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Krysta Gutteridge - Everything You Know About Affiliate Marketing Is Wrong · Stacked with Jennifer Laforge

• 0:00
  Jen LaForge: My next guest today has spent nearly two decades in the affiliate marketing industry, and I'm very pleased to present not only the most passionate and hardworking individual I've met in the industry to date, but someone I work very closely with here at Rackton, Krista Gutteridge from Rackton Advertising.
• 0:17
  Jen LaForge: Thank you for taking the time to be here today.
• 0:19
  Krysta Gutteridge: Of course, of course I was gonna say yes to doing this.
• 0:22
  Krysta Gutteridge: This is such a cool project that you're working on.
• 0:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: Amazing initiative and innovation.
• 0:26
  Krysta Gutteridge: Congrats on all the episodes you've done so far.
• 0:28
  Krysta Gutteridge: I'm very privileged to be here.
• 0:30
  Jen LaForge: Well, thank you so much.
• 0:31
  Jen LaForge: Krista, let's let's start off at the top.
• 0:34
  Jen LaForge: So not everyone watching or listening is going to really understand the machine behind our cashback and the affiliate space.
• 0:43
  Jen LaForge: So can you explain exactly how you fit in and how that engine works?
• 0:51
  Krysta Gutteridge: I can surely take a stab at it.
• 0:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: So affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing channel that advertisers use to find more customers.
• 1:01
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so with your cash back on racketon.ca, you are in this world, you are called a publisher.
• 1:06
  Krysta Gutteridge: You have all of these members that will click through the links on your site and get to the advertisers where they ultimately make a purchase and then they earn some cash back into their digital wallet on your side.
• 1:17
  Krysta Gutteridge: What I do at Rackton Advertising is that my team and I, we sell a, for all intents and purpose, a software and strategy execution so those advertisers can actually track all of those clicks, all of those transactions, and then intentionally strategize on how to find a better ROAS, a return on ad spend for their customers, right?
• 1:40
  Krysta Gutteridge: So they are intentionally, strategically going out into the market to find the best customers for their product or service that they have.
• 1:48
  Krysta Gutteridge: So Aracton Advertising, we approach those enterprise and strategic level e-commerce companies, and we help them put this tracking in place so that they can watch in their beautiful platform dashboard all of those conversions happening and then find more of the right business for their product and service.
• 2:08
  Jen LaForge: Okay, so there's been a lot of different terms used.
• 2:10
  Jen LaForge: Some are calling them merchants, some are retailers, you call them advertisers.
• 2:15
  Jen LaForge: Why do you use the word advertiser instead of retailer?
• 2:18
  Krysta Gutteridge: They're very interchangeable.
• 2:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so in my business, we call them advertisers, we call the platforms publishers, we call the actual engines behind all the tracking networks, affiliate networks, and then there are third-party agencies to help manage some of those.
• 2:35
  Krysta Gutteridge: Retailers can sometimes, it's the exact same thing, really.
• 2:39
  Krysta Gutteridge: It really depends on who you're talking to.
• 2:41
  Krysta Gutteridge: So retailers, merchants, advertisers, it's kind of all the same thing.
• 2:45
  Krysta Gutteridge: It's, you know, maybe subtle differences to some people, but for the sake of our conversation, merchants, retailers, advertisers, they're all the same.
• 2:53
  Jen LaForge: Okay, so to make sure I've got this right, which I should.
• 2:56
  Jen LaForge: Yes.
• 2:57
  Jen LaForge: Summarize.
• 2:57
  Jen LaForge: You have the retailer, you have the affiliate network, the the tech piece, the tracking setup software, and then you have the publishers like RackGen.ca.
• 3:08
  Jen LaForge: And all three of those are working seamlessly to create that rewarding experience.
• 3:12
  Krysta Gutteridge: Yes, and seamlessly is the buzzword for sure.
• 3:15
  Krysta Gutteridge: And it's seamless because there are people managing that program.
• 3:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: They are executing strategy to make sure that all of those moving pieces work well and the data that you are getting as an advertiser and a publisher is accurate and then helps you make better decisions going forward.
• 3:32
  Krysta Gutteridge: Okay.
• 3:33
  Jen LaForge: A lot of the times in my personal life, I like to compare what we do to influencers because everyone's very familiar with what an influencer is and what an influencer does.
• 3:42
  Jen LaForge: So can you talk about the similarities there and kind of tie that into a general understanding of how this really works?
• 3:49
  Krysta Gutteridge: So to that end, a publisher is a platform, right?
• 3:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: So racton.ca, sorry to name competitors, but you're talking about like the Aeroplan eStore or any other, you know, a coupon site or an employee perk program.
• 4:03
  Krysta Gutteridge: Anyone who's got members, whether they are paid members or attained members through a loyalty program, however it is, they have traffic to send to an advertiser.
• 4:12
  Krysta Gutteridge: So it's the same thing with a creator or an influencer.
• 4:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: They've procured an audience or a following, and so those are their members the same way that you have members, right?
• 4:21
  Krysta Gutteridge: So when they have something to promote, they're going to let those members or followers know and send that traffic to the advertiser, right?
• 4:29
  Krysta Gutteridge: So whether it's a giant publisher in this ecosystem like racton.ca or you know, uh an influencer on TikTok or Instagram talking about beauty and skincare, it's the same model, right?
• 4:42
  Krysta Gutteridge: You are sending clicks into the advertiser and that is all tracked and data is procured for the advertiser to analyze.
• 4:50
  Jen LaForge: Okay.
• 4:50
  Jen LaForge: So it's safe to say the influence are doing exactly what we're doing, and the retailers are paying them a commission to drive their audience or member base to the store.
• 4:59
  Jen LaForge: Except they're keeping all the commission.
• 5:01
  Jen LaForge: And at rackutin.ca on our publisher side, what we're doing is splitting that commission and giving half to our members as cash back.
• 5:09
  Krysta Gutteridge: So it's safe to say we're the same same, but well, it's safe to say you're the same same because you're driving click traffic, but every publisher and really every creator and influencer, everyone operates very differently.
• 5:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: And you have a different member base than creator influencer ABC does over here, right?
• 5:26
  Krysta Gutteridge: So where you are sharing the commission that you're earning from that advertiser, you are incentivizing the purchase that way, right?
• 5:34
  Krysta Gutteridge: So you are earning your commission from the Sephora advertisers of the world, and then you are sharing the commission back with the customer, and that customer is excited because they're earning their 2% cash back.
• 5:45
  Krysta Gutteridge: You've made them make that purchase because they were excited to earn.
• 5:49
  Krysta Gutteridge: They had to buy four products this this time, and they're gonna earn money that way.
• 5:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: There's also a different path with creators and influencers, right?
• 5:56
  Krysta Gutteridge: So they're not sharing cash back.
• 5:58
  Krysta Gutteridge: They are also not always working on a publisher commission model.
• 6:02
  Krysta Gutteridge: They quite often get paid flat fees by the advertisers to make a reel, to make a post.
• 6:08
  Krysta Gutteridge: They're more top of funnel as well, right?
• 6:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: So the top of funnel means like they're bringing branding, they're bringing eyes to a new product or an advertiser.
• 6:16
  Krysta Gutteridge: They're not always financially incentivized by the actual conversion, right?
• 6:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so the technology is there for influencers to be using more tech to drive conversions and be earning off of those transactions.
• 6:29
  Krysta Gutteridge: But for the most part, influencers and creators are that high-level top of funnel branding recognition, and they play a big part in the conversion journey.
• 6:38
  Krysta Gutteridge: But you might be, as Racton.ca, might be the actual conversion, right?
• 6:44
  Krysta Gutteridge: Because we've learned about it from an influencer or creator, we've seen it a little bit with programmatic ads, but at the end of the day, I'm converting because I'm getting 2% cash back, right?
• 6:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: So there's such a conversion journey to explore on this topic, right?
• 6:59
  Krysta Gutteridge: So you're same, same, but you're very different.
• 7:01
  Krysta Gutteridge: Very different.
• 7:01
  Jen LaForge: I love that.
• 7:02
  Jen LaForge: So you work with a wide variety of advertisers and uh they're all uniquely different in how they're working.
• 7:11
  Jen LaForge: So can you talk about a very successful retailer brand in the affiliate space?
• 7:18
  Jen LaForge: What are they doing to be successful in this space?
• 7:22
  Krysta Gutteridge: The quickest answer, and I won't um name names here, but the quickest answer is strategy.
• 7:28
  Krysta Gutteridge: They are executing strategy.
• 7:31
  Krysta Gutteridge: And to execute strategy, you have to be involved.
• 7:34
  Krysta Gutteridge: You have to be paying attention.
• 7:36
  Krysta Gutteridge: There's no frustration in your top.
• 7:38
  Krysta Gutteridge: There's no frustration at all, audience.
• 7:40
  Krysta Gutteridge: No.
• 7:42
  Krysta Gutteridge: What really separates really great affiliate programs from affiliate programs that simply exist is that attention to the data and then strategy execution, right?
• 7:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: The network that you choose as an advertiser greatly affects your program.
• 7:59
  Krysta Gutteridge: So my advice to advertisers is also to choose your network properly.
• 8:04
  Krysta Gutteridge: Do your due diligence and make sure that that network is the right fit for what you want to track in all of your KPIs, right?
• 8:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: So when you are employing this network, you want to use all the bells and whistles that they have because they were created for a purpose.
• 8:17
  Krysta Gutteridge: When you use those, you employ those strategies, you then get all of this beautiful data, data, however you want to say it, but you get these numbers and then you need to do something with it.
• 8:28
  Krysta Gutteridge: You can't just say, oh, that sounds nice.
• 8:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: That was good, right?
• 8:31
  Krysta Gutteridge: You then execute a strategy around, okay, well, that publisher that we worked with had really high returns, and that's actually not a good lifetime value customer for us.
• 8:41
  Krysta Gutteridge: Whereas this publisher actually had less sales, but we saw 1% returns.
• 8:47
  Krysta Gutteridge: That's a much better partner for you.
• 8:49
  Krysta Gutteridge: And you're only going to recognize that when you look at the metrics coming in and analyzing the data.
• 8:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: So the biggest differentiator is actually paying attention and the strategic execution of that data.
• 9:01
  Jen LaForge: So fantastic answer.
• 9:03
  Jen LaForge: Um you're making me think about one of the core messages we open this project with, and that's leaving money on the table.
• 9:11
  Jen LaForge: Consumers are leaving money on the table, but retailers, it sounds like are leaving money on the table or wasting money by not strategically treating their affiliate program like a growth channel.
• 9:23
  Jen LaForge: It's something that's just operating in the background.
• 9:26
  Jen LaForge: So on the flip side of what I just asked you, there's the dark side where they're wasting money and they're not successful.
• 9:34
  Jen LaForge: What's happening there?
• 9:36
  Krysta Gutteridge: Okay, so to answer that question, I need to go one step back and say that right now, affiliate marketing is not being taught in colleges, in marketing programs.
• 9:46
  Krysta Gutteridge: I've done a couple guest lecture spots in colleges in these marketing classes, and they're like, oh, what's affiliate marketing?
• 9:52
  Krysta Gutteridge: It's not being taught.
• 9:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: When it's not taught at the post-secondary education level, it's not going into the workforce.
• 9:59
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so marketing leaders aren't getting skilled newbies coming into this field and they have to teach.
• 10:06
  Krysta Gutteridge: And if they don't know the language of affiliate, it's hard to teach.
• 10:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so to learn it, you have to learn by doing.
• 10:13
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so until we really start educating the new marketers at that college or university level, we're gonna have this struggle for a long time.
• 10:23
  Krysta Gutteridge: And like the wasting money piece, that's the struggle, right?
• 10:27
  Krysta Gutteridge: So to go back to answer your question, right?
• 10:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: Advertisers will waste money when they don't understand the model, right?
• 10:34
  Krysta Gutteridge: When they don't understand the publisher that they've met, right?
• 10:37
  Krysta Gutteridge: So it's it's great to see a shiny name or a logo that you represent and say, yeah, let's work together.
• 10:43
  Krysta Gutteridge: That's great.
• 10:44
  Krysta Gutteridge: And then they set it and forget it, and they don't get to know what that audience looks like at that publisher's organization.
• 10:52
  Krysta Gutteridge: And like I was saying, every publisher is different, right?
• 10:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: Every platform has a different membership pool.
• 10:58
  Krysta Gutteridge: They maybe they cater to 20 to 30 year old women, maybe they cater to 45-year-old men, right?
• 11:03
  Krysta Gutteridge: Everyone has this different demographic that they have publishers need to know who their members are, right?
• 11:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that's what needs to be understood by the advertiser and the strategic execution team that is managing this channel, right?
• 11:17
  Krysta Gutteridge: So quite often advertisers will waste money by thinking that they can just start working, they can approve a publisher in their program, but then not understand who they're targeting.
• 11:27
  Krysta Gutteridge: It is when, again, when you put the effort in and you understand the audience, and then you understand what makes them tick and what's gonna make them convert and be really great lifetime value customers for you.
• 11:37
  Krysta Gutteridge: That's where you find the success.
• 11:39
  Krysta Gutteridge: But that takes effort.
• 11:42
  Jen LaForge: So you you nailed it.
• 11:44
  Jen LaForge: It sounds really complicated, it sounds like it's hard to learn, you've made it sound like it's gonna take a lot of time and energy from the retailer.
• 11:52
  Jen LaForge: What if they just don't have that time, energy, the the workforce behind it, the the aptitude or the the training on the affiliate program?
• 12:03
  Jen LaForge: How does someone like you or your team help retailers either build those muscles or become successful?
• 12:12
  Krysta Gutteridge: Yeah, and that's a like literally, thank you for the segue.
• 12:15
  Krysta Gutteridge: That's exactly what we do.
• 12:16
  Krysta Gutteridge: So that strategy execution piece is what we've been doing for 20 years.
• 12:21
  Krysta Gutteridge: We win awards for it.
• 12:22
  Krysta Gutteridge: Our people live and breathe these technology pieces within the dashboard so that they it's like they're um translators, right?
• 12:32
  Krysta Gutteridge: So there is a language at a boardroom table inside of an advertiser's company.
• 12:36
  Krysta Gutteridge: They need to increase their AOV, right?
• 12:39
  Krysta Gutteridge: So that's their challenge.
• 12:40
  Krysta Gutteridge: They tell our strategic execution team what they need to do, and our teams are so fluent in affiliate marketing that they can say, okay, well, all we need to do is do a dynamic commissioning offer to increase the publisher commission to X, Y, and Z publishers to say this can be done after a $150 cart value, right?
• 13:01
  Krysta Gutteridge: So our people act as the translators from the advertisers into the affiliate network, and we're also the arm that gets it done, right?
• 13:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: So, yes, it is a lot to learn, but it's not rocket science, right?
• 13:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: Honestly, we're not saving lives here.
• 13:16
  Krysta Gutteridge: But it's just cash.
• 13:18
  Krysta Gutteridge: But it is, you know what?
• 13:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: It's like everything else with work, with anything else, it takes effort, and you get out of it what you put in, right?
• 13:27
  Krysta Gutteridge: It's just you have to put in that effort.
• 13:29
  Jen LaForge: Okay, so I'm retailer, uh, everyone's favorite retailer.
• 13:33
  Jen LaForge: And uh I call you in January.
• 13:35
  Jen LaForge: Maria set up uh the strategy for the year.
• 13:38
  Jen LaForge: You set it in place, you do all the work, and I talk to you again next January.
• 13:43
  Krysta Gutteridge: No, no, we have a much more healthy relationship than that.
• 13:47
  Krysta Gutteridge: Um, and then you know it goes, it this is becoming the theme of our conversation, right?
• 13:51
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like intentionally putting effort into it.
• 13:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so I I will say it is catered.
• 13:57
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like we build bespoke packages for advertisers who have little to zero time to people who want advertisers who want to be in the mix, like 50-50, right?
• 14:06
  Krysta Gutteridge: So it really depends on what the advertiser's bandwidth is, what they're prepared to put into the management of it.
• 14:12
  Krysta Gutteridge: We have different service levels that go from a little bit of management to fully outsource to us, right?
• 14:19
  Krysta Gutteridge: And it really depends on the advertiser, right?
• 14:21
  Krysta Gutteridge: So once a year we'll not cut it.
• 14:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: We'll repeat that once a year we'll not cut it, right?
• 14:28
  Krysta Gutteridge: Um, you do have to be engaged with it.
• 14:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like a marketing, a CMO, a marketing team doesn't want uh a yearly update on how their channels are performing, right?
• 14:38
  Krysta Gutteridge: The nice thing about this performance-based channel is that you can see results dynamically, right?
• 14:42
  Krysta Gutteridge: You can log into that dashboard and see how that one newsletter to this geo how that performed.
• 14:49
  Krysta Gutteridge: What was the click value?
• 14:51
  Krysta Gutteridge: How many conversions?
• 14:51
  Krysta Gutteridge: What's the AOV on that cartload, right?
• 14:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: And then you can see literally how well it's performing, you know, on an hourly basis, right?
• 15:01
  Krysta Gutteridge: So you can watch that.
• 15:01
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that's really important when there's seasonality to things, right?
• 15:05
  Krysta Gutteridge: I know our teams like watch with bated breath on Black Friday, Cyber Monday, Boxing Day, right?
• 15:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like, how well is that Mother's Day ad performing, right?
• 15:13
  Krysta Gutteridge: So all that seasonality plays into it as well.
• 15:15
  Krysta Gutteridge: So to be a little bit shorter-winded, I guess, is it depends what the advertiser needs, but we will always have a solution that works for the advertiser, and we will give our best strategy to the advertiser, and we will execute as much as they need from us.
• 15:32
  Jen LaForge: Okay, great answer.
• 15:33
  Jen LaForge: There's a lot going on, and the consumer side might be listening to this and thinking there is this horde of people working behind the scenes to just force them into shopping and buying more and spending more, and that's the core of what we're doing here.
• 15:51
  Jen LaForge: Um, we we just did some episodes on myth busting.
• 15:54
  Jen LaForge: I think that's a pretty big myth.
• 15:56
  Jen LaForge: We are not just trying to get people to shop or rewarding them for what they're already doing.
• 16:02
  Jen LaForge: Can you talk a little bit about how strong affiliate ecosystems are actually working to create real value instead of just pushing purchases?
• 16:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: Yeah, for sure.
• 16:15
  Krysta Gutteridge: Um, there's not a lot of advertisers that want just straight up purchases, right?
• 16:21
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like that's for sure, that's important, right?
• 16:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: That means revenue, but it should be the right purchases with the right customers, right?
• 16:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: Because those customers are then going to be ambassadors of an advertiser going forward, right?
• 16:37
  Krysta Gutteridge: So there's a lot to be said, again, to our theme of paying attention to your affiliate marketing channel and diving into what that looks like.
• 16:45
  Krysta Gutteridge: But the value for an advertiser behind strategically putting together a campaign that makes sense for the demographic that they're trying to attract more of, right?
• 16:56
  Krysta Gutteridge: That takes effort and it takes precision and it takes some trial and error, right?
• 17:00
  Krysta Gutteridge: And you can A-B test a lot of different things again because it's performance-based.
• 17:05
  Krysta Gutteridge: An advertiser isn't paying for conversions that actually don't happen, right?
• 17:11
  Krysta Gutteridge: And every marketing channel has its place, and I'm someone who does want to see an advertiser trying lots of different things, but like again, watch your data, see where that ROAS is coming in, where are you getting that best lifetime value, right?
• 17:25
  Krysta Gutteridge: Um, I could give you an example of, and I won't say which brand, but you know, like the beds in a box, yeah, right?
• 17:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: The ones that come rolled up, compressed.
• 17:32
  Krysta Gutteridge: So when I was a publisher myself, I worked for a really large employee perk program.
• 17:37
  Krysta Gutteridge: That audience was really a high-caliber audience and high converting, which is of course very attractive because they all work at a big company, they get their emails to their work accounts, so that's all very attractive.
• 17:50
  Krysta Gutteridge: The mattress companies do this like hundred-night free trial, right?
• 17:55
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so they actually have to take back a mattress or donate it to a charity if that customer doesn't want to keep that mattress.
• 18:02
  Krysta Gutteridge: And I remember working those campaigns with those bed-in-the-box brands, and they loved that platform and audience because they rarely returned a mattress.
• 18:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: So they were actually looking at the quality of customer for not returning something, right?
• 18:18
  Krysta Gutteridge: That was way more valuable.
• 18:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: So maybe we sold less, but our audience actually returned hardly anything.
• 18:26
  Krysta Gutteridge: So that's a way more powerful audience.
• 18:28
  Krysta Gutteridge: So every advertiser isn't just looking at purchases, every advertiser has different metrics that they're gonna care about, and you might not even realize their core metrics that mean the most to them, but they can't watch those metrics if they don't have the right tech implementation put in place with the affiliate network that they choose to work with, right?
• 18:49
  Krysta Gutteridge: So it all comes down to caring about how that is set up.
• 18:54
  Jen LaForge: So the work is really about putting the the right thing in front of the right customer, and that's where the work is for the most rewarding experience, not just per driving purchases.
• 19:05
  Jen LaForge: I love it.
• 19:06
  Jen LaForge: The thing that blows my mind, and you you touched on it when you talked about the lack of formal curriculum built into marketing education programs, is that affiliates now represent up to 20% of all retail sales that are being driven by programs like Bracton.ca.
• 19:23
  Jen LaForge: That's significant.
• 19:25
  Jen LaForge: That is a full piece of the pie that is worthy of teaching at colleges and universities, isn't it?
• 19:33
  Jen LaForge: It is.
• 19:33
  Jen LaForge: But a lot of people still think about when it was a tiny sliver or a tiny piece of the pie, and it was all about coupon codes.
• 19:41
  Jen LaForge: So can you talk a little bit about how the affiliate space has evolved to take on such a big piece and such a prominent position within advertiser strategies today?
• 19:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: Yeah, and a lot of that does come down to education, but also the technology advancements, right?
• 19:59
  Krysta Gutteridge: So maybe 20 years ago when affiliate was just out, it was kind of like a how do I direct someone from point A to point B and earn a commission, right?
• 20:07
  Krysta Gutteridge: And it was like the Wild West, right?
• 20:09
  Krysta Gutteridge: There was some big money being made, and brands would do contests about how many sales you can do.
• 20:15
  Krysta Gutteridge: We'll give you this product for free for life, right?
• 20:18
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like it was the Wild West 20 years ago, right?
• 20:21
  Krysta Gutteridge: And then it evolved with technology, and more data was able to be tracked, more advertisers were in the game, more publishers came to be, right?
• 20:31
  Krysta Gutteridge: Ebates became racketin, right?
• 20:33
  Krysta Gutteridge: So many pieces of this puzzle evolved, and there are a lot of players in this space, right?
• 20:39
  Krysta Gutteridge: We're now actually kind of seeing a market correction right now with all the players.
• 20:43
  Krysta Gutteridge: We're seeing some mergers and acquisitions and strategic partnerships, right?
• 20:47
  Krysta Gutteridge: Because there are so many players in the space.
• 20:49
  Krysta Gutteridge: What happens when there are too many players is that not enough business is held by enough agencies or enough of the publishers, right?
• 20:57
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so they do have to join forces to be a stronger entity in this ecosystem.
• 21:02
  Krysta Gutteridge: And I think we are gonna see a lot more of that in the next couple years as well.
• 21:06
  Krysta Gutteridge: So that all evolved, right?
• 21:08
  Krysta Gutteridge: The technology around how we track the different offers, we can get so creative, right?
• 21:13
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like I was giving the example of the dynamic commissioning, right?
• 21:17
  Krysta Gutteridge: We can translate any business need into the affiliate system.
• 21:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: And you couldn't do that 10 years ago, five years ago, right?
• 21:23
  Krysta Gutteridge: Definitely not 20 years ago, but now you can be so much more intentional about the offers you put into the market.
• 21:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: And there are a lot of luxury advertisers that have private programs.
• 21:34
  Krysta Gutteridge: They're not available to every publisher or platform out there, and they're very strategic and intentional about who they work with or if they even do work with publishers.
• 21:44
  Krysta Gutteridge: Maybe they just have a few choice creators, influencers, right?
• 21:47
  Krysta Gutteridge: So, with that evolvement, you've also had the creator influencer evolvement, right?
• 21:52
  Krysta Gutteridge: Where we're now seeing a lot of storefronts, right?
• 21:55
  Krysta Gutteridge: So a creator will actually create a storefront and have their choice products from A, B, and C.
• 21:59
  Krysta Gutteridge: Advertisers on their storefront.
• 22:02
  Krysta Gutteridge: You're also seeing more retail media, right?
• 22:04
  Krysta Gutteridge: The retail media piece is say a company doesn't have a direct-to-consumer site, but they make all these different brands of toys, and they want to push their traffic to Walmart.
• 22:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: So they will run retail media campaigns through the affiliate channel to put some dollars behind pushing towards Amazon or Walmart, right?
• 22:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: So things are evolving very quickly, right?
• 22:27
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that's not gonna slow down, right?
• 22:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: But I do think we are gonna see more mergers and acquisitions, strategic partnerships between different entities.
• 22:35
  Jen LaForge: Okay.
• 22:35
  Jen LaForge: The uh you're talking about evolution, the entire space has been evolving.
• 22:39
  Jen LaForge: I think the most critical concern in that evolution continues to be around data and privacy.
• 22:46
  Jen LaForge: Uh, and and you're working in the online space, everyone feels spied on, everyone feels like their data is compromised.
• 22:53
  Jen LaForge: Can you talk to us a bit about uh how the affiliate marketing has become stronger and evolved to combat data protection and privacy concerns?
• 23:06
  Krysta Gutteridge: Those privacy policies are put in place for a reason, right?
• 23:09
  Krysta Gutteridge: So that we do have ownership over our demographic information, right?
• 23:15
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so, as much of a hindrance as they can be for advertisers for my industry on certain points, Krista as a consumer is happy that they exist, right?
• 23:27
  Krysta Gutteridge: And I will go into my settings and I will make sure that I'm protecting myself to the most that I'm comfortable with.
• 23:34
  Krysta Gutteridge: Now, on the same level, I do like being recommended things, right?
• 23:37
  Krysta Gutteridge: So I don't turn it all the way off, right?
• 23:40
  Krysta Gutteridge: So every consumer has to make that choice for themselves, right?
• 23:43
  Krysta Gutteridge: Advertisers have to work within the guidelines that are imposed on their country, right?
• 23:50
  Krysta Gutteridge: You also have different things where, you know, like when you say data privacy, I immediately think right now about CTV ads, right?
• 23:58
  Krysta Gutteridge: So right now, IP address is not considered privacy, and that is really important to this whole stream of business coming with CTV ads, right?
• 24:07
  Krysta Gutteridge: So for your viewers, if they're not familiar, that is when you are watching Netflix or Prime and you've got a commercial, and that commercial shows you a nice little cat food video, and then a QR code comes up, and you grab your phone and you take that QR code, and now your IP address is registering with that CTV ad.
• 24:26
  Krysta Gutteridge: And should you tomorrow go and look at that cat food company, right?
• 24:31
  Krysta Gutteridge: That ad is gonna get some attribution credit for bringing that in, right?
• 24:35
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that's only possible because IP address is not considered private information.
• 24:40
  Krysta Gutteridge: So that's working really well for that channel, right?
• 24:44
  Krysta Gutteridge: So I'm I don't have a crystal ball and I can't tell you what's gonna happen in the future with data privacy, but I do encourage consumers to be knowledgeable of what they're allowing to be tracked and what they're comfortable with, right?
• 25:00
  Krysta Gutteridge: And if you are or if you aren't, that is your personal decision.
• 25:03
  Krysta Gutteridge: The strategy execution team needs to be creative and find a different way to that advertiser, right?
• 25:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like we we cannot do something that goes against a privacy law.
• 25:16
  Krysta Gutteridge: We don't pull in that information from advertisers.
• 25:18
  Krysta Gutteridge: You can't do it, right?
• 25:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: So you do have to find another way.
• 25:21
  Krysta Gutteridge: And whether that is the advertiser polling their customers or if it's a different way of getting interest information, right?
• 25:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: But no, it's you have to be creative on how you reach the right customers, and privacy rules are going to continue to evolve.
• 25:38
  Jen LaForge: Okay.
• 25:38
  Jen LaForge: I want to move over to some practical takeaways now, and we can we can have a handful of them depending on the audience you want to speak to.
• 25:46
  Jen LaForge: So let's start with say a mid-sized brand that is not currently playing in the affiliate space or just learning about it today.
• 25:54
  Jen LaForge: Um, what is the smartest first thing that they need to be doing this month?
• 25:59
  Jen LaForge: Calling me.
• 26:02
  Krysta Gutteridge: The real, real answer is every mid-size, you said mid-range advertiser, you need to be in this space.
• 26:09
  Krysta Gutteridge: And it's not something that you turn on overnight.
• 26:12
  Krysta Gutteridge: So you need to rip off the band-aid and get started.
• 26:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like you have to do your due diligence on what network you're gonna start with, and that's your starting point, right?
• 26:19
  Krysta Gutteridge: So you need to do your own research internally, and that will take a little effort.
• 26:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: You need to interview them, you need to understand what sort of tech implementation they're offering you and how much time that's gonna take your tech team to implement.
• 26:32
  Krysta Gutteridge: And then once you've chosen a network, then you need to decide who your strategy execution team is going to be, right?
• 26:38
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that is such an important, it's just as important as what network you choose, who's actually gonna run it.
• 26:43
  Krysta Gutteridge: I will say, even though this is like my company and what we do, the best people to run an advertiser's affiliate program is internal.
• 26:52
  Krysta Gutteridge: If you have the bandwidth on your team to run your affiliate channel and they can learn it and they can dive in and they're gonna give it all the attention it needs, fabulous because they know the brand and that's what's really gonna help those relationships.
• 27:06
  Krysta Gutteridge: If you do not, as an advertiser, if you do not have the bandwidth, your next best option is racked in advertising, right?
• 27:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: So we have all of this experience to get that program up and running.
• 27:19
  Krysta Gutteridge: It takes three to six months to ramp up a program, right?
• 27:22
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that's what's not always understood.
• 27:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: So a retailer would not want to start a program in October, November, right?
• 27:30
  Krysta Gutteridge: Right in the middle of Q4, probably not the best time to start, right?
• 27:33
  Krysta Gutteridge: But January is a great time, right?
• 27:35
  Krysta Gutteridge: Anytime really up until the end of Q3 is a great time to start a program.
• 27:39
  Krysta Gutteridge: We can get that ramped up for you.
• 27:41
  Krysta Gutteridge: It's really important that when a new advertiser in the affiliate channel, NetNew, comes in, that they are prepared to give a full 12-month path to really gauge and judge the affiliate channel.
• 27:54
  Krysta Gutteridge: Because every company, every advertiser rather, has their own seasonality.
• 27:59
  Krysta Gutteridge: And so you need to see all of those different seasonal events that happen for your product or service and how it reacts in the channel, right?
• 28:07
  Krysta Gutteridge: So I can give you like an average of what a net new affiliate program might see on the advertiser side.
• 28:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: And this is something that we give to all of our prospects, right?
• 28:17
  Krysta Gutteridge: So after a full year, you can expect to see five to ten percent incremental revenue growth.
• 28:23
  Krysta Gutteridge: Right?
• 28:24
  Krysta Gutteridge: Now that can be a lot more if you put a lot of effort into it or if you have the right strategy execution team to put into it, right?
• 28:31
  Krysta Gutteridge: But your first thing is you gotta rip off the band-aid and start.
• 28:35
  Krysta Gutteridge: Okay.
• 28:35
  Jen LaForge: I want to summarize all of that.
• 28:37
  Jen LaForge: Go ahead.
• 28:38
  Jen LaForge: What I just heard you say was call Krista.
• 28:40
  Jen LaForge: Yes, call me.
• 28:41
  Jen LaForge: I have got a great team of sales reps that are ready to chat with you.
• 28:44
  Jen LaForge: And help with that education piece because as as we've said throughout this, this is a significant growth channel for businesses.
• 28:51
  Jen LaForge: Some have not realized it yet because they're still thinking about coupon codes, but it is nearly 20% of all retail sales now flowing through affiliate programs.
• 29:01
  Jen LaForge: It's worth the the elbow grease to get it up and running, and it's worth the year of data to really understand how to make it a valuable channel.
• 29:09
  Jen LaForge: Absolutely.
• 29:10
  Krysta Gutteridge: And after that first year, then you have the benefit of knowing what that first year looks like, and it will grow so much more.
• 29:16
  Krysta Gutteridge: It's so exciting to see a mature program and where it's come from, right?
• 29:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: But you see that because there's data.
• 29:23
  Jen LaForge: We all love data.
• 29:24
  Jen LaForge: What we also love are our customers, and I have a lot of uh viewers and listeners who have reached out to me personally, excited about learning how to earn more cash back and more rewards in this space.
• 29:38
  Jen LaForge: So that's what we promised.
• 29:39
  Jen LaForge: Last question to you, Krista: what is one thing consumers should know about affiliate links, cashback rewards that will help them shop smarter?
• 29:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: If consumers slowed down a little bit and looked at their options for purchasing, they would make a lot better choices.
• 30:02
  Krysta Gutteridge: And I say that in many kind of realms, there are so many different places you can make a purchase, right?
• 30:11
  Krysta Gutteridge: There are so many different companies you can make a purchase with.
• 30:14
  Krysta Gutteridge: I think so often a consumer just jumps at the first thing that they see, and then they have that FOMO of missing out on cashback, right?
• 30:22
  Krysta Gutteridge: By getting the browser extension on rackton.ca, you can actually take advantage of that cashback so much more often without that feeling of regret missing it.
• 30:32
  Krysta Gutteridge: But I also think that if outside of the cashback space, if you know, if we haven't gotten that advertiser on cashback yet, and that's on me, we got to go out and get them for you, right?
• 30:43
  Krysta Gutteridge: If you get to checkout with an advertiser and you see that there is a coupon space there, that will automatically trigger a customer to go looking for a coupon, right?
• 30:52
  Krysta Gutteridge: So an advertiser needs to be aware that that space does trigger a customer to go look for a coupon.
• 31:00
  Krysta Gutteridge: Where are they finding a coupon?
• 31:01
  Krysta Gutteridge: Are they gonna have a good experience looking for that coupon?
• 31:04
  Krysta Gutteridge: Are they not gonna find anything at all and then they're gonna be ticked off and then have a bad experience, right?
• 31:08
  Krysta Gutteridge: And that's where cashback is so lovely because it's already done for you, right?
• 31:13
  Krysta Gutteridge: So, like that little browser extension pops up, and we can take advantage of the rackton.ca cashback right there.
• 31:19
  Krysta Gutteridge: And I feel better making that purchase knowing that I'm putting a little bit more into my digital wallet there.
• 31:25
  Krysta Gutteridge: But I think the quick answer to answer your question is consumers need to just slow down a hot second.
• 31:32
  Krysta Gutteridge: They need to look at what is their best path to getting the best product for the best price, and what credit card are they using to make that purchase?
• 31:41
  Krysta Gutteridge: What you know last click conversion are they going through?
• 31:44
  Krysta Gutteridge: And lots of consumers have no idea what's going on in the background, right?
• 31:47
  Krysta Gutteridge: Like they don't know that these things are being tracked and that racton.ca will make this commission and then share it as cashback.
• 31:53
  Krysta Gutteridge: But as a whole, I do think that Canadians or any consumers need to just slow down and make more intentional choices on their purchases.
• 32:03
  Krysta Gutteridge: Shop with purpose, shop with real intention, think about where your dollars are going, support the best companies, support the companies that are doing well by their workers, well by you as a consumer, well to Canada.
• 32:18
  Krysta Gutteridge: Look at shipping.
• 32:20
  Krysta Gutteridge: Look at how much shipping's gonna cost, look at the cart threshold.
• 32:23
  Krysta Gutteridge: Just take an extra 60 seconds before you convert and make sure that you're doing all the right steps to get yourself the best offer and that you are interacting with the right path.
• 32:35
  Jen LaForge: So rack tun.ca helps you do all of those things.
• 32:38
  Jen LaForge: So what I heard was slow down a hot minute, join rackton.ca, get the toolbar extension, and start stacking your cash back with all your other loyalty and rewards points.
• 32:48
  Jen LaForge: I mean, we both said it.
• 32:50
  Jen LaForge: Krista, thank you for coming.
• 32:52
  Jen LaForge: Your passion was evident, uh, your expertise was evident, you've helped us a lot really understand the in-between middle part of uh what's going on here.
• 33:01
  Jen LaForge: Thank you so much.
• 33:02
  Jen LaForge: You are so welcome, Jen.
• 33:03
  Jen LaForge: Great doing us.
• 33:04
  Jen LaForge: And that's it.
• 33:05
  Jen LaForge: This episode of Stacked.
• 33:07
  Jen LaForge: If you found this useful, follow along as we interview leaders shaping the future of retail and learn how value really works behind the scenes.
• 33:14
  Jen LaForge: And if there's a topic you want us to unpack, I'd love to hear from you.
• 33:18
  Jen LaForge: See you next time.