In today’s evolving PR and media landscape, affiliate marketing has become a crucial component in bridging the gap between storytelling and measurable ROI. Today’s guest, Sarah Karger, Publicist and Partner at Comm Oddities, and expert in affiliate marketing, shares how brands can utilize affiliates without compromising authenticity, the PR skills needed to thrive in an affiliate-driven future, and how it blurs the lines between traditional PR and paid media. If you want to blend performance marketing metrics with powerful storytelling, this episode is for you. See here a complete guide to the best affiliate networks.
imPRessions S3 EP 16 Transcript
Kalli
Hey Jenn.
Jenn
Hey Kalli.
Kalli
Jenn, do you have any experience with affiliate marketing?
Jenn
I have basic experience with affiliate marketing. I’ve done it in the past, but I know that it’s definitely evolved and in recent years, I haven’t really done much of it. Why do you ask?
Kalli
So recently, we worked with an affiliate marketing expert, Sarah Karger, and she had so much great information, really was on top of everything going on. And one of the things I really liked about learning from her was that she made things really easy to understand from the PR person’s perspective, because it’s something that we’re all facing, especially, if you have a new brand, a new product, whatever, you know, you’re trying to raise awareness for. So, I thought she’d be a really great guest today.
Jenn
Absolutely. I know it’s a really integral part of media relations today. So, I would love to hear a little bit more about where the trend is going, and I think it’ll be great for our listeners to understand what affiliate marketing is as well.
Kalli
All right, great. Well, let’s welcome Sarah on. Today, we’re diving into a topic that’s rapidly gaining momentum in the PR world: affiliate marketing. Once considered a strategy solely for e-commerce, affiliate marketing has now found its way into the PR toolkit, leaving many of us wondering how it fits with the traditional earned media approach we’ve relied on for so long. To help us unpack this, we’re joined by Sarah Karger, publicist and partner at Commodities. With a background that spans e-commerce management for a men’s accessories brand, where she handled everything from media relations to PPC, email campaigns, and yes, affiliate programs. Sarah, thank you so much for joining us today.
Sarah
Yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Jenn
Hi, Sarah. So, I know affiliate marketing is something that we see a lot of, like the SARS Facebook groups and talking with a lot of journalists and reporters that ask for affiliate links. For some of the newer people that are in PR, I’d love to maybe just start with the basics. So, for our followers, can you define what affiliate marketing is just in plain simple terms and tell us how it differs from traditional earned media?
Sarah
Yeah, absolutely. So, in a nutshell, affiliate marketing is really a performance-based partnership. You’ll hear CPA a lot, which really stands for cost per acquisition, meaning instead of a traditional hyperlink; a publisher would include a trackable link in their content. And if a sale, and only if a sale occurs, the publisher gets a commission for that sale. So historically, and we’re probably talking like, you know, pre-2018; most mass media publishers didn’t include affiliate links in their content. But when ad sales started to dwindle and print publications began to fold, really, affiliate marketing is how publishers were able to keep the lights on. So, I know that there’s a lot of talk in the PR world, at least, about how affiliate marketing and traditional earned PR are very different. But anytime I’m talking about affiliate marketing and earned media, they’re one and the same today. You know, this is an evolving industry. And so, while it may not have always been the norm, it is definitely foundational at this point. So, I really encourage my clients and anybody I consult with to look at affiliate marketing as the new normal, the new foundation, and really anything earned in a commerce space at least really does require that affiliate link.
Kalli
It’s really interesting that you say that now that’s kind of one of the key things to, you know, to your earned media. And I know that it’s definitely a shift from the PR perspective because we’re so used to thinking in terms of like the credibility of, storytelling and relationships. So, I’m curious, like from your point of view, where does affiliate marketing intersect with or even challenge those values?
Sarah
So, at the end of the day, editorial standards still apply. It is still earned media while they are getting, you know, quote unquote kickbacks, you know, editorial standards always will still apply. So, a publisher isn’t necessarily included, like they’re not incentivized to include a bad product just because they’re getting a great CPA. They don’t want to trick their readers, you know, if a reader buys something because a publication recommends it and then it’s like a horrible product, you know, that will negatively impact that brand because at the end of the day, that title, that publication is a brand in and of itself. So, they definitely want to make sure that they are still, you know, catering to their audience. They’re just at the end of the day getting a little kickback for including a commerce product in their stories. So, I think that affiliate marketing really does open up more doors rather than close them. It’s also kind of an akin of how Reader’s Digest as an example a few years ago, I don’t know if they still do this or not, it’s been a minute since I’ve seen this, but they used to require 500 reviews of a product for a journalist to be able to include the product in the story if it was on Amazon as an example. So, I mean, it’s very similar in that way that you just have miscellaneous requirements in order to be able to be featured in one of those miscellaneous requirements today is an affiliate link.
Jenn
Yeah, I think that’s really important to note because just because you’re sending a product to a reporter and they might get a commission if a reader buys that product, that still doesn’t mean that your product doesn’t have to be newsworthy, right? You still have to have some type of charm about that. There still has to be like an incentive and reason because like you said, reporters, there’s an authenticity there. They’re going to want to only vouch for products, even if they’re getting a commission; they’re going to want to vouch for products that they’re behind. So, while we’re seeing more media outlets kind of use affiliate links and editorial content, I feel like BuzzFeed’s a really popular one that we see. How does that change the way a PR professional should pitch or build a relationship? Because like I said, I don’t want the connotation of like younger PR professionals to think, well, they’re getting, they’re getting commission off this. So, they’re just going to, you know, take the product as is. So how do you recommend still kind of getting their attention and building that relationship?
Sarah
Yeah, that’s a great question. And I think at the end of the day, continuing with exactly what you’re doing now with regard to pitch processes and information that you share with journalists is still very important. I think really at the core of it, all you’re additionally doing is giving them some sales statistics, sharing, you know, and the sales statistics could be like, this is the average basket size of a product from our brand, or this is, you know, the CPA that we spoke about earlier, their cost per acquisition, you know, we offer 15% CPA, things like that, including those in your pitches are really, really helpful. And it does depend on who you’re speaking to, of course. Obviously, if you’re communicating with a freelancer, they don’t necessarily care how much commission per product you’re offering. However, if you’re talking to an affiliate manager or maybe one of those people who are more integral on the commerce side of the world, they will really resonate with those statistics and figures.
So, really making sure that you dial in your pitch to the right contact and you include the right information. At a bare minimum, the merchant ID, what network the publisher is, sorry, the brand is on are requirements in my pitches. I will never send a pitch out that doesn’t say something about, “for your affiliate needs, XYZ brand is available on Amazon or Rakuten or Impact”, et cetera. So, and giving the publisher multiple options to choose from, because sometimes there are incentivized… reasons internal that you and I would never know, but maybe Amazon has reached out to, let’s say, Hearst Publications and said, hey, this month we’re increasing your commission X percent if you drive stories that link to Amazon over other affiliate networks. And so those are things that happen behind the scenes that we will never know about. So, including as many details as possible, of course, while keeping it short and concise is always important.
Kalli
That’s something that I kind of struggle with, like figuring out what that means, how certain, different publishers, different editors, what gets them interested in and will catch their attention. And you, mentioned before, like maybe a freelancer is not so interested in it, or, it’s not as meaningful to them. So really, what should PR teams understand about the economics behind the affiliate links? Like how are writers, editors, and publishers incentivized in this ecosystem?
Sarah
So first, outside of keeping their jobs, which is, a true problem in the media industry today, writers and editors aren’t directly incentivized by your brand’s affiliate commissions, meaning, you know, if you pitch a freelancer, they’re not getting a commission from this story. It’s the outlet. So, making sure you have, you know, that as a base level, you know, they may have some internal incentivized deals and that, you know, inner workings that we don’t know about, but just keep that top of mind. But from a publisher perspective, affiliate revenue is what funds editorial teams. So, you’re really shooting yourself in the foot if you think about this, only in terms of your brand. So, some editors and writers might be encouraged to prioritize products that are affiliate enabled, especially in gift guide season, roundups, listicles, product reviews. So, keeping that in mind is really important. And then I also want to call out that this doesn’t mean stories are pay to play, but it does mean that products that convert well and offer strong commissions are more likely to be featured. So, PR professionals who understand this layer can better position their clients for success, and they should and can always include these incentivizing stats into their pitches to really round out your pitch.
Jenn
I want to ask a little bit more about that because I, a few years ago, had a client that we did affiliate marketing for, and they looked at it as paid media, essentially. And so for them, they didn’t necessarily feel that it was earned on our behalf. So, when we would get, Business Insider doing roundups, it was hard to get, you know, they still didn’t understand the strategy behind it. For them, they felt like, well, we’re paying, you know, however much commission to these reporters. So, you know, it’s not really earned. So, can you maybe share some examples, whether it’s like a brand you’ve worked with or something that you know off the top of your head where affiliate partnerships have enhanced PR success, or maybe times where it’s worked against the earned media approach? Because I think it’s really important for PR professionals that get that kind of flack from clients, like not to get discouraged because there is a strategy and reasoning behind it. So as an expert in that, can you maybe elaborate a little bit more?
Sarah
For sure. Let me start off with an example of that occurred with me and a client that worked against it. I had a hair, a great hair care brand that was founded by a board-certified hair loss surgeon. And we were really tasked with, traditional commerce-focused stories, getting roundups, as well as, hero stories, et cetera. We were able to secure a lot of these stories, but unfortunately, because he wasn’t… his brand awareness really wasn’t there and thriving, just having just been onboarded, while we were able to secure those inclusions, because sales didn’t follow… The editors at the publication didn’t have control of this, but the affiliate managers who oversaw sales for stories would go and remove that product because it wasn’t converting. So unfortunately, you know, there is that, there is that unfortunate opportunity that you might have done everything possible to get your brand included in a story, but because it wasn’t converting in that story, you might be removed. So that is why brand awareness and traditional earned media is so important for brands, telling that story holistically, not just in shoppable stories, but truly, full-rounded perspectives of the brand is so important and critical and really will elevate your success from the affiliate performance-based side of our earned media.
Kalli
That’s so interesting, because I know, even for myself, personally, I’ve seen stories where, if I was looking at products, and I’ll go back to that listicle and see, this is a product I want to see, and then it’s changed. So that all makes a lot of sense, because I always wondered, like, how do they change it? Like, why do they do that? But yeah, it’s those, what’s performing well. And if something is not…
Sarah
It’s exactly the same. Yes.
Kalli
Yeah.
Sarah
People on the other side of the fence are looking every single day at stories and seeing what’s converting and see what’s not. If something’s not resonating, you know, if you have a product that hasn’t… has a dull label and no brand awareness, of course, they’re going to swap it out. for a product that is showing sales and converting in other stories, et cetera.
Kalli
That’s so, that’s so funny. And like, it literally, as you were talking, I was like, oh, like the light bulb went off. I was like, that’s why that happened.
Sarah
Yes.
Kalli
So, you know, that being said, and obviously, you know, there can be some challenges with it. How do you advise clients who are still, you know, that they’re skeptical about affiliate marketing? Because sometimes it does feel pay to play, and I know we’ve discussed this a little bit before, but obviously there’s the organic coverage that still plays a big part. If we’re saying, we need this brand awareness to even make this work, like how do you approach a client who just really isn’t sure about it?
Sarah
Yeah, I think at the end of the day, this is really our job as storytellers and educators of this space, because we know that this is a requirement today. So, I really encourage publicists to take this on and kind of dismiss the idea that this is pay to play. It’s not pay to play. You know, it’s really only CPA driven. So, you’re not spending money unless the sale happens. So, at the end of the day, that’s not pay for play. And in pay for play situations, you get to control the narrative. You get to control the conversation. So, I would just, I would implore you to push back on clients that say that and obviously in whatever way you feel comfortable doing. But at the end of the day, it’s not pay for play. You don’t get to control the messaging. You don’t get to change any of the content, you know, unless there’s a factual error or a typo that it’s still editorial. It just comes with the bonus of they’re getting paid, you know, to promote this product or this brand. So, I would push publicists and affiliate, you know, affiliate driven agencies to really push back on clients and let them know this is the new normal. And it really is, it isn’t pay to play anymore.
Jenn
What happens though, if you have, if the brand you’re representing has an amazing product, you know that it’s going to resonate with audiences, you know that media is going to love it. Ticks all of those boxes, but it has a limited budget. What is a smart way to integrate it, the brand, into affiliate strategy without overspending, going over budget, and then losing that authenticity. What’s the best way for a brand to do that if they’re really struggling financially, but this is actually a good approach for them to fit into their PR strategy?
Sarah
So, for most commerce brands, this is really where I start. Like, why do we need an affiliate program? I have my own personal beliefs about affiliate, but let’s just approach this purely from a PR perspective. Do we want PR only for media relations needs? So, like, we just want to be able to tick the box, like you said. And if that’s the case, my first question is, are they on Amazon? If they’re on Amazon, Amazon has a baked-in affiliate program called Amazon Associates, in which case you don’t need to activate another network. There would be incentivized reasons to do so, but you don’t need to. You already have the means necessary. That also goes the same for if the brand is on Nordstrom or Neiman’s or, you know, let’s say it’s Sephora, like a beauty brand or Ulta. They all have their own baked-in affiliate programs. within those websites. Yes, the brand wouldn’t be necessarily driving traffic to the direct-to-consumer website, excuse me, but they would be generating that buzz, the brand awareness, inclusions and stories, et cetera, by linking to those third-party resellers. So, I want to make sure that that is on the table. That is an option, and you don’t have to have a standalone affiliate program.
The reasons why you may want a standalone affiliate program that’s linked through Impact or Rakuten or Commission Junction, et cetera, you can increase your commissions for the brand and specific products and SKU level commissions that would incentivize publishers to increase uses of those products and their stories. So that’s one of the biggest reasons why you might want, you know, in a third-party affiliate program outside of Amazon Associates or any of those resellers that I already mentioned. But there are ways to onboard to a network that are very low cost and inexpensive. I definitely want to make sure I address ShareASale, which is something that’s happening right now as we’re recording this. Last month, Awin, who owned ShareASale, stopped allowing new brands to onboard to ShareASale. So, moving forward, ShareASale is kind of a thing of the past. So that may be a network that you guys have heard of in the past, but it is no longer basically that’s being folded into Awin and all ShareASale brands are actually in the process of being migrated to Awin right now. So, if ShareASale is something that you’ve been pitching as part of your client, I would definitely make sure you reach out and make sure you’re up to date on all of the things happening there.
But there’s another network that I love to recommend to clients and brands, and that’s called Impact. They have a couple of different tiers, one that’s kind of outside of the scope of, you know, publicist owning affiliate marketing as part of their scope of work, enterprise levels, et cetera, but then they have Essentials, and then they have Starter Edition. They also have Agency Starter Edition, which is only available for agencies like PR agencies or affiliate marketing agencies, and the real differentiator between Essentials and the Starter Editions are the analytics that come along with the program. You don’t get… robust analytics or a suite of tools or even really help from the customer service teams if you are on the starter edition level. But it is a really cost-effective way in, an entry point, if you will, for affiliate marketing. It’s $30 a month or 20% of commissions, whichever is greater. So that’s really important for brands that are maybe up and coming and really only starting to build that brand awareness.
Kalli
That’s so helpful. Thank you for sharing that information because I know, when we spoke previously, about working with our clients, ShareASale was one of the ones we talked about.
Sarah
Yeah, it’s an evolving industry and, you know, I’m actually finalizing my course right now that helps teach publicists about affiliate marketing and how to really onboard clients and own affiliate marketing as part of their job duties every day. And I had to like basically go back and edit out everything ShareASale. So, I was like knee-deep in those waters.
Kalli
I was gonna say, of course, like that good thing had happened better now than as soon as you’re like, all right, I’m finally done. And then it all changes. Exactly.
Sarah
Yeah.
Kalli
So, for the, you know, the PR teams that are embracing affiliate marketing, how can they collaborate more closely with affiliate marketing or e-commerce teams? Like what does that partnership look like when it’s working well, obviously.
Sarah
Yeah, so making sure that you don’t silo yourself or that anybody who is in the e-commerce space or the affiliate space has like a working relationship is so important. I would make sure that you establish that. The minute you onboard with a new brand, if you haven’t already established one, make sure you add that to your next call agenda and discuss like ways that you guys can work together more effectively. It only helps the brand to know all of the different levers that are being pulled in all of the different areas of the marketing for the business. So just make sure you don’t silo yourself. Obviously, from a PR perspective, you probably already request things like, you know, sales, like Mother’s Day is happening this coming weekend. And you know, we have Memorial Day at the end of May. And so there are a lot of sale opportunities that I’m sure publicists are in the know about, but making sure you’re communicating with affiliate managers and or email marketing people who are actively running campaigns and making sure that you’re tailoring your pitches in accordance and kind of working congruently with the brand as opposed to just telling your own story that might feel disjointed from a brand perspective.
J
enn
And looking ahead, because one thing, and we talk about this a lot on the show and just in our line of work, of one of the exciting things about working in PR is that it’s always evolving. And it makes it really interesting for us. But it is one of those industries where it really just stay on the times. And affiliate marketing is kind of part of that, right? Like it is an evolution of earned media. So, I’m curious if you could, as an expert in the field, do you think it will continue to evolve into a must-have PR tactic, or do you think the lines between paid and earned media get too blurry? Like where do you see this aspect of PR heading?
Sarah
I think the lines are extremely blurry. You know, I really do feel like this is affiliate marketing, commerce-based PR, performance-based PR, whatever you want to call it, it is earned media today. So, I think that those lines are forever blurred. I think that it’s an industry that’s going to continue to evolve. It’s really, I see the evolution of PR really, really starting to change in a way that is really tailored to AI. Obviously, all things LLMs, you know, ChatGPT, Google Gemini, et cetera. I think that when we start to see those LLMs start to publish affiliate links, I think that might start to drive some change in the industry. I’m not sure what that’s going to look like, but I think maximizing your clients from an SEO perspective and making sure that They are doing everything from a branding perspective that will continue to make those, ChatGPTs, et cetera, to use your brand whenever a user is looking for things, because people are going to ChatGPT to use that for search. They’re not really going to Google anymore. I mean, yes, of course they are. But I know I, my first question is always in an LLM. It’s never in Google anymore, because I know that they’re going to give me what I want and the answers that I want. So, as we start to see those LLMs, use links and link out to brands, that’s really where I see the evolution happening. And I just want to make sure that publicists are making sure they’re staying on top of basically AI-generated algorithms and what is necessary in order to get your brands featured there.
Kalli
What’s your advice for the next generation of PR pros? Because, you know, as you said, there’s so many evolving pieces and things are changing and the way people are embracing it are changing. So, if you want to stay sharp in a world where editorial influence and e-commerce are all coming together, like what’s the top thing that people should know?
Sarah
I think people, I think publicists and PR pros, everybody really needs to just pay attention to what’s happening, make sure you’re staying up to date, learn and educate yourself at every opportunity. If you’re, maybe if you’re part of an agency and they offer, you know, you the ability to go to conferences, take advantage of that. Do not let that slip by because you’re going to stay ahead of the industry. You’re going to make incredible connections that maybe you would never have made elsewhere. I think I cannot underscore that enough, the need to continue to stay up to date and to network. There have been so many great connections that I have made in the publishing world, in the publishing space, that when I have a question about something that happened, like why my brand was removed from a story, or why they used a competitor instead of my brand, being able to reach out to them and be like, hey, can you offer me any insight here? And they are able to respond, and you are able to get that feedback and then share it with a client. It really strengthens your relationships on both sides of the aisle, both client as well as publisher, because they know that you care and they know that you want to do the best for your brand, but they know that if they’re able to give you this feedback, like, hey, such and such brand is a competitor in the space, has great reviews too, they’re offering twice as much commission. Like it’s a no-brainer for our brand to use our title, our publication, to use them instead of your brand. This is immediate feedback that you can take to your clients and say, hey, we really have to have the commission if we’re going to be competitive in this space. So just really networking and learning as much as you can and always staying up to date on the latest trends in your industry is going to be pivotal for your career.
Kalli
That’s great advice. And, you know, although affiliate marketing is still a relatively new concept in the PR world, Sarah, your insights today have really shed a light on how it’s evolving and how PR professionals can embrace it and stay relevant. Sarah, thank you again so much for sharing your expertise and for helping us understand how affiliate marketing, storytelling, and media dynamics are shifting in today’s landscape. And thank you to our listeners for tuning in today. Be sure to follow us on social media for updates and reach out anytime at impressions@pollockgroup.com. Until next time.
