Part of the Vision HealthCare family, Bärbel Drexel is a prominent German brand specializing in natural supplements and cosmetics. Founded in 1996, it combines years of naturopathic knowledge with a meticulous ingredient selection process to provide a wide selection of carefully formulated products.

Recently, Bärbel Drexel has seen a revitalization in the affiliate channel under the expert guidance of leading independent digital marketing agency adamicus.

The challenge

Despite a robust market presence and digital-first approach, Bärbel Drexel had issues to fix on its affiliate program.

Outdated strategies, inactive publishers, and tracking deficiencies resulted in stagnant revenue. One clear problem was an overreliance on bottom-of-the-funnel tactics and a lack of activities linked to driving awareness and consideration.

Bärbel Drexel needed a detox and adamicus was enlisted to help with the necessary improvements. The priorities were:

• Drive new customer acquisition
• Optimize performance through deeper insights
• Enhance traffic and revenue through new upper and mid-funnel activities
• Lay a sustainable foundation for long-term success

The solution

Bärbel Drexel and adamicus's gameplan was to combine their deep industry expertise with Awin’s advanced reporting tools to increase publisher activations throughout the funnel.

On the platform, the brand and agency identified insights and opportunities to increase overall visibility, regardless of whether the audience was ready to buy or just beginning their research.

Funnel-based publisher activation

Understanding and leveraging the marketing funnel was crucial for helping Bärbel Drexel effectively engage different audience segments and have publishers play to their strengths.

Using Awin’s Funnel Report, the teams categorized publisher types according to their position in the customer journey and created specific strategies for each. Benchmarking Reports also provided a contextual view, helping to identify issues and opportunities by comparing Bärbel Drexel’s program with those of similar brands.

Rather than simply focusing on the final click, the new plan covered everything from consideration to conversion, which had a major impact on ROI.

• Upper-funnel: Influencer aggregators, content partners, and niche bloggers were recruited to increase awareness and introduce Bärbel Drexel’s natural health and beauty products to new audiences.
• Mid-funnel: Several comparison sites and comparison shopping services (CSS) were recruited to reach customers evaluating a purchase. This stage focused on promoting Bärbel Drexel products in relevant searches and providing the right information to influence a purchase.
• Bottom-funnel: Further down the funnel, Bärbel Drexel had several blind spots in its strategy. One such area was recapturing customers that had abandoned their cart. Rather than simply dialling up the discounts, the brand’s affiliate team and adamicus structured their coupon and loyalty partner promotions to increase average order values (AOV), meaning any recovered sales would be more valuable when they eventually converted.

Refocusing budget

Given the brand’s goals, adamicus needed to dig further into Bärbel Drexel’s data and partner mix to spot where individual affiliates were driving targeted outcomes (i.e. converting new customers) and allocate more budget to support its objectives.

Awin’s Publisher Incrementality, Product Level, and New Customer Reports helped to identify and prioritize high-performing partnerships based on their ability to convert new customers, sell key products, and more.

Technical optimizations and partner enablement

Finally, to set the program up for the long term, Bärbel Drexel and adamicus worked closely alongside Awin’s tech team to maketracking upgrades. The implementation of server-to-server tracking via Stape ensured accurate attribution throughout the funnel and generated a steady flow of useful insights courtesy of reports from Awin’s Advanced plan.

As a result, the brand gained enhanced visibility at all points of its customer journey, making it easier to carry on the good work by recruiting new partners and monitoring trends.

The results

The revitalization of Bärbel Drexel’s affiliate program, orchestrated by the brand with the help of adamicus, and powered by Awin’s provision of data, led to transformational growth.

Insights from the platform created a clear view of Bärbel Drexel’s customer journey and how affiliates could enhance their role within it. Looking at program performance year-on-year, the brand saw:

• +225% increase in affiliate-driven traffic
• +430% revenue growth
• +86% increase in active affiliates
• +600% uplift in new customer orders

“Awin’s advanced reporting empowered us to make informed decisions, optimize campaign strategies and maximize ROI. Tailoring our approach based on Awin’s funnel insights enabled us to effectively engage audiences across different stages of the customer journey – not just the bottom.”

Are you an Awin affiliate? Partner with Bärbel Drexel today