How customer lifetime value analysis is transforming partner marketing

Contributor Pete Cheyne explains how today's smart marketers are employing technology and machine learning to optimize the results achieved through partner and affiliate relationships. A few years ago, direct response marketers primarily focused on cost-per-acquisition (CPA) metrics — how much it cost to drive a sale. In the partner and affiliate realms, that cost was reflected in the bounty that the advertiser was willing to pay for each sale. CPAs and bounties are still primary considerations in partner marketing. That’s not gonna change. But what is changing is the emphasis that data-driven partner marketers place on the revenue stream that happens after the sale. Did the customer buy again? And again? Did they keep subscribing to my service for three months? Six? Did they make related purchases through my e-store? While the specific questions that marketers ask vary based on the particulars of their businesses, what all of these brand questions have in common is a passion for understanding the relative value of a customer acquired through each of their marketing partners and programs.