How FOREO Achieved Sustainable Growth and a Successful Affiliate Program with Skimlinks

We’re thrilled to have had the opportunity to host Matea Mamić, Senior Affiliate Manager at FOREO, as she shared insights into their affiliate marketing strategy and commerce content collaboration with Skimlinks.

Could you tell us a bit of background about you and your role at FOREO?

I’m originally from Croatia, Zagreb. I decided to study Marketing because I’ve always been passionate about it. I began my career in a marketing agency, but around 7 years ago, my professional interests shifted to the beauty industry. By far among my most meaningful experiences was at FOREO. My experience in the role of Senior Affiliate Manager has built up my proficiencies in leading teams and managing partners. My responsibilities include ensuring maximum ROI from the affiliate budget, coordinating partners and providers globally, recruitment, retention, and monitoring performance.

Where does affiliate marketing fit into your ecommerce strategy?

The affiliate marketing team is always identifying areas of improvement, and recommending ways to increase revenues. Among scalability, customization, customer experience, and others; affiliate marketing is a key part of our e-commerce strategy. For us, affiliate marketing significantly enhances our e-commerce business by expanding its reach, driving new customers, and more sales. That’s all thanks to the great power of partnerships and strategic collaborations with affiliates.

How does FOREO work with Skimlinks?

In collaboration with Skimlinks, we have direct access to a global network of publishers and partners. We collaborate with editors through an affiliate program with different pricing models, offers special coupon codes, and recently included gifting for product reviews. One part of our partnership that we see is working well is that we agreed to offer special commissions to Skimlinks publishers that are identified in the VIP and Preferred Partner Program. With Skimlinks we increased visibility among premium publishers including some like Conde Nast, and Hearst, and this allowed us to stay at the top for content coverage and more long-term exposure that will generate the budget in the future as well.

How does FOREO utilize data and analytics from Skimlinks to optimize its affiliate program performance?

Having access to real-time performance data analytics that has been assembled efficiently and accurately is allowing us to optimize and increase revenue potential quickly. The insights and reporting provide us with detailed information, broken down by publisher, including Impressions. Clicks, CTR, Conversions, Conversion Rate… Once this data is collected, we analyze it carefully to identify patterns, trends, and areas of improvement. It’s important to understand which affiliates are driving the most traffic and revenue, which products or services are performing well, and where there may be inefficiencies in the program. Optimization is an ongoing process that’s why it’s important to make adjustments to affiliate programs as needed to ensure the program remains effective and competitive.

You’ve been able to build great relationships with publishers through Skimlinks, what value has that brought?

Strong relationships with publishers through Skimlinks have led to having more long-term partnerships providing us with a consistent stream of visibility, traffic, and revenue. This reflected sustainable growth and success for the affiliate program. We also saw that strong relationships provided us access to premium advertising and more exclusive promotional opportunities with minimum investment. All in all, this has ultimately translated into improved performance metrics such as click-through rates, conversion rates, and revenue in general.

You saw real success last year – how do you think you achieved it?

We had great success last year thanks to partnerships with Skimlinks! As a result of our teamwork with Skimlinks, their open communication, insights, expertise, and knowledge of the publishers in 2023 we resulted in 60% more sales in comparison to 2022. We also saw an average order value increase of 40% in 2023. There is no simple formula for success, it is a combination of efforts from both sides and great strategy implementation. The detailed data analysis and feedback loop from Skimlinks help in refining our marketing strategies and optimizing the affiliate program for greater success. As mentioned, we believe that good relationships with publishers, high-quality and long-term content placements, combined with various commission combinations for more performing publishers, are crucial.These strategies enable our affiliate program to reach a wider audience and target specific demographics more effectively. Overall, this in combination with the involvement of some different A/B testing strategies, adjusting commission rates, and aiming for the right target resulted in great success for the FOREO affiliate program.

Any advice for publishers who would like to work with you?

In my opinion, publishers need to know their audience and what they engage the most with to present the products or services in the best educational and appealing way to them. They should focus on high-quality, engaging content. Create reviews and highlight honest pros and cons and of course, be transparent about your affiliate partnership. This will help build trust with your audience and bring more positive engagement and conversions. Another super important thing for us when we evaluate publishers is SEO optimization if they use it and how. Furthermore, it’s important they test different formats, placements, and call-to-action messages in order to see what resonates the best with the audience and in the end drives the most clicks and conversions. In conclusion, it’s important to stay informed about brand-new products, and promotions.

What do you love most about Skimlinks? 

I love how Skimlinks always reacts on time and is ready to make last-minute campaigns and promotions. I appreciate the open communication and transparency. Of great value for us as a merchant are Skimlinks’ efficiency, access to a wide selection of publishers, and opportunities. Among many other things, I would highlight analytics tools that allow them to track the performance of all affiliates based on which we can do better optimization of the strategies together. Skimlinks offers support resources such as awesome customer service, insights, trends, and educational materials that help us navigate affiliate marketing and maximize our earning potential.