Total revenue contribution from just two new partners
YoY increase in orders from CUGs
Graham & Green is a well-established UK-based interiors brand known for its eclectic, design-led furniture and homeware collections. With a strong legacy and loyal customer base, the brand has grown steadily through its brick-and-mortar stores and online channels, blending modern craftsmanship with vintage-inspired aesthetics.
Their affiliate program has been live for over seven years, supported by a network of reliable partners. As a mature and historically well-established program, growth had plateaued in recent years – creating an opportunity to revisit the strategy and unlock further performance.
Graham & Green’s affiliate program had all the hallmarks of a mature and well-established channel. With over seven years of consistent investment, the program had a strong foundation built on longstanding publisher relationships, solid performance data and a reliable core of revenue driving partners. All the fundamentals were in place and they were working well.
However, as with any program that has been steadily optimised over time, the pace of growth had begun to slow down. The brand had already onboarded most of the traditional affiliate types. The program was efficient, stable and delivered reliable returns, but with limited headroom left for growth through conventional methods, it was approaching a natural plateau.
Rather than being a limitation, this maturity created an opportunity: to move beyond the familiar and explore new, out-of-the-box approaches. Silverbean’s focus shifted from managing the program’s day-to-day performance to finding new ways to elevate it, unlocking untapped potential and avoiding stagnation.
A change in client-side contact also marked a pivotal opportunity. The new stakeholder brought a fresh perspective and openness to innovation, allowing Silverbean to step back, assess the full partner mix and reframe what growth could look like in the next phase of the program’s evolution.
The challenge wasn’t fixing something broken, it was pushing the boundaries of a program that was already working well. It meant balancing stability with experimentation, introducing new partners and ultimately ensuring the program could continue to scale in a smart, sustainable way.
In summary, the key challenges were:
With a mature program, the focus for Silverbean wasn’t on fixing underperformance; it was on unlocking new growth by approaching things differently. The team needed to explore alternative routes to success that extended beyond the usual mix of partners and placements, while maintaining the stability of a long-running, high-performing affiliate channel.
The starting point was a thorough evaluation of the existing partner landscape. Silverbean used a combination of Affluent reporting and internal agency gap analysis to identify areas where the program could evolve. The analysis highlighted a clear opportunity: while Graham & Green had already onboarded and optimised with the majority of traditional affiliate partners, there was untapped potential in newer or emerging publisher types, particularly content and influencer-led partners that had previously been deprioritised.
Armed with these insights, the team began building a more diversified partner strategy. This involved two key workstreams running in parallel:
Within the existing program, Silverbean focused on nurturing relationships with long-standing partners that had previously flown under the radar. For example, Collinson was re-engaged through proactive communication and more targeted promotional planning. Similarly, placements and exposure with partners across the whole affiliate mix, including closed user groups, cashback, voucher, subnetworks and loyalty partners were revisited and optimised.
At the same time, the team sought out high-potential new partners that aligned with Graham & Green’s brand positioning. This included three subnetwork partners. These partners represented a new direction for the program, often falling outside the traditional cashback/voucher model, and were selected for their ability to bring in fresh audiences or operate in newer spaces like influencer aggregation and content commerce.
Importantly, all new partnerships were approached strategically. Each partner was vetted through forecast modelling to assess their potential value and ensure commercial alignment before being onboarded
Silverbean also addressed a gap in top-of-funnel activity. In earlier phases of the program, some traffic driving partners had been removed due to low last-click attribution, leading to a decline in visibility and reach. The team recognised the need to reintroduce partners that could support awareness, engagement and discovery. Even if they weren’t traditional last-click performers.
This involved re-engaging with content-focused platforms and exploring newer partnership models that offered hybrid exposure, balancing brand presence with measurable outcomes. These changes helped rebuild upper-funnel performance and diversified the types of customer journeys being captured across the program.
Crucially, this shift stemmed from Graham & Green’s renewed internal focus on brand perception, ensuring the business is positioned as the luxury retailer it is. With this strategic direction in place, Silverbean worked closely with the team to align on priorities, onboarding more content partners and moving away from discount publishers, while ensuring all activity supported longer-term growth beyond short-term ROI.
To maintain consistent progress, Silverbean implemented a structured approach to program development. Monthly revenue growth targets were set and testing frameworks were introduced to explore different partner types, commercial models and activation timings.
The team worked in close collaboration with their new point of contact at Graham & Green, who brought fresh energy and openness to trying new ideas. This relationship allowed Silverbean to take a more agile approach, testing and learning at pace while maintaining clear visibility on what was working and where to focus next.
Through a mix of targeted optimisation, thoughtful diversification and ongoing testing, Silverbean laid the groundwork for sustainable program growth, creating the conditions for a new wave of affiliate performance beyond the typical tactics.
The strategy of diversifying the partner mix and optimising performance through smarter CPA uplifts delivered a strong period of growth, with no additional investment required.
This growth was driven by Silverbean’s ability to identify untapped potential in existing partners and introduce new, high-performing publisher types into the mix, all while keeping spent flat.
Silverbean targeted existing, underperforming partners with strategic CPA increases, with standout results:
Every one of these uplifts was achieved without any extra spend, simply by identifying the right levers to pull and executing a tighter, more aligned approach.
The team smashed their targets during this time frame:
New partner types = new growth: Onboarding and activating subnetworks, a previously untapped partner type, brought in over 20% of program revenue, proving the value of diversification.
Smart CPA increases, no extra spend: Carefully selected CPA uplifts drove major revenue gains across key partners without additional investment.
Reactivation unlocks hidden value: Activating the previously dormant subnetwork showed the power of reviewing who’s already on the program. One overlooked partner, once optimised, delivered a significant uplift in revenue. Sometimes, big wins come from small switches.
Tactical timing matters: Aligning CPA increases and campaign efforts with brand moments, like the Spring Sale, helped deliver peak period success.
Performance beats plateau: In a mature program, thinking beyond traditional partner types and strategies was essential to avoid stagnation and spark renewed growth.
This period of performance demonstrated how a mature program can still deliver impressive, incremental revenue when backed by the right strategic thinking. By reactivating overlooked partners, onboarding new ones and optimising smartly without added cost, Silverbean helped Graham & Green exceed revenue targets and reinvigorate its affiliate channel.
