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By Alex Cramer
In the world of affiliate marketing, bigger isn’t always better. After all, even if a publisher has a large audience, you still want to target those specific readers who are the most likely to buy your product.
That’s why we’re always excited to work with our partners at A360 Media because not only can they reach a massive audience through their dozens of different publications, but the wide variety of those titles, including Us Weekly, Men’s Journal and Life & Style, allows them to strategically target the correct demographic and customer base for almost any vertical.
We sat down with Kara Kamenec to learn how A360 Media uses pioneering audience engagement strategies to deliver some of the highest sales numbers of any publisher on our affiliate network.
AP: What makes A360 Media unique compared to other publishers?
A360: A360 Media can connect with a broad range of American consumers and demographics through our entertainment and lifestyle news and reporting. From Us Weekly to Woman’s World and Men’s Journal, we are uniquely positioned to connect and engage with consumers of all demographics. Based in NYC, A360 Media has a longstanding history of providing entertainment to the American public going back to 1936. A360 currently operates over 20+ publications and over 100+ print publications including special interest issues.
AP: What has been the key to your success in affiliate marketing?
A360: I think there are three key reasons why we’ve seen so much success in the affiliate space.
1 – The affiliate group operates much like a startup within a corporate environment – Meaning we have corporate resources to fuel the division, but we are adaptable, we work quickly, and we have an ongoing mission of ABT (Always be testing!)
2 – We study our audiences. We did not use Amazon for the first 1-2 years, just so our team could first learn how to sell any product, and at the same time, how to sell anything to our specific audiences. Anyone can set up an Amazon account, and we greatly value our relationship with Amazon as well, but by choice, I started this division with the hardest obstacles first so we could learn our audiences best. At this point, we can basically look at 1 out of 10 cover images and titles and tell you the one that will perform best based on 15+ different data points about our audience that we have learned.
3- We value partnerships. We want to work with advertisers, and we want to find creative ways to do it!
AP: How have consumers’ buying habits changed in the last year?
A360: 1 – Buying behaviors are greatly influenced by national news. So inflation, the war in Ukraine, housing and high gas prices have all changed how people are shopping. It’s a more volatile environment. Something that works one week may not work the next.
2 – Currently consumers are expecting deals and it’s getting similar to the daily deal boom again
3 – Wellness is everything. Wellness in clothing to candles to industries I didn’t realize wellness could integrate into. We also see a growing interest in eastern medicine and spirituality.
AP: What do advertisers need to understand if they want to have a successful relationship with you?
A360: There is a HUGE disconnect in this industry as publishers (to an extent) control consumer acquisition and advertisers (to an extent) control conversion, yet publishers are expected to control, even predict and promise conversions. This is impossible with new advertisers, it’s smoke and mirrors – No one can actually predict this. That’s why advertisers need to help the publishers! Share your data, and create predictions for publishers!
2 – Incentivize us! We are a small team and are understaffed. It would be shocking to advertisers if they knew how much this division generates in company revenue based on the size of our extremely small team. Joining us on a network at our minimum of 10% CPA is just not enough in most cases to move the needle for us. We do generally work more with advertisers who initially advertise with a flat fee – It gets on our team’s radar for organic coverage.
We can also be flexible on this and bake in discounts. For example, can you give us a dedicated coupon code and predict ROI for us? Can you drive traffic to the content? And on the flip side, beyond sales, what is most valuable to you? What has worked well with other publishers/influencers that we can build on? Would it help your R&D and marketing team to see which link readers click on most? Let’s get creative!
3 – Please reach out! Our media kit and rate cards are a starting point for conversations. Please also email again if you don’t get a response! We have a small team & 200+ emails a day 🙂
AP: Tell us about your relationship with Advertise Purple.
A360: We started working with Advertise purple in Q3 of 2021 and during this very hectic time of year Advertise Purple was like a fresh breeze off the Pacific ocean – Everything was SO streamlined and straightforward. I told your team they saved me about 3+ hours a day in emails that quarter, or 150+ hours which equates to about one full week! (And anyone in this industry knows saving a week in Q1, is priceless)
Advertise Purple is absolutely the most organized agency I have ever worked with, and given the massive amount and variety of clients you have, which is another plus for us, that’s even more impressive. Some of the systems and spreadsheets you use, I have basically begged other agencies and even networks to do as well because it’s just that helpful.
Finally, we just don’t have issues – In this industry, there are 50 little things to handle that can differ by advertiser, campaign or month and everything with Advertise Purple is just easy, friendly and convenient. Advertise Purple understands this industry, its clients and their goals, and I would absolutely recommend you to any publisher or advertiser without hesitation. Thank you, Advertise Purple!
