The challenge
Samsung was looking for ways to increase ROI at peak points in the year.
In Sweden, Norway, Denmark and Finland, the brand routinely offered publishers a flat commission increase to boost sales of new devices or dial up the promotion over sales events like Black Friday.
The downside? Commission increases were applied to all products and offered to all publishers. This broad, untargeted approach was driving up spend and occasionally causing the retailer to go over budget.
Rather than offering a consistently high commission rate, the brand needed a more selective and controlled approach to increase ROI.
The solution
Awin recommended the use of our Commission Flexibility tool to build a customized setup based on where Samsung needed uplift.
What is Commission Flexibility?
Commission Flexibility is a tool within the Awin platform that allows you to apply different commission rates based on specific outcomes.
All Awin users can commission by Product and Customer Acquisition (i.e. new or existing). Awin Accelerate and Advanced users can also commission by Voucher Code (issuing and rewarding on sales driven by exclusive codes), ClickRef (for sales driven by a specific publisher page – ideal for influencers) and Publisher Tags (e.g. for rewarding a type of publisher).
Advanced users can go even more targeted with Custom Parameters. For example, a hotel brand could reward a publisher based on location and length of stay.
Samsung immediately saw the appeal of reserving the highest commission rates for specific partner types and stock-keeping units (SKUs) at key points in the year. As an Advanced Awin user, it could deliver on that vision by using the Publisher Tags and Product parameters to achieve targeted outcomes without overspending on the less strategically important ones.
Changing commission structures naturally impacts program performance, so Awin created a test-and-learn schedule and a dedicated spend tracker to monitor run rates. The team experimented with different rates to assess the impact on publisher engagement, campaign spend and performance. The strategy was then tweaked in order to maximize ROI.
Commission Flexibility came into its own with the launch of the Samsung Galaxy S24 Ultra smartphone. Targeting a mix of sales and awareness, comparison shopping services (CSS), shopping portals, voucher code, cashback and editorial partners all received higher commission rates. They responded by amping up the coverage.
For Black Week - the seven-day sales period including Black Friday - Samsung created a list of SKUs for which commission increases were available to refocus its partners’ efforts. In a period where many retailers risk a false economy by broadly issuing commission rates and discounts, Commission Flexibility kept the event targeted and strategic for Samsung.
The results
By focusing specific publishers on key products, Commission Flexibility had the desired effect of improving Samsung’s return and minimizing waste.
Over Black Week, Samsung’s ROI increased by 52% year on year as an anticipated 24% drop in revenue was counterbalanced by a 51% decrease in campaign spend.
By integrating Commission Flexibility within its affiliate strategy throughout the year, Samsung reported a 67% increase in ROI for 2024 vs 2023 following an 8% decrease in revenue and a staggering 46% decrease in ad spend.
As a result, the affiliate channel became even more profitable for the advertiser.
“Awin’s platform gives us the tools to be more targeted with our approach. We’ve seen this over key periods like Black Friday, where we used tools like Commission Flexibility to create a customized reward model that remunerated partners for driving strategically important goals. We’ve since seen our ROI increase from 7:1 to 10:1.”
Paoulina Tryfoni
Performance Marketing Lead
Samsung Electronics
Learn more about Commission Flexibility
