Introducing Jason Lilien
Jason has spent 20 years working in international advertising, with a give attention to affiliate and partnerships over the previous 10 years. Having labored with almost 100 manufacturers and shoppers all through his profession, Jason has discovered his residence in B2B, main campaigns for high SaaS corporations equivalent to Google, Zendesk, and Notion. When not serving to to develop main B2B affiliate company Accomplice Commerce, Jason additionally helps out as an advisor for B2B SaaS affiliate platform Reditus.
Rockstar Q&A with Jason
What are your day-to-day duties?
Constructing the staff and main consumer companies at Accomplice Commerce, a full-service affiliate and partnership company completely centered on B2B. We assist to handle and scale companion applications concentrating on SMB, Mid-Market, and Enterprise audiences.
How did you get into the affiliate business?
My first affiliate accountability was serving to to launch this system for TravelSmith in 2008. Again then we had been increasing our digital footprint throughout many channels and launched an associates program on Google Affiliate Community.
What’s the most effective factor you realized on the final convention you attended? What convention was it?
The final convention I attended was truly an occasion that we put collectively in London for our consumer TikTok for Enterprise. It was an occasion for TikTok’s high companions in Europe, and what was evident from assembly all of them in particular person was that a lot of the associates had been energy customers of TikTok’s advert platform. It highlighted to me how vital it’s in B2B to focus your companion recruitment efforts across the companies, businesses, and consultants which can be truly utilizing the software program, platform, or service on daily basis.
What are your most vital KPIs?
In B2B affiliate, most KPIs come right down to the general return on funding of your complete program, which is supported by a number of effectivity and high quality metrics equivalent to price per lead/new subscription, and even conversion charges that mirror the standard of leads by way of the funnel. Each consumer’s partnership program aligns again to the enterprise aims that they’re held to, and we work carefully with them to make sure that every program has two to 3 important KPIs that drive most choices, and several other supporting KPIs which may be particular to assist totally different recruitment, activation, and optimization methods, for instance.
How do you work together with different entrepreneurs exterior of the affiliate/partnerships staff at your shoppers’ corporations?
We truly work very carefully with many alternative groups at every of our consumer’s corporations. Relying on the scope of our work, and the way our affiliate technique is ready to fill gaps of their group, we might in any at some point have conversations with the artistic staff, influencer staff, demand gen staff, and even the PR staff. Affiliate touches so many alternative channels, and advertising groups that we work with are at all times engaged in conversations throughout groups to make sure that we’re complementing and supporting one another’s work, versus competing with it.
What’s the most important problem you’ve come throughout in affiliate marketing online?
The largest problem I see presently in B2B affiliate marketing online is that there’s nonetheless a variety of training that should occur with potential publishers to get comfy engaged on a efficiency foundation. B2B media and content material websites, for instance, don’t come from a efficiency mannequin essentially, and I feel advertisers must method them with alternatives of mutual profit, the place the work that publishers put into one thing will probably be rewarded. When it’s the precise two-sided partnership, a efficiency mannequin is good, and we have to facilitate these win-win relationships, versus some which can be extra primarily based on whoever has the most important budgets to throw at publishers.
How does seasonality play into your technique or your advertisers’ methods (if in any respect)?
In B2B, seasonality tends to be totally different for various verticals. Nonetheless, it usually aligns with enterprise funds approvals and instances when companies need to make investments. Early within the 12 months at all times tends to be a powerful interval in B2B as budgets are launched and people companies engaged on a calendar 12 months are impressed to hit the bottom operating, including to their tech stack as wanted.
What’s your largest problem right this moment?
The largest problem right this moment is attempting to make the recruitment, activation, and optimization campaigns as streamlined and environment friendly as potential. Constructing and managing partnerships is time-consuming, so the aim is at all times to determine how we will do extra, do higher, but in addition be faster with what we’re doing. While you’re an company, there may be not at all times a variety of persistence for a sluggish ramp, so we’re at all times trying to discover ways in which we will develop our shoppers shortly however in a method that ensures that they’re sustainable.
How vital is following the journey of a person after you (or your advertisers) first purchase them or after the primary buy?
In B2B, which is usually a subscription mannequin, that is is essential, as publishers are sometimes paid out on recurring commissions for a time frame. If customers cancel quickly after their preliminary buy, the manufacturers lose prospects and the publishers lose their rewards. Recurring fee is likely one of the key differentiators and largest value-adds with SaaS applications, and due to this fact it’s vital that buyer retention is seen as a part of the affiliate technique.
