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Megan Petta - Affiliate Marketing Is Bigger Than You Think · Stacked with Jennifer Laforge

• 0:00
  Jen LaForge: Megan, thanks for meeting with me today.
• 0:02
  Jen LaForge: If you've been watching our episodes, we are not in our typical location.
• 0:06
  Jen LaForge: We're here live at Dealmaker Toronto, arguably the most intimate and productive affiliate conference in the Canadian market.
• 0:14
  Jen LaForge: It's a pleasure to have you.
• 0:15
  Jen LaForge: Megan Petta here is from Impact, the all-in-one enterprise solution network that is a meaningful partner channel across affiliates, across influencer creators, social, I'm missing something, customer referrals.
• 0:31
  Jen LaForge: Yes.
• 0:32
  Jen LaForge: It's huge.
• 0:32
  Jen LaForge: Impact is huge.
• 0:34
  Jen LaForge: We have a very close relationship here at Racktion with them.
• 0:37
  Jen LaForge: So really enjoy uh being able to talk today.
• 0:41
  Jen LaForge: Um, we talked a little bit about your career and your role at Impact.
• 0:45
  Jen LaForge: You've been in this space for over 10 years.
• 0:47
  Jen LaForge: Tell us what brought you to the space and then what is your role at Impact and how do you service within our industry?
• 0:54
  Megan Petta: Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
• 0:56
  Megan Petta: I'm excited to be here.
• 0:58
  Megan Petta: And um yeah, always love talking about affiliate marketing just because I have been in it since 2012.
• 1:04
  Megan Petta: I kind of fell into the role and fell in love with it.
• 1:07
  Megan Petta: Um, really after the first conference, I saw how big, how many people were involved, but also it's such a small industry at the end of the day.
• 1:15
  Megan Petta: So um this conference has been great just running into people I've never actually met in real life before, but have worked together for years.
• 1:23
  Megan Petta: And yeah, affiliate marketing has been great to evolve in because it's super fast-paced.
• 1:29
  Megan Petta: It's gone from just affiliates and publishers to creators and influencers.
• 1:33
  Megan Petta: And then, you know, in the last couple of years, I've we've kind of expanded into customer referrals.
• 1:38
  Megan Petta: Uh, and I've loved learning about that as well as just something new for um brands to kind of introduce in terms of a partner type and seeing that success has been exciting.
• 1:48
  Jen LaForge: Okay.
• 1:49
  Jen LaForge: Um, we we're gonna come back to the evolution because it has changed more so than I think a lot of other industries, um, which makes it so exciting.
• 1:58
  Jen LaForge: But before we get there, what's your role at Impact?
• 2:01
  Megan Petta: Right.
• 2:02
  Megan Petta: Um, I'm a senior account executive on the brand side.
• 2:05
  Megan Petta: And so I have the pleasure of speaking with all different brands throughout my day.
• 2:09
  Megan Petta: Um, and what I love about that is just learning about a travel brand and a finance brand or a B2B space.
• 2:15
  Megan Petta: And then, you know, they're um asking questions about should I launch an affiliate marketing channel?
• 2:20
  Megan Petta: What would that look like?
• 2:22
  Megan Petta: Or we have one, it's not as successful as we'd like.
• 2:25
  Megan Petta: And so helping brands take a look at what partnerships mean to them and help identify any opportunity gap that we can kind of cover and then ultimately show what that growth would look like and how that would impact the business if it started to come through a new channel like affiliate.
• 2:43
  Jen LaForge: So you mentioned something that also makes our industry and what we do so beautiful, and is the opportunity to work with so many different retailers.
• 2:51
  Jen LaForge: Now, travel retailer versus someone in FinServe versus a traditional retailer, those are very different businesses in the way that they they acquire their customers or they they drive their business performance.
• 3:06
  Jen LaForge: How do you determine individually for them if they should be in the affiliate space or they should lean more on the content creator side or customer referrals is really where you know their value is going to be?
• 3:17
  Jen LaForge: How do you make that decision and how you work with those brands?
• 3:21
  Megan Petta: That's such a great question.
• 3:22
  Megan Petta: Um, I'm thinking about, and we're asking them, you know, where does your customers find you today?
• 3:29
  Megan Petta: So are they already searching for you because you have great brand awareness?
• 3:35
  Megan Petta: And so it's just a matter of being chosen over some competitors.
• 3:39
  Megan Petta: That's where affiliate, you know, come in.
• 3:41
  Megan Petta: Influencer can be introduced to help with that upper funnel awareness.
• 3:46
  Megan Petta: Versus if they're struggling through paid channels initially and they have very high CAC through paid search, paid social, um, maybe we pivot to customer referral because they do have customers.
• 3:59
  Megan Petta: They were harder to find, but now let's make your loyal customers really work for bringing in those new ones.
• 4:05
  Jen LaForge: And is there any brand that that builds a strategy that encompasses all of them?
• 4:10
  Jen LaForge: Or is it a menu and they select what they want for dinner that night?
• 4:13
  Jen LaForge: I mean, how does that work?
• 4:15
  Megan Petta: Yeah, I think ultimately comes down to resourcing because running an affiliate channel versus a creator channel versus a referral channel is going to be hopefully people different people or at least a team kind of dedicated to it.
• 4:29
  Megan Petta: But a lot of times they're open to the idea of like these three working together.
• 4:33
  Megan Petta: Um and it'd say more often than not, they're let's start with affiliate influencer and add-on referral.
• 4:39
  Jen LaForge: As we go from there.
• 4:40
  Jen LaForge: Perfect.
• 4:40
  Jen LaForge: So um we're here at DealMaker, as I said, it's end of September, going into Q4.
• 4:46
  Jen LaForge: This is our Super Bowl.
• 4:47
  Jen LaForge: I was saying a very long, exhausting Super Bowl in our industry.
• 4:52
  Jen LaForge: If a brand was coming in today to initiate those conversations, how important would you say it is that they they really, you know, speed to market, get set up on affiliates?
• 5:04
  Jen LaForge: Or should they wait till January when the dust settles?
• 5:07
  Jen LaForge: I mean, what kind of guidance would you give a brand right now that sees the opportunity of the quarter?
• 5:11
  Megan Petta: Yeah, um, I'd say the best time was yesterday.
• 5:16
  Megan Petta: So let's get it done.
• 5:18
  Megan Petta: And we need to be live, you know, uh, ideally soon, um, maybe by the end of October at the extreme latest.
• 5:24
  Megan Petta: But if you're not live and you say, we'll just launch in in Q1, you've missed any potential of being included in those listicles and gift guides and like holiday discussions, if it's a newsletter or podcast, even.
• 5:38
  Megan Petta: Um, so at least if you are stood up and you're coming back to the table and you know, if you're getting turned away because placements are full, um, at least you know what those placements might be for next year.
• 5:49
  Megan Petta: And at the end of the day, if you have a one or two go live, it could be massive still.
• 5:53
  Megan Petta: So I think it's it's still still time to take advantage.
• 5:57
  Jen LaForge: There's time.
• 5:58
  Jen LaForge: Why is it so important to take advantage and not wait until January?
• 6:02
  Jen LaForge: Because everything you've just said has a sense of urgency to it.
• 6:05
  Jen LaForge: And um, that would be different than if you're talking to someone at the end of Q1.
• 6:10
  Jen LaForge: So, why is Q4 so valuable in our space for brands?
• 6:15
  Megan Petta: We all know like we're we're gift gift buying, right?
• 6:19
  Megan Petta: And we're making these wish lists and things like that.
• 6:21
  Megan Petta: So there's gonna be some viral products that go out there.
• 6:26
  Megan Petta: And it even if you're not a viral product, you could be similar to in the sense that, you know, friend or family member that likes product A might also have some affinity with something else.
• 6:38
  Megan Petta: And so you can kind of see that halo effect just because it's Q4 season.
• 6:42
  Megan Petta: So you do want to be involved.
• 6:44
  Jen LaForge: I love that you said halo because it's you're getting the product spotlights, you're getting the boost in sales, you're getting those referrals, friends and family, customer referrals, but you're also um you're building an acquisition base through the quarter that is going to carry the first half of next year.
• 7:00
  Jen LaForge: At least that's what we see at Racktain.
• 7:02
  Jen LaForge: We drive a significant number of uh new members and new buyers to not only our platform, but to our retailers.
• 7:10
  Jen LaForge: Would you say that missing that opportunity sets them back not just a quarter, but a half a year?
• 7:18
  Jen LaForge: And what would they do if they can't?
• 7:21
  Jen LaForge: Because there's there's some that might not be able to jump on this.
• 7:24
  Jen LaForge: What are the what should they be thinking of come January after missing that opportunity?
• 7:28
  Megan Petta: Yeah, and I think that's it's a tough, like blanket answer because it's going to be very different for the segment of brand, where if it's um, you know, maybe a health-focused brand, their seasonality is probably going to be Q1 anyway.
• 7:44
  Megan Petta: So, same idea is like they want to be live and just up and running for when the New Year's resolutions hit.
• 7:49
  Jen LaForge: Yeah.
• 7:50
  Megan Petta: Um, but if they're gathering even even just like email newsletter signups, um, and then you're getting them hooked into whatever the next holiday season is going to be.
• 8:00
  Megan Petta: So it could just be a slow drip where you're introducing these customers to your brand.
• 8:06
  Megan Petta: Um, they're, you know, having the ads follow them around, anyways, and they're they're getting like the latest updates, and maybe you have a product launch coming that they're gonna be excited about by the time it kind of hits in in Q1.
• 8:17
  Jen LaForge: Okay.
• 8:17
  Jen LaForge: Um, let's double back.
• 8:19
  Jen LaForge: We talked a little bit at the start about the evolution.
• 8:22
  Jen LaForge: So I want to go back to the evolution we've seen.
• 8:24
  Jen LaForge: Um, interestingly, I came into the industry in 2012 as well.
• 8:28
  Jen LaForge: So uh we both caught the vibe.
• 8:30
  Jen LaForge: Yeah.
• 8:30
  Jen LaForge: Um, I've seen a lot change, um, but I'm not as close to the the creator side, the content creator influencer side.
• 8:38
  Jen LaForge: That's a big piece to this.
• 8:39
  Jen LaForge: Maybe share what you think has been the biggest evolution or how things have evolved over the past 14, 15.
• 8:47
  Jen LaForge: How old are we now?
• 8:48
  Megan Petta: Yeah, it's been 14 years.
• 8:50
  Megan Petta: Um, yeah, for sure.
• 8:52
  Megan Petta: So in 2012, it was more affiliate publisher, you know, media placements, creative testing.
• 8:59
  Megan Petta: It was very transactional.
• 9:00
  Megan Petta: I don't think we really use the word creator.
• 9:03
  Megan Petta: Um, and so when that started to happen, we're talking about influencers versus celebrity influencers.
• 9:09
  Megan Petta: And anyone can be an influencer.
• 9:11
  Megan Petta: And then we don't want to influence people to buy, we want to create things.
• 9:15
  Megan Petta: So that content creator idea has been evolving, of course.
• 9:19
  Megan Petta: Um, but even in the last two years, we've seen such a major shift from brands paying large fees for one-time like content creation to what we're calling more of a hybrid affiliate creator, where most brands, like more than 50% of brands, are paying a fixed fee plus an affiliate link.
• 9:38
  Megan Petta: And it's more common now and accepted that you're you're going to continue to earn commission in the same sense.
• 9:44
  Megan Petta: Um, and then introducing those creators as long-term as opposed to one-time post is really adding value.
• 9:52
  Jen LaForge: I think that affiliate link part came almost too late because when influencers came into the space, it was their traditional model against our traditional model.
• 10:02
  Jen LaForge: There was, I think, a little bit of friction early on and in kind of understanding how to build them within within that funnel together.
• 10:10
  Jen LaForge: Um, would you say the response from the creator community and influencers with the affiliate linking, does that represent longer-term loyalty to the brand and more authenticity in how they're selecting who to work with?
• 10:24
  Jen LaForge: Because it actually has, I think, a more beneficial and longer lifespan with those links.
• 10:31
  Megan Petta: I think you're right.
• 10:32
  Megan Petta: It was met with friction.
• 10:34
  Megan Petta: And, you know, we've had influencers, creators come to some of the affiliate conferences and they've said, oh, my like my view on everything has completely changed because now I understand you're not just telling your audience to buy, you're really kind of pushing through that vision that you do love this brand, you do associate with this brand, and that you want them to experience what you're experiencing by using the product or you know, shopping at that place.
• 11:02
  Megan Petta: Um, and so that can be easier for them to digest in terms of like, let's have a link in bio, or now we can swipe up to shop, and that can be an affiliate link.
• 11:12
  Megan Petta: So it feels more natural and it's still like less less transactional than just clicking a link on a website where you can see like I may earn affiliate commission.
• 11:20
  Megan Petta: Um, I think it's you're kind of living through the influencer's experience by buying that same product.
• 11:26
  Jen LaForge: Do you think that's led to stronger performance on the influencer side?
• 11:30
  Jen LaForge: That shift in in the commitment and the loyalty and the understanding of the mission, so to speak?
• 11:36
  Megan Petta: Yeah, I think it's easier for brands to prove to leadership that influencers work when we can tie it back to a dollar amount easier, which previously we, you know, a couple of years ago is we paid a flat fee, we received as much site traffic, engagement on our content, increase in in social followers, which leadership was appreciative of, but ultimately would like to know did did we reach new customers that purchased?
• 12:02
  Megan Petta: Um, so that does make things easier.
• 12:04
  Jen LaForge: Yeah, there's, I mean, every marketer's nightmare, um, the vanity metrics and being asked what's the ROI.
• 12:10
  Jen LaForge: So this definitely helps with that that conversation, but there's 50%, almost 50% that aren't there yet.
• 12:16
  Jen LaForge: Do you think that's just a lack of awareness?
• 12:18
  Jen LaForge: Or is there some hesitation still to tie my creative and content and what I'm influencing to say an affiliate program?
• 12:30
  Megan Petta: Yeah, it's interesting talking to some brands because there will be brands who are firm on we only do gifting and then they create the content.
• 12:38
  Megan Petta: And then the question is, well, how valuable is your gift?
• 12:44
  Megan Petta: Because if we're creating a gift for a $30, you know, drink, that's really what they're getting paid.
• 12:51
  Megan Petta: So are we going to have the right type of content creators associated with that gift versus I'm a couch brand, I can gift you this luxury couch for a living room.
• 13:00
  Megan Petta: Like they're actually excited.
• 13:02
  Megan Petta: They're doing a whole living room reorganization and decor and everything like that.
• 13:06
  Megan Petta: So it's it's more exciting in that sense.
• 13:09
  Megan Petta: Um, but yeah, there's still a lot of education happening when talking to brands still about like how do influencers work today?
• 13:16
  Megan Petta: What are they expecting?
• 13:17
  Megan Petta: And will I even be successful if I go out with this strategy?
• 13:20
  Jen LaForge: So, Megan, we talked a little bit about AI in the beginning too.
• 13:23
  Jen LaForge: We don't want to dive too much in there, but Impact is doing uh a lot.
• 13:28
  Jen LaForge: Um, what can you what do you want to speak on?
• 13:30
  Jen LaForge: Like just an quick AI piece at Impact, what you guys are working on right now, because it sounds pretty exciting.
• 13:35
  Megan Petta: Yeah.
• 13:35
  Megan Petta: Um, so like a lot of brands were definitely investing heavily in AI.
• 13:39
  Megan Petta: And the maybe the portion of our platform that I'm the most excited about is helping brands understand where they're showing up today for what consumers are searching.
• 13:52
  Megan Petta: Um, so if we are thinking about going to Chat GPT or Gemini and just like building out some holiday lists, they're using up to 40% of um websites that are citing affiliate links.
• 14:06
  Megan Petta: And so if we can introduce and connect them to more of those partners that they may not be working with, um, that can be really valuable.
• 14:15
  Megan Petta: And so we've rolled out what we're calling an AI search visibility report to help not only surface, you know, where are you ranking for these brand categories, but what domains are contributing to it and more specifically, uh, what articles you are not showing up in.
• 14:30
  Megan Petta: So connecting that to our marketplace is going to help fast track those conversations to um to be showing up where you want to be showing up.
• 14:38
  Jen LaForge: I I love that.
• 14:39
  Jen LaForge: It's very exciting to me as a very data-driven person.
• 14:42
  Jen LaForge: What's the most exciting part is that you are providing visibility, data, reporting.
• 14:47
  Jen LaForge: Um, in a lot of the AI conversations out there, we're talking about that end product or or what the customer is using or how it's changing the experience.
• 14:55
  Jen LaForge: Not a lot of people yet are talking about the data layer and how to to right away understand the value that's coming from these changes.
• 15:04
  Jen LaForge: Um, so I want to talk uh, not specific to the AI piece, but one of the things I love and respect about impact is how rich the data is and how much data you're able to share with the brands to help drive their business.
• 15:19
  Jen LaForge: Do you want to talk a little bit about the data piece at Impact and just how rich that is for brands?
• 15:26
  Megan Petta: Yeah, I also love data.
• 15:27
  Megan Petta: I also get told we say data, they say data data.
• 15:30
  Megan Petta: So too funny.
• 15:32
  Megan Petta: Um, but yeah, when you're a brand and you're you're coming into the platform, you're of course connecting to partners and you want to understand, did they drive impressions, clicks, you know, sales to the website?
• 15:42
  Megan Petta: We can take a step back.
• 15:44
  Megan Petta: We can say, also, when you hire those partners, how are they adding to the customer buying journey?
• 15:50
  Megan Petta: Where are they showing up in that buying journey?
• 15:52
  Megan Petta: And that's really helpful to understand if you introduce influencers.
• 15:56
  Megan Petta: They could be very upper funnel, but not often getting credit for a sale if you're on last click.
• 16:01
  Megan Petta: Right.
• 16:02
  Megan Petta: So seeing data points like that are really um valuable to bring up, you know, to management.
• 16:07
  Megan Petta: So when we're looking at the partners that you hire as a brand, you can see the customer journey.
• 16:12
  Megan Petta: And what we mean by that is you might see an influencer introduce your brand to a new customer.
• 16:18
  Megan Petta: And then they might do some further research and they might be showing up in editorial pieces on a news.
• 16:24
  Megan Petta: You might see an ad of yours.
• 16:26
  Megan Petta: Uh, so impact can even take a further step back.
• 16:28
  Megan Petta: And we can say, well, not only are we tracking your customer journey for your partners, what about your other channels?
• 16:36
  Megan Petta: Did the customer interact with your newsletter or your paid search ads that some other team is running, your paid social ads?
• 16:43
  Megan Petta: If that's the case, do you still attribute this commission to a partner?
• 16:47
  Megan Petta: You can ultimately make that decision.
• 16:49
  Megan Petta: And leadership's usually very excited to have that control and that level of visibility in the platform where we're not forcing through a partner commission, but you can essentially decide which channel is most valuable.
• 17:02
  Jen LaForge: Okay, I love that.
• 17:04
  Jen LaForge: We uh we have a short, uh, short amount of time today because we are super busy.
• 17:08
  Jen LaForge: I said it's our Super Bowl, it's kicking off here.
• 17:10
  Jen LaForge: So, Megan, I'm I'm one last question for you, and it is around Q4.
• 17:14
  Jen LaForge: What excites you going into the the last three months of this year and or maybe what that's gonna lend to in the new year?
• 17:22
  Jen LaForge: But what are you really excited about in our space right now?
• 17:25
  Megan Petta: Yeah, loaded question here.
• 17:27
  Megan Petta: I'm thinking there's so much that could be exciting.
• 17:29
  Megan Petta: Um, I think for this Q4, what's going to be new is that not only can you run uh your affiliate and influencer channel like D2C on your on your Shopify site, let's say, um, we've also integrated with Amazon.
• 17:43
  Megan Petta: So seeing that uptick in terms of our shoppers now shopping D2C or also on Amazon, and you can actually capture and understand the value there will be, yeah, we'll be really exciting to see what brands do with that.
• 17:57
  Megan Petta: And then overall, the consumer shift, you know, through research, we've seen it's taking longer to make purchases, but they're more intentional in the resulting in higher cart value.
• 18:08
  Megan Petta: So I think consumers are less focused on the lowest price and more the best price for the best product they could buy.
• 18:16
  Megan Petta: Um, so love to see that come through in the data that we have.
• 18:20
  Jen LaForge: You know, I'm so glad that you said that.
• 18:21
  Jen LaForge: So I haven't asked you yet.
• 18:22
  Jen LaForge: And I think I've asked in the last couple conversations was your definition of value.
• 18:27
  Jen LaForge: Because what you just said there was not the lowest price, but the best price.
• 18:31
  Jen LaForge: So, what how would you define personally as an individual?
• 18:34
  Jen LaForge: Yeah, and I've asked many people this all different answers.
• 18:37
  Jen LaForge: How do you define value in your life?
• 18:40
  Megan Petta: Uh value in my life.
• 18:42
  Megan Petta: Um tough one, I know.
• 18:43
  Megan Petta: That is a tough one.
• 18:45
  Megan Petta: I mean, value is ultimately if I can own it, I would say.
• 18:48
  Megan Petta: If I can own it in the sense of, is it my time and my decision that I fully want to move forward with an experience or a purchase or a feeling that I'm, you know, resulting in by moving forward with step step one.
• 19:02
  Megan Petta: Um, so I mean, this this podcast with you, this is valuable because, you know, it's a little nervous to come on here and chat with you, but um, ultimately I'll find some value at the end of the day because we were able to have this great conversation.
• 19:17
  Jen LaForge: So that is the most empowering answer we have gotten in any episode.
• 19:22
  Jen LaForge: So thank you so much for that.
• 19:24
  Jen LaForge: I received a huge amount of value.
• 19:26
  Jen LaForge: We're gonna go back out onto the floor and have a hundred more conversations today.
• 19:30
  Jen LaForge: Um, but this has been so far my favorite uh because I did make you do something really scary and nervous.
• 19:36
  Jen LaForge: And I just love that because you you shine throughout it.
• 19:40
  Jen LaForge: There's so many more questions asked.
• 19:41
  Jen LaForge: There's so much to learn about impact.com.
• 19:43
  Jen LaForge: So if we can just leave with uh how can those who are listening learn more about the the menu, that all-in-one enterprise solution that impact is, and really figure out if they can jump on board for Q4, if they're not.
• 19:59
  Megan Petta: Yeah, just reach out to our team, to the website.
• 20:02
  Megan Petta: And there's so many of us that are willing to hop in and same day or next day, understand um the the really what the focus of the business is.
• 20:11
  Megan Petta: That's ultimately where I think we're trying to stand out is um working towards some sort of greater business goal and then ultimately helping a brand get their leadership to buy in.
• 20:20
  Megan Petta: That's that's what we're passionate about.
• 20:22
  Jen LaForge: Okay, I'm passionate about you being passionate about that because ultimately those brands come to Rackton and we're able to bring more rewarding experiences to our members.
• 20:30
  Jen LaForge: Megan, thank you so much.
• 20:31
  Jen LaForge: Let's wrap this up.
• 20:33
  Jen LaForge: We've got more readings to have.
• 20:34
  Megan Petta: Yeah, awesome.
• 20:35
  Jen LaForge: Thank you so much.
• 20:36
  Jen LaForge: And that's it for this episode of Stack.
• 20:38
  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.
• 20:46
  Jen LaForge: And if there's a topic you want us to unpack, I'd love to hear from you.
• 20:49
  Jen LaForge: See you next time.