of-home and audio being traded programmatically. It’s all changing very quickly and for the better.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the industry?

The biggest thing we’ve noticed, particularly in the past 6-8 months is that brands, and we as an agency, are taking the user experience a lot more seriously which hasn’t been the case in the past. I think we’re going back to something we’ve spoken about quite a lot, which is going back to having the ‘big idea’ of advertising and actually trying to sell something rather than saying “this is the cool new thing we can do”. It’s putting the customer at the forefront.

And some of the key challenges?

GDPR is definitely a big challenge for us and trying to figure out how exactly it’s going to impact programmatic has been interesting. 

I also think there’s a misconception around programmatic at the moment. There’s been a lot of bad press around it recently, such as the brand safety issues and the Facebook data problems, which have left a bit of a negative and pessimistic feeling amongst marketers and customers alike. It’s not fair to say that the onus is entirely on the tech either. A lot of the problems have been due to bad media buying, which I know is quite a controversial opinion from a media buyer. For example, when marketers are pushed to lower costs, it needs to be communicated that doing so means that inventory quality will fall. There’s also been too much reliance on automation at the expense of the creative and consumer. However, I think there are companies, like Google & Facebook, who now need to take down their walls and rebuild them transparently, so that we can trust them again

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

I definitely think it’s our event, Tug Life that we’re going into our fourth year of in June. In my first year at Tug, the agency started an event series which focuses on how digital is impacting real life and we’ve been doing that every year since. I think we reached around 1,000 attendees over the course of the week when we did the event last year which is really exciting to see and something we’re interested in developing further.

Outside of the workspace, what are your interests and hobbies?

I love to cook and try out new recipes. I think I watch a bit too much television. I love TV shows, and you could probably name any TV show and I’d have seen it!

Three words that best describe you?

Extroverted, trustworthy and decisive.

What would be your top tip for newcomers entering the programmatic industry?

I think the biggest ones are to remain open-minded and adaptable. Since I started three years ago, my job remit has changed. You’ve got to be open to new and innovative things and just being adaptable to it as well. I never thought I’d be learning about TV and audio buying in digital marketing but here we are…

Lastly, any exciting things in the pipeline for Tug over the coming months?

We’re extending our creative team quite a lot so there have been some additions to the team. From a media and performance marketing perspective it’s going to be interesting to see how we can push that further alongside creative. We’ve developed a CTO position [Eoin O’Neill] as well, so we have now got a technology team and a creative team that is working more with the media team; it’s going to be really interesting time for myself and the whole agency.

The post Coffee Qs: Hannah Thompson, Tug Agency appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you both been working at TopCashback?

LG: For me, it’s been very nearly four years and that includes a placement year when I first joined the company.

JH: Similar for me as well, I did my placement year at TopCashback so cumulatively it’s coming to two years when including the 12 month placement.

LG: My placement year was based in our client-facing side of the Partnerships team in the London office so it was nice to come back after graduating and get straight back to it!

JH: It was a little different for me in the sense that my placement role was more account support and admin focus based in our head office. So coming down to London and then being client-facing after graduating has been a big change but I have really enjoyed it.

What do you enjoy most about performance marketing?

LG: For me, I like that it’s so easy to measure everything that we do. When we’re talking to a new or established client, whatever we’re suggesting, we’ve got previous data to back it up and can measure exactly how the new campaign would work. It’s so easy to measure results and in theory the success of what we’re trying to do.

Also, the fact the industry is still growing. There are some high street brands that are only just starting to engage in this channel and that’s really exciting.

JH: One of the big things I’ve noticed is the emphasis on relationship building and collaboration. Whether it’s a networking event or taking a client out for lunch, I think these sort of events can have a really meaningful impact on your working relationship and can help in securing better deals for our members.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the industry?

LG: I guess similar to the last point about the industry growing, this is creating a lot of new opportunities. For example, the rise of the influencers and how we can incorporate them into our standard traditional affiliate platform. There have been some good results so far, but it’s still early days so I expect it’s only going to increase.

JH: By no means a new trend but I’ve certainly noticed that there’s been a growing emphasis on innovation, so as a channel and cashback site, it’s a need for us to offer placements and exposure packages that is beyond the norm.

And, some of the challenges affecting affiliates and publishers?

LG: Recently, there’s seems to be more of a shift to ‘race to the bottom’, in terms of cutting commissions. From a cashback sites perspective for example, no longer offering commission on existing customer purchases. I think the challenge to the industry is often that we’ve been seen as very cost effective which is great but the race to the bottom is probably not the most positive way to interpret that.

JH: One of the things I’ve noticed which has appeared in a lot of articles is digital ad and marketing spends growing at a slower rate than they have before. Even with affiliate spend up 15% year-on-year in 2017, there are still a lot of long-standing affiliate programmes that struggle to get sign off on significant budgets from senior managers to invest in the affiliate channel.

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

LG: For me, it has to be the Industry Rising Star nomination at this year’s PMAs. That was a really nice surprise and brilliant to be recognised for the work I’ve put in.

JH: The PMAs for me as well. It was my first awards and for us to take home the Industry Choice of Publisher Award was an honour. Sore heads the next day ha!

A belated congratulations for winning Industry Choice of Publisher Award at this year’s PMAs. What does this mean for TopCashback and the work it’s doing in the industry?

LG: Again for all of us, it’s nice to be recognised. Everyone across the business works really hard to put together our campaigns. It’s not just the partnerships team but all of the departments across the business. Also, having confidence from other people in the industry that feel we are working well and ultimately for us, it’s working out how to do the same but better.

JH: I think it’s great and a good indicator that we’re working really well across all departments; as Lisa said it’s not just the client-facing teams but right across the business – through our claims, design and email teams – putting that all together is a nice thing for the business as a whole.

Aside from the affiliate world, do you have any other interest/hobbies?

LG: I guess my main one is travel. I ticked off some destinations over the last couple of years. I went to India a few weeks ago, Portugal before that, Thailand and Vietnam so got a bit of a list I’m working down so it’s quite exciting.

JH: For me, I’m into my live music so gigs and music festivals; I’ve got a few coming up this summer. Also being new to London, I enjoy getting out in the weekend and seeing new places around the city.

Three words that best describe you?

LG: Inquisitive, sociable and easy going.

JH: Enthusiastic, ambitious and industrious.

Lastly, are there any announcements from TopCashback that you’re able to share with us?

LG: Watch this space, but we can share that we’ve just gone live with our new in-store platform, which means now we can track across both Visa and MasterCard (and very soon AMEX).

JH: It’s really about us exploring new ways that we can grow as a business and continue to do the very best for our clients and members. 

The post Coffee Qs: Lisa Gardiner & Jake Hodgkiss, TopCashback appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been in working at Rakuten Marketing?

I’ve been working at Rakuten Marketing for almost two years now! Though I have only been in the affiliate division for a year.

What’s your typical day-to-day is like?

This depends on the day of course but often involves clearing my email inbox in the morning and taking client calls to discuss affiliate activity [sales, traffic, optimisations] throughout the day. I also take part in discussions with the publisher team about new opportunities that I can present to clients in addition to team huddles to discuss industry news, wins and challenges, partnership updates etc.

Often we hold networking events with clients and publishers, so I try to attend them when I can.

You’ve recently moved into working in the affiliate team at Rakuten Marketing – what do you enjoy most about the channel?

I personally think that there is a lot of room for strategic input in the affiliate channel: whether that is using publishers who we know will perform well to drive sales or to push promotions/offers. On the other hand, it’s exciting in terms of taking risks by using new sites and juggling budget where we may not be able to confirm return.

On top of this, affiliate marketing has a lot of room for growth – the industry standard for affiliate share for an e-commerce site is around 5-10% of online revenue. I think affiliate can achieve so much more – and I’m trying to achieve this for my clients.

How has attribution background benefited your move into the affiliate space? How do you use this experience to optimise strategies for your clients?

I think at a top level, having an understanding of digital marketing channels – and how they interplay with one another – helps greatly. On top of this, being able to understand key trends helped me grow in affiliate a lot quicker: i.e. understanding where different publisher groups generally sit in a user journey, etc.

I use this experience with my clients directly through Cadence, Rakuten Marketing’s attribution and measurement platform. It helps me dive deeper into affiliate activity across the whole digital marketing space and there are dashboards that help us position channels with one another.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the affiliate industry?

I think the importance of cashback and loyalty partners to drive sales and achieve key KPIs (e.g. new customers, high AOV). They’re proving almost incremental to affiliate programmes more so than ever before, which is something some of my brands are having to adapt to. This is especially the case for some fashion brands who I work with, where we are seeing a decline in more established shopping/discovery partners.

On top of this, cashback is very much an established group, but loyalty I think is growing.

And some of the key challenges?

I think right now, GDPR and data protection laws – it’s such an unknown right now for networks and for brands themselves.

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

Being promoted to account manager! It’s been something I’ve had my eyes on for a while and have been fortunate to shape my development around this.

I also work on some of our key accounts – which is a highlight in itself.

Outside of the affiliate space, what are your interests and hobbies?

I like to run – a lot. Helps me clear my head, and if I go in the morning it definitely sets me up for the day. Apart from that, I like watching films, socialising with friends, etc.

Three words that best describe you?

Dedicated, sympathetic and personable.  

What would be your top tip for newcomers entering the industry?

Ask questions! All the time! Use your early time to learn as much as possible before you get incredibly busy! I did a couple of online courses when I first joined Rakuten Marketing and I think it really helped me grow here quicker.

Lastly, what are you most looking forward to this year?

Singles Day and Cyber Weekend! We’ve got big targets to hit this year from a strong 2017, and I’m excited to do that.

Outside of work, I have a trip to the US booked, so I am looking forward to that too.

The post Coffee Qs: Ryan Bourne, Rakuten Marketing appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been working at TradeTracker?

Nearly one and a half years! Since last September.

What’s your typical day-to-day like?

It varies, which is why I love the role! Normally I’ll get in about 8.30am and have some breakfast, as I look through my emails and begin responding to my lovely clients. Then I will make a to-do list (because I love lists!) and begin working through that. I can have client meetings, calls, deal with invoices queries, analyzing our campaign results, working with bloggers, negotiating offers with our publishers. 

What to do enjoy most about performance marketing?

Compared to other forms of marketing, performance marketing requires results. The results make everyone happy – our clients are happy with their impressions/clicks and of course conversions. The affiliates are happy to receive a commission for their hard work, and even working together to achieve it with Real Attribution. It gives a huge focus on the goals of what the campaign is designed to achieve: for some it’s more brand awareness, hitting a different market, achieving a certain revenue per month, or achieving a set ROI. Each client is different and has different needs, so it’s identifying those and working closely to achieve and exceed the KPIs. And of course, for results which need improving, it’s about working smarter and finding out how to achieve those.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the industry?

I think the Travel industry is becoming less seasonal – traditionally the sales soar in Q1, however, we’ve seen steady sales year-round and I think travel will be on the up in 2018. It seems smaller holidays are being favoured over one big trip per year.

And some of the key challenges?

Smaller, less well-known brands building enough customer confidence to succeed. This is why publisher types such as cashback and voucher really do help, as they often offer reviews/ratings, which can help establish that initial relationship between brand and customer.

How has affiliate helped shaped the fashion and beauty industry among others?

Affiliate marketing has drastically improved the fashion and beauty customer’s journey, by making purchasing easier and more direct. From the inspirations taken straight from the catwalk, with content sites, blogs and e-mags instantly showing key trends, in clear and accessible ways. The vloggers and influencers are accessible to review and offer their trusted opinion on the best beauty buys and how to apply them. Price comparison sites showing which merchants are selling the pieces at the best price/with the cheapest delivery. Finally, the cashback and voucher sites are helping to save that extra little bit, to ensure value within the fashion and beauty industry.

As well as this, the journey has now become traceable and trackable using conversion path tracking, where the fashion and beauty brands can see who the influencers, assistors and converters are and decide how to better reward them to continue and increase their promotion. 

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

Definitely, the first time I was able to speak with an experienced client and answer all their complicated questions about affiliate marketing. Coming fresh into the industry and learning everything from our account director, Wouter, our team, internal training, attending events and talks and reading as much as possible. Initially, I needed to go away and find answers and come back to my clients, but the first time I knew everything was a huge achievement for me. Now, I look forward to complicated questions, and again, if I don’t know things, I’ll be excited to learn.

Aside from the affiliate world, do you have any other interest/hobbies?

I used to play rugby, which I’m keen to get back into – looking for the right club! I used to work at a cocktail bar, which has still remained a huge passion for me. So when I can, I whisk up cocktails for friends and family. Another challenge I’ve taken up this year is 12 books in 12 months, which makes the most of my two hour round trip commute!

Three words that best describe you?

Passionate, creative, organised. 

Best place you’ve travelled to?

New York! I love the glitz and endless things to do. I’m going again in April this year with my mum and sister, I’m very excited!

Lastly, any exciting things in the pipeline for TradeTracker?

Not that I can mention at the moment, but watch this space!

The post Coffee Qs: Natasha Tooray, TradeTracker appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been working at Vouchercloud?

Just under two years.

What’s your typical day-to-day like?

So for most parts, I’m kind of the go-to between the brands and the company. I do the client services side of things as an account manager.

For the main parts, finding out the brand’s KPIs, what they’re looking to do and exploring different and creative ways to achieve that; negotiating commercials, content etc.

What do you enjoy most about your role and the affiliate marketing industry?

From an industry perspective, I’m a creative-minded person, I like to think outside of the box and do unique and challenging things.

On the networking side, I’m an outgoing guy so having the chance to network and talk to lots of different people, I really enjoy that.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the industry?

One of the main things I’ve looked at is influencer marketing. I was at PI LIVE last year and there was quite a large presence there. It’s become a new way of reaching millions of people who are really into certain brands and products and what people have to say. It’s just a different approach.

And some of the key challenges?

I think it goes back to the creative side; getting people to take risks and doing something a bit different and outside of their comfort zone. Just a change from the usual services packages out there.

What are your thoughts on Cloud Savings Company’s recent acquisition of Vouchercloud and Giftcloud?

It’s been business as usual between us and our clients. We’ve just had our revamp of the office and we’re really excited for what the future holds. It’s been a strong year for us and I’m looking forward to seeing the company grow.

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

It’s hard to nail down specific ones. Last year Q4, I had a really strong period which again narrows down to the strong relationships we have with brands, leading to positive results which everyone was quite happy with.

We’ve had a few nominations for the Performance Marketing Awards on some of the campaigns I worked on. Fingers crossed!

Aside from the affiliate world, do you have any other interest/hobbies?

I love snowboarding…so probably not the best country for it ha! Really enjoy football; I support Liverpool [not sure how controversial that is ha]. Other than that, I’m generally out and about…down at the pub.

Three words that best describe you?

Relaxed, sociable and friendly.

You’re currently based in Bristol, what’s your favourite thing about the city?

It’s a chilled and laid back place. You’ve got the buzz and social side of London but don’t have the involvement of getting to one side from the other. It has the community feel and just a generally awesome place to live in.

Lastly, any exciting things in the pipeline for Vouchercloud this year?

For us at the moment, the four nominations at the PMAs which we’re excited about. Also, we’re moving forward with our sister company Giftcloud, looking at different ways to incentify users to work on brands etc. That’ll be a big step moving forward.

The post Coffee Qs: Nathan Dawson, Vouchercloud appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been working at VisualSoft?

Just over two and half years. It can be exhausting at times due to being a creative agency and all but it’s really enjoyable.

What’s your typical day-to-day like?

Every morning I start off with a strong black coffee which gets me through the day. I start reading emails and blogs to get my mind going then begin working on client accounts and briefs. I work as part of a team so we work together on others accounts and brainstorm ideas. We’ve also got meetings and visit clients as well. It’s pretty much the same day-to-day but you get to work with different clients doing different things which is fun.

What to do enjoy most about search?

What I really like about search is that it’s always evolving. When I first started, it was a lot more to do with shopping campaigns, now it’s a lot to do with the audience; it’s moved into what the future is like when searching a product, how people using it as well…it’s always evolving. What might be right last week, might be wrong this week. You’re always learning.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the search industry?

What I’ve started to notice quite a lot is artificial intelligence [AI], especially within search and how people use it, that’s become a key trend. The way people are searching is definitely changing. 

Last Spring, I wrote a blog post about AI and how more people were starting to use voice search like Alexa, Google Assistant etc. Now we’ve started to actually notice more people using it and when you notice people’s search terms when finding your ads, it’s quite interesting to see the changes from having a very specific thing to find on search using specific keywords to becoming more conversational between two people. You’re skimming the computer for help, rather than telling the computer “this is what I need”. That’s definitely something we’ve noticed as a trend.

And some of the key challenges?

One of the things which has now become more established is paid search. I think a key challenge is that everyone is becoming indulged with it, more businesses are going online etc; that’s the main challenge – how to do you stay on top of your competitors? It’s one thing I tell clients which they’re reluctant in doing. For example, mobile optimisation, where if you don’t go for mobile optimised sites then you will lose out on mobile users where for instance 75% of your customers are on mobile. If you don’t evolve, you get left behind. It’s about getting that across and becoming more aligned with your competitors.

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

There’s been a lot of good points. Travelling to see clients and going to Google events; it’s rewarding getting sent to these things to represent your company.

Some of the other highlights come from day-to-day things: for example, you might get a new client who’s never done anything with paid search before then watching them grow over the next few years, that’s also rewarding, knowing the work you’ve put into that account is actually paying off. 

Aside from the search world, do you have any other interest/hobbies?

I really like staying active. Someone can say to me “Sasha, let’s do jujitsu tomorrow?” and I would be like “yeah let’s totally do it”. I like to stay active, keep things fresh and change an interest or two. I like being outdoors as well, travelling seeing friends where I live. I like eating [is that an interest, I don’t know ha!].

Three words that best describe you?

Enthusiastic, competitive and honest.

What’s your favourite food spot?

Anywhere that does really good burgers, it could be a burger van or TGI Fridays, whichever one is prefered. I can’t pick one ha!

Lastly, what can we expect from Visualsoft in the next year or so?

There’s a lot of things happening right now. The company is growing and we’re starting to get more people in from different personalities which means lots of fresh ideas coming in which is good. With our team as well, especially becoming a Google partner, expectations for Q2 and generally a lot more things we can offer to clients.

The post Coffee Qs: Sasha Howells, Visualsoft appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been working at Rakuten Marketing?

I’ve been with the Rakuten Marketing team for around 16 months.

What’s your typical day-to-day like?

My day-to-day changes frequently! The core of my week generally follows reporting, insight sharing, client calls and follow up, actioning optimisations and strategic changes. I spend a lot of time monitoring budget and performance progress throughout the month and forward planning around clients marketing calendars for the coming months.

I’ve had some incredible opportunities as part of the Rakuten team – travelling to train with my colleagues in Salt Lake City, visiting one of our top clients in Milan and our Scottsdale Symposium event, most recently.

What do you enjoy most about working in client services?

My favourite thing about working in client services is the opportunity to understand the goals for brands within different verticals, at different maturity stages, with different customer audiences and helping my brands reach their goals. A win for a client is a win for us too, so partnering with a variety of brands to work with them towards their goal is exciting and the best part of client services for sure.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the performance marketing industry?

Advertisers are beginning to understand more the measurement of performance marketing channels, and with that development in understanding, there is a bigger focus on data and transparency. I think a lot of brands are becoming more digitally savvy and brave with their digital branding techniques – we’re seeing growth YoY in the spend towards video, with strategies such as OOH and Connected TV growing too.

And some of the key challenges?

I think last-click is still a challenge, but I do think people’s measurement and approach are changing. A lot of our key clients are using our Cadence attribution tool to give them a holistic overview of how each of their performance marketing channels are contributing to on-site traffic and conversions, and how they are growing YoY.

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

Being shortlisted for Industry Rising Star in the Performance Marketing Awards!

Outside of the display channel, what are your interests and hobbies?

This is the question that you think is easy but actually makes you realise you’re a bit boring. My biggest passions outside of work are fashion, music and family. I love live music so I like to spend a lot of time going to gigs, especially in the summer. And I have lots of nieces and nephews so they keep me busy too!

You’ve been shortlisted for this year’s Industry Rising Star Award at the Performance Marketing Awards. How does it feel to be nominated in this category?

It feels great! It’s really lovely to be recognised by your peers and put forward for the award. I’m really looking forward to the award ceremony later this month!

Three words that best describe you?

Hmmm – driven, honest, a good listener.

What are you most looking forward to this year?

There are lots of things happening this year which I am looking forward to. In particular, we have our flagship Symposium event coming up on the 18th of April which is always good fun where more than 600+ of our clients, publishers and partners will come together for a day of inspirational content and networking. I’m also going to be taking part in our Advertiser Innovation Session at Symposium, I’ll be on a panel alongside Bally and Figleaves, so that’s exciting!

Lastly, any exciting things in the pipeline for Rakuten Marketing?

There’s always exciting things in the pipeline for Rakuten Marketing! I think one of the things I’m most excited for is that we’ve restructured our Client Service team to work in client-centric, rather than product-centric teams. Combined with the fact we offer our multi-channel attribution tool, Cadence, to all our advertisers for no additional cost, we’re going to be taking an increasingly unified approach to all the channels and campaigns we manage.

The post Coffee Qs: Belinda Aylward, Rakuten Marketing appeared first on PerformanceIN.

How long have you been working at Acceleration Partners?

This is my third month. I started at the end of November/start of December and time has flown by! Everyone in the company works remotely and that’s quite an interesting thing to be doing. It’s a completely different dynamic to what I’ve worked with before.

What’s your typical day-to-day is like?

Everyone works remotely so things are a little different. Not having to commute means an extra few minutes in bed which is always appreciated ha!

As with most account managers, I start with checking previous days figures, catching up on emails etc. Because the company is US based and works with different markets, we have to do a lot of video calls so I spend a lot of my time doing conference calls. That does mean that despite working remotely, I need to look presentable and not sit around in my PJs.

What to do enjoy most about performance marketing?

From a professional point of view, I quite like the idea that everyone involved is generally boarded up in performance, so if you’re a publisher and generally working well with an advertiser, you’re going to be rewarded for that. From a personal perspective, everyone in the industry is awesome; there are so many types of people involved and everyone is really fun which helps because this industry requires a lot of relationship building and networking.

What do you think are some of the key trends happening right now in the industry?

The importance of influencers is going to continue to grow. You can’t go anywhere on social media or YouTube without seeing content providers pushing products that are made from majors brands or their own startups. If you look at the Influencer Marketing Show, being combined with PI LIVE, which is the main conference in the UK for performance marketing shows just how important it really is.

Another is that brands are expanding globally. It’s really interesting to see global programmes being run and how it works across multiple currencies. It’d be interesting to see how that develops as we’re a US based company but we’re already expanding into new markets such as EMEA and APAC.

And some of the key challenges?

GDPR is definitely the biggest challenge in 2018. Whilst we’ve had meetings and big talks around the industry, I still think it’s a steep learning curve for everybody and I would expect to be hits to growth from May because everyone will be conservative while we are all expecting or waiting for that first big fine or breach. I can imagine when that happens everyone’s emails and LinkedIn will go crazy.

What’s been your biggest career highlight so far?

In my previous role working for USwitch, I was responsible for managing several partnerships, including our energy affiliate programme. At the PMAs last year we were nominated for Best Management Affiliate Programme. We didn’t win but we came out highly commended so that was cool.

Aside from the affiliate world, do you have any other interest/hobbies?

I’m a pretty big hockey player, I play four times a week for Wapping Hockey Club. We either play in Wapping where you’ve got views of the Tower Bridge, The Shard and city which is amazing, or we play at the national hockey stadium in the Olympic Park. A 5,000 seat stadium; it’s really amazing to know that you share that with gold medalists etc. You got 350 men and women involved in it which is great. There are not many places where you’ve got that social aspect so it’s really good and fun.

Three words that best describe you?

Committed, joker and cynical (I take everything that people say with a pinch of salt).

Favourite book of all time?

I should say that Acceleration Partners’ Robert Glazer has a book called Performance Partnerships and it’s a title that really promotes the affiliate industry and one we’ve been giving away at our events.

My personal favourite is Bill Bryson’s A Short History of Nearly Everything. He’s the kind of guy who’s into his science and history and explains why we are here right now; it goes through the history of everything in a very accessible, funny and precise way.

If you could meet one famous person, dead or alive, who would it be and why?

There was an American comedian called George Carlin, he died in 2008 so never got the chance to see him performing live but his videos went viral on YouTube. It’s really interesting because he’s quite the political satirist. I was only 18 at the time but he changed the way I thought about things. All your favourite comedians, if you were to ask them who their favourite influencer was, they would say George Carlin. I definitely recommend watching his stuff on YouTube as I think he was the greatest comedian there ever was.

Lastly, any exciting things in the pipeline for Acceleration Partners this year?

The EMEA expansion started in June last year, we’ve already got six employees. There’s more in the pipeline so it will be exciting to see how that team expands. With that large team, we’re going to be increasing our international reach as in America we were voted the number one agency so it’s good to take that on globally, so very excited for 2018.

The post Coffee Qs: Iain Davidson, Acceleration Partners appeared first on PerformanceIN.