Wine Retailer Uncorks Success, Exceeding Margin and New Customer Goals

Outcomes

Objective

A leading online wine retailer partnered with Perform^[cb]’s affiliate management team to increase incremental new customers while capturing true profitability through their program. The marketer set the following two goals: 

• – Increase margin after market and contribution margin in the affiliate channel
• – Increase new customer order ratio to 20%

This marketer has a strict paid media budget to help improve profitability and was hoping to scale high-quality customers, with the end goal of eventually being able to fully remove promotional codes from their affiliate strategy. Despite these challenges, Perform^[cb] knew they had the unique partnership solutions in place to successfully navigate this and efficiently acquire qualified users.

Approach

Perform^[cb] kicked off by analyzing internal CRM reporting directly from the marketer, as well as their existing campaign data in Rakuten, to gain comprehensive insights into customer behavior and partner performance. This allowed the team to prioritize high-performing partners for new customer acquisition, offering a CPA boost to incentivize growth. Additionally, they refined messaging specifically to target first-time orders and limited general sales efforts to protect profit margins.

Regular collaboration with the wine retailer ensured that the campaign remained optimized and aligned with their objectives. After running this approach for a few months, Perform^[cb] decided to test temporarily pausing promotional codes to evaluate profitability and pinpoint optimal partner performance. To incrementally scale even further with quality traffic sources, the team identified five of the top-performing conversion partners, including cashback and coupon affiliates, on the marketer’s program to receive exclusive new customer codes. 

In exchange for premium placements, only the top cashback partner was given an exclusive new customer code and TM+ bidding rights, allowing them to bid on approved terms for the wine retailer. This positioned their ads directly below the brand in search results, driving targeted visibility and growth. By focusing on high-converting partners, this strategy allowed for more precise tracking of profitability, maximizing the overall effectiveness of their campaigns.

Results

Through a strategic combination of targeted partner incentives, optimized messaging for new customer acquisition, and data-driven adjustments throughout the entire funnel, the wine retailer surpassed their goals. After Perform^[cb] paused promotional codes, the retailer’s contribution margin rose to 21%—a quarter-over-quarter increase of over 31% that significantly enhanced overall profitability. Altogether, these conversion partnerships generated over $1.6M in total affiliate sales for the marketer in this quarter, showcasing how coupon and discount affiliates can drive new incremental customers with better margins. Additionally, the new customer order ratio saw a 43% increase, reaching their 20% goal in just one month. 

The wine retailer’s new customer rate more than doubled–growing from 9% to an impressive 21% after enabling TM+ bidding with their top cashback publisher. This targeted strategy proved highly effective, as TM+ bidding accounted for 59% of all affiliate sales in the quarter. It boasted a remarkable 13% conversion rate—an 80% increase compared to the performance without TM+ bidding. This partner alone also generated over 580 orders and $124,000+ in sales during this period.

By prioritizing high-performing partnerships and adapting strategies accordingly, you’re setting the stage for ongoing growth. With Perform^[cb]’s affiliate program management team’s commitment to innovation, you can keep this momentum going, driving even greater profits and expanding customer acquisition for your brand.