So you have this really great product. It solves a problem in your market or it has inherent value for consumers. It’s innovative, reliable, and has super cute branding. Everything is going great except that no one knows about it because the audience you’re providing solutions for can’t find you. So that’s, you know, not great.

Truth be told, reaching your target audience is a maker or breaker for eCommerce businesses. As of 2023, the internet is home to 5.3 billion users–for perspective, that’s about 65% of the world’s entire population. With well over half of the human race using the World Wide Web, surely your target audience is there. If only it were so easy to reach them. In this article, we tackle the age-old challenge of reaching your target audience and the performance-based solution for it: partnership marketing.

Challenges of Finding Target Audience

With over one billion websites out there vying for traffic, users are constantly bombarded with tons of media from businesses trying to sell to them. Although so much time and energy is put into traditional paid advertising, people generally hate being sold to so directly. This is made clear by the statistic that claims 70-80% of search users scroll right through paid search results, instead opting for organic listings. So, if you don’t happen to have a high domain authority to rival the industry giants, and if you haven’t amassed a large social media following, good luck trying to win organic search traffic. Brands with such a presence are masters at capturing search intent which is a surefire way to get in front of the right eyes because, with the right optimizations to your content and website (or profile for socials), your audience will come straight to you without spending a dollar.

However, without any of that organic digital footprint in place, you’re stuck with uber-expensive advertising approaches like paying for impressions or clicks that don’t guarantee conversions or attention for the audience you intended to attract. As we previously mentioned, consumers do not typically go for sponsored content even with targeted tracking capabilities.

Are you seeing a theme here? Attracting the right audience is not straightforward in the slightest. You could end up bleeding money while you try to figure out the best course to hit your target. It’s like playing a game of darts; your chances of hitting the bullseye are significantly lower than hitting the other areas. So how do you hit the bullseye? Enter partnerships.

Power of Partnerships

Partnership marketing unlocks endless opportunities for brands to connect with their target audience. Leveraging partnerships requires sourcing relevant publishers that have amassed a following that is pre-vetted for interest in products or services like yours. Studies show that 88% of consumers have based their decision to buy something on an influencer’s recommendation. We don’t know about you, but we like those odds. Businesses have a high chance of converting a consumer into a customer by sourcing affiliates with the ability to tap into the consumer habits of their audience and funnel them to your website. 

With partnerships, you eliminate the tireless search for ways to connect with your ideal audience, and even cut some of the cost while you’re at it. Because partnership marketing operates on a performance basis, you never have to worry about wasting resources on impressions or actions that don’t net you anything. With this performance channel, you can guarantee brand visibility, but you only pay the commission rate (set by you) if you get a conversion making for a larger potential revenue stream. This is commonly referred to as cost-per-acquisition.

Let’s Talk Numbers

As you can probably tell, we know a thing or two about the partnership space. Before MDS, we started partnership marketing under the agency label. Since 2012, we aggregated affiliate performance data from top-producing publishers and built the knowledge into software that transforms the classic agency approach into a DIY performance channel. Since we developed our pilot technology in 2021, MDS has served over 1000 brands in varying business verticals, accumulating over 10.3 million clicks. These clicks generated over $160M. This wasn’t by happenstance; these clicks and subsequent revenue were a result of strategically partnering eCommerce brands with trusted publishers and influencers that can organically capture the attention of consumers pre-vetted for interest and intent to purchase. 

By no means are we tooting our own horn; we simply aim to paint a picture of the power of attracting the right audience for your brand. Building out your partnerships could transform your ability to get in front of the right eyes without having to pay an arm and a leg. 

Average ROAS Comparison

If you’re still not convinced, we researched the average ROAS, that is return on ad spend, for the most common digital marketing techniques. On average, affiliate marketing has a ROAS of 12:1, meaning that for every single dollar spent, you stand to make $12 back. This completely eclipses other ROAS averages as well as the ideal ROAS benchmark across industries. There is simply no denying the transformative power of partnerships.

Conclusion

Partnerships are the key to unlocking opportunities to connect with your target audience for a fraction of the cost. If you want to stop wasting money and time building brand visibility from scratch, consider starting an affiliate program. MDS provides state-of-the-art affiliate management that rivals the classic agency approach. If you want to put the power of partnerships in your hands, get in touch with us for a free demo!