The Importance of a Fully Optimised Commissioning Strategy

Building successful partnerships include developing innovative ways for brands and affiliates to work together to drive sales. By employing a commissioning strategy based on data-driven insights, advertisers can effectively control costs, support new customer acquisition, and better incentivise publishers. And publisher partners gain additional transparency into what the advertiser wants and needs, allowing them to make deliberate promotional decisions.

Overall, a solid commissioning strategy enhances the relationship between advertisers and publishers and increases return on ad spend (ROAS). With Rakuten Marketing’s release of Dynamic Commissioning, advertisers and publishers have another opportunity to be more data-driven in their strategies to increase conversions and improve performance. A fully optimised commissioning strategy benefits both advertisers and publishers. Here are just a few examples of how partners can make the most out of this new feature.

Gain Control Over Costs:

The more control advertisers have over their commissioning costs, the more successful they, and the publisher can be. Advertisers should be creating commissioning lists across many fields, such as product category. When it comes to products, there are hundreds and sometimes thousands of items that can be under one main category. For example, menswear may include anything from baseball caps to fine button-up shirts. With categories including such a vast number of items for publishers to offer, the margins for these items can vary dramatically. In situations like this, having a commission program that gives advertisers control over commissioning rates can help increase ROAS by increasing commission rates for high-margin items and lowering the rate for low-margin items. The capability to control commissioning rates can be applied and updated across multiple offers while creating commissioning rules. Advertisers can add, move and edit items within commissioning lists, which eliminates the arduous process of managing commissions by SKU lists.

Create Strategies that Support Campaign Objectives:

For advertisers to further take control over variable commissioning payouts, they must know what data elements are most important for their business. Having a commission program that gives clear guidance on what data elements to focus on allows brands to benchmark publishers against key KPIs for specific campaigns. For example, if a brand is running a campaign where the main goal is to increase new customers, offering higher payouts to publishers that do more than just engage with existing/returning customers is a great way to help drive a customer acquisition goal. Similarly, if there’s a specific brand a multi-brand advertiser would like push during a particular time period, offering a higher commission on that brand can help boost its performance.

Incentivise Publishers:

For publishers, the amount of commission offered is an incentive to better deliver on advertisers’ expectations. When advertisers have flexibility and control to optimise commissioning strategies, it not only increases ROAS but increases transparency with publishers. By utilising a data-driven strategy with publisher commission rates, publishers gain clarity into what commissioning payouts they can expect from specific product sales and types of customers they drive. When publishers know what’s important to a partner, they can build strategies that deliver results for advertisers’ objectives and better strategise their promotions.

Enhance Reporting Functionality:

As advertisers define the commission terms with their affiliates, they’re able to set special rules based on data reported within the transaction. These rules can be applied to customer status, category, brand, profit margin, and a variety of other data-based categories. By defining the customers and sales that are most important within the program, publishers can offer an advertiser’s inventory to the most valuable audience, which helps advertisers deliver better online experiences and drive higher performance from their affiliate marketing program.

A “one-size-fits-all” commissioning approach is no longer viable as digital advertising evolves. Having a fully evolved commissioning strategy is a fundamental element of personalised affiliate marketing. When brands have this tool, publishers won’t miss out on opportunities to increase their earnings, and advertisers won’t miss out on reaching their desired audience in authentic ways. Rakuten Marketing’s Dynamic Commissioning feature empowers advertisers and publishers to grow in the affiliate landscape. Through leveraging existing audience data and segments effectively, Dynamic Commissioning generates multiple opportunities for both advertisers and publishers to be more data-driven in their strategies.

Talk to a Rakuten Marketing representative today about how to implement the Dynamic Commissioning feature for your program, or follow the link below: