How Exclusivity and Savvy Strategy Helped Blurb Raise ROAS and Increase Incremental Sales
Blurb is a highly-reviewed American self-publishing platform that enables personal book-makers, authors, designers, photographers and businesses to create, publish, sell, and distribute photo books, trade books, and magazines in print and digital formats. Their popular affiliate program, managed by Acceleration Partners (AP) for over six years, had predominantly been promoted by content affiliates.
Learn how AP strategically onboarded coupon partners into Blurb's affiliate program to drive incremental sales from new customers and cost-effectively help the brand realize impressive return-on-ad-spend (ROAS).
Traffic to Blurb's site, orders, and revenue skyrocketed and almost every coupon partner outperformed expectations.
For partners driving existing customer sales, ROAS was nearly triple projection.
361%YoY revenue projection
30%of orders generated by coupon partners
50%commission expense reduction
50%ROAS increase for some partners
For six years, Acceleration Partners had managed the popular affiliate program for Blurb—an American self-publishing platform that allows users to create, self-publish, promote, share, and sell their own print and e-books.
When Blurb shifted their program commissioning structure to pay only affiliate partners driving new customers (vs all sales), top revenue-generating loyalty partners left the program. Projections revealed that reaching Blurb’s ROAS goal would require an unprecedented number of clicks and a significant increase in average order value.
Because Blurb ordered near weekly promotions, exclusive promo codes, and tiered commission incentives, the AP team recognized that coupon partners (effective at driving new customer acquisition) would provide Blurb with the most success. However, like many brands, Blurb had historically refused coupon affiliates, skeptical of their ability to drive incremental sales.
The AP team shared initial projections against the ROAS goal and recommended a 90-day campaign test, to which Blurb agreed:
- Strategically select and add six coupon partners at a lower commission rate
- Incentivize a few loyalty partners to promote the brand with a higher commission
- Commission partners on any Blurb bookstore sale
