impact.com, the world’s leading partnership management platform, announced its 2024 company growth and strong performance, driven by client and agency partner growth, new product innovation and development, and new integrations. Powered by trends where communities take on an increasingly central role in the marketing landscape and an ever-growing range of partnership solutions, impact.com continued its momentum despite ongoing global economic challenges, welcoming more than 1,000 new clients to its customer portfolio in 2024, including Big Lots, Gatorade, The Container Store, Fitness & Lifestyle Group, Trapo, and Kühl. The company also increased gross merchandise value, or sales derived from partner referrals, to over $100 billion annualized this year; increased gross transaction value, or payments to partners, to over $4.5 billion annualized this year; and surpassed over $200 million in annual recurring revenue for the first time this year.
Today’s consumers, more informed and empowered than ever, are seeking authenticity and trust to guide their purchasing decisions, and are finding those qualities in creators, influencers and real people, rather than traditional advertising channels. In this new age, brands are no longer in the business of just selling products, but of building relationships that center around the communities that customers trust. This paradigm shift is reflected in an impending doubling of the size of the creator economy, as it prepares to surpass $480 billion in the next five years, and it has given a huge boost to brands, with customer acquisition costs surging by over 220% in the last eight years. It’s in this space that the partnership economy continues to thrive, delivering value while reinforcing the communities that drive success.
“Partnerships are no longer just tools, they are essential strategies driving growth in today’s community-driven market that are redefining the landscape of our industry,” said David A. Yovanno, CEO, impact.com. “Communities – whether led by creators, publishers, businesses or everyday consumers – are the new driving force behind brand relevance and loyalty, as consumers around the globe, no matter where they are, what social media platforms they’re using, or how they consume information about the things they want to buy, want to learn about brands through the voices of their peers, not through the traditional channels businesses have relied on for years. This monumental behavioral shift has disrupted how we think about marketing, and it is challenging brands to let go of the reins and embrace collaboration with their customers and partners.”
In a significant achievement, in line with its vision to be the global standard platform for all partnership types, impact.com launched impact.com/advocate this year—a revolutionary platform empowering brands to harness the power of customer referrals. With impact.com/advocate, brands can build customized referral programs that fit their unique strategies and business goals empowering them to engage their customers effectively with tailored offers. The launch is part of a strategic initiative to round out impact.com’s strategy to diversify partnership types and become a holistic company, alongside /performance for affiliate marketing and /creator for creator and influencer marketing, and also aligns with the industry’s shift towards community-driven marketing.
Additional notable 2024 impact.com highlights include:
- Developed and released significant platform enhancements and upgrades to its /performance and /creator solutions, as part of the company’s commitment to innovation and staying ahead of the curve. Within /performance, impact.com expanded support for Card-Linked Offers, or CLO, enabling brands to run CLO partnerships through the platform seamlessly. Now, they can manage these relationships just like they do with other partnerships—taking full advantage of automated contracting, reporting, and payment processing. Also introduced enhanced flexibility through Scheduled Terms, giving brands more control over contract management, and improved mobile app deep-linking to help brands capture higher-intent customers, who convert at two to three times the rate of those using a social app browser. Within /creator, Product Gifting lets brands sync their Shopify product catalog directly with campaigns. Creators can then select eligible products and place orders themselves, making the entire process from shop-to-ship effortless. Extended Search and Social Listening make it easier than ever for brands to discover creators who align with their campaigns. With the Social Monitoring feature, brands can automatically ensure compliance with published content that aligns with their guidelines—making the entire process more efficient and reliable.
- Introduced powerful new integrations and capabilities designed to make building and scaling relationships even easier, including enhanced cost-per-click payouts, giving brands and publishers more control over their spend. Now, they can adjust payouts across 25 parameters, like product category and customer region, enabling more strategic partnerships with premium content publishers and ensuring every dollar is working harder. The Shopify integration now allows D2C brands to easily launch refer-a-friend programs, create customized referral pages, and track and reward referrals directly through their Shopify storefront. For B2B customers, the enhanced Salesforce and HubSpot integrations help track referrals through the sales funnel, allowing the payout of rewards at key milestones. Additionally, launched an updated version of the Stripe integration, making it easier than ever for brands to track both one-time and subscription sales through Stripe’s checkout system. Also announced a new partnership with Klaviyo so Advocate customers can create highly personalized emails and text messages to boost engagement.
- Continued to set the standard for thought leadership and collaboration across the industry, hosted the annual flagship partnerships experience event, iPX, in New York City, London, Sydney, and – new this year – China. This year’s events, which gathered top business leaders, trailblazers, analysts, and influencers from across the partnership economy to collaborate, exchange ideas, and spark creativity around today’s modern partnerships sector, brought together more than 1,750 attendees and 85 speakers for inspiring panels, keynotes and moments for meaningful connection.
- Launched the fifth season of The Partnership Economy podcast that has now reached more than 280,000 downloads and includes episodes featuring global leaders across various verticals and brands from Meta, Getty Images, Resident Home, and more. Also rebranded and relaunched The Advocacy Channel podcast, which dives into how brands can strengthen connections with customers through expert tips and insights from industry leaders worldwide on building customer loyalty and advocacy.
- Published over a dozen industry trend reports from consumer shopping trends to the convergence of affiliate and creator channels offering valuable insights into the ever-changing partnerships landscape, including the Customer Referral Marketing Research: North America report and the Southeast Asia eCommerce Influencer Marketing Report. The Convergence Strategy: Transforming Affiliate and Influencer Channels to Accelerate Growth report highlights how brands can integrate the two marketing channels for a full-funnel strategy that boosts awareness, drives conversions, and maximizes growth in an increasingly challenging landscape.
- Recognized with more than 25 leading industry awards globally, including being named to the 2024 Inc. Best in Business list, named Best Affiliate Marketing Platform by the Digiday Technology Awards for its success with vintage apparel maker Homage, Best Overall Martech Solution by the Martech Breakthrough Awards, and a Top 100 Software Company by the Software Report. impact.com was also recognized by the BIG Awards for business, receiving New Product of the Year for impact.com/advocate, by the Stevie American Business Awards as a leader in partnership management technology, named a Top 30 Influencer Technology by Hello Partner, ranked the number one Affiliate network by the Blue Book, and also number one Best Affiliate Network on Hubspot’s top 50 list. impact.com was also recognized for several successful client and agency campaigns for work with its customers including DMi and Minted, Rise and Ulta Beauty, IPSOS, PUMA, and Merry People as part of the US Partnership Awards and Global Performance Marketing Awards. The AVA Digital Awards recognized impact.com for its podcast, The Partnership Economy, impact.com CMO Cristy Garcia was named a Top 50 Marketer by OnCon, EMEA Managing Director Florian Gramshammer was named to Performance Marketing World’s PMW 100 Powerlist 2024, and Maya Sharma, impact.com influencer growth manager, was named to Hello Partner’s Creator Economy Top 30 Leading Women list.
- Oversaw rapid growth in impact.com’s Partnerships Experience Academy, the industry’s first partnerships certification program that provides free online training courses for anyone in the partnership economy, officially surpassing 30,000 learners. Additionally, the team launched the new Affiliate Marketing Career Center which provides the latest job vacancies for professionals in the industry. Since its launch, the center has seen a remarkable 65.8% engagement rate and more than 9,000 visitors.
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