Q1 highlights include welcoming over 500 new brands and partners, being ranked top affiliate network by multiple industry analysts, and launching new product features and innovations.
NEW YORK—May 8, 2024—impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform, announced continued strong performance so far in 2024, adding more than 500 brands and partners to its total client roster, welcoming leading brands including Gatorade, Forever 21, Under Armour, and AG1 (formerly Athletic Greens).
impact.com’s continued growth comes at a time when the industry is seeing a seismic shift in how consumers engage with brands. In an age where more content is being consumed from all angles, the modern consumer is seeking out reviews and searching social media to see the product and hear what people they trust and respect say about it. This makes sense when 88% of consumers say they trust personal recommendations over any other channel. Successful brands are embracing this paradigm shift and incorporating partnerships into their marketing mix to open up new revenue streams and new spheres of influence that simply don’t exist in traditional advertising channels. In fact, brands that incorporate partnerships into their marketing mix see an impressive 29% increase in revenue growth.
“We’ve moved into an era where consumers are firmly in the driver’s seat, calling the shots in how they want to be contacted, engaged with, and sold to. The growth we’re seeing today stems from the irreversible trend of Gen Z consumers ignoring traditional ads, and turning instead to authentic sources of recommendations and advice that they can trust,” said impact.com CEO David A. Yovanno. “Inspiration, discovery, and connection are foundational to the modern shoppers’ experiences, and we’re seeing brands of all sizes embracing and tapping into this new customer journey by working with influencers, publishers, affiliates, and other partners.”
The company has also been recognized by several leading industry organizations globally for delivering innovative technology solutions and its leadership in the partnerships industry.
impact.com was named the #1 affiliate network of 2024 by the Blue Book, the largest research survey in the performance marketing industry, which identifies the best affiliate, CPA and pay-per-call networks brands, merchants, lead buyers, affiliates, publishers, and agencies work with. The company was also recognized as a bronze winner for business technology in the 2024 Stevie American Business Awards for its “impressive partnership management platform covering a wide range of partnership types,” and “solving a genuine problem in a unique way.”
The company also received four 2024 US Partnership Awards, including the industry-voted Best Platform for Partnership Success, and Best Tech for Brands. The awards highlight impact.com’s work with its clients and agency partners, including Rise Interactive, Ulta Beauty, DMi Partners and Minted. Additionally, the AVA Digital Awards recognized impact.com for its podcast, The Partnership Economy, impact.com Chief Marketing Officer, Cristy Ebert Garcia, was named a Top 50 Marketer by On Conferences at the 2024 OnCon Icon Awards, and Maya Sharma, impact.com influencer growth manager, was named to Hello Partner’s Creator Economy Top 30 Leading Women list.
In addition to client growth and industry recognition, the company announced a new CFO, Dale Lynch, a seasoned public company executive who will lead impact.com through its next stage of growth. The company also appointed Nikolai Lundstrøm Brink as Country Manager, Denmark, an experienced affiliate marketer who will lead company efforts in the region. In its Australia New Zealand region, impact.com announced it has aligned its ANZ sales and customer success teams, promoting Helena Barroso Zarco to Director, Customer Success and Sales ANZ.
impact.com also launched new innovations and product updates, including the impact.com Chrome extension, an essential tool for publishers and creators. This extension makes it simple to create tracking links, helping them to earn more and keep branding consistent without disrupting workflow. The company also introduced updated cost-per-click (CPC) payouts that now allow brands and publishers to adjust CPC payouts up or down based on 25 parameters, such as SKU, product category, customer region, and more. The added flexibility makes it easier for brands to work with premium content publishers, while ensuring they maximize the return of their CPC budget.
impact.com also published leading industry trend reports, including How to navigate 2024 with 5 insightful consumer shopping trends; and a Publisher Benchmark Report analyzing over 18,000 pieces of branded content from 815 publications, read by more than 100 million people. impact.com also led a discussion about how merging affiliate and influencer marketing can expand reach and accelerate conversions.
Additional highlights from the quarter include:
- The announcement of impact.com’s flagship 2024 Partnerships Experience Event, iPX, which will feature brands like The Home Depot, TikTok and Hello Sunshine. This year’s event will bring together brands, publishers, creators, agencies and other industry partners to exchange ideas for business growth between June 17-18 in New York City. Following the NYC event, iPX extends globally to iPX London on July 3, and iPX Sydney on September 5.
- The launch of season five of The Partnership Economy podcast, reaching more than 200,000 downloads. Top recent episodes featured guests including Inez Miedema, Co-founder and CEO of Growth HQ, and Stephanie Schultz, VP and Head of Partnerships at American Express. The podcast recently won Gold at the MarCom and Ava Digital awards for overall podcast series, as well as individual episodes.
- The launch of additional impact.com / creator product updates, including Product Gifting, which allows brands to sync their Shopify product catalog with campaigns, and creators to select eligible products and submit the order themselves, streamlining the entire process from shop to ship. Enhanced reporting capabilities updates provide brands with more comprehensive insights into creator performance across their campaigns.
- Expanded support for Card-Linked-Offers (CLO) partnerships, offering native support for CLO so brands can run those relationships through the impact.com platform and take advantage of the automated contracting, reporting, and payment processing they already enjoy across their other partnerships.
- As part of its sustainability efforts, impact.com is taking a significant stride toward a greener future, a commitment to achieving carbon neutrality by 2030. The company has conducted comprehensive carbon footprint assessments, earned an EcoVadis certification, and actively participates in the Supplier Leadership on Climate Transition program.
