Let’s kill a myth that’s draining your budget:
“We just need to spend more to scale.”
No.
You need to optimize what you already have—especially in your affiliate program.
Most brands are sitting on untracked value, misaligned incentives, and outdated assumptions.
They’re calling it “mature” or “stable” when really, it’s underperforming.
95% of Growth Agencies and Affiliate Managers aren’t doing it right. Growth Doesn’t Always Mean New Spend
Here’s what we find every time we audit an affiliate program!
- Top partners haven’t been contacted in months
- Tracking setup is bleeding credit to the wrong sources
- Influencers aren’t converting—because they’re on the wrong attribution model
- Coupon and cashback partners are hoarding last-click
- Your competitors are incentivizing your best partners to leave
And here’s the kicker:
The brand thinks the program is “fine.”
But “fine” doesn’t scale.
Fix First. Spend Later.
Before you throw more dollars at Facebook, Amazon, or TikTok…
Let’s tune the engine you already have.
Affiliate is one of the few channels where:
- You don’t pay unless it performs
- You control the economics
- And you can activate new partners without increasing overhead
So why not start with a channel that rewards clarity, not chaos?
From the Field: How One Women’s Health Brand Stopped Burning VC Money
We recently partnered with a women’s health brand in the fertility and hormone space. They initially brought us in to optimize their affiliate program—but it quickly became clear that affiliate wasn’t the core issue.
They were scaling by blindly increasing spend across paid channels, and no one noticed that ROAS was quietly collapsing.
We stepped in and:
- Aligned internal marketing managers and external agencies
- Built a centralized dashboard to track true performance
- Audited every channel—affiliate, paid, email, influencer, site CRO
- Installed a unified tracking and attribution system
- Dug into incremental marketing contribution margin at the financial level
Here’s the kicker: sales didn’t jump immediately, but their margins widened dramatically.
They started spending less to get the same (or better) traffic, stopped chasing scale for vanity, and finally built a foundation for profitable growth—without setting fire to the VC capital they had worked so hard to raise.
This is what happens when you optimize the machine before throwing more fuel at it.
Our $4,000 Gift to Help You Do Just That
We’re offering a Free Affiliate Audit—a $4,000 value—for brands doing over $1M/year in online sales.
You’ll get:
- A full analysis of your affiliate mix
- Attribution strategy evaluation
- Payout structure and partner tier recommendations
- Low-effort wins you can execute this quarter
- No pitch. Just clarity.
This is the fastest, lowest-cost growth unlock most brands never touch.
Let’s change that.
Weekly Chaos Challenge
Look at your affiliate channel and ask:
When’s the last time we strategically changed how it runs?
If the answer is “sometime last year” or “when we launched,”
It’s time to rebuild for scale—not just coast.
Until next week—
Reach out to Jody McGarvey and let’s start this audit…..
Stop guessing. Start optimizing. Growth is hiding in plain sight.
—Matt Frary
Chief of Chaos
