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Best Western GB Leverages Expertise from AP and Awin to Boost ROAS 1804%

Discover how Acceleration Partners (AP) and Awin collaborated to help Best Western GB, a company with over 250 independently owned and managed hotels in Great Britain, drive cost-effective growth and reach new audiences through their affiliate program. Despite budget cuts, the team streamlined processes and leveraged the performance-based affiliate channel to generate incremental revenue.

By activating and optimizing high-traffic, travel-relevant partners and introducing new partners to aid growth and target a younger demographic, the team exceeded all 2022 objectives, including generating over £1.3 million in revenue, achieving an average CPA of less than 8%, and increasing brand awareness through partners.

RESULTS

The collaborative approach between AP and Awin helped drive exceptional outcomes for Best Western GB:

£1.7M

in revenue via the affiliate channel (31% over goal)

4.63%

CPA (42% less than target)

1804%

ROAS (80% over goal)

80

new partners (20% more than prior year)

466%

increase in traffic

57%

increase in new customer sales

261%

increase in revenue from 18-24-year-old customers

OUR APPROACH

As a mature affiliate program, AP first focused on activating high-traffic, travel-relevant partners who could align with Best Western GB’s two target audiences: 50+ affluent individuals and 18-24-year-old students/young people.

GAP Analysis

AP knew partner recruitment and activation would be essential to achieve the clients’ goals. To support this goal, Awin provided a GAP Analysis identifying 24 partner opportunities based within the Awin platform. The report showcased opportunities in partner recruitment, activation, and optimization. AP focused on the top 10 partners from this list that would likely generate the performance required to hit the program goals.

Partner Activation and Optimization

AP leveraged the rebrand to discuss CPAi only opportunities with existing partners who could reach Best Western GB’s target audiences. To make these opportunities more compelling, AP increased the commission to a flat rate of 6% for all sales in exchange for increased exposure on-site. This offer was shown to be more profitable for partners than the previous tenancy agreements.

Partner Recruitment

To diversify Best Western GB’s affiliate program and target new audiences, AP recruited travel-specific content partners who could create evergreen content. The AP team used the Awin GAP analysis and Awin Partner Directory to carefully review each partner and ensure they could meet the client’s goals. Once onboarded, the AP team regularly optimized performance with each partner.

Increased Brand Awareness

As an established affiliate program, Best Western GB had an existing calendar of top-performing dates and events. AP proactively planned exposure through new and existing partners based on these opportunities to maximize growth and align with Best Western GB’s wider marketing calendar.

Product Feed Creation

Best Western GB lacked a Product Feed at the onset of this project, hindering content partners from promoting the brand. AP recognized the need for a Product Feed to recruit and activate content partners and worked with Awin to launch one using Awin’s Product Feed Upload Tool. Awin and AP worked closely to ensure the feed was functioning correctly before and after launch.

Communication Center Launch

The Awin Communication Centre streamlines publisher communication, enabling direct, tailored, or mass email partner communications. During the partner activation campaign, AP used this to send mass communications to partners without direct relationships, raising awareness of Best Western GB’s offerings with frequent, informative emails.

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