Introducing Austin Green
Austin started his path toward a career in partnerships as a digital marketer with a broad set of skills and an interest in business development. After studying a mix of channels, Austin turned his focus to partnerships and affiliate marketing, where he’s been working ever since.
Rockstar Q&A with Austin
What are your day-to-day duties?
I run the affiliate programs for Roamly and Outdoorsy in addition to other distribution channels such as external agency partnerships for Roamly (insurance), and integrated strategic partnerships (through our API products) for both brands.
How did you get into the affiliate industry?
I started as a digital marketer with a broad focus, including channels such as content marketing, lifecycle, Google Ads and basic SEO. Once I had spent some time working on and learning about each of those channels, I wanted to incorporate those skills into a marketing channel that had more face-to-face interaction and social interaction. Affiliate marketing was a great place to do that, and that ultimately kick-started my career into partnerships.
What’s the best thing you learned at the last conference you attended? What conference was it?
While there are a lot of great workshops and presentations on specific processes, tactics and general industry know-how, I think the most impactful thing you can do at a conference is network. I’ve met several partners, many of which are now friends, at conferences that have kicked off large partnership opportunities and have really opened up big distribution opportunities. The last conference I attended along these lines was FinCon.
What are your most important KPIs?
Quotes (leads), bound policies (acquired customers), net written premium (revenue), spend/cost, and LTV/CAC.
What do you think is undervalued in marketing in general?
The ability to drive performance-based traffic at volume. Although I think that’s changing as tech changes shifts from a growth-at-all-costs model to a grow with efficiency model.
What have you done in the last 6-12 months to improve your affiliate efforts?
I’ve worked hard on diversifying our partner sources to not get overly dependent on a handful of partners, or a specific type of partner.
How do you interact with other marketers outside the affiliate/partner team at your company?
I work with them closely as part of the larger performance-focused marketing org. I also work with them to create assets for our partners and to leverage our existing marketing with partners.
What are some things that you might do differently during the holiday season?
We run holiday-specific communications and discounts when possible and try to roll that in with co-marketing partnerships with other like-minded brands.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve come across in affiliate marketing?
I think leadership and marketers who have never dipped their toe into affiliates/partnerships don’t really understand the day-to-day of an affiliate marketing manager or partnerships manager. I don’t think most marketing leaders understand the time and effort that goes into running an effective program, and can sometimes (incorrectly) see it as a channel similar to paid search or social, where you can drive quality traffic with essentially the flip of a switch.
What is the biggest mistake you’ve made in affiliate marketing?
Devaluing long-standing partnerships because they may not be driving the volume or efficiency in that specific moment in time. Once a bridge is burned, it’s sometimes impossible to go back, so think seriously about ending long-standing relationships.
How does seasonality play into your strategy, if at all?
The RV space is a hugely seasonal, and we have to make sure we’re efficient during the off-season if we’re going to hit our goals in peak season where most of our volume takes place and efficiency can take a back seat to volume.
Do you have a specific strategy in place for influencers?
Not at this time — that’s been a tougher nut to crack for us, given that from my experience audiences from influencers aren’t necessarily as sticky or qualified to make a purchase.
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Author
During his time as VP, Business Development at TUNE, Nate spearheaded the Affiliate Rockstars series, which aims to highlight the hard-working individuals in the industry and share their expertise with a wider audience. Nate received his BA in Social Sciences from Washington State University.
