Problem:
With over 50 years in the entertainment industry, Ginza is one of Sweden's oldest retailers offering a broad range of music, film, retro and books. The company faced two significant challenges before migrating to Awin. Firstly, they were missing out on key Swedish top publishers, impacting their reach and potential revenue in the affiliate channel. Secondly, they struggled with cost control and unprofitable CPC campaigns, hindering their ability to maintain visibility throughout the month.
These challenges were crucial as they directly affected Ginza's market presence, sector competitiveness, and customer engagement. Failure to address these issues could have resulted in missed revenue opportunities, reduced market share, and diminished customer satisfaction.
Objectives:
- Increase revenue: Ginza aimed to surpass their annual revenue target, which they initially based on their past performance with another affiliate network.
- Improve cost control: Ginza sought to gain better control over their advertising costs and avoid the need to pause CPC campaigns prematurely.
- Enhance ROI: Ginza aimed to achieve a higher return on ad spend (ROAS) while maintaining a reasonable cost of sales (COS).
These objectives were achieved through a collaborative effort between Ginza and Awin. By conducting a benchmark analysis of top 100 publishers for businesses in their field, the Awin team was able to identify several additional key partners that contributed to Ginza's success. The program included regular exposure, newsletters and pushes with the top partners from each publisher vertical, which was a significant driver to Ginza's growth. By implementing a detailed plan for publisher activation and optimisation, Awin managed to exceed Ginza's revenue target within only a few months. Additionally, negotiating CPA agreements with partners enabled Ginza to maintain visibility without compromising cost control or ROI.
A key objective was the enhancement of cost control. By transitioning from CPC to CPA agreements, Ginza gained better visibility and control over their advertising costs, ensuring consistent exposure throughout the month without exceeding their budget. This shift addressed specific customer challenges related to unpredictable costs and loss of visibility, aligning with industry trends favouring performance-based advertising models.
Results:
- Revenue Growth: Ginza achieved remarkable results, surpassing their target revenue by an impressive 470%, nearly quintupling their initial expectations.
- Cost of Sales (COS): Despite the revenue increase, Ginza managed to maintain a low COS of 5%, beating their target of 7%.
- Return on Ad Spend (ROAS): Ginza achieved a ROAS of 20, exceeding their target of 14 by implementing more efficient advertising strategies.
Key Takeaway: The successful collaboration between Ginza and Awin demonstrates the importance of proactive optimisation and strategic partnerships in achieving outstanding results in affiliate marketing. By addressing specific challenges such as publisher activation and cost control, Ginza not only exceeded their revenue targets but also improved overall profitability and market competitiveness.
Furthermore, by keeping up regular exposure and communication across all top publishers, as well as continuously onboarding new, interesting partners, there is great potential for a long-term partnership between Ginza and Awin. This sustained effort reflects Ginza's commitment to nurturing relationships and staying ahead of industry trends. As the affiliate channel becomes an increasingly significant part of Ginza's overall marketing strategy, the groundwork laid during this successful collaboration sets the stage for continued growth and success in the future.
"We have seen great development with Ginza since we joined Awin, and one of the best things is that we have such good control over the costs." - Johan Sävenstrand, E-commerce Manager at Ginza AB.
