Apollo Scooters designs and manufactures high-performance electric scooters for urban transportation. Their scooters are built with comfort and performance in mind, featuring smooth throttles, powerful motors, and durable wheels.
To make riding even better, Apollo Scooters has developed a mobile app that connects directly to their scooters. The app allows users to customize their scooter settings and track performance metrics. Riders can also monitor battery life, adjust settings, and even lock or unlock their scooters remotely.
Affiliate marketing is the right solution to track the real impact
Apollo Scooters understands that their products have a long lifespan, meaning a single customer hardly makes multiple purchases. To keep growing, the brand turned to scooter reviewers to help spread the word and raise brand awareness.
But there was a catch – booking content creators or reviewers meant paying them a flat fee for a video review, whether or not it actually drove any sales. It doesn’t feel like the best use of their marketing budget.
That’s where affiliate marketing proved to be the right fit. By using affiliate links, Apollo could track which reviewers were generating sales. For the reviewers, it was a win too – they earned commissions each time a customer made a purchase through their link.
To make managing all of this simple, Apollo chose UpPromote’s affiliate software for E-commerce to seamlessly track affiliate performance and ensure everyone was rewarded fairly for their work.
Pay fair commissions based on contribution
Apollo Scooters believes in rewarding affiliates fairly based on their contributions. The more sales affiliates generate, the higher the commission they’ll get. With UpPromote, the Apollo team can create two different programs tailored to their affiliates.
The first program is for their high-performing affiliates with high commissions. They are some of the most trusted reviews in the electric scooter industry. The second program offers lower commission rates for affiliates with lower audience reach.
This smart commission structure helps Apollo Scooters optimize their affiliate marketing budget. When allocating higher compensation to affiliates who generate the most value, the brand ensures that their investments are being used for the right reasons. At the same time, this approach helps strengthen relationships with top-performing affiliates.
Maria Asiain – Marketing Director at Apollo Scooters
Equip their affiliates with sample products
Since Apollo Scooters mainly collaborates with reviewers, they go the extra mile to ensure these partners can deliver authentic, in-depth reviews.
They send out products like the Electric Scooter Guide and Electric Scooter Insider to trusted affiliates so they can experience the product firsthand. Then, reviewers can create honest, high-quality content that truly resonates with their audience.
With UpPromote’s in-app Gift feature, merchants can send sample products directly to their affiliates. Affiliates can claim their gifts right from their dashboard, while brands can keep track of the number of gifts sent and received.
Maria Asiain shares.
This is an in-depth review video where one of Apollo Scooters’ affiliates covers every product in their lineup.
That way, Apollo builds better relationships with their affiliates while bringing their product closer to their audience. Those genuine reviews showcase the advanced features and performance of Apollo scooters, ultimately driving greater engagement and conversions.
However, given that their scooters are high-value and bulky, Apollo is selective about which affiliates receive sample products. The brand carefully evaluates each affiliate’s audience size, engagement, and relevance to ensure the investment is worthwhile.
Filter affiliates to protect their program’s integrity
While Apollo works closely with top-performing affiliates, they’ve also faced challenges with people trying to game the system.
Some individuals sign up, generate their own referral links, and use them to buy products for themselves. They earn a commission and apply a discount code from the brand, all in one go.
To protect the integrity of their program, the Apollo team has become more selective about who they approve. Now they focus on affiliates who either reach out directly with proof of their following or already have an established audience.
UpPromote helps Apollo Scooters safeguard their program by detecting multiple signups from the same IP address. Any suspicious activity is flagged and removed, ensuring the program remains secure and trustworthy.
Moreover, UpPromote offers the option to prevent affiliates from referring to themselves. The system can automatically ignore commissions for purchases made by affiliates using their own affiliate link or coupon.
Apollo Scooters attempts to keep the program fair and ensure everyone involved is genuinely helping to spread the word.
Maria Asiain – Marketing Director at Apollo Scooters
Results
With the help of UpPromote, Apollo Scooters has successfully streamlined the management of their affiliate program and achieved significant results. Affiliate marketing now contributes a considerable 15-20% of the brand’s total revenue.
Looking ahead, Apollo plans to double down on affiliate marketing as a key growth channel. They’re also exploring more advanced features within UpPromote to better engage their affiliates and optimize their program’s performance.
Ellie Tran, a seasoned SEO content writer with three years of experience in the eCommerce world. Being a part of the UpPromote team, Ellie wants to assist Shopify merchants in achieving success through useful content & actionable insights. Ellie's commitment to learning never stops; she's always eager to gain more knowledge about SEO and content marketing to create valuable content for users. When she's not working on content, Ellie enjoys baking and exploring new places.
