In our recent report The Data Behind Single and Multi-Publisher Customer Journeys we asked 3 major publishers what they look for in partnership with brands.

With this brand and publisher relationships becoming more and more important over the last few years, we've now asked the brands what the top 3 things they look for in a publisher partnership.

Here's what Lovehoney, Fanatics and MyGreenFills had to say-


Christina Weaver, Global Affiliate Marketing Manager, Lovehoney

1. Killer content

Key elements include relevant articles to our sector, a nice perspective and well laid out format. As you can imagine, we get a huge range of affiliate types within our sector. This makes aligning the content onsite with our brand even more important!

2. Traffic Traffic Traffic!

The affiliate industry is often a numbers game - for every monthly unique visitor or page view stat we'll need to apply click through rates and conversion rates. This inevitably drives down volumes, so with this in mind, the more base-level traffic we have the better!

3. Demographics that align to our targets

We do masses of research into what customer groups best align to our brand and the growth areas. When we find a publisher with traffic that matches these profiles, this is a massive win for us, and will only incentivise us to amplify coverage spend.

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Wade Tonkin, Director ' Global Affiliate Marketing, Fanatics

1. Engaged Communities

We're looking for partners with engaged communities that are interested in our product. Top of the funnel partners who will send us traffic that is ready to shop and motivated to do so.''

2. Top of the Funnel Partners

Top of the funnel partners who will send us traffic that is ready to shop and motivated to do so. Publisher partners who deliver more than just bottom of the funnel 'closing' when other affiliates and paid channel touches are present.'

3. New Customers

Partners who can send us new to file customers.'

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Alex Brown, President & CMO, MyGreenFills

1. Audience Match

Is our avatar a reader (age, sex, location, interests)

2. Audience Engagement

Do people read what they put out? Are their audiences engaged with the content?

3. Publisher Reputation

Does the publisher have a strong relationship with them where our avatar will trust their recommendations... special bonus, can I run ads to an article to borrow this credibility and can I put a badge on my landing page.

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