PartnerCentric, Inc.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the affiliate marketing manager for SunPower Corporation, a solar power provider in the US. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

I hired PartnerCentric to help me recruit new affiliates to my affiliate program. Our goals were to scale our program and attract more affiliate partners. That way, I could continue to expand the business and drive top-of-the-funnel leads into our sales funnel. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

I provided PartnerCentric with the information they needed to be effective with their job, including legal documentation, zip code lists, and information about the type of partners we wanted to attract. We also told them what we were willing to pay those partners and for the leads that they submitted into our system. The partners we needed were websites that ran social media campaigns for themselves.

What is the team composition?

Carmin (Affiliate Program Manager) was my day-to-day contact; she was also my account manager. Lexi (Associate Account Manager) provided support to Carmin, while Tracie (Director of Client Services & Partner Success) served as the director of the account. 

How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

I found PartnerCentric through word of mouth; I also knew many of their team members. Given that, I initiated contact with their sales team and let them know that I needed an agency partner to help me recruit affiliates. The vetting process took six months as I came up with a plan on how to move forward with an agency. 

Other agencies were unwilling to meet me at the price point I needed. However, PartnerCentric understood that I had limits on what I needed them to do. The limits they had to abide by didn’t require too much heavy lifting on their part. This allowed us to come to the price point that we both agreed with and then I hired them. 

How much have you invested with them?

I invested around $70,000. 

What is the status of this engagement?

The partnership lasted from September 2022–September 2023. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

The number of our affiliate partners increased because of PartnerCentric; we secured around 10 affiliate partners. Overall, the team exceeded our expectations. While the number of affiliate partners was smaller than what I hoped we’d achieve, it wasn’t through a lack of hard work or dedication. Over and over again, they showed me what they were doing and the effort they were putting into it. Unfortunately, it just wasn’t producing the results we wanted. 

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

PartnerCentric did exactly what was required of them. We had biweekly phone calls, and they provided biweekly updates on the program and its performance. They explained the work they were attempting to do and how they executed it. To communicate, we mainly used emails, phone calls, and video calls.

What did you find most impressive about them?

They listened to what I needed and worked to give it to me in every effort they made. That was what they did best — they listened and worked toward our goals from beginning to end.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, there weren’t any. I was happy with the entire experience. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Know exactly what you want the team to do right from the beginning. If you’re clear on what they need to do, they’ll be there and do the work you require them to do. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at Sideshow, an entertainment company. We’ve grown into a pretty large company that represents a lot of other brands that make similar products. We’re a one-stop online shop. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We needed PartnerCentric, Inc. to provide new affiliate marketing for us.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We looked to PartnerCentric, Inc. to help us with our affiliate marketing. We talked about our challenges in the space and they gave us a proposal on how to solve those challenges. The first goal was to increase the overall revenue we were seeing come from our affiliate channel. The second goal was to clean up our program to eliminate underperforming and non-performing affiliates.

What is the team composition? 

I work with two people. 

Are there any employees from the service provider's team that you would like to give a shout-out to in this review?

I’d like to give a shout-out to Julia (Business Development Executive) and Adam (VP of Client Development).

How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We found them in an online search. Their portfolio and passion for us were impressive. 

What is the status of this engagement?

We started working together in April 2023, and the collaboration is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

We were at 2% of our overall revenue coming from affiliates and they’ve been able to double that in the few months we’ve been with them. They got us to the most effective affiliates by eliminating underperforming affiliate accounts in our system. They’re also adding new ones in areas we didn’t know existed. PartnerCentric, Inc. has over-delivered. 

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

Project management is flawless. PartnerCentric, Inc. has delivered on time and on budget. As soon as we signed with them, they were already emailing us and working hard through the weekend to start the activity in our account. We have weekly meetings and constant daily communication. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

They were willing to learn about our business and were enthusiastic to work with us. We didn’t feel like a number to them. 

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they’re very passionate about what they’re doing with us. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be transparent about your business operation. You need to have a full picture of what a business does to be able to help that business. The more information you can give your partner in that space, the more they will excel. 

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I'm a product marketer at Yahoo Sports who focuses on driving growth for our season-long fantasy sports games.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire PartnerCentric, Inc., and what were your goals?

We were looking to relaunch our affiliate marketing program for the 2022 fantasy football season and needed a partner to handle the strategy, publisher outreach/recruitment, and platform management, as well as support our technical integration. The goal was to drive fantasy football registrations.

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

The partner was recommended by the affiliate platform, and after meeting and reviewing costs and their willingness to take this project on short notice, we decided to move forward.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

The scope began with PartnerCentric doing discovery work (competitive analysis) and publisher recruitment while we parallel pathed the technical integration. The next phase was launching our offer with qualified publishers, reviewing performance, managing the publisher relationships and handling payments thru the platform.

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

We worked with a director of client services, 2 account managers, and a technical services manager.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

While the program were hindered by technical issues on the platform side (not related to PartnerCentric), we were extremely pleased with the level of customer support and strategic analysis that they provided. They were successfully able to ramp up highly qualified publishers to support our campaign in a very tight timeline.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

We had weekly check-ins to review all aspects of the program, which provided an opportunity to align on next steps/outstanding needs, as well as review progress. The team was extremely clear and concise in their communications, and we appreciated their follow-through.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

In addition to being extremely agile and work under tight deadlines, they are truly subject matter experts in the realm of affiliate marketing and offered an exceptional level of service by becoming knowledgable within our business vertical to offer incremental value.

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

If they were able to offer technical escalation support within the affiliate platform as a preferred partner with a specific SLA, that may have allowed us to launch sooner, but their internal technical resource was fantastic and very responsive.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the CEO of Nova Bay Pharmaceuticals. We manufacture and sell a topical anti-microbial spray for eyelids and eyelashes.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We sell our product on Amazon and our own website. We needed a company that could handle our affiliate marketing efforts.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We used PartnerCentric, Inc. as a partner for our affiliate program. They worked in CJ Affiliate, and they also helped us with our content calendar.

What is the team composition?

We worked with two account managers from PartnerCentric, Inc..

How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We found PartnerCentric, Inc. through a referral.

How much have you invested with them?

We spent around $15,000 per month, so we spent around $500,000 in total.

What is the status of this engagement?

We worked together from February 2020–January 2023.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

PartnerCentric, Inc. did a great job of managing our affiliate program. Partner Centric did a great job driving additional traffic to our website and increasing our conversion rate. We also saw an improvement in our monthly revenue, return on ad spend, and click-through rate.

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

PartnerCentric, Inc. performed well in terms of project management. They delivered on time, stayed within budget, and communicated effectively.

We typically communicated through email.

What did you find most impressive about them?

An innovative partner, PartnerCentric, Inc. brought potential partnerships and new ideas for expanding our sales channels to the table.

Are there any areas they could improve?

No, they were an excellent partner.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

I would recommend them to any company that has a direct-to-consumer product that is sold on their website.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the principal market manager for VSP Vision Care, responsible for driving awareness and sales of our individual vision plan offerings. We sell individual vision insurance plans direct to consumers.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We didn’t have an affiliate marketing program in our line of business, so while looking for new marketing tactics, we decided to start an affiliate marketing program. Thus, we partnered with PartnerCentric to help us drive more awareness and sales of our product offering.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PartnerCentric helps us manage our affiliate marketing program. We work collaboratively with them and with different publishers who have joined our program. Our program is a lead-based program, so we work with those publishers on a pay-per-performance model, which means we pay for driving qualified leads to our website.

From a strategy perspective, PartnerCentric has focused on finding the best publishers and creating diversity in our program so that we’re not dependent on one or two publishers.

PartnerCentric already knows our key target audiences and value propositions. Thus, they continuously recruit new and different types of publishers to continue growing our program. Then, we vet those publishers together to determine which ones will join our program.

Part of PartnerCentric’s strategy is to know when to push back with publishers. In this regard, they act as the liaison between the publishers and us, so they have conversations with them to gather information. If something isn’t meeting our needs, they communicate with us, and we make adjustments to ensure our money is being spent efficiently.

We’re in charge of developing all the creative assets for our campaigns internally; PartnerCentric’s efforts are focused on our strategy of both managing existing publisher placements as well as recruiting new business. Therefore, they also work with these publishers to understand their needs and communicate them to us. Then, we work with our internal team to translate those needs into ad copy and creative assets that will work best for our business.

What is the team composition?

We have an account manager and someone in a support role assigned to our account, with whom we work on a daily basis. Additionally, I meet once per month with their Senior Director of Client Success. Every once in a while, I also meet with other members of their executive team.

How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

I met them at an affiliate conference. They seemed very personable and were a smaller agency. During the conference, I was able to speak to some of their actual clients to see how they liked them and heard really good things about them. From the start, I felt that PartnerCentric provided me with very good one-on-one attention, and they showed commitment to growing our program, so I hired them.

How much have you invested with them?

While we don’t share those details as a matter of policy, we can share that we’ve significantly increased our spend over the course of our partnership.

What is the status of this engagement?

We originally met in September 2013, but we started our affiliate program in 2014. Our engagement is ongoing.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

From 2015–2022, PartnerCentric has helped us increase our sales by over 200% and our leads by 26%.

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

PartnerCentric’s project management has been very good. Although we’ve had some challenges, nothing has been too worrisome about them. I would still give them good marks in that regard.

We meet with them on a biweekly basis to go through all of our program needs and the different publishers we’re working with, which helps us understand how to continue growing our business. Additionally, we communicate via email.

PartnerCentric also provides us with a weekly report that shows how we’re doing from a budget standpoint. This report also shows how many new publishers have entered our program, how many applications they’ve approved and denied, and the performance of each publisher regarding leads and sales.

What did you find most impressive about them?

PartnerCentric is very responsive and easy to do business with, and they always care about their clients, which is a big plus. Moreover, one of our company’s goals is to work with diverse vendors, and PartnerCentric is a women-owned agency, which is unique in our space.

Are there any areas they could improve?

It would be great if PartnerCentric had a better way of forecasting budgets.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be very transparent with your business, understand your goals, and know where you’re headed so that you can be very clear about what you’re looking for, both from a budget and a lead/sales perspective. This will help PartnerCentric know what they’re driving toward to build a successful program.

BACKGROUND

Please describe your company and your position there.

I formerly worked as an Affiliate Market Executive for Manchester-based U.K. fast fashion brand.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

For what projects/services did your company hire PartnerCentric, Inc., and what were your goals?

Expansion into US market and increased revenue/brand awareness via Affiliate Marketing channels:

• contacts with US publishers
• negotiating short and long term packages with existing and new partners
• weekly analysis/reviews of data and trends

SOLUTION

How did you select this vendor and what were the deciding factors?

I understand that Missguided were approached by vendor before I started in the role. Deciding factors were Partner Centric’s domestic position in the US and their network of publishers/experience in the area.

Describe the scope of work in detail, including the project steps, key deliverables, and marking tools used.

Various projects depending on Missguided’s product/offer focus:

• arranging phone calls with new publishers
• proposing creative partnerships/collaborations
• negotiation of exposure on publisher websites/offline spaces
• influencer programme management

How many resources from the vendor's team worked with you, and what were their positions?

Erinn was our account manager. She handled majority of the conversations with publishers, was in contact daily with us via email and available for weekly calls. Erinn introduced us to new publishers and strengthened relationships/deals with existing ones with her experience of working with them for other clients. Erinn was also always happy to liaise with our mirror account manager from the other affiliate agency we used to track sales and clicks.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

Can you share any measurable outcomes of the project or general feedback about the deliverables?

We measured success by the cost per acquisition and traffic to the specific pages of the website. Their various creative affiliate projects resulted in an overall big uplift in click throughs. This has increased brand awareness.

How effective was the workflow between your team and theirs?

Very. Flexible and adapted to what suited us. Couldn’t do more.

What did you find most impressive or unique about this company?

• Brilliant service
• Amazing communication
• Reliable
• Organized
• Lots of contacts in industry
• Flexibility
• Adaptability to changing terms now of a fast pace retail brand

Are there any areas for improvement or something they could have done differently?

No.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the VP of marketing at Bellhop, a technology company.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We needed their growth marketing expertise to improve our customer acquisition rate.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

We’ve presented our business model and project goals to PartnerCentric, Inc., and they’ve set up affiliate marketing strategies based on that information. They’ve reached out to potential partners and discussed the business opportunities each partner can bring to our business if we decide to engage them. Once we finalize our options, PartnerCentric, Inc. then prepares a pitch to present to our prospective partner.

What is the team composition?

We’ve worked with 3–4 resources from their team, including an account manager and an analyst.

How much have you invested with them?

We’ve spent about $400,000.

What is the status of this engagement?

Our ongoing engagement started in February 2020. We’re looking to wrap up the project by March 2022.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?

PartnerCentric, Inc. has brought in a little over $2 million in revenue for us with their growth marketing expertise. 

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

We communicate via weekly meetings and keep track of deliverables through spreadsheets. PartnerCentric, Inc. has reliable project management skills that pivot our marketing efforts.

What did you find most impressive about them?

We’re most impressed with PartnerCentric, Inc.’s thorough understanding of our business model and their capacity to maximize their experience and connections to meet our needs.

Are there any areas they could improve?

They can consider amplifying their pitching skills.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

PartnerCentric, Inc. is a great provider to get any affiliate program up and running. You can trust their honest and professional team to accomplish your targets.

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the performance marketing manager at a travel company. I oversee all of our paid advertising efforts, including Google Ads, social media, display ads, and affiliate marketing campaigns. 

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We hired PartnerCentric for our affiliate marketing efforts. 

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

PartnerCentric used a third-party affiliate network to help us, while their services included the recruitment of publishers, social groups, content, and blogs focused around the cruise market vertical. Once those groups were recruited into our affiliate program, PartnerCentric provided them with display banners, links, and everything else they could use to link back to our site.

Then, the team continuously kept up with those recruits, ensuring that they were actively driving traffic to our site and getting their users to convert or take action on our website. They also managed the performance of our publishers, paying them higher payouts or commissions if they were performing well.

What is the team composition?

We had one main point of contact and two other team members. One of them was a director that came in for bigger strategy meetings. 

How much have you invested with them?

We spent between $25,000–$50,000 for their services. 

What is the status of this engagement?

Our engagement technically lasted from August 2020–November 2021. 

To clarify, we started working with them in August 2020, but we had to put the engagement on pause for 4–5 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Then, we picked it back up in April 2021. The contract then ended in November 2021, but we’re planning to restart our contract in the first quarter of 2022. 

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

From a KPI standpoint, we focused on three things, namely the visits to our site, the clicks or views within the website, and the revenue derived from these. PartnerCentric drove a 112% lift in terms of visits; this was the average monthly average we recorded against the time when we didn’t use them. More importantly, our site clicks or actions were up by 390% — this was a higher-priority metric than visits. In terms of revenue, the team drove a 357% increase. 

Overall, the trajectory of the results was strong. In fact, from April–November 2021, our revenue dipped only once month-over-month, and even that was caused only by industry-related issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic. 

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

PartnerCentric did a great job in terms of project management. We were up against the COVID-19 pandemic, and the travel and cruise industries were slow to recover. However, the team did a great job in the face of adversity. They continued to add and activate publishers, and our month-over-month performance also continued to improve. 

Moreover, they handled essentially everything — I barely had to do anything from a relationship or activation standpoint. This was crucial for us because we had limited bandwidth. In other words, they allowed us to be incredibly hands-off. This was important for us because affiliate marketing required a hands-on approach, which they fulfilled. They never bugged me about it, and yet we still had great success as we moved along. 

To communicate, we had weekly recap meetings every Friday. The meetings were highly efficient, and we had few email exchanges. They provided us with everything we needed during our meetings, and this helped us keep our bandwidth open. 

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their recruitment capabilities were impressive. They had an extensive amount of potential publishers out there that were all credible. PartnerCentric provided us with many options, and they always explained in detail what the partner or publisher could deliver.  

Overall, their extensive scale and understanding of the publisher space separated them from other providers. They made it easy for us to recruit and build our affiliate marketing network quickly and efficiently.

Are there any areas they could improve?

From an organizational standpoint, they could still be a bit cleaner in terms of weekly reporting and updates. We did a lot of things efficiently during our weekly calls, but in some instances, they could have provided cleaner documents, and they could have been more succinct in their reports.

To be fair, they were able to explain many things, but it would have been better if they didn’t even need to explain the reports and organizational documents they delivered. 

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

Be upfront and transparent with PartnerCentric; be succinct in what you need from them. This will help you get your relationship off the ground quite quickly. 

BACKGROUND

Introduce your business and what you do there.

I’m the senior digital marketing manager at a water filter company, overseeing all our digital marketing channels. We provide clean, healthy water through our water filtration systems and focused on improving health and wellness. Our systems range from whole-house filtration to under-sink, shower, and countertop drinking. We cover the range of a home’s water filtration needs.

OPPORTUNITY / CHALLENGE

What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

We were looking for assistance in managing our affiliate marketing program because we didn’t have the internal bandwidth to manage it. Metrics-wise, our goals were to increase our affiliate marketing sales, web traffic, and number of affiliate publishers.

SOLUTION

What was the scope of their involvement?

Primarily, PartnerCentric has been managing our affiliate marketing program, working on them with everything from high-level strategy to day-to-day operations. They contact our affiliate partners, manage commission offers, answer questions, onboard new affiliates, and resolve issues on our platform.

We do regular holiday campaigns, but really our bigger ones have expanded our number of publishers in our content area. Rather than just coupon sites, we wanted to connect with people via websites focusing on water filtration and quality.

They don’t do a whole lot of creative design. If anything, we create materials and deliver them to PartnerCentric. Their final responsibility is to collect statistics on our affiliate marketing performance and report them.

What is the team composition?

We regularly work with our account manager and an assistant, meeting on a weekly basis. They have a larger account management and a support team, that we talk with from time to time. There are also quarterly and yearly reviews.

How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?

Our company has been working with them for many years before my time. We were looking for a leader in the affiliate marketing space, and I’d actually heard of them before with them from a previous company. They’re well known in the industry.

How much have you invested with them?

We spend about $10,000–$49,999 per month.

What is the status of this engagement?

We’ve been working together since May 2017.

RESULTS & FEEDBACK

What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement? 

We don’t have any exact numbers, but in my two years here I’ve seen significant year over year growth in our affiliate marketing sales. This fulfills our primary goal. We’ve also onboarded productive new affiliate publishers. PartnerCentric, Inc. has exceeded all our goals.

How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?

I’m really happy with their account management. We have weekly calls to review our performance any challenges that have come up. They’re responsive to our requests and questions, and they always email us back.

Spreadsheets stored on Google are used to manage our projects. Ongoing metrics are always available to us. We both update and make comments to these sheets.

What did you find most impressive about them?

Their overall expertise in affiliate marketing stands out, as does their account management and knowledge of the industry.

Are there any areas they could improve?

Obviously, we’d like lower pricing, but our costs grow as the program grows. This is the only thing I can say about them.

Do you have any advice for potential customers?

PartnerCentric would be a good choice for anyone looking to start or grow an affiliate program. Be clear with your goals. I’m confident that they’d be able to help other companies meet their goals.