Lovehoney demonstrates how to effectively use pay-per-click advertising within the affiliate channel for program growth and optimisation.
Founded in 2002, Lovehoney is an award-winning brand that develops innovative products in the sexual well-being category. The company pride itself on excellent 24/7 customer service and aims to revolutionise how people shop for adult toys.
The company targeted to build customer revenue and conversion through unique affiliate marketing activities. In this case study, we will look at how Lovehoney strategically used pay-per-click partners to increase its foothold in the market.
Objectives
Lovehoney aimed to diversify its affiliate mix and drive more revenue via affiliates. In partnership with Commission Factory, the advertiser looked into the feasibility of running pay-per-click (PPC) advertising with selected publishers to generate uplifts in key metrics such as clicks, conversion rates, and sales revenue.
While the brand is a prominent name worldwide, PPC is essential to keep them at the top of their consumers' minds and generate sales during crucial seasons. With access to a range of like-minded affiliates, the brand was able to choose partners that could help with its goals, whilst not encroaching on the client’s own extensive search activity, but adding value to it.
Solution
Three key partners were identified to work with on this campaign: Partner 1, Partner 2 and Partner 3.
The publishers were engaged to create strategic search engine activity using a combination of generic offers and brand keywords. The benefit to the advertiser of working with affiliates in this way is 3-fold:
- Ensuring that consumers looking for a discount are led to the most current offers and promotions in the market
- The customer is guaranteed to find a discount and be led with their promotion to Lovehoney, rather than landing on one of the advertiser’s campaigns and not finding the discount they were seeking and leaving
- Moving competitors out of the paid and non-paid search space to give Lovehoney more extensive coverage on search engines
The reciprocal benefit to the publisher is that they can earn more revenue via these highly targeted campaigns, allowing them to invest more coverage to the brand across other areas of their site and traffic sources, leading to an overall increase in performance and commission earned.
Results
Lovehoney saw an increase in revenue month over month, each time they ran one of these campaigns with a selected partner. The new activity helped to grow revenue in the channel and leans into their diversification strategy.
Campaigns run with Partner 1 saw a 5% uplift in conversion rate and a 38% uplift in sales revenue month-on-month (MoM). Meanwhile, its PPC strategy in Partner 2 resulted in a 31% uplift in sales revenue QoQ (Q2 2022 vs Q1 2022) and a 46% uplift in sales revenue YoY (Q2 2022 vs Q2 2021).
With the Partner 3 campaign, Lovehoney gained a conversion rate uplift of almost 5% and a total average order value (AOV) uplift of 3% MoM. These results deliver direct revenue uplift.
Key Takeaways
Working with affiliates on a PPC strategy was an important part of Lovehoney's affiliate program optimisation and has helped the brand build strong partnerships with each affiliate partner. Through constant engagement with PPC efforts in the affiliate space, Lovehoney demonstrates the value of utilising a broad range of measures to ensure a clear customer journey path for users specifically looking for discounts.
While PPC is often seen as “no touch” for affiliates, when executed strategically and in consultation with the selected advertiser, it can be an effective additional source of revenue and affiliate program diversification. As the success of Lovehoney suggests, affiliate marketing offers many ways to succeed for both brands and affiliates alike.
If you are an advertiser looking to upgrade your affiliate marketing efforts like Lovehoney, please get in touch with the Commission Factory team today, or speak to your Commission Factory contact.
Interested in partnering with Lovehoney as an affiliate? Join Commission Factory as an affiliate.