David Katz is the Co-founder, Lead Product Designer, and Director of Sales at Archer Affiliates, an affiliate network enabling Amazon sellers to connect with publishers, influencers, and bloggers. The company has generated millions of dollars in Amazon sales and increased affiliate revenue to 18% of generated sales. As a former Amazon seller, David struggled to incentivize influencers to promote his products and reach out to new affiliates, leading him to launch Archer Affiliates. 

Here’s a glimpse of what you’ll learn:

• [4:39] The rise in affiliate marketing programs and how they drive sales
• [7:58] How to leverage affiliate marketing to generate content
• [11:03] Tactics for brands to incentivize publishers and influence product promotions
• [14:42] Why every brand should invest in affiliate marketing — and Archer Affiliates’ unique value proposition 
• [19:10] Amazon’s referral bonus incentive for 3P sellers
• [25:47] Emerging AI and machine learning trends in eCommerce
• [34:48] David Katz talks about affiliate marketing growth prospects

In this episode…

With customer acquisition costs rising and profitability becoming more critical than ever, affiliate programs have emerged as a performance-based marketing tool to drive sales and revenue. Yet this space is still relatively new, and brands often struggle with affiliate product promotions and sales attributions. How can you break into this space and establish a mutually beneficial partnership with affiliates?

Rather than paying influencers up front, affiliate marketing is a commission-based partnership that allows you to track product performance directly. Affiliate expert David Katz maintains that you can incentivize publishers, content creators, and other affiliates by offering commissions and promotions, allowing them to focus on generating sales and revenue for specific products. To fully capitalize on this partnership, David says to let the affiliates decide what products to promote and how to promote them since they’re experts on content creation and audience targeting. Affiliates will promote credible products with a high sales probability, focusing on larger brands with a solid presence and awareness.

Tune in to the latest episode of The Digital Deep Dive as Aaron Conant hosts David Katz, the Co-founder, Lead Product Designer, and Director of Sales at Archer Affiliates. They break down the current affiliate marketing space for brands. David also talks about Archer Affiliates’ unique value proposition, how to leverage AI and machine learning to reduce operational costs, and Amazon’s referral bonus incentive for 3P sellers. 

Resources mentioned in this episode:

• Aaron Conant on LinkedIn   
• BWG Connect  
• David Katz on LinkedIn 
• Archer Affiliates 
• “AI-Driven Retail Media With Kashif Zafar” on The Digital Deep Dive
• Kashif Zafar on LinkedIn
• Xmars

Quotable Moments:

• "You're not buying clicks; you're purchasing sales. It's purely performance-based."
• "It's brands realizing we can overpay influencers based on what we're getting out, but the line of sight to actual sales isn't clear."
• "The markets are being saturated with content creators, which has driven the cost of generating content lower."
• "If you're doing affiliate as a revenue driver, paying influencers up front might not be the best move."
• "Not enough sellers know or use Amazon attribution, and they're missing out on massive potential."

Action Steps:

1. Consider adopting affiliate marketing as a core component of your marketing strategy: Since it's performance-based, it aligns with the growing need for profitability in eCommerce.
2. Evaluate your influencer marketing ROI and explore shifting to a more commission-based affiliate model: This aligns your investment directly with sales to improve your marketing spend's effectiveness.
3. Leverage Amazon attribution to track external traffic and take advantage of the brand referral bonus for increased profitability: This tool lowers the cost per acquisition and boosts overall margins.
4. Embrace machine learning and AI solutions to enhance operational efficiency and reduce overhead costs: Cutting-edge technology can streamline processes and save substantial amounts on service fees.
5. Continually educate yourself and your team on the evolving landscape of eCommerce and affiliate marketing: Staying informed enables you to adapt to changes quickly and capitalize on new opportunities.

About BWG Connect...

BWG Connect provides executive strategy and networking sessions that help brands from any industry with their overall business planning and execution. We network and knowledge share together to better understand and adapt to the newest trends, strategies, and pain points shaping growth in the digital space. BWG Connect, in conjunction with BWG Strategy, has built an exclusive network of 125,000+ senior professionals and hosts over 2,000 virtual and in-person networking events on an annual basis.

In addition, we have had 1x1 conversations with over 5,000 brands and have a real-time pulse on what digital strategies are successful and why. This in-depth knowledge allows our team to operate on the cutting-edge and provide our clients with best-in-class guidance on how to win in the digital world. We have provided free consultations and strategy sessions for companies of all sizes, from start-ups to Fortune-100, to enable growth, resolve issues and make curated service provider introductions that can impact your digital footprint.

We have held to the philosophy of providing high-level insights and actionable knowledge with no sales pitches in order to provide to our network the ability to listen, learn and act to improve themselves as well as their organizations. Our ultimate goal is to be the resource out there to help digital executives find the research they need to excel in the modern marketplace.

If you are interested in getting involved with any of our current or past events, you can find them here. If you are looking for help & would like to set up some time to chat with our team, you can schedule a time or reach out directly to Aaron@bwgconnect.com or Tiffany@bwgconnect.com.

Marc Walkin is the Co-founder and Head of Marketing and Growth at Turbyne, a vertically integrated B2B SaaS platform that simplifies retail media. With over 15 years of experience as a marketing leader, he has built modern retail and CPG brands, including Stop & Shop, Popcorners, Beech-Nut, and Staples. Marc specializes in brand transformation, corporate strategy, and shopper and digital marketing playbooks.