RBL Revitalizes Puma’s International Affiliate Program in the Midst of COVID

Co-Author: Kayla Lee

Running a successful international affiliate marketing program is often a daunting task, even in the best of times. Amidst the disruption of COVID-19, many top brands have realized that they can get more bang for their marketing buck by enlisting the services of affiliate experts.

In the pursuit of ambitious goals for revenue growth, and with time and budgetary constraints adding to the challenge, the digital marketing team at athletic apparel brand Puma reached out to Round Barn Labs for help managing their international affiliate program. Over an 8-month engagement, RBL was able to deliver significant and lasting results contributing to Puma’s growth strategy.

Key Results

The Challenge: Building Out Agile and Effective Affiliate Marketing in EU

Puma was looking to build out their affiliate program across several markets in the European Union, with primary focus on Germany, France, Italy, Spain and the UK, but also including efforts in countries such as Austria, Poland, Czech Republic, Denmark, and Portugal.

The apparel brand hoped to scale up these country programs to help achieve an ambitious year-over-year revenue growth goal of 25%. To achieve this goal, we’d need to increase both top-line revenue and conversion rate across Puma’s top 3 EU markets and 10 activation markets in the EU within 60 days of partnership.

Solution: RBL Steps Up Auditing, Recruitment, Planning & Measurement

RBL began by auditing Puma’s EU affiliate program, looking to identify potential efficiencies like aligning the incentives that power affiliate business models and improving network solutions. By taking a close look at CPAs based on performance, we were able to improve margins and save Puma $10K in CPA spend over the first 60 days. 

RBL made use of its strengths in recruitment and relationship-building to improve publisher diversification across the countries targeted in Puma’s EU affiliate program. We added rigor and foresight into Puma’s international affiliate strategy by developing 30-, 60- and 90-day plans along with more detailed return-on-ad-spend (ROAS) calculations and a revised dashboard to track performance. Finally, the Round Barn Labs team helped Puma implement activation strategies that included bonus incentives for increasing average order values and units per transaction.

Top Partners

Result: RBL’s Expert Affiliate Management Drives Immediate Gains

Puma saw significant improvement within weeks. In the first 30 days, the revamped EU affiliate program created 207% more revenue than the same period the previous year. But the results were not short-lived. After 60 days, the year-over-year growth remained at 131%. By the end of the engagement, Round Barn Labs had saved Puma’s Digital Marketing team $5K per month in program spend, while increasing orders by 67%, revenue by 87% and conversion rates by 88%. Puma could continue to build on the efficiencies created by RBL’s audit and adjustments to the program.