Being able to demonstrate return-on-investment (ROI), track and report on activity is one of the first things we’re taught to do as marketers. However, it’s no longer enough to merely report on performance. You need to use the data to optimize campaigns and improve the strategy that drives results. At the same time, we understand that most people don’t get into marketing to play with spreadsheets. Striking a balance between collecting and analyzing data and using it to feed your decision making can be tough.
How do you ensure you’re getting the most out of existing programs, investing wisely in new strategies and partnerships, and reducing busy work? You need the right reporting tools that identify new opportunities and give an intelligent view of ROI, all while showcasing results, trends and learnings. But getting this information and getting it in the one place can feel like a bit of a pipedream. That is, of course, until now.
At Rakuten Advertising, we’re reducing the busy work. Meaning you spend less time with your head in a spreadsheet and more time flexing your strategic skills and building relationships with partners. We give you the affiliate reporting tools to confidently achieve, or even surpass expectations with our Insights and Analytics features like Affiliate Forecasting, Benchmarking and Trends & Annotations*.
Identifying the right opportunities
Before you achieve your goals, let alone exceed them, you need to understand the full context of how your campaigns are actually performing. In the affiliate space, benchmarking tools do just that. Benchmarking gives you insight into how your affiliate program is performing against your competitors and your vertical.
Via benchmarking, marketers can uncover new and better ways to work with their publishers. Whether it be offering incentives to underperforming partners or rewarding high performers to keep them motivated. Additionally, you can discover new high-performing publishers within your vertical. And, if new market expansion is your goal, benchmarking mitigates the risk by introducing you to the publishers that are already delivering results for your local competitors.
Smarter, more accurate forecasting
Now that the right opportunities have been identified, the next step is gaining an intelligent view of ROI. Affiliate forecasting tools combine historical performance data, proprietary network insights and vertical benchmarks to give you a better view of what’s coming and what’s possible so you can make smarter, more informed decisions.
Whether partnering with new publishers or trialling different commission rates, you can confidently optimize your affiliate program whilst effectively justifying budget spend. You can also use the learnings to determine new strategies that improve performance while building a case for affiliate spend within your business.
Efficiency and collaboration
We know that, ultimately, affiliate comes down to numbers and performance. The final piece to the puzzle is delivering insights and understanding strategies and opportunities based on your performance data. Trends and annotation features within reporting dashboards improve the analysis process by allowing your experts to annotate trend reports, providing a deeper understanding of your performance. You and those within your business or agency and network partners (like your Rakuten Advertising account rep) can view and reply to annotations, increasing efficiency in cross-team collaboration, saving time and reducing the reliance on spreadsheets.
Bringing it all together
By identifying opportunities and making smarter decisions based on past, present and future performance, you take your campaigns and strategic thinking to the next level. You can confidently strike the data balance you’re seeking without getting buried in spreadsheets – a major plus for anyone who isn’t an Excel mastermind.
The best -art? Rakuten Advertising leads the industry when it comes to data and insights. Contact our team to start making your campaigns more successful with less work. And, if you’re a global brand working with us, reach out to your account manager for information on our Global Performance Report – where we roll all your programs into one dashboard for easy access.
*The data provided by Affiliate Forecasting is directional. As with all forecasting, there is a high risk of variance. Performance prediction is not guaranteed.
