During the second half of 2019 I was working for a division of Agora that was launching a new backend financial newsletter for a technology guru. 

The initial launch went well and it grossed around $5.2 million. 

I was responsible for sister company partnerships, which resulted in $1.2 million in gross sales and cold traffic affiliates contributed to about $250,000. 

Not my best effort. The best launch I helped run grossed $23 million and the one before that $21 million. 

But, not my worst. 

More on that one in a moment…

Because the launch was relatively successful we decided to make it evergreen and planned to re-launch it three months later to cold traffic affiliates. 

My boss and I were racking our brains for ways in which to attract affiliates. 

We knew to get attention we had to go BIG…And offer something no one has ever offered before.

Something no affiliate would ever buy for themselves and a prize that would make even the smallest affiliate motivated to take part. 

After a week of going back and forth with ideas, we had it.

And no, it wasn’t a trip to space (this was the fall of 2019, people!).

We decided to offer our top five affiliates that made the most net sales a FREE cruise around Antarctica!

As a world traveler myself, I thought this was fantastic. Who wouldn’t want to go on this once in a lifetime adventure?

The trip itself came out to about $25,000 a person, meaning we were pumping $125K minimum in prizes into this contest.

The pressure was on. But I wasn’t worried. 

We were offering an $80 CPA on the front end and a 70% rev share commission on a proven, $2,000, back end offer. Plus, a kick butt prize. 

We spent the next several weeks tweaking the sales funnel and building anticipation among affiliates. I gathered mailing commitments and set up the campaign in our affiliate platform. I even worked with our centralized tech team to ensure real-time commission data would be available.

Everything was set. We had followed the pre-launch formula to a T.

Well, the re-launch came and went and we only grossed around $175,000. 

I felt like a total failure. 

We broke even on commission costs (which was fine given we know the customers who purchased are high end buyers who will purchase again), but the prize money put us in the hole. 

How were we going to pay for five free trips to Antarctica? 

You could say I learned a lot about this launch. Looking back, here are my top three takeaways:

The age old contest question…Do you give away experiences or money? 

The answer will always be MONEY.

If an affiliate then wants to buy an experience with that money, go for it.

I spent countless hours figuring out how we would give away a free trip. 

How would this affect Agora’s taxes? What if someone wanted to bring a +1? How do we lockdown the dates without knowing the winner's passport or contact information? What if they couldn’t go the time of year that we choose? 

Looking back, this took me away from my core focus, which was wrangling affiliates and solidifying mailing dates.

I could have made it a lot easier on myself, and the business, if we had offered money instead.

 

Each of the affiliates that won was grateful for the prize. But every single one asked if they could have cash instead of the trip.

One affiliate said, “I live in Canada, why would I want to go to Antarctica? Send me to the Bahamas!” 

Going back to lesson #1, offer money instead of experiences. 

Another reason why we didn’t set ourselves up for success is that we didn’t wait long enough between the initial launch and the re-launch. 

I felt pressured to make revenue goals for the year, so we squeezed in the re-launch at the end of November. 

It's around this time that list owners and affiliate managers set their calendars for the rest of the year and start to disappear to spend time with their friends and families. 

Looking back, I should have pushed back more. I can almost guarantee that we would have made more money in January after everyone was back in the office.

Which would you rather have: $175,000 now or $1 million later?

Even though the re-launch bombed, affiliates were happy because we paid them. And the ongoing revenue we received from those buyers ended up making the business money in the long run. 

Yet, it taught me some valuable lessons about motivation and maximizing my efficiency. 

Affiliate contests are never easy, but there are some basic things you can do to help keep your sanity AND your relationships!