Here’s the latest scoop: Affiliate marketing has become a whole lot more sophisticated. Brands are moving beyond basic click-counting to understand what really drives success.
At the center is incrementality measurement—showing which partnerships truly create new sales rather than just claiming credit for them. This practical shift helps companies such as Patagonia and Zenni Optical make better decisions about partner investments, recognize value throughout the customer journey, and transform their affiliate programs from isolated channels into strategic business assets.
Incrementality is an event or desired outcome that occurs solely because of the contribution from a marketing channel or partner. Forward-thinking brands are now prioritizing this insight to redefine how partnerships are measured, optimized, and integrated into their business ecosystems.
Affiliate experts, Cricket Treanor from Patagonia and Kayla Castro from Zenni Optical joined impact.com’s Todd Crawford to share actionable growth strategies from leveraging incrementality.
Affiliate marketing creates value across the entire funnel, building meaningful relationships and telling a brand story that resonates with consumers. By shifting from traditional single-focus metrics, these brands discovered previously hidden opportunities and maximized the potential of their partnerships.
The constraints of traditional affiliate marketing measurement
Castro and Treanor began their respective journeys confronting a common issue in affiliate marketing—reliance on outdated last-click attribution and bottom-funnel-heavy strategies.
Shifting Zenni Optical’s affiliate channel beyond discounts
For Castro, her mandate upon joining Zenni Optical was clear yet complex. The brand was transitioning from a “discount-heavy” reputation but struggled to break free of legacy partners that shaped this image. “Our top ten partners in the program had over 90% of the revenue attribution, and most were coupon sites or browser extensions,” she shared.
The challenge was moving past the perception that affiliates were merely discount tools or “bottom-feeders.” Castro wanted to bring in content-based and editorial affiliates who could tell a more compelling brand story.
When proposing a significant shift, she reframed internal perceptions of affiliate marketing by focusing on its strategic potential and long-term value. She communicated to leadership that while there would be a “revenue drop on this channel by a significant amount, it’s not forever, and it’s not going to affect the bottom line.”
This approach changed the way affiliate marketing was viewed, transforming it from an “attribution-stealing” channel into a key driver of sustainable, impactful organizational growth.
Optimizing Patagonia’s untapped affiliate channel
Treanor was navigating a system high on potential but largely stagnant. “The affiliate channel was just kind of running itself… it wasn’t really being optimized or growing,” she admitted.
The program’s data was siloed, and the traditional attribution model ignored the full-funnel performance, such as brand-building efforts and long-term loyalty drivers. “What I found was that last-click models didn’t give us the full picture,” said Treanor. “The ways we were measuring across paid media channels didn’t uncover the true impact of affiliates.”
Adding to the challenge was the affiliate channel’s role in Patagonia’s diverse marketing funnel. How could they evaluate partner contributions when the traditional methods painted every partner’s value with the same brush?
Both leaders wrestled with an overarching challenge: finding metrics and methods that captured the holistic value of their partnerships.
Data-driven solutions powered by incrementality insights
Faced with these hurdles, Castro and Treanor turned to incrementality metrics and new strategies to evolve their affiliate channels into growth engines.
Uncovering Zenni Optical’s true partnership value through data
Castro tackled their challenges by introducing incrementality insights into decision-making. By leveraging impact.com’s reporting tool suite, they reevaluated their partner mix and began diversifying.
The $1.5 million discovery
Through rigorous analysis, the team uncovered a significant opportunity:
- $1.5 million of partner spending linked to redundant customer touchpoints
- A bold but calculated response: “[We] cut some of these partners out of the program… and saw no change on our site,” Castro revealed
- Resources freed for reinvestment in mid- and top-funnel affiliate efforts
- Content creators and influencers now able to introduce Zenni’s value-oriented messaging to new audiences
Expanding measurement beyond last-click
Castro emphasized tracking multiple metrics to capture partner value:
- New customer acquisition rates: Identifying partners who bring first-time buyers
- Conversion reactivations: Cases where “if someone’s on their click path ready to get to a conversion and then drop off for more than five days, an affiliate comes back and helps reactivate that click path”
- Deeper funnel analysis: Using impact.com’s Top Paths report to see “the affiliate channel level incrementality scores, and which affiliates are getting involved in which click paths”
By integrating Google Analytics data into impact.com, her team visualized how other marketing channels interact with affiliates within the consumer’s click path.
Breaking down Patagonia’s affiliate performance through multi-level analysis
For Treanor, finding the true value of Patagonia’s affiliate program required a systematic approach to measurement. Rather than viewing the affiliate channel as a monolith, she focused on breaking down performance across different partner categories.
Category-level measurement strategy
“I think what’s really important with how we’re looking at measurement is not just looking at it as a blanket affiliate channel, but really digging deeper into the different categories we have,” Treanor explained. Her approach included:
- Treating loyalty, deal, and content partners as separate channels
- Establishing unique performance baselines for each partner type
- Tracking year-over-year changes at both category and individual partner levels
- Digging deeper when significant performance shifts occur to understand specific drivers
Partner journey analysis
Treanor leveraged impact.com’s Optimize reports to understand the complete customer journey:
- Identifying partners who influence multiple touchpoints
- Understanding which affiliates excel as introducers versus closers
- Recognizing over-indexed solo contributors deserving of compensation adjustments
“We can see where each partner came in a customer journey and understand if there’s a partner that’s over-indexing as a solo contributor or the introducer,” she shared. This granular visibility helped identify partners who drove significant traffic but weren’t always receiving last-click attribution, allowing for more strategic partnership management.
5 expert strategies to modernize your affiliate channel
The success of advanced measurement techniques hinges on implementing strategies tailored to individual partners, channels, and company goals. Here’s how innovative brands like Patagonia and Zenni Optical are optimizing their affiliate efforts.
1. Create flexible compensation models
Adjust payment structures to reward partners for contributions across different touchpoints, from new customer acquisition to reactivation. This approach gives equitable value distribution and encourages diverse partnerships.
Recognizing full-funnel contributions
Treanor explains how they identify and reward partners appropriately: “We can figure out ways that we want to… either optimize with them in the future, because we see the value in them driving traffic to the site, or maybe figuring out a way that we can bonus them after the fact to really give them the value that we’re seeing coming back to the site.”
By monitoring where partners enter the customer journey, Patagonia can identify those who might not receive last-click credit but still deliver significant value. This approach allows them to reward partners who introduce customers to the brand or influence decisions mid-funnel.
Aligning compensation with incrementality
“When we’re looking at the incrementality report to understand how incremental certain partners are, and then looking at the contribution reports to understand how they are interacting in a customer journey,” Treanor notes, brands can make more strategic decisions about partner compensation.
This data-driven approach directs resources toward partnerships that deliver true incremental value rather than merely capturing existing demand.
2. Test and optimize partner diversification
Diversifying the partner mix provides comprehensive representation across funnel levels. For Zenni Optical, this meant transforming their affiliate strategy away from discount-heavy partnerships.
Breaking free from discount dependence
“We knew we wanted to bring on content and editorial partners and influencer affiliates who could all help tell that brand story about being more of a value-oriented brand,” Castro shared. The challenge was significant—their top 10 partners had over 90 percent of revenue attribution, with most being coupon sites or browser extensions.
Castro had to communicate to leadership that while there would be a “revenue drop on this channel by a significant amount, it’s not forever, and it’s not going to affect the bottom line.” This calculated approach allowed them to rebuild their program with more strategic partners.
Identifying high-value partner categories
According to Castro, content partners and influencers proved “particularly strong in attracting first-time buyers unfamiliar with their brand.” This insight helped justify investment in these partnerships despite their different attribution patterns.
To align with their value-oriented brand goals, they evaluated the contribution of bottom-funnel partners and began onboarding content, editorial, and influencer affiliates, creating a more balanced partnership ecosystem focused on long-term growth.
3. Invest in granular reporting tools
Custom reporting solutions provide clearer visibility into partner contributions across the marketing funnel. Both brands leveraged impact.com’s reporting capabilities to create tailored insights.
Building comprehensive dashboards
Both Treanor and Castro emphasized the value of customized reporting. Treanor created a holistic view using impact.com’s Data Lab: “I’ll have like an overall view of the channel where I can change the date to know exactly what’s happening this week, to know how it compares to other channels during that week.”
This dashboard includes breakdowns by category, partner, and daily performance, alongside forecast pacing metrics. “It’s a really good, kind of holistic view of everything that I’m looking at,” she explained.
Making data-driven investment decisions
The detailed reporting capabilities enabled Castro to make the bold decision that uncovered $1.5 million in redundant partner spending. “I approached my boss at the time and asked, what would happen if we just cut these partners from the program and see what happens on our site?” she recalled.
This data-informed approach allowed them to confidently reallocate resources: “It was a significant amount of revenue that was being attributed to these partnerships. So my argument was, if this was incremental, we would definitely notice it on our site fairly quickly.”
The results validated their analysis and freed the budget for investment in higher-value partnerships that better aligned with their brand goals. “Ultimately, that saved us quite a lot of budget. And we just took it and were able to reinvest with our new top and mid-funnel partnerships,” Castro explained.
4. Educate internal stakeholders
Internal education transforms how affiliate marketing is perceived across the organization. Both leaders emphasized using success stories to build understanding.
Shifting from “discount channel” to strategic asset
Castro described how education helped transition perceptions: “I’m kind of helping us get away from the myth that affiliate can really get stuck in, which is we are just these like bottom feeders attribution stealer partnerships.”
This reframing required consistent education: “A lot of people need education on what we can do. Affiliate’s perfect for cross-functional play within the company.”
Storytelling as an educational tool
Castro advised: “Take every small moment and opportunity that you can to educate people internally, mostly just like telling stories about those partnerships. These are relationships that we’re building. It’s not just a turn-off and on button.”
Even small efforts can shift perceptions: “Even if it’s just like an extra slide on a monthly deck you’re doing, I think every little bit helps, and different channels or leaders can help kind of feel a little bit more involved in what we’re doing.”
The result has been transformative: “They see affiliate as like a team player channel now, which I think is a massive win,” Castro noted, highlighting the channel’s evolution from a siloed operation to an integrated strategic function.
5. Foster cross-functional collaboration
Strategic alignment with other departments maximizes the impact of affiliate partnerships. This collaboration creates powerful alignment that transforms the affiliate channel into a company-wide asset.
Patagonia’s PR partnership
Treanor discovered significant value through collaboration with PR:
“I think we’re like most of the value in the internal partnerships that I’ve found within the company is with PR, which is something that wasn’t really a thing before I stepped into this role,” she explained.
This partnership created a unique mutual benefit:
“The fact that they don’t really see how their efforts are influencing sales or influencing traffic that’s coming into site because they’re not, they can’t measure it at all if there’s no affiliate links. So I can come in and actually show them how a pitch went or what products were sold with a certain partner after a pitch went out and give them more metrics behind the work that they’re doing.”
The result wasn’t just claiming affiliate success but creating “holistic success across the brand” by working together.
Zenni’s cross-functional flexibility
Castro demonstrated similar versatility, positioning the affiliate team as the company’s relationship management center of excellence:
“Our influencer team came to us and said, we have a whole brand ambassador program that’s essentially like loyal customers who also have decent social followings. And we don’t have the manpower or woman power anymore to touch these relationships as often as they need. Can you take them on?”
The affiliate team absorbed these relationships with minimal disruption, showcasing the channel’s adaptability. Castro emphasized that this approach helps them be known as a “team player channel” – a flexible solution for any relationship that needs performance tracking.
“Probably half of the partnerships that we track and impact touch another channel alongside affiliate, which I think is really cool,” Castro noted, highlighting how affiliate has evolved beyond a siloed channel.
Q&A from the webinar
Castro: We use several tools to understand performance: at the broadest level, we use an MMM (Marketing Mix Modeling) to understand the performance of all marketing channels and the incrementality of each channel.
But at a more granular level within Affiliate, we use impact.com’s incrementality tool in Optimize and also Fuse by PartnerCentric. All these tools ultimately help us understand which channels/affiliates are helping bring customers to our site through the purchase funnel and identify which channels/affiliates are potentially leap-frogging attribution or aren’t contributing to a purchase decision incrementally (meaning, if they weren’t a part of the purchase path would the customer still likely have made a purchase).
Treanor: Similar to Zenni Optical, we use various measurement tools to evaluate the true value each paid media channel contributes. One such tool is our MMM tool, which analyzes all paid media channels by pulling data directly from ad platforms.
This helps us better understand the incremental value each channel provides. While our affiliate data is incorporated into this tool at the channel and partner category level, it is not included at the individual partner level. By leveraging impact.com’s Optimize reports, we gain greater transparency in performance at the affiliate partner level. These tools provide valuable insights into the roles each channel and affiliate plays in the path to conversion, enabling us to make informed decisions about their contributions to the customer journey.
Castro: I’m assuming that ‘promotional methods’ mean the way an affiliate mainly promotes to their audience that’s usually posted on their affiliate platform profile (i.e. cashback, content, search). In that case, I would say not exactly. We have, for instance, loyalty/cashback partners in our program that rank well above the benchmark for incremental value and others who rank extremely low.
I wish there were more general ways to identify incremental value, but the challenge and the beauty of the affiliate channel is that every partner and every brand (and therefore, the value that comes from each partnership) are different.
Castro: We did see a strong lift in loyalty and content site attribution where some non-incremental affiliates that we cut from the program were leap-frogging attribution credit. The impact.com Leapfrogging report has been incredibly helpful to us whenever we have concerns about that happening within our program.
Castro: I’ve played a lot with payout structure over the years. I typically use commission + flat fee when the content generated is a main KPI for the partnership (i.e., we’re working with Social or PR teams internally on a campaign) or because it’s a highly competitive season like Q4 and we want to guarantee brand visibility.
Otherwise, I haven’t seen flat fees give a better ROAS than if we optimize a relationship through other means like increased CPA or preferred attribution – though I recognize this may not be true for other brands/industries.
Treanor: We primarily collaborate with our affiliate partners using traditional commission structures. During specific times of the year, such as product launches, promotional periods, and holidays, we adopt flat-fee payment structures to boost brand visibility.
Similar to Kayla, we generally observe a lower ROI with flat-fee placements compared to traditional commission payment structures. Optimizing partner commission rates has proven effective in helping us achieve our goals and enhance brand visibility, particularly when identifying the most suitable partners. Additionally, we have been experimenting with various payment structures, such as CPC campaigns, which enable us to leverage the affiliate channel to support non-revenue-driving objectives, like directing traffic to pages focused on company initiatives unrelated to sales. For these campaigns, we incentivize affiliates based on performance or provide a flat fee bonus to those who participate once the campaign concludes
What’s next for your program
The lessons from Treanor and Castro demonstrate that affiliate marketing is no longer “one lever” within a marketing toolkit. By treating it as a core strategic function, and layering smarter measurement techniques with thoughtful optimization, companies transform these programs into prime drivers of loyalty and growth.
Adopt their strategies, refine your metrics, and start storytelling. See the potential for yourself—request a demo today to discover how impact.com can help grow your affiliate channel.
As Castro reflected on her team’s journey: “Affiliates are a really flexible channel that can take on so many different types of partnerships. If there’s a relationship you want to manage that needs performance tracking, we can help with that. That’s what we’re setting ourselves up to be known as—the team player channel that helps solve problems across the organization.”
Treanor echoed this sentiment about the untapped potential still waiting for many brands: “There are so many opportunities in this space that we haven’t even tapped into yet. If you can continue showing that the channel is growing in a brand-aligned way with new types of partnerships, no one’s going to say you need to cut back. The opportunity is endless, especially as the channel and partnership types continue evolving.”
Keep learning:
For more insights into advancing your affiliate marketing efforts, request a demo or explore additional incrementality resources and insights:
- Incrementality playbook: Prove your affiliate revenue’s true impact [research blog]
- Incrementality 101: Understanding incrementality to optimize affiliate partnerships [blog]
- 5 brands with proven incremental growth strategies [blog]
- 3 reasons why measuring partner and channel incrementality benefits brands [blog]
- Redefining partnership marketing ROI: A framework for modern customer journeys [blog]
- Gain a deeper perspective on partnership performance with Optimize reports [one sheet]
