How Technology Affiliates Can Drive Higher Conversions and AOV for Your Brand

Technology affiliates have become an integral part of the affiliate marketing industry, allowing brands to connect with consumers through all stages of their journey and improve conversion rates. These types of affiliates can come in various forms and have the ability to help brands achieve their unique goals and KPIs.

In this blog post, we will explore the three main categories of technology partners, overcoming implementation stereotypes, and the value these partners can bring to brands’ affiliate programs.

What are technology affiliates?

Technology partners are affiliates that can be added onto a brand’s affiliate program and paid on a performance basis after agreed-upon outcomes are met. It’s important to note that these partners should not be confused with affiliate technology, which are the networks and SaaS platforms on which programs are run.

Most technology affiliates fall under at least one of three major categories: conversion optimization, assisted sale, and increasing average order value (AOV) and cart size.

1. Conversion optimization technology partners

These types of technology affiliates help brands optimize their conversions using a wide range of tools and capabilities. They can provide solutions such as dynamic promotions, on-screen overlays, exit intent, lead capture and retargeting, and product recommendations.

Optimized conversions include:

• Dynamic promotions engage the customer with personalized promotions based on data such as who the customer is (new/existing) and the items/value of their specific cart
• On-screen overlays help create a sense of urgency for the customer with many use cases such as incentivizing a purchase, preventing the customers from leaving the website, and/or adding additional items to achieve a greater discount
• Exit intent prompts customers with an offer or messaging to prevent them from leaving the website, ultimately helping convert additional sales that would have been lost
• Lead capture and retargeting help drive customers back to the site through email marketing that entices them to convert
• Product recommendations help to increase order value throughout the customer journey

2. Assisted sale technology partners

Technology affiliates in this category help guide customers to the products or categories they are looking for using chatbots and AI-driven questionnaire engines. These affiliates increase conversion rates by:

• Answering customer questions
• Helping customers identify the correct product or product categories
• Promoting additional relevant products

Product recommendation engines within this technology category can streamline the customer journey by asking a set of questions that help customers find the product category for their needs. For example, a beauty brand can use these tools to help customers find the product category for their skin complexion.

3. Increasing AOV and cart size technology partners

These partners can increase cart sizes and AOV by building product bundle recommendations while also providing a user interface that seamlessly lives on a brand’s website, simplifying the process of adding additional items to their cart and completing the purchase.

Solutions implemented by these partners can include:

• Frequently purchased together bundles that help customers identify related products that they might want to buy in addition to their original purchase.
• Manually or AI-driven bundles that allow brands the flexibility to build custom product bundles themselves (manually), or to allow the affiliate’s “engine” to optimize performance by building bundles that have a higher chance of converting based on historical and current sales data (AI-driven).
• Product recommendations are similar to product bundles, as this solution suggests specific products throughout the customer journey to increase cart-size and AOV. They can also take into consideration product availability to both upsell and to move specific inventory based on availability.

Don’t let implementation stand in the way of higher conversion rates

While implementations have historically been a major roadblock for technology affiliate adoption and brand relationships, this is no longer the case. With the help and expertise of a partnership marketing agency partner like Acceleration Partners (AP), implementations can take less than 10 minutes to complete.

In fact, if your brand is on any of the major affiliate networks, it could be as simple as the technology affiliate “turning on” their capabilities via the existing master tag/container tag that networks often already have integrated into a brand’s website.

For unique cases where brands cannot utilize the master tag option outlined above, the technology affiliate’s development team can utilize Google Tag Manager (or comparable tools) to paste the necessary code in a short timeframe as well.

In short, don’t let implementation be a barrier to achieving higher conversion rates for your brand. With the help of a partnership marketing agency like AP, implementing technology affiliates can be quick and hassle-free.

The value of technology affiliates to brands

By leveraging technology affiliates within the affiliate channel, brands can gain access to specialized tools and capabilities that will optimize conversions, increase AOV and guide customers through the buying journey.

These technologies can also improve the customer experience on brands’ websites, modernizing how their site engages with potential customers, while continuing to drive incremental revenue and ROI for brands. Likewise, technology affiliates are happy to prove their incrementality via A/B testing (only serving their solutions to a segment of site visitors) and transparent reporting dashboards.

Moreover, technology affiliates provide an additional layer of support to brands by constantly innovating and improving their capabilities to stay competitive and drive more revenue. As a result, brands can leverage technology affiliates to achieve specific goals and KPIs, while also staying ahead of their competitors in the ever-evolving digital landscape.

Success stories

Don’t just take our word on it – learn about two AP clients who saw significant success by working with a strategic technology partner:

Luxury Retailer Realizes 10% Increase in Overall Revenue from Technology Affiliate

A luxury retail client sought to diversify their affiliate program with non-traditional partners to better optimize conversions. Based on AP’s personalized recommendations, the brand implemented UpSellit into their program and realized:

• 10% increase in overall program revenue
• 30% decrease in overall CPA
• Technology affiliate became a top 3 program partners
• Their affiliate channel became their highest converting marketing channel

Clothing Retailer Achieves 2000% ROAS Increase With Technology Partner

After analyzing program data, and a review of the client’s website, AP identified an opportunity to drive additional sales via product suggestions and bundling solutions, and suggested the client onboarded a technology affiliate who specializes in these capabilities. The resulting partnership has continued to drive incremental growth each year.

• 2000% ROAS increase

Ready to start driving higher conversion rates and AOV for your brand?

Connect with Acceleration Partners to learn how to implement technology affiliates today!