The internet has increasingly tightened its grip across the globe to the point where it is now inextricably interwoven into our daily lives and habits. This phenomenon has come to define younger generations, who are considered digital natives. In addition to having profound implications for our own behavior—such as rapidly dwindling attention spans—the internet and other technology have also completely transformed consumer expectations by granting people unprecedented control over when, where, and how they consume media. Moreover, although pop-up ads and sites replete with spam have always incited hostility, the recent upsurge in ad blocker use has revealed that irate consumers will act when empowered to do so. This has had significant consequences for how advertisers interact with consumers.

Advertisers must adapt to this new environment by adopting a new attitude towards online advertising: “You don’t lead a customer to a product, you find products for your customer.” Brands must therefore provide consumers with relevant and personalized ads to ensure the best possible consumer experience. But as brands scramble to meet these elevated expectations, they are also responsible for navigating a plethora of online advertising channels, maximizing their budgets, and—most importantly—generating return on investment (ROI) and return on ad spend (ROAS). The online advertising behemoth has many offshoots, including mobile, video, search, display, social, and affiliate. But according to a 2015 Internet Advertising Revenue Report conducted by PricewaterhouseCoopers (PWC) and the IAB, affiliate marketing is the only online advertising channel that provides a 14:1 return on ad spend, making it one of the most efficient channels.

Although the traditional affiliate model has been mostly limited to cash back or coupon sites, today it is evolving to accommodate partner marketing. Emerging as a top level online marketing approach, partner marketing incorporates broader partnerships such as comparison engines, aggregators, mobile apps, social media, and blogs. Brands benefit from partner marketing by leveraging collaborations on a performance-based commercial model and directly connecting with their partners. This evolution can be attributed in part to limitations of working with 3rd party networks in traditional affiliate models. “Although better data and more sophisticated technology is shaping the digital partner marketing industry, a lack of transparency into program performance can force even the most seasoned advertisers to stagnate,” remarks Malcolm Cowley, CEO, Performance Horizon. Powering tremendous growth for digital marketers, Performance Horizon offers SaaS solutions for advertisers to connect directly to their marketing partners at a global scale while driving higher revenue margins entirely through one platform. The company enables brands to optimize partner performance, manage partner and product spend, and easily integrate data into existing workflows and systems. “Our technology is particularly compelling for brands working with thousands of partners internationally that require software to manage these relationships at scale,” says Cowley.

Generating Results by Enabling Transparency

Established in 2010 by a group of affiliate marketing veterans, Performance Horizon has grown remarkably in a short span of time and its platform currently serves 200 customers and 160,000 marketing partners across 183 countries.