Publisher Spotlight: Skimlinks

Rakuten Advertising had the opportunity to sit down with Skimlinks SVP of Revenue Dunia Silan to chat about the company’s offering and plans for the future. Join us as we dive into all things Skimlinks.

Tell us about Skimlinks

Skimlinks, a Taboola company, is the leading commerce content solution provider for publishers. We currently work with 60,000 publishers and 48,500 advertisers globally. We power affiliate content strategies for publishers and advertisers to help them grow this additional revenue stream.

For advertisers, we help them generate revenue through commerce content. Data in the Skimlinks Platform shows that the Top 100 Merchants saw their total order value increase by 12% and their average order value (AOV) increase by 76%.

This is why 48,500 advertisers worldwide trust Skimlinks to help scale their affiliate program. We see $6 million worth of e-commerce transactions every day through our platform. Our goal is to foster an environment that encourages quality publishers to write about merchants and their products.

What sets you apart from other publishers?

For over a decade, Skimlinks has been a trusted long-term partner for publishers, including over 50% of the Top 100 US and UK publishers, and is now expanding across the world.

By partnering with Skimlinks, advertisers gain instant access to these high-quality editorial publishers. Our Network Quality team manually approves each publisher we work with and continuously monitors the quality of traffic and compliance with Program Policies. Only 2% of publishers who apply are accepted into the Skimlinks network.

We also have a flexible setup for our merchant partners. If a brand has specific preferences on what partners they work with, we’re happy to be accommodating (e.g. work with a particular group of publishers or incentivize certain partners). In this case, brands can contact the Skimlinks team and tell us their preference.

In addition to this, we amplify our advertiser’s brands amongst our publisher network by sharing upcoming promotions, sales, and campaign launches through multiple touch points. These initiatives paired with our international reach offer brands the opportunity to extend their consumer base across the US, EMEA, and APAC.

How do you help advertisers add value and drive incrementality?

Skimlinks provides fully transparent data to advertisers at the publisher level on key success metrics including impressions, clicks, order values, and conversions. This helps merchants optimize their strategy by deciding where to put their money and negotiating fair commissions for the best-performing publishers.

If we take our work with Nobody’s Child, for example, they became a Managed Merchant with Skimlinks at the start of 2023 to drive growth via editorial partnerships. As a result of our strategic partnership with them including monthly performance reviews, Nobody’s Child saw a +40% Y-o-Y revenue increase.

What excites you about the affiliate marketing industry and its direction? Are there any new innovations we will see from you in the coming months?

What excites me about the affiliate marketing industry’s future is its dynamic nature and the potential it holds for advertisers and publishers alike. A particularly interesting concept at the moment is advertisers having the flexibility to choose multi-attribution models based on campaign adjectives that can maximize their ROI. Additionally, the increasing availability of rich audience data ensures personalized content that adapts to user preferences in real time, which is a very exciting development. Overall, the industry’s expansion to international markets is allowing us as experts to provide a wealth of knowledge and insights that can be applied globally.

As for our innovations, we’re gearing up to offer advertisers the flexibility to switch between performance models for maintaining high, measurable ROIs. We’re also working on providing deeper insights into the lifetime value of evergreen content as well as fair compensation models for publishers based on their contributions. You can expect a higher share of voice and more significant real estate in the near future, enabling our partners to achieve better visibility and conversions. We’re committed to staying at the forefront of these industry trends to empower our clients for success.

Why did you choose to partner with Rakuten Advertising?

International expansion has been a central pillar for our business in 2023 and Rakuten’s global reach has provided excellent support in these efforts. We have been long-term partners of Rakuten Advertising and have always been able to drive great results for our Rakuten merchants. We are keen to continue expanding, optimizing, and refining for great outcomes in 2024 and beyond.

Want to work with Skimlinks? Visit rakutenadvertising.com today or speak to your account representative.