We decreased dormant affiliate partners by
We increased productive affiliate partners by
IG are the world’s leading online trading provider, they offer clients over 18,000+ markets to trade and thousands of shares to invest in. In early 2022, IG Group conducted a thorough review of their affiliate partnership platform and management. The findings demonstrated that their setup was not fit for their high-growth needs, which negatively impacted internal resources and stunted potential success.
Their existing partner platform meant too much time was spent on navigating manual processes, and their in-house management set-up, where members of the business acted as local affiliate champions alongside their existing roles, was not scalable due to a lack of capacity and expertise. Internal surveys revealed that 83% of affiliate champions did not feel positive in regard to understanding partnership software and processes.
IG Group decided to relaunch their partnership program on Impact.com with Silverbean as their partnership marketing agency.
With a focus on internal efficiencies and nurturing strategic partnerships, the key objectives were as follows:
Very quickly into the partnership, we decided to run a project which we call ‘Search Domination’. We kicked this off in the UK market and focussed on growing performance by maximizing coverage of Google’s Search Engine Results Page. Key elements of the project included:
The project identified partnership opportunities across multiple channels including Display and we were able to pass on 6 opportunities to the display team at IG group. The project allowed Silverbean to streamline and optimize affiliate recruitment and optimization efforts and tailor the approach to IG Group’s core product offerings.
Some standout partner performance highlights include:
Due to the huge success of ‘Search Domination’ within the UK, we then launched this in Germany in March 2023.
From the outset of the IG Group and Silverbean partnership, there was a mutual understanding of the need for brand immersion and a diligent onboarding process. We aligned on a staggered market launch plan to ensure that enough time was factored in for the Silverbean team to learn all about the brand and the different markets we would be working in together.
Prior to the first market launch, there was a two-day immersion workshop at IG Group’s central HQ in London which allowed IG to provide an overview of numerous key aspects, including their products, organizational setup, and strategy to date. It also provided Silverbean with the opportunity to set expectations on what success would look like as they commenced their partnership.
Similarly, on the commencement of launching in Germany in October, there was a partnership session in Frankfurt in which Silverbean and IG Group team members joined to discuss the brand vision and initiative within that particular market, demonstrating the awareness that knowledge development at a local level was essential.
As with all fintech brands, compliance is fundamental at IG and partners need to be reviewed and vetted thoroughly before being recruited. To ensure the launch was a success, Silverbean needed to follow the partner vetting process meticulously. As a result, it became a top priority within the global 100-day strategy.
Between June and September 2022, 52 partners were successfully vetted and approved, demonstrating the highly successful execution of our strategy within an industry where it is uncommon to see such strong results from affiliates, considering the stringent compliance procedures involved.
In order to make the migration as seamless as possible for existing partners, we migrated to Impact.com over 6 months. We communicated 1 month prior to the migration that change was coming, we then sent 3 migration emails over the course of 2 months and implemented a 3-month cross-over period with the previous software so partners could still access reporting & unpaid commissions.
Relaunching on Impact.com meant IG Group considerably streamlined their internal resource on affiliates with a reduction of 73.6% across multiple teams on a global level which overachieved against our target. Most notably, the average time on affiliate by local champions reduced from 7.4 days to 1.9 days per month, and that time is used more effectively to focus on outcomes and drive more value alongside Silverbean affiliate experts.
Through improving processes around recruitment and optimisation, the relaunch with agency support enabled IG Group to onboard and engage with high-quality partners:
Further to the above, there was also expansion into further markets than what was originally planned with Italy, Netherlands and Sweden all launching in January 2023. In the original agreement between IG Group & Silverbean, seven affiliate markets were to be relaunched, however, as a testament to the effectiveness of the relaunch, this increased to ten by early 2023.
Aneria Henery-Morley, Global Head of Partnerships at IG
