Apogee Agency: A Reintroduction To Our Brand and Expertise

Apogee is a digital advertising agency specializing in affiliate program management along with hybrid forms of public relations, influencer marketing, and paid digital advertising. Anyone that met us at Affiliate Summit conferences or Awin + ShareASale ThinkTank in 2019 would have seen a boutique agency of five people solely focused on traditional affiliate marketing. That's not us anymore. Apogee has evolved to include new initiatives to support our clients—and isn't that always the best reason to change? We kept our heads down to focus on strategy, build a new website, and significantly increase our number of talented employees. Our strategic efforts up through 2019 put us in the right place as digital marketing matured in 2020. It's time to reintroduce our brand.

Apogee is ever observant of trends in the digital marketing space. One such that we started to see over the last few years is the rapid proliferation of curious major media representatives scouting out affiliate marketing at industry events. They slowly began experimenting with the performance marketing model as a way to explore new revenue streams. Some of them dove straight into the deep end; others are still learning. We've watched, and worked with, major media and the results we’ve seen prove that affiliate, influencer, public relations, and digital advertising have merged. We track all of these efforts for our clients on platforms like ShareASale, Impact, and Refersion.

Some major media publications are easy to work with and are always looking for high-converting content with good brands and mass appeal. They study the niche, assign the writers and join the affiliate programs upfront. It’s a very transparent relationship. Others are still requiring media buys using the pay-to-play model, but with the right calendar and frequency, the exposure could lead to increased interest in the brand from other publications. Visibility is the goal and everyone needs to be prepared for a mixture of these hybrid models.

While this was happening, thousands of small to mid-sized merchants launched programs on affiliate networks and waited for Forbes and Newsweek to show up with feature articles that brought infinite revenue. Instead, they were shocked to find a flood of affiliate applications from couponers, paid search bidders, and the lowest forms of partners in the networks. It was not what they expected because no one was there to give them a solid strategy on how this works. This is embarrassing for veterans of affiliate management because the merchants were only told about one small piece of the affiliate universe and they ended up seeing the dumpster. They had no idea the affiliate channel requires expertise in recruitment, education, and activation. You can’t just turn on the affiliate channel and expect magic. It takes years of relationship building, brand recognition, competitive commissions, strong onsite conversions, and expert personnel to build sales through affiliates. One hit from a mass media site does not make a sustainable affiliate program so a strategy, like those Apogee implements, needs to be in place for future growth.

That’s why Apogee offers a blended mix of services. We work to ensure that our clients reap the benefits of a more strategic approach to finding new customers.

With new areas of expertise and new challenges in digital marketing comes a rethinking of the team management dynamic. Every Apogee client is assigned to a pod: Alpha, Polaris, or Zenith. Each pod is made up of a dedicated affiliate manager and account manager supported by coordinators, analysts, and our leadership team. At any given point, ten people can be brainstorming one client solution. We've trained and empowered the pods to advocate for themselves, their clients, and their affiliates. Advocacy is a core tenet going back to the beginning of this company in 2009.

Contact us when you are ready for new customers. We stand ready to work for you.