Case Study: Scaling a Beauty Brand’s Affiliate Program 270% YoY Through Commerce Partnerships

In today’s competitive beauty landscape, growth isn’t just about driving more conversions, it’s about driving incremental ones. This case study breaks down how we helped a fast-growing beauty brand scale its commerce partnership program by over 270% year-over-year, while dramatically improving new customer acquisition and return on ad spend.

The Challenge: An Over-Reliance on Bottom-Funnel Partners

When we began working with the brand, their affiliate program was heavily skewed toward coupon and loyalty partners, which together accounted for over 85% of total program revenue.

While revenue volume looked healthy on the surface, the underlying performance told a different story:

• New customer acquisition rate: Just 35%

• The program was largely bottom-funnel driven, capturing demand rather than creating it

• Coupon and low-quality loyalty partners were frequently intercepting conversions, taking attribution away from publishers that actually introduced customers earlier in the journey
  

The brand’s goal was clear:👉 Diversify into upper- and mid-funnel publisher verticals and make the program truly incremental.

The Strategy: A Content-First, Brand-Aligned Affiliate Approach

To reset the foundation of the program, we took a decisive and strategic approach.

1. Cleaning Up the Partner Mix

We removed:

• Coupon partners entirely from the program

• Low-quality loyalty partners with a new customer acquisition rate below 40%
  

This immediately reduced attribution leakage and created room for higher-quality partners to thrive.

2. Leading With Content to Build Brand Narrative

Instead of focusing on discount-driven conversions, we shifted to a content-first commerce strategy. The goal was to tell the brand’s story in environments where consumers discover, research, and build trust.

We activated:

• Strategic content publishers

• Influencer-led partnerships

• Mass media outlets to drive awareness and consideration at scale
  

3. Deep-Dive Into the Customer Journey

We went beyond surface-level optimization by:

• Building a detailed customer persona

• Mapping the entire customer journey

• Identifying key touchpoints that influenced purchase decisions
  

This allowed us to understand where and how content partnerships could add the most value.

4. Aligning Affiliate Strategy With the Brand’s Bigger Goals

Rather than operating in isolation, we aligned the affiliate program with the brand’s broader marketing objectives. The result? All channels worked together to complement one another instead of competing for the same conversion.

The Results: Higher Incrementality, Stronger Performance

The impact of the strategy was both immediate and measurable.

🚀 Performance Gains in Just 3 Months

• New customer acquisition rate increased from 35% to 73%

• Program growth exceeded 270% YoY

• ROAS improved from 1.3x to 3.6x with content partners alone
  

📰 Premium Content Coverage

We secured multiple high-quality editorial placements with top-tier publishers, including:

• NY Post

• The Daily Mail

• USA Today
  

These partnerships helped introduce the brand to new audiences at scale while driving measurable commerce outcomes.

🎯 Cleaner Attribution & True Incrementality

By removing partners that were simply capturing last-click conversions, we ensured that:

• Credit went to partners who actually introduced users earlier in the customer journey

• The program rewarded incremental value, not cannibalized demand
  

Final Takeaway

This case study proves that affiliate programs don’t have to be discount-driven to scale. By prioritizing content, strategy, and alignment, we transformed a bottom-funnel-heavy program into a high-performing, incremental growth channel, one that delivered both scale and efficiency.

If you’re looking to future-proof your commerce partnerships and unlock real growth, the answer isn’t more coupons; it’s a smarter strategy.