Home Depot: Driving Affiliate Revenue Growth with a Flat Budget

The Gen3 Approach

Gen3 developed a 4-pronged approach to cost-savings:

• Restructured the baseline, moving to a tiered commission strategy by publisher type, while customizing individual publisher commission based on their value proposition.
• Moved to a SaaS fee network, migrating from CJ (% of sales/commission) to impact (fixed yearly fee).
• Creatively leveraged CPA in multiple ways:
  • Secured high-impact placements by reinvesting commission cost savings.
  • Successfully negotiated high impact CPA-based exposures with a top loyalty publisher.
  • Leveraged short-term, attractive cashback on seasonally relevant categories.
  • Integrated SKU-based tracking to support category cashback.
• Removed the #2 revenue-driving publisher (coupon browser extension) from the program:
  • Coupons are never available for customers.
  • Sales were being misattributed.
  • Commissions were being wasted.