Thermacell Affiliate Strategy Pivot

According to the CDC, mosquitoes are the deadliest animal in the world. With “mosquito days”—aka days with an average relative humidity of 42%+ and temperatures between 50-95 degrees Fahrenheit—increasing across the U.S. (Climate Central, 2023), consumers are looking for solutions to continue enjoying time outside. Enter: Thermacell, whose mission is to liberate people who love the outdoors from the harmful effects of insects (especially mosquitoes). 

In January 2024, stemming from a realization that consumers were opting to purchase Thermacell products through Amazon (versus directly at Thermacell.com), the brand pivoted its goals away from DTC metrics and tapped Backbone to help inform an affiliate marketing strategy that leveraged Amazon. At the time, Backbone managed a DTC affiliate program that relied on a few year’s worth of existing affiliate relationships.

Knowing mosquito season was right around the corner, Backbone planned and executed an aggressive affiliate marketing strategy and employed the following tactics to increase foot traffic to and sales through Amazon:

• Unlocked Amazon affiliate capabilities via Levanta, an affiliate tracking platform
• Contacted top partners from DTC affiliate program and urged them to add an Amazon buy button or swap the link
• Identified and recruited net new partners that thrive in the Amazon Affiliate space
• Improved Amazon SEO given Amazon categorizes traffic via affiliate as organic
• Participated in Amazon’s Brand Referral Bonus program, where bonuses are applied as credits to a transaction referral fee (read: no transaction fees), ultimately improving Thermacell’s ranking on Amazon

Since launching these changes, results have been incredible:

• Hit over 1,327% of our original revenue goal and 64% over our re-forecasted goal
• Drove over 396k clicks from partners 
• Maintained a CPA of about $3
• Counted 36 articles go live with affiliate links
• Surpassed a $8.80 ROI including platform launch and management fees