Next up in our Meet the Member series, we speak to Rachel Said, Head of Affiliates at Genie Goals. She talks to us about all things Genie Goals, why they’ve joined The APMA and what trends she thinks will be important in 2024.
Tell us a little bit about Genie Goals
We’re a performance marketing agency helping ambitious, purpose led e-commerce brands, large or small, scale through results driven digital marketing without compromising our values. We are experts in three channels: affiliate marketing, paid search and paid social.
What do you feel you bring to the affiliate mix?
A full funnel approach for ecommerce brands looking to grow. We pride ourselves on taking a holistic approach to our clients marketing, this means we suggest the best channel for the objectives and don’t push a channel/use of budget that won’t achieve the end goal. Being transparent is super important to us, especially when working with clients across channels, this also enables us to ensure the affiliate channel is a key part of any conversation round budget.
When you speak to your clients, what is their general feeling towards the affiliate and partner marketing channels?
That it is an important channel and one they want to grow, but often it takes the remaining budget after their other paid channels, it is not always as prioritised. Brands generally want to do more and know they are under utilising the opportunities there are, but a lot of brands don’t know where to start! It is a channel with so much potential that getting started can feel like a big job.
What could The APMA be doing to help build closer relationships with them and secure bigger budgets?
Any context I believe of the channel’s interactions with other channels and the customer journey is invaluable to us as an industry to showcase that no brand should be working in any channel in a silo. If we can transparently show the value of the channel that can only ever be a good thing.
Why did you want to become a founding member of The APMA?
To elevate the reputation of the affiliate industry as we’re always asked to demonstrate the value of it! There can be a lot of misconceptions in the channel, it would be great to just showcase the breadth of opportunity and talent there is. There is also a big chance for us as an industry to work as a collective voice to tackle the big topics – tracking is a key one that is being focused on this year.
Are there any specific APMA projects that you want Genie Goals to be part of?
Training and education, we’ve just launched a beginners guide to affiliates – so along those lines we’d love to see how we can co-create knowledge and insight pieces to help make the channel even more accessible.
What is the number one topic you think the industry should be tackling in 2024?
How the value of affiliate marketing is measured in relation to other channels, GA4 has thrown a spotlight on this. We shouldn’t shy away from this data but seek to understand it and especially to understand the different data touchpoints a brand may use in GA4 – these really do impact how the affiliate channel is seen, it isn’t always as bad as the picture is painted out either! (I hear The APMA has a great GA4 guide if you want to explore this further too…)
What other trends are you anticipating will be front of mind?
Tracking best practice guidelines to ensure fair and transparent reporting of the channel’s value. Outside of this the continued showcasing of content in the affiliate space and how all brands can use the channel to reach those super valuable new audiences.
Thanks to Rachel, if you want to find out more about Genie Goals, why not visit their APMA profile.
