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James chatted to Niamh Butler-Walton about his professional history and the trends he is noticing within the industry…

What’s your role and what does it consist of?

I’m the Founder and CEO of LUX rewards. I love getting strategic, testing out new propositions, managing the development of new technology, hiring talented people to join our mission and building a team culture of positivity and proactivity! There’s also some legal, accounting and compliance work (which I don’t love quite as much) but hopefully not for much longer as we grow the team. 

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

Whilst an overused phrase, creating “win-wins” is the best feeling for me. The performance marketing industry is not about defeating others, but creating meaningful partnerships that drive real value for all stakeholders involved. When done properly, customers should feel rewarded, brands should gain good repeatable revenues and publishers should receive a fair cut for connecting the dots and introducing new technologies. 

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

My father is my inspiration. I grew up discussing his business ventures with him around the dinner table. He introduced “pay per results” to the SEO and performance marketing sector at the break of the millenium. This pricing strategy alone enabled him to differentiate from the fixed-fee competitors and he was able to charge a higher price by guaranteeing results. As a teenager, I saw for myself the long queues he was generating at business expos and events.

Who in your team deserves more recognition that they get? (The unsung hero)

Tom Munday is a beacon of bright light at the heart of the team. You can’t knock him down! If you’ve ever had the pleasure of emailing Tom, you might have been lucky enough to receive one of his legendary video replies. (PS. email tom.munday@luxrewards.co.uk if you want to see for yourself what it’s all about). 

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

I’ve seen a demand for more local content and more segmented (and closed) audiences. Most programmes have a handful of mass-market brands, but local restaurants and retailers seem to be a hot topic. I’ve also seen brands be more selective about the programmes they apply to, due to the brand associations but also the relevancy to customers. Finally, card-linking is a game-changer, especially for instore purchases. We use this at LUX and it provides a super smooth customer experience, whilst helping brands to reward transactions across the online and physical worlds. 

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

Technology is increasing in speed every year. Affiliate networks have adapted well by putting data at the heart of their platforms and presenting that data in a way that can drive additional insights. They also have a responsibility to champion new technologies like card-linking to the brands they work with. 

What one thing would you change about the industry?

I’d like to see more value passed down to publishers and programmes that give value back to customers (cashback/rewards) than those that simply push internet traffic through to links. Recognition that rewarding customers can drive additional loyalty, repeat custom, referrals and higher basket value. 

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

Challenger banks have started engaging in rewards (we’re already working with some). There has been a lot of speculation about how they’re going to monetise their large user bases (most are making large losses) and now is a great time to partner with them. They will drive technology change at a much faster pace than the industry is moving at the moment, so best to have your finger on the pulse. 

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

I’m an entrepreneur at heart. No industry is safe!

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

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The site fully focuses on sustainability and encourages people to be more responsible when shopping. The idea for the company came from the duo’s wish to provide something that could be truly rewarding for everyone – customers, the planet, and themselves.

Tanya chatted to Niamh Butler-Walton about why advertisers need to form better relationships with their affiliates and women-driven businesses…

What is your role and what does it consist of?

I am the co-founder and CEO of Codes To Share, a UK based business that currently operates two discount code websites. VoucherShares.co.uk was launched at the end of 2019 for the UK market and eCouponShares.com was launched in August 2021 for the North American market. VoucherShares.co.uk is the first voucher codes website in the UK to focus on sustainability and is a fully certified CO2 neutral website.

I am not an inventor by nature, and I don’t always come up with original business ideas myself, but I am a very passionate executive. If I like an idea, I get fully consumed by it and I make it work. If you want a business to succeed you need to give it full dedication. The idea of a green voucher code website came from my business partner and co-founder, Miranda Coombes. I liked the idea very much and joined as an investor and full time CEO, whilst adding my previous experience of being a CEO of a technology business for the last 15 years or so, growing startups into the multi million revenues, and subsequently selling them. 

I am a very keen supporter of conservation projects and the model of a green voucher codes website resonated with me straight away. My role is that of any good tech startup CEO – being patient with money, creating the right team, bringing the model to market, making sure the model works and generates revenue, growing and developing the business further and of course, maintaining the love for what I’m doing along the way. 

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

I love the technical part of it and the excitement and benefits that our customers get from using our technology. I have a mixed engineering and finance background and it may not sound that interesting, but I get real excitement in seeing how our technical ideas can instantly affect our business top line, as well as deliver revenue to the advertisers we work with – plus save the planet as we go. My career path started in digital in 2002, back in the day when the internet was still slow, and I totally love what I’ve achieved in the last 20 years. The instant consumer behaviour reaction is a massive thrill that keeps my interest in the performance marketing industry. 

The other massive attraction for me always was the flexibility around the industry. I have a family and three children, I’ve travelled the world and the only workplace I needed was my laptop. I would not be able to live such a fulfilling life as easily if I had been in the office nine to five. This flexibility is a massive attraction for me as a mother. 

Not to forget of course that the performance marketing industry still has room for genius ideas to conquer the space – and this is extremely rare to find nowadays. 

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

Probably Robert Rose. Not just because I love rock music and long-haired guys, but because he truly believes in the fact that performance marketing success is true marketing success. 

Who in your team deserves more recognition? (The unsung hero)

I would say our SEO guy, also a keen blogger, Shaun Richings. Both Miranda and myself have taken away a lot of knowledge from him and have been inspired to take risks when introducing a new discount website into an already massively competitive marketplace and succeed in it. 

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

The Voucher Shares niche may be a little different to generic voucher websites but even though we appeal to sustainability-conscious consumers by default, we can see that advertisers who put sustainability at the heart of their business receive more overall attention from today’s consumers. We work with thousands of brands and we can see the increasing trend amongst the consumers to look for more eco-friendly products rather than for just the best deals. That’s why this summer we introduced a green icon to highlight all sustainable and eco-friendly products from different advertisers and make it easier for consumers to identify. 

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

We’ve noticed affiliate networks have become more accessible to smaller businesses. Small businesses need access to online selling, it has become their life line during the pandemic. It’s great to see that many affiliate networks have made their joining process easier and are also making more effort to connect new advertisers with good publishers. Affiliate networks have become better business facilitators in my opinion. 

What one thing would you change about the industry?

Advertisers need better direct relationships with their affiliates. As I mentioned above, affiliate networks have become better facilitators, but there is still a long way to go before advertisers can truly embrace the fact that affiliates are doing the hard work of selling for them and so should not be at the bottom of the revenue distribution. There is still a long way to go to make affiliate marketing more transparent and I believe affiliate networks could do more to support affiliates. Affiliates help to build customer loyalty for advertisers. Long term positive impact of working with affiliates should not be underestimated. 

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

Embrace a sustainable business model. Preparing and implementing sustainable changes to your business now will set it up for a brighter future. 

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in the future, perhaps?

I would love to focus on a tech startup advisory but also business support for women-driven businesses in performance and affiliate marketing as well as digital businesses focused on sustainability.  If I can achieve business success with three children and English as my second language then anyone can. They just need to start at the right place.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

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He had a passion for personal finance and bargains which led him to write his book ‘How to Live for Free’ which went on to be a #1 Amazon bestseller.

He later went on to acquire FreeStuff.co.uk to gain an even bigger market share of the freebie space. Deepak even featured on the BBC show Dragons Den, gaining business offers from three of the Dragons.

Deepak chatted to Niamh Butler-Walton about the affiliate space, his favourite things about it and the areas he would like to improve:

What’s your role and what does it consist of?

I’m the founder of LatestFreeStuff.co.uk and LatestDeals.co.uk. We run platforms that show people how to claim freebies and free samples from top brands in the UK. The second website, LatestDeals.co.uk, is a community-driven website where people share their own bargains at thousands of retailers across the UK. 

My main role at both companies is to manage the day-to-day operations but also to make sure we are constantly building and maintaining good business relationships with our merchants and retailers. I could be setting up calls with brands, negotiating exclusive deals for our members and engaging with new partners who want to run promotions.

We work with a large variety of brands, from small businesses to large established retailers. I speak to many different account managers on a daily basis to make sure we are always delivering on having the best deals on the site. 

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

I love the fact that everything is delivered by performance in this industry. There are so many other industries where companies can spend thousands without hitting any of the companies ROI targets. We’ve had partners move from spending their budgets on social media, TV and print media to affiliate because it just makes sense.

We as an industry are very good at making sure we can deliver new incremental sales to brands and retailers. But what excites me even more about the affiliate industry is the innovation and fast-paced nature of when things change. It definitely keeps you on your toes. I always say there’s never a dull day in working in this industry! 

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

That’s a really hard one! I have had so many people over the years help us through our journey. There are so many individuals at different publishers and affiliate networks that have assisted us in growing. But, the one that stands out on the publisher side is Mark Pearson. What he created with MyVoucherCodes was truly groundbreaking and he’s achieved so many things since he sold the company. He is a true innovator in our space and was one of the inspirations for setting up my first company. 

Who in your team deserves more recognition than they get? (The unsung hero)

There are so many people across both companies that deserve recognition past and present. But the person that has stuck by the company from start to finish is Francois Schwob. He started with LatestFreeStuff.co.uk in the first year of the company starting and he’s been instrumental with helping us grow over the years. He joined us when we only had 1,000 visitors on the site every month and he tailored our marketing and sales activities to support our growth to reach over one million people every month. It’s not something we could have achieved without his constant support and ideas. 

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

We’ve seen large changes in customer habits over the lockdown period and with that, we’ve seen changes in and advertiser behaviour. The best retailers have been adaptable to shift their offerings based on market conditions. We’ve had many retailers that sell predominately in-store shift all of their activity online and create great deals for our members that have performed well. Focusing the right product at the right time when it has been in demand has been crucial to making so many of our partnerships a real success over the last few years. 

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

Affiliate networks have always been super important as a key connector between the advertiser and the publisher. Over the last 12 months, this has become even more important. We work very closely with all the networks to facilitate a conversation with new and existing partners. The account managers in particular have been a vital source of information for us to look for top-performing products that are great deals for users. Our team is great at spotting these deals but the account managers approach and resourcefulness at getting us exclusive deals has proved to become even more important. 

What one thing would you change about the industry?

It would be great to see more data-driven transparency between the advertiser and the publisher. We have made large strides in the last few years but we sometimes still miss crucial information on campaign performance. Our daily reporting would pick up trends on our campaign performance but one day we want to go even further with reporting real trends of what we’re really seeing on the advertiser side in terms of the customer profile and repeat purchasing behaviour. All of this would help us to paint a better picture and what deals performed the best and how we can deliver even better performance on future deals. 

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

My top tip is to try and make new and existing partners work with us more closely to strike the perfect deal for the consumer. One of the things that’s super important is to make sure we put the consumer first when organising a promotion. I feel like this gets overlooked sometimes and we are often pitched a 2% or 3% discount on a product where retailers expect it to deliver a 12x increase in sales but this is not realistic.

We have over two million members at LatestDeals.co.uk but if retailers have big marketing goals like increasing market share, acquiring new customers and driving more sales then advertisers really need to push the boat out to organise a great deal to find their ideal customer. 

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

That’s a hard one! But I’m quite happy and satisfied with what we’re doing on the publisher side. We do some quite revolutionary things on a daily basis across both companies. This still provides me with enough excitement to wake up every morning to be eagerly awaiting what new exciting projects and campaigns we’ll be working on the week ahead.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

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Pete began his career in the law field, studying for an undergraduate degree at Nottingham Trent University. He then went on to receive a postgraduate degree from the Nottingham Law School.

Pete also worked as a radio presenter for some of his life, before entering into our industry with a role of Key Account Manager at Awin. He left his role in 2015 and undertook various roles such as New Business Manager at an animation production company and a freelance SEO content writer.

Pete couldn’t keep himself away, however, and returned to Awin as Team Leader and then Account Director. Here he was responsible for the Sky & NOW TV group, DixonsCarphone group, and RAC.

Then, in 2019, Pete entered the role of Head of Affiliates for Groupon Reach Network in the UK & Ireland. The reach network comprises of Groupon, Vouchercloud, The Mirror, The Guardian, Mumsnet and the Irish Independent.

Now, here’s Pete to talk about his history and the trends he is noticing within the industry:

What is your role and what does it consist of?

I’m the Head of Affiliates for the UK and Ireland here at Groupon. On a day to day basis I oversee the affiliate team and client services function, working with clients to grow their affiliate revenues. I also work internally on improving our offering to the market wherever possible. I love pitching our new opportunities and products to clients, hearing about their marketing strategies and how we can help them.

As the client-facing team, we’re lucky to work with a number of our awesome ancillary teams too, such as SEO, PPC, Comms, and BI, all of whom are experts in their own fields, so it’s a varied role with a lot of touchpoints both internally and externally.

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

I love how close knit the industry is, and the diversity of publisher types too. I’ve always got old colleagues or client contacts popping up in new roles or (when the world was normal and gets back to normal) bumping into old faces at industry events. I also love how honest the industry is – being completely measurable and paid on confirmed sales means there’s nowhere to hide, and no hoodwinking. And I love how results speak for themselves – we often stand up against other channels with far bigger budgets and always come away with a better ROI for our clients.

Who in your team deserves more recognition than they get?

I think I’d say all of the Account Execs, Account Managers and Senior Account Managers. They’re the ones dealing with clients day in, day out and, without whom we wouldn’t make any money!

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

This might sound like a very obvious point, and perhaps it’s not a trend per se, but flexibility and adaptability. Over lockdown and as we still trade in a recession, it’s those who are adapting and pivoting their business, their products and their marketing who are doing the best. Travel brands who immediately react to green list changes, electrical brands who immediately do a discount on fans and air con when the british summer melts us all, supermarkets who quickly launched food boxes in lockdown, and so on. A lot of people are financially worse off because of the pandemic, so cutting through the noise and ensuring you’re giving them exactly what they want, when they want, is crucial.

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

Networks have always been a key player between advertisers and publishers of course, but the last 12 months and the economic uncertainty which has come along has meant that, for us at least, networks have been an even more vital intermediary than ever before. Whether it’s clients who are altering commercials to make up for a downturn in business or networks telling us where to focus based on certain verticals booming, leaning on our networks has been key to get support where we’ve needed it.

Benchmarking is one thing that’s really been vital this past year. It’s been so important for us to contextualise our own performance within an ever changing economy, so the benchmarking data which some (not all!) networks offer is super useful in knowing how you’re really performing against the wider trends, and wider industry as a whole.

What one thing would you change about the industry?

Clients who don’t want to pay for, or who drastically reduce, existing customer commissions. You don’t get to only pay for a TV ad seen by people who’ve never shopped with you before, you don’t only pay google when a new customer clicks on your PPC ad, so why should affiliates be any different? Sometimes our flexibility as a channel works against us, and this is one of those times. A customer is a customer, and customer loyalty is so thin these days that the idea we’re not adding value by driving an existing customer back to your brand is, to me, quite laughable.

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

Be bold and make quick decisions. Find what’s working and squeeze more out of it. Find what’s not and stop it. Then find new opportunities and test them, learn from them, don’t be afraid to get it wrong. Find new publishers and give them a go. Your worst case scenario is something didn’t work, and you don’t do it again. Your best is you found a gem and diversified your marketing mix.

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

Interesting question! Having worked for a network and now a publisher, I suppose a client-side role would be something new! Or maybe a start-up tech provider in the space would be exciting.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

The post The Publisher Diaries: Pete James appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Jonny started out his career by studying for a degree in economics with Chinese Studies at the University of Nottingham. He then went on to study Mandarin, which led him to become interested in technology transactions across the UK, Europe and China.

He is a chartered accountant and is very interested in venture capital, start-up fundraising, and the performance marketing industry.

Now, here’s Jonny to talk about his history and the trends he is noticing within the industry:

What is your role and what does it consist of?

I’m Jonny and I am the co-founder and commercial lead for Pouch, the money-saving browser extension. Essentially, I am responsible for setting out our sales and marketing strategy, but I have an amazing team who does the day-to-day execution. 

I used to be our CFO, before Pouch was acquired by Global Savings Group in 2019, but my role has changed as we have continued to grow extensively over the past few years. 

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

What I love most about the performance marketing industry is being able to partner with retailers who truly want to leverage our unique audience of savvy shoppers and technology. 

Affiliate marketing is being embraced in a variety of ways, with more ways than ever being developed to make sure customers have a comprehensive range of customer centric services and solutions that are helping to connect brands and retailers with their customers.

With personalised recommendations and exclusive content, we are helping people to make the best shopping decisions at busy times, offering frictionless savings for our audience and making saving really easy.

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

Haha tough question! My co-founder and CTO Vikram Simha is my performance marketing hero for sure. We both joined the industry as novices when we founded Pouch in 2016 and he has learnt so much and become a real leader in the space. The tech he builds is world class and the work he has done on our new loyalty offering, Pouch Points, is second to none.

Also, Clement Labbe, our Head of Key Account Management who’s in charge of helping accelerate the company growth by taking Pouch key commercial partners relationships to the next level. He has an extensive background in performance marketing having worked network side for many years prior to joining GSG and I learn so much from him every day!

Who in your team deserves more recognition that they get? (The unsung hero)

Our designer Martina with no doubts! We run ads across multiple channels and have various different onboarding and landing pages to try and communicate as clear a message as possible to our users. Her marketing creatives are fantastic and her user experience knowledge means that we have been able to truly accelerate our growth!

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

We are definitely seeing shoppers’ expectations from retailers become more complex as consumers are now more than ever looking for relevance at every single touch point when engaging with brands. 

We are also seeing advertisers seeking more efficient ways to attract buyers, from discovery to checkout by working with publishers who can offer a loyalty or rewards programme. 

Those programmes typically create more repeat users and higher lifetime values and we have seen fintech publishers like Revolut and Klarna create affiliate rewards schemes to satisfy this demand as well. 

We are launching our own rewards scheme called Pouch Points which will allow our users to earn points with participating retailers that can be exchanged for gift cards or prizes. 

With Points, our members can spend more in order to save more, which will help drive conversions and high-value purchases across for our retailers and brand partners.

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

Due to the pandemic a lot of retailers who never sold online have built a digital presence and I’m sure affiliate marketing will be a core strategy for them to acquire new customers. 

We have seen many affiliate networks with the likes of Awin with Access and Grow by Tradedoubler having had a key role in providing these new-to-digital players with a low-risk, entry level solution and making sure those micro-SME partner with the right type of publishers. 

What one thing would you change about the industry?

I feel advertisers paint all extensions with the same brush. Whilst on the surface they may seem similar, they do all work quite differently, target different users and have different tools to create incremental revenue for advertisers. 

For instance, we found that some brands had a poor experience and results with other money-saving browser extensions but when running a split test with Pouch found us to be highly incremental. For the retailers we have tested with, on average we were able to increase conversions by 4-10%. At scale and over a long period of time, this increase would make a huge difference to the top line of any business. 

So I would encourage any reluctant advertisers in the industry to change their views, do a trial with each extension partner and carefully measure the results to see if they are happy with the performance and incremental value add before writing them off.

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

In addition to the above, we encourage our existing partners to be more creative and collaborate closely with us to reach the right pool of consumers that will drive market share, acquire new customers from competitors, and ultimately, maximise sales. 

We work with a large range of advertisers who have come to depend on Pouch to promote their best deals and discounts to their ideal customers and we have a good understanding of what works and what does not, so please consider us as an extension of your own team, be as collaborative as possible by communicating your goals and objectives with us, and by sharing promotional content as frequently and as early as possible, so you can get the most out of your partnership with Pouch. 

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

I think one day I would like to work advertiser-side but for now I’m very happy on the publisher side!

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

The post The Publisher Diaries: Jonny Plein appeared first on PerformanceIN.

Her first role within the industry was at Awin, where she worked for just over a year before moving onto a role at Marketing Town as the Affiliate Marketing Manager.

Then, in November 2020, Valeria began working at Kindred as the Marketing and Affiliate Executive, before moving up to her current role as Marketing and Affiliate Partnerships Director. She runs a food blog on the side, which also means she has experience of starting her own business.

Valeria chatted to Niamh Butler-Walton about her history and the fact she is noticing advertisers being more inclined to give back…

What is your role and what does it consist of?

I am responsible for the affiliate strategy and activity at Kindred, both for our publisher side and internal lead generation campaigns to increase our customer base. As cliché as it sounds, no single day is the same when working in a startup.

I have only been with Kindred for a little over eight months, but my job has changed immensely from when I started to now, so I can only imagine what my role will be like in the future! Usually, I am either deep into our reports assessing the success of our campaigns and which verticals and brands are performing better, or jumping from meeting to meeting to discuss what the best approach is for each of our brands. I spend a lot of my time on strategic planning and research for our internal campaigns and how to improve the overall affiliate flow to make brands happier. I am now jumping on B2B strategic partnerships as well, making it very much a 360º role!

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

Possibly the same thing that I enjoy the least, and that is how quickly it changes. You wake up one morning and you have five new features that you have to figure out how to use to your advantage. Or the industry gets hit with the latest privacy-related update and everyone has to determine what impact it will have – something we’re currently seeing with iOS 14.5 and 15. It’s a constant learning process, which I reckon for some might be frustrating, but I do love it.

I enjoy the stimulation of a new challenge, especially with new technologies coming out every few months and changing the landscape. There’s a lot of trial and error involved, and to be honest, sometimes it does not work out as well as one might wish, but that is part of the challenge (and the fun!)

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

On one side, my former team leader back at Awin, Annabel – she was so supportive when I was there and helped me to learn a lot very quickly and I would not be where I am today if it was not for her. On the other hand, for very different reasons, the publisher team at Tradedoubler. They were absolute stars when I was on the agency side. Now that I’m on the publisher side, they are even more impressive. It’s always a pleasure to deal with them.

Who in your team deserves more recognition than they get? (The unsung hero)

I am part of the growth team and since it’s just four of us, it’s so small that it’s hard to find an unsung hero per se. I guess this is one of the good things about working in a startup in general; it’s very easy to step in to help and communication doesn’t get lost as often as it would in a big company, and everyone gets the recognition they deserve.

However, I’m not going to miss the chance to praise my lovely coworkers Anna and Sophie. Despite doing very, very different things, at the end of the day all the different bits in marketing interlace with each other, and having not one, but two people stimulating your brain is a massive advantage and a great benefit for the company. Plus, there’s a lot of memes and gifs involved, which makes our working day more fun. 

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

A keen interest in giving back! In the past few months, I have had the opportunity to talk to a lot of different brands to get them onboard which means I’ve had to pitch what Kindred does more times than I can count. The response I’ve received has always been amazing. There is a genuine interest among our partners to go the extra mile in support of charities, which is very nice to see.  

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

Between cutting budgets as a consequence of the pandemic and the growth of the affiliate channel as a whole, it was a dizzying year for networks with everyone turning to affiliates for more stable marketing investments. I feel that there is now more transparency and more collaboration in the stream among all parties involved. Networks were crucial before, but I feel that now their role has become even more important as bearers of expertise on the channel. 

 What one thing would you change about the industry?

I would love to see more transparency and collaboration between advertisers and publishers. Although we are slowly getting there, there is still a major gap between the two sides which is not benefitting anyone. I’m a huge fan of data-driven strategies, but of course, the data we get on the publisher side is very different to the data advertisers get, which gives us a sort of incomplete view of the market. If we could get those insights from advertisers themselves, as far as GDPR will allow us of course, both parties could benefit greatly.

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

Test and trial. In my time working on both network and agency side, I have seen the benefits of testing new partners, albeit small or new to the affiliate channel. Sometimes it will be a massive success, sometimes not so much. But the best thing about working in the performance marketing industry is that the cost of a failed campaign (given there’s not as much as an investment in tenancies) is minimal compared to other marketing channels. There’s no excuse for not trialling new options.

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

I am just starting to dip my toes in paid ads so who knows, perhaps that is going to be my future! For now though, I can’t see myself moving too far away from affiliate.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

The post The Publisher Diaries: Valeria Toscana appeared first on PerformanceIN.

After completing a degree in Business Management at the University of Birmingham, Jonny went on to work as a freelance designer, getting stuck into designing marketing materials, sparking his interest in creating effective campaigns.

In 2016 he co-founded Adplicom, an influencer marketing software which boasted clients such as Lego and Time Magazine.

Since then, he has worked at Pouch and Global Savings Group, before he went on to found another influencer marketing software, goshare, and finally gocertify.

The company is currently driving over $2 million in monthly sales for Benefit Cosmetics, Kurt Geiger, Farfetch, HelloFresh and more. Now here’s Jonny to talk about his history and the trends he is noticing within the industry:

What’s your role and what does it consist of?

I’m the founder of gocertify, a software that helps retailers attract their most sought-after customer groups with an exclusive discount. We only launched gocertify 12 months ago, so my role has changed a lot over the past few months. Initially, I was working on our verification technology and working out how we can reward customers based on age/occupation. Now it’s more about hiring new members in sales and tech. I’m looking forward to getting back to designing new features, as this is what I’m most passionate about.

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

I love the collaborative nature of the industry. Whether you’re a retailer, publisher or technology provider, everyone seems to be happy to team up, offer feedback and share ideas. Being able to connect with global retailers so early on has been a huge enabler for our growth.

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

Tough one! We’ve had so many heroes help us over the past 12 months. I’d have to shout out all the account managers at the affiliate networks. Ever since the start, they have been spending time learning about the features of our tool and the benefits to retailers. As well as this, they provide invaluable feedback on improvements we can make. Many of them are huge advocates for our software and better at selling gocertify than I am! 

Who in your team deserves more recognition that they get? (The unsung hero)

We’re fortunate to have an incredible remote team. Colin, who has been working with me on gocertify since the start, deserves a huge amount of credit. We never expected it all to take off so quickly and his help with finances and providing customer support to shoppers has been vital. Also, Chris, our partnerships manager, who only joined the team a few months ago but has already managed to take on all account management, as well as sign up loads of new clients.

What trends are you seeing working with advertisers?

Advertisers are becoming increasingly data-savvy. Retailers aren’t just working with publishers to increase sales, but also to gather insights about their shoppers. Through closed group publishers and technology providers like gocertify, they can work out whether a shopper is a teacher, student, under-26, or over-60. This information is being stored in customer profiles to run personalised marketing. Our favourite has been Kurt Geiger sending out newsletters to NHS employees with exclusive NHS only pricing.

As new cookie changes come into force, I think this a trend that’s only going to grow. Retailers will no longer have access to the granular targeting they are used to on Facebook/Google. Brands will turn to gathering zero-party data and insights into consumer preferences. With this, they can run their own targeted campaigns without the need of a third party.

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

The pandemic seems to have strengthened relationships across retailers, networks and publishers. The uncertainty in the market has led to brands looking for ways to acquire customers without risk. With uncertainty, allocating six figure budgets across most marketing channels with no guarantee of sales was a huge risk, but paying affiliates for each sale is always a safe bet.

What one thing would you change about the industry?

The industry has evolved a lot over the past few years. One change I’ve noticed is the number of software providers signing up to affiliate networks, for example RevLifter, Increasingly and Smarterclick.

Currently, the affiliate industry is set up with typical voucher code site publishers in mind. For retailers to see full potential from these partnerships, there needs to be a change in the infrastructure to support this. For example, commercials need to go beyond the ‘last click’ to prevent traditional publishers and tech providers from competing for the last click on-site. Often newer publisher types focus less on being the last touchpoint on a customer journey but instead help increase on-site conversion and maximise lifetime value.

What’s your top tip for advertisers?

Treat publishers as an extension of your team and be as transparent on your current company goals as possible – there could be a clever way we could help! Whether that’s a need to increase AOV, drive shoppers in-store or promote a certain product range. We’re always ready to hear about a retailers’ problems and will build a strategy around that.

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

I’m going to be focusing on gocertify for a few years! But in the future, I’d love to set up my own e-commerce store.

We hope you enjoyed this installment of the Publisher Diaries. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

The post The Publisher Diaries: Jonny Matthews appeared first on PerformanceIN.

As you’ll hear from her, Yasmeen worked in recruitment for a year, but decided it wasn’t the right position for her, so was thrilled when a position at Savoo became available. A self proclaimed bargain-lover, it seemed like fate that she fell into a role at the publisher, and she has been working there ever since.

Yasmeen chatted to Niamh Butler-Walton about her role at Savoo, as well as her background and the trends she is seeing within the industry:

What is your role and what does it consist of?

I am UK Country Manager for Savoo. The role is quite varied as I work with key merchant partners, ensuring that the marketing campaigns and offers are optimised to give them the best ROI, whilst also being of interest and relevant to our other especially important customer – our users. Alongside this, I work across business strategy and other departments including content, charity, and operations. 

What do you enjoy most about the performance marketing industry?

We are, as an overall industry, at the forefront of digital innovation with some very cool technologies and services enhancing the consumer experience, as well as the reach and deliverability for the brands that use them. It makes us very accountable for ensuring it succeeds as we are paid on performance and provide great value for money because of this. 

I am excited for the future of the industry as I feel we will only build on this to become better, and even more data driven and increase the performance for brands that invest in the channel.  

Who is your performance marketing hero and why?

There are quite a few legends in this industry! But to name a few: 

My old boss and director Simon Bird who now heads up RevLifter. I learnt A LOT from Simon, and I accredit him for a lot of my personal and professional growth. 

Angus Drummond, also an old colleague, still a dear friend and now at vouchercodes.co.uk. Angus has really been championing and pushing the conversation of more diversity in the workplace and our industry. I am totally behind him on this, and it is an agenda we all should be pushing more!  

And last but not least, James Maley from Tradedoubler. James has a phenomenal wealth of knowledge and experience from working publisher, network, and client side. On top of that, he is an absolute blast down the pub and will be guaranteed to have me in fits of laughter.

Who in your team deserves more recognition that they get?

It must be the team behind the scenes. Often, client facing roles can take all the glory. We would be nothing and not be able to offer our service without them whether that is our Content Team, Operational Staff, Developers or Managing Director, Ed Fleming.

What trends are you seeing when working with advertisers?

2021 brought with it a bang. Our performance in 2020 was unbelievable and we thought it would be hard to beat, but media placement bookings for 2021 have been through the roof. I can only describe it as one big, long Black Friday and it’s great to see and be a part of it.  

As we work with the whole market, it has been slightly different depending on the vertical you are assessing. However, confidence in investing in the channel compared to 2021 appears to be stronger. 

We are also only a couple of weeks post lockdown lifting but are still seeing great YOY performance. As a business we do believe that there will be an incremental shift in the number of consumers shopping online and expect it to be a trend that remains. 

How has the role of affiliate networks changed over the last 12 months?

For the type of publisher we are, we have not seen too much of a change in terms of the role affiliate networks have played over the last 12 months. Service levels have remained the same. 

It was great to see the networks adapt to online webinars in place of in person networking events – some of the insights from the data especially at the beginning of lockdown were interesting. 

What has also been great is the number of new merchants onboarded. Working with more brands enhances our consumer experience (and our earning potential). If we compare 2019 onboards vs 2020 onboards this was up by 220%!

AWIN has also been actively pushing an Advertiser Gold Standard to ensure fair remuneration and standards across tracking, validations, and de-duping. We are grateful a network is putting forward these ideas and hope more networks can implement a similar approach. 

What one thing would you change about the industry?

I think I would like to see a little bit more of an equilibrium in the power between publishers and merchants. It’s typically seen with bigger merchants rather than SMEs. We find SMEs very collaborative in their strategic approach to working with us. 

With some larger merchant’s strategy changes often go ahead without any real discussion and publishers are expected to go along with it. Therefore, initiatives like the AWIN Gold Standard are so important to make it a fairer playing field. 

What is your top tip for advertisers?

Be collaborative. As we work across the board, we have a good understanding of what will work and how to implement it to get the most for a program. 

What other areas of the industry can you see yourself working in in the future, perhaps?

That is a particularly good question when you have nearly racked up a ten years tenure at a company! Before I joined Savoo I did a (hellish) stint in recruitment. I always loved a bargain and often found myself on deal and discount sites sizing up the best offers to spend my pitiful recruitment earnings on.  So, it was rather serendipitous when the role came up at Savoo.

We have also just been acquired by an absolutely amazing US company Centerfield and so it is a really exciting time for Savoo. While I think I have fleeting thoughts of what that next role would be, I do believe I would stay publisher side and perhaps tie it in with some of my other passions which are food and travel. 

We hope you enjoyed this installment of our new column. If you would like to get involved please get in touch via our Typeform.

The post The Publisher Diaries: Yasmeen Lubbock appeared first on PerformanceIN.