Building Meaningful Relationships Beyond Borders
PartnerCentric, Inc. is the largest woman-owned (WBE-certified) performance marketing agency in the industry. We are experts at building successful, revenue-producing affiliate marketing strategies through powerful data analytics, fraud detection and competitive analysis. We drive the highest ROI for some of the world's most respected brands, from emerging startups to Fortune 500 leaders, through our proprietary performance marketing sales and demand generation solutions. Our premium management ensures that we are 100% funded by happy customers and our clients are supported by the most tenured account managers in the industry, with an average of over 13 years of experience. Discover our new Control Suite (www.partnercentric.com/control-suite) and visit www.partnercentric.com to learn more about our team and services.
Marketing & Data Analytics for Clothing Brand
the project
''The professionalism and service they provided day-to-day surmounted any expectations that I had set.''
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm a former executive at an online clothing retailer.
What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We were a UK-established company, and we were looking for an agency that could provide some insights into the US market and an established strong network of contacts within the target market.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Originally, the plan was to have PartnerCentric, Inc. support us in establishing relationships, but they became an integral part of our day-to-day operations on the affiliate marketing channel. I was the sole account manager on a big account, and they supported me in my daily conversations with publishers on negotiating top rates for placements.
They were also super helpful in providing insights into our performance and optimizations to the account overall. One of the biggest contributions was their reach into the market, their expertise within it, and their ability to showcase the room for improvement and optimization within the account.
What is the team composition?
There were two people on the day-to-day and another two people overseeing strategy. My key contact was Erinn (Brand Strategist), who was the most astounding person I have ever worked with.
How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
A big reason for choosing them was their huge reach into the market and established connections.
How much have you invested in them?
We were investing $5,000 a month with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from January 2020–January 2022.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They helped us get our ROI on the overall program from under $2.00 to almost $8.00 per dollar of ad spend — that is one of the key success metrics, especially for the affiliate channel. We grew over 100% year on year, and they were consistently excellent in the service they provided.
How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?
They were very professional, extremely timely, and efficient — I don’t think I have ever worked with a team that I have been so happy with the level of service and the commitment to their deadlines.
Regarding tools and communication, we had internal spreadsheets, and we would contact them via email and weekly sync-ups. In addition, we would catch up whenever needed, and they were very accommodating in terms of contact needs.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The focus they put on supporting women, and I know that it is a women-owned business, is very inspiring and impressive. Also, the professionalism and service they provided day-to-day surmounted any expectations that I had set out initially, which was key to the engagement's success.
Overall, the attention they put into everything and the level of care was very obvious in every interaction.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I genuinely can’t think of anything they could improve on.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
The sooner you start working with them, the better. Also, be clear with your goal because they'll deliver whatever you ask for; we only faced any hiccups when we had internal issues defining what we were looking for and couldn’t communicate that effectively to them.
As long as you have a very clear objective, they'll always be able to support you.
Focus
Portfolio
Leading Luxe Fashion Brand Sees 627% YoY Increases
Case Overview: A leading luxury fashion brand knew they had to get creative during Covid-19 but because they have a higher-end offering, they wanted to be strategic about their investment. This brand has always respected and encouraged a well-diversified affiliate portfolio, despite being a luxury brand. They understand the value of coupon and loyalty partners but also incorporate content and influencer marketing. By accepting our suggestions to implement a varied marketing mix, they are seeing unprecedented success and growth during an uncertain time.
Approach: When Covid-19 disrupted businesses, our team developed tailored strategies for all clients based on their biggest pain points. For this brand, our team researched and booked both flat fee placement packages and CPA increase opportunities with top-performing partners. While many retailers were pulling back on CPA increases, we suggested that they continue and this resulted in higher revenue.
During the “Annual Birthday Week” event with Rakuten, we suggested they provide a higher cashback of 12% and because of this, the brand saw $22,000 in revenue during the event. Additionally, in April and May, they gave a 4% commission increase to any partners that were giving cash back to charity and Covid-relief efforts, which provided additional placement opportunities for us to secure. Our team is also working with this brand to secure partnerships that will allow them to give back to first responders, teachers and nurses as well as new influencer partnerships to promote specific collections and collaborations.
Results: Two of the highest revenue earning weeks ever in this brand’s affiliate program were May 4th through the 10th (up 627% YoY) and April 27th through May 3rd (up 280% YoY).
Before Covid-19, the amount of revenue-driving publishers averaged between 10-15 a week; it has now increased to 20-25 due to our team getting creative with placement opportunities and reactivating publishers.
New to Affiliate: Kitchen Brand Sees Results!
Overview: We began managing a small kitchen appliance brand's program. Being new to the affiliate channel, the brand needed the expertise of an agency to expand its overall reach and drive incremental sales by utilizing non-traditional affiliate partners.
Approach: Unable to compete with discounts within the retail space due to the challenges of MAP pricing, the brand was looking for unique partners who could reach an audience less concerned with costs and drive traffic directly to their site. In addition, the brand was seeking ways to utilize the affiliate channel to support other marketing channels' efforts as well as form a bridge between driving digital traffic to their big-box retail partners.
Understanding these concerns and seeing the holes in the brand's current marketing efforts, we teamed up with a variety of non-traditional partners best suited to reach the client's goals.
Results: In the span of three weeks since PartnerCentric launched the program, the client saw 17.8% of overall sales derive from the affiliate channel due to the non-traditional relationships formed at the onset of the program. In addition, over 5,000 new-to-file email addresses were added to the client's email marketing list. The brand was able to also share their new product and gain learnings received from over 10K potential shoppers. Pleased with these overall results and the current standing, the client is looking to add a second brand to the affiliate channel to further increase their reach.
Vitamin Company Sees Healthy Savings & Growth
Problem: Vitamin World was concerned about the escalating cost of their affiliate program. The amount of money they spent on network fees was making their affiliate channel inefficient, affecting their ROI.
This inefficiency prevented them from focusing on discovery and recruitment efforts to scale the channel, which they wanted to do-their time was taken up with pulling reports and numerous other manual activities, keeping them from developing a full-fledged program strategy.
Solution: By working with PartnerCentric, Vitamin World transitioned their program away from the networks to full-scale partnership automation using Impact's Partnsherip Cloud (PC). Automation allowed Vitamin World to achieve the efficiencies they sought, freeing up their time and money needed to grow their base of partners.
PartnerCentric and Impact's PC enabled Vitamin World to identify and cultivate strategic "beyond-borders" partners, such as employee benefit sites and new relationships with international shopping partners, which supported their global expansion efforts.
Outcome: Since partnering with PartnerCentric and migrating to Impact, in just one year, Vitamin world saved a startling six figures (more than $100,000) in network fees and grew their program rapidly.
In 2018 alone, ParnerCentric secured 40 new productive publishers to manage within the Partnership Cloud platform. Their employee benefit partners resulted in a 78% YoY growth in that vertical. Efficiency increased as well, with a 48% YoY reduction in CPC. Upon affiliate migration, Vitamin World increased revenue by 36%.
Vitamin World also enjoyed other significant benefits, such as amassing $9K savings by rejecting backlisted coupons-something that they were not able to track while fully dependent on their legacy networks.
Successful Publisher Segmentation Strategy
Overview: Effective publisher segmentation is a critical component of many profitable affiliate programs. By forcing on this strategy, the PartnerCentric team helped elevate the success of a reputable water filtration company in only two months while increasing ROAS.
Approach: After a year of successful affiliate program management by PartnerCentric, it was clear that a commission segmentation strategy utilizing publisher categories would yield significant cost savings. The previous payout structure was a flat 12% payout for all affiliates, which didn't allow for any incentive increases for top publishers or seasonal campaigns. After reviewing strategies, the client and their PartnerCentric affiliate manager ultimately decided to decrease the payout percentage and segment publishers into discount, loyalty and all other publishers (though there was additional segmentation and payout increase based on performance).
Results: After only two months, $5000 was saved due to the commission segmentation strategy. Additionally, monthly average revenue increased by 0.9%, and monthly average order size increased by 9.9%. Finally, monthly publisher commission payouts decreased by 22%, and ROAS increased by $2.04.
Iconic Shoe Retailer Sees Affiliate Success
Overview: We took over management for this American classic shoe retailer’s program after being previously managed with a network management solution. The brand wanted the expertise, perspective, and alignment of a proven agency partner to attract new customers and increase revenue and ROAS. They also wanted to work with influencers and prominent content sites but needed a team that knew how to develop and nurture those relationships.
Appraoch: After our initial kickoff with this brand, we suggested working with established content publishers to specifically push out curated collections and reach an untapped audience by focusing on editorial and content. We boosted day-to-day communication with top partners and created campaigns for the brand that featured the right products matched with the right partners. For example, we presented their full-price wedding collection to be featured in well-known wedding publications, and that increased sales due to the content that was created around the collection.Because our focus was more on editorial and content, we looked for trends with other shoe sites to see what publishers would work well for the brand, and then we presented those opportunities. We also increased commissions for publishers who provided more exposure. For another campaign, we elevated strategic engagement with key influencers and discussed how the shoes would appeal to their audience. This led to some excellent free content where the shoe collections were front and center in established publications.
Results: Because of the tremendous growth they have seen from our efforts, this brand is increasing budget for the affiliate channel. In the first period of our management, the total affiliate program revenue (including all publishers) was up 124% YoY. In Period 2, revenue increased by 140%. Additionally, through increased communication with top content publishers, we received top placements in Time Inc. (Real Simple and People Magazine) and Buzzfeed.
Goals Exceeded for this Financial Services Brand
Overview: When PartnerCentric started managing this multimedia financial services company, they were a brand completely new to performance marketing and from day one, the PartnerCentric team has driven the strategy that has exceeded all set KPIs. The brand's main goal was to add more paid subscriptions to their various stock advising and retirement products. They also set a goal for incremental weekly subscription sales solely from the affiliate channel and, on average, we consistently exceed their weekly goal by 47%. Their team is always willing to try new things and embrace our innovative tactics, so they're seeing strong success with a healthy mix of both traditional partners and relevant content sites.
Approach: When PartnerCentric first launched this brand's new program and recruited Cartera Commerce, this partner began driving significant subscription sales, so we began to recruit more partners that could successfully drive the same volume. The brand already had some partners they were working with direct (CNN, MSN, etc.), so our team recruited strong, "beyond borders" relationships that would open the brand to new audiences.
Additionally, we targeted new finance sites and new types of content sites that aren't as obvious as traditional coupon and loyalty but could still drive significant value where it mattered to the brand.
Results: The first 3 months of PartnerCentric's management of this brand, their program was up 524% YoY, 491% YoY, and 122% YoY. Our team's successful recruitment of strategic partners made it possible to reach the volume that the brand wanted to see. These new partners, including DealWiki, IMwave, and MoneyCrashers, bring a similar volume to Cartera, which was the highest performing partner previously.
Many other partners have also grown significantly since we recruited them, including iGive (up 4,832% YoY), Wikibuy (up 414% YoY), and WellKeptWallet (255% YoY), further driving the brand's success within the performance marketing channel
Leading Maternity Wear Brand Sees an 87% Decrease
Case Overview
A leading maternity wear client had an existing affiliate program when they signed on with PartnerCentric. Our goal (and theirs) was to ensure the program terms and conditions were outlined correctly and to eliminate violations that were resulting in additional publisher commissions.
- With our Trademark Monitoring tool, we identified that the program’s network Terms and Conditions were inadequate for the Pay-Per-Click (PPC) policy.
- Based on our compliance recommendation, the Terms and Conditions were updated accordingly and we sent out a program wide notice of PPC policy to discourage additional violations
- We also expanded the keywords used in the TM policy for additional coverage
- Four publishers were expired from the program for repeat URL-hijacking violations
- We continually monitor the program and remove advertisements that are in violation to PPC policy
Results
As a result of the PC Trademark Monitoring Program:
- Trademark Violations decreased 87% from December to April! (259 Violations in December to only 33 total February through April)
- Commissions decreased by 71% for publishers who were previously repeat TM violators
- After PC TM+ Monitoring cleaned up the program a large TM publisher who had previously refused to work with the Client agreed to a partnership
- The Client also saw an additional cost savings in their internal PPC campaigns as the cost per click also decreased with the TM violators being removed.
Reviews
the project
Affiliate Marketing For Pharmaceutical Company
“PartnerCentric, Inc. brought potential partnerships and new ideas for expanding our sales channels to the table.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
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.
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.
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.
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.
the project
Staff Augmentation for Tech Company
"The team was extremely clear and concise in their communications, and we appreciated their follow-through."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
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.
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.
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.
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.
the project
Affiliate Marketing for Vision Insurance Company
“PartnerCentric is very responsive and easy to do business with, and they always care about their clients.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
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.
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.
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.
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.
the project
Marketing & Data Analytics for Clothing Brand
''The professionalism and service they provided day-to-day surmounted any expectations that I had set.''
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I'm a former executive at an online clothing retailer.
What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We were a UK-established company, and we were looking for an agency that could provide some insights into the US market and an established strong network of contacts within the target market.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Originally, the plan was to have PartnerCentric, Inc. support us in establishing relationships, but they became an integral part of our day-to-day operations on the affiliate marketing channel. I was the sole account manager on a big account, and they supported me in my daily conversations with publishers on negotiating top rates for placements.
They were also super helpful in providing insights into our performance and optimizations to the account overall. One of the biggest contributions was their reach into the market, their expertise within it, and their ability to showcase the room for improvement and optimization within the account.
What is the team composition?
There were two people on the day-to-day and another two people overseeing strategy. My key contact was Erinn (Brand Strategist), who was the most astounding person I have ever worked with.
How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
A big reason for choosing them was their huge reach into the market and established connections.
How much have you invested in them?
We were investing $5,000 a month with them.
What is the status of this engagement?
We worked together from January 2020–January 2022.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
They helped us get our ROI on the overall program from under $2.00 to almost $8.00 per dollar of ad spend — that is one of the key success metrics, especially for the affiliate channel. We grew over 100% year on year, and they were consistently excellent in the service they provided.
How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?
They were very professional, extremely timely, and efficient — I don’t think I have ever worked with a team that I have been so happy with the level of service and the commitment to their deadlines.
Regarding tools and communication, we had internal spreadsheets, and we would contact them via email and weekly sync-ups. In addition, we would catch up whenever needed, and they were very accommodating in terms of contact needs.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The focus they put on supporting women, and I know that it is a women-owned business, is very inspiring and impressive. Also, the professionalism and service they provided day-to-day surmounted any expectations that I had set out initially, which was key to the engagement's success.
Overall, the attention they put into everything and the level of care was very obvious in every interaction.
Are there any areas they could improve?
I genuinely can’t think of anything they could improve on.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
The sooner you start working with them, the better. Also, be clear with your goal because they'll deliver whatever you ask for; we only faced any hiccups when we had internal issues defining what we were looking for and couldn’t communicate that effectively to them.
As long as you have a very clear objective, they'll always be able to support you.
the project
Affiliate Marketing for Fast Fashion Brand
"Their various creative affiliate projects resulted in an overall big uplift in click throughs."
the reviewer
the review
The client submitted this review online.
Please describe your company and your position there.
I formerly worked as an Affiliate Market Executive for Manchester-based U.K. fast fashion brand.
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
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.
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.
the project
Affiliate Marketing for Technology Company
"PartnerCentric, Inc. is a great provider to get any affiliate program up and running."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the VP of marketing at Bellhop, a technology company.
What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We needed their growth marketing expertise to improve our customer acquisition rate.
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.
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.
the project
Affiliate Marketing Services for Travel Company
“They made it easy for us to recruit and build our affiliate marketing network quickly and efficiently.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
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.
What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We hired PartnerCentric for our affiliate marketing efforts.
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.
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.
the project
Affiliate Marketing Services for Water Filter Company
"Their overall expertise in affiliate marketing stands out, as does their account management."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
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.
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.
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.
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.
the project
Affiliate Marketing Services for Streaming Network
“They respond quickly to our needs, and we haven’t run into problems that they can’t solve.”
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
I’m the director of marketing operations for a company that streams high school sports. We’re partners with 46 state associations, but we work with schools for regular season sports in every state across the country. Meanwhile, we stream high school sports when fans can’t make it to the games, allowing them to watch the games on their phones or laptops connected to their TVs — wherever they can get internet access.
What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We’re a subscription-based service like Netflix and ESPN+, and we’re trying to grow our subscriber base. To do that, we use PartnerCentric to get more referrals from areas we might not reach by ourselves.
What was the scope of their involvement?
PartnerCentric has connections with companies in the affiliate programs space, and they’ve connected us with those companies. They then give those affiliates information about us for them to refer more subscribers to our network.
Apart from companies in the affiliate network, PartnerCentric also helps us contact smaller firms that want to get paid to help us promote our group. We send the firms’ information to Daniel (Affiliate Program Manager) to set them up. Overall, the affiliate network is a mix of large and small companies.
What is the team composition?
I work with two PartnerCentric resources, and I have one main point of contact from their team.
How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
Our CMO had worked with PartnerCentric in the past, and he had a great experience with them. Based on that past experience, he wanted to use them again.
What is the status of this engagement?
The affiliate program started in February 2020, though we had to stop for 1–2 months because of the COVID-19 pandemic. However, the engagement is now ongoing.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
PartnerCentric has brought in companies that drive good traffic. Not only that; we’ve also grown our subscriber base, which is our main goal. So far, we’ve had a fantastic year — we’re up by at least 60% on the year.
Overall, their services have made it easier for us to acquire partners that refer customers to us. The partnership is a seamless way to help us and other companies make money through the referral program.
How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?
I have weekly video calls with Daniel and his team, and we also communicate via email. Whenever I need something, I can email them and they’ll respond quickly. Overall, we’ve had no problems on this side of things.
What did you find most impressive about them?
The ease of working with PartnerCentric has been their distinguishing factor. They respond quickly to our needs, and we haven’t run into problems that they can’t solve. They’re always there to help us, and the process has been seamless.
Moreover, Daniel knows exactly what we’re trying to do. As a result, the team can find the right companies to partner with us on our affiliate program. Overall, everything has been easy and great.
Are there any areas they could improve?
No, there aren’t any.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
PartnerCentric is a great partner, and hiring them is a great choice for you.
the project
Marketing & Advertising for Banking Company
"I can’t remember a single mistake or omission they made in something we received. We could always trust their numbers."
the reviewer
the review
A Clutch analyst personally interviewed this client over the phone. Below is an edited transcript.
Introduce your business and what you do there.
We’re a small, full-service bank in Chicago that offers a credit card to mainstream audiences. My position is the marketing director of customer acquisition.
What challenge were you trying to address with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We were trying to grow our business and brought in PartnerCentric to augment the services we were receiving from another vendor. They brought expertise, as well as access to their relationships with publishers we hadn’t had any luck accessing to date.
What was the scope of their involvement?
Our initial step was to educate PartnerCentric, Inc. on our business, our products, and our target audience. This allowed them to recommend appropriate publishers for us to partner with. Their involvement continued after identification, as they negotiated terms with the publishers we selected and sent us write-ups to review for accuracy. Additionally, we worked with them to ensure all commissions were set up to appropriately attribute payments.
After the go-live, the spigot opened and allowed us to see which publishers were performing well and which weren’t PartnerCentric was proactive about recommending changes to our targeting criteria. As time went on, we maximized our channels and opened to new ones to grow account volume.
What is the team composition?
I worked with two teams of two people at any given time. One account manager and one analyst were on each team, with the former cultivating relationships with publishers and the latter maintaining tracking and reporting.
How did you come to work with PartnerCentric, Inc.?
We were working with another vendor in a similar role who recommended PartnerCentric, as they had relationships in the industry that our initial vendor didn’t. The two vendors have worked very well together.
What is the status of this engagement?
We went live with our program in December 2018, but new accounts didn’t kick off until January 2019. Our relationship continued up to January 2021.
What evidence can you share that demonstrates the impact of the engagement?
Our program was already stable, but PartnerCentric contributed an extra 25% to our new accounts. In the first four months of 2020, their contribution increased to 36%. They were a key, integral part of our team.
How did PartnerCentric, Inc. perform from a project management standpoint?
They were excellent. Our account person was proactive and continually brought creative ideas about new places we could advertise and new ways to position our products. The business analyst was similarly outstanding. I can’t remember a single mistake or omission they made in something we received. We could always trust their numbers.
PartnerCentric was very responsive. We used a project tracker to collaborate, as well as weekly calls and ad hoc emails.
What did you find most impressive about them?
Their expertise and broad relationships stood out and gave us an edge in bringing in clients.
Are there any areas they could improve?
The only hiccup happened in the early months. PartnerCentric put together a plan for ramping up and set an advertising goal for new accounts for the first six months. It took them a lot longer than expected to reach that number, so they could have managed expectations more upfront. The results began sprinting along quickly, though, and they responded excellently when I brought this issue to their attention.
During this slow period, we were paying a commission to PartnerCentric after they paid a commission to the publishers. We were also paying them a flat amount regardless of the booking numbers. PartnerCentric was willing to renegotiate our agreements, and even give up some revenue, so that the financials would work out for us.
Do you have any advice for potential customers?
Encourage them to leverage best practices, both within your industry and with publishers outside your industry. This will help refine your program and identify new opportunities.
PartnerCentric, Inc. was able to help the client increase their ROI per ad spend by four times. They led a professional, timely, and efficient process to ensure a solid project management experience. The team also praised their women-oriented approach, which was inspiring.