Publisher Showcase: RevLifter

Each month our Publisher Showcase highlights an innovative publisher from the Rakuten Marketing Affiliate Network. This month we sit down with RevLifter – a groundbreaking technology that enables online retailers to fully control their incentivisation strategies and drive more revenue. 

Who are you and what do you do?

My name is Simon and I’m the co-founder of RevLifter. Our solutions use AI to select personalised discounts which are likely to appease users in the market to buy. Some of the things we examine include basket contents, location, basket value and customer status (new or existing), when can be tailored depending on the client’s goals.

We can then deliver an incentive through properties like branded coupon hubs within the advertiser’s website, meaning the customer experience doesn’t get handed over to an intermediary.

The entire process takes place in real time and we truly believe this is the best way of driving incrementality through the incentive space.

Who is your target audience?

Any advertiser with a working site is our target audience. However, we’re especially pleased to hear from users who haven’t done much in the way of incentivisation due to issues with current processes. Our clients are spread across lots of different industries, but the common goal is to drive more actions through their site. Every company is looking to incentivise customers into buying products or a service, and that’s where we come in.

How long have you been using affiliate marketing as a channel?

On a personal level, I’ve been working in affiliate marketing for over 15 years. Some people might have across me during my time as MD at voucher portal Savoo.

Anyone who knows me on a professional basis should know that I’m a huge advocate of the channel and everything it does in driving customer acquisition, brand loyalty and ROI. That said, we did feel that incentivisation hadn’t really moved forward – certainly not since I’ve been around – which presented a huge opportunity.

While I’ve been working in the affiliate industry for a healthy duration, RevLifter as a company is fresh to the market. We were founded in 2017 and this year will be our very first on the global scene. Thankfully our team has a wealth of experience in both digital marketing and ecommerce, so getting started has been pretty easy.

What kind of advertisers are your ideal partners?

Any merchant that feels disillusioned by the current line of incentivisation options should definitely get in touch with us. This area of affiliate marketing is turning over huge amounts of revenue, yet we feel there are some obvious flaws over things like advertiser control, incrementality and personalisation.

Beyond that, we love working with people who truly care about their performance. It sounds strange, but not every merchant will closely examine data and explore concepts like AI to get the most out of their affiliate program. We’re after forward-thinking groups, and we have the technology to make things easy to navigate.

What unique offering do you bring to the table that other affiliates don’t offer?

When you look over RevLifter’s full list of attributes, it’s clear to see how different we are to anything else that’s in market. No other solution executes the incentivisation process in the way we do, particularly with a focus on empowering the advertiser on the other end and real-time personalisation of deals based on reading a live basket.

As a publisher, we are hoping to bring a blend of the revenue-driving activity that incentivisation is known for, combined with a highly analytical approach. I think the next few years could see a small group of smart publishers pouncing on some of the opportunities that affiliate presents, and I know we’ll be one of them.

What new innovations will we see from you in 2018?

This year represents our first on the global ecommerce and performance marketing scenes, so we’re looking forward to showing advertisers what we can do once everything’s been rolled out.

It’s early days now, but we’ve already been nominated for an ‘industry disruptor’ prize at the Performance Marketing Awards in Europe. We’ve been given a great reception from advertisers and our team is looking forward to spreading word of our solution.

New features are already on the horizon like a messaging tout that allows customers to ‘unlock or reveal’ a special offer, with a time prompt instilling a sense of encouragement.

Our deal pages are also being enhanced through new machine learning algorithms, which utilise self-learning to guarantee the best outcome.

Can you describe what excites you most about the affiliate marketing industry?

I feel we’re ready to welcome a new era of innovation. So many digital channels are embracing new technologies, mindsets and tactics, with data being at the heart of their working.

Has affiliate marketing been slow to respond to things like data? Possibly, but it’s never too late to put things on the correct course.

Another big source of inspiration for us comes from the ability of affiliates to better personalise the content and offers they deliver. Only a small group of publishers can change what they display according to the person in front of them. As the need for personalisation intensifies, we’re looking forward to a few more joining RevLifter in achieving that goal.

If advertisers aren’t yet partnered with, why should they jump on board?

Put simply, we can grow revenue, prove incrementality and offer something different.

The chance to use technology like AI in delivering personalised offers to people in the market to buy should be of interest to any group. However, there are so many benefits from the end user’s angle. Think about the reputation of an advertiser who can issue discounts without the customer having to navigate from their page. This breeds revenue, as well as loyalty around the brand in question.

Most advertisers in the affiliate channel will have worked with incentives in some form, and these are the people we want to reach out to. We want to show how RevLifter offers an upgrade on what they’re doing at present and how it can drive better results.

To find out how you can work with RevLifter, visit rakutenmarketing.com.au or reach out to one of our experts at rm-salesapac@mail.rakuten.com