Silverbean – Best Managed Affiliate Programme – SME

About Silverbean

We are Silverbean, a global affiliate and partner marketing agency. We specialise in launching, scaling and optimising affiliate programmes that act as embedded performance channels rather than standalone tactics. Using our proprietary Progression Model, we help ambitious brands transition their commercial models, ensuring sustainable partner diversification, full-funnel coverage and highly efficient budget management.

The challenge

Evolving a long-established household brand from a traditional retail-led model to a direct-to-consumer operation requires building entirely new channel foundations. Unlike mature affiliate programmes that inherit years of partner data and activity, launching from scratch alongside a new ecommerce site presents a distinct set of hurdles. Brands must navigate limited SME resources and unpredictable revenue forecasting while simultaneously driving profitable year-on-year growth.

The challenge is amplified by the need to support full-funnel awareness and integrate seamlessly with wider marketing activities, such as major product rollouts. Without a strategic approach, new programmes risk over-relying on bottom-funnel voucher or cashback partners, resulting in inefficient commission spend and a lack of scalable, long-term brand equity.

The solution

The strategic approach

Our strategic approach embedded the affiliate programme into Morphy Richards’ wider direct-to-consumer growth strategy from day one. Using our Progression Model, we structured the programme around scalable growth stages rather than chasing quick, unsustainable wins. We focused heavily on sustainable partner diversification and full-funnel customer journey coverage, ensuring the channel supported everything from brand awareness to conversion. By aligning weekly pacing calls with quarterly alignment sessions alongside external PR agencies, we ensured affiliate activity amplified media moments and more than 300 product launches.

The technology deployed

We deployed Silverbean’s proprietary Progression Model to map and execute scalable growth stages. This was supported by rigorous quarterly partner gap analysis, targeted recruitment planning and structured business-as-usual management. We also leveraged cross-channel internal collaboration and integrated specialised partners, including Airtime Rewards, GoCertify, Sovendus and Intent.ly, to strengthen full-funnel coverage beyond traditional legacy affiliates.

The boldest decision

The single boldest decision was explicitly rejecting a reliance on large tenancy investments to drive early volume. Instead, we committed to efficient scaling through meticulous partner activation, commission control and tactical promotional alignment. For example, during a summer heatwave, rather than blanket spending, we implemented a highly targeted boosted code strategy with a closed user group partner. This disciplined approach delivered an ROI exceeding 660%, proving that a programme built from scratch could scale aggressively while maintaining strict budget efficiency.

The results

Within a year of launching the direct-to-consumer site, the affiliate programme became a major growth driver, delivering a 38% year-on-year increase in revenue and a 44% year-on-year increase in traffic. Peak November trading exceeded targets by 83%. Crucially, we proved our methodology for efficient scaling, as commission costs increased by just 17% against the 38% revenue growth.

Partner diversification was highly successful, with 36% of total affiliate revenue generated by 33 newly onboarded partners. Premium subnetwork growth surged by 582% year on year, and a Black Friday activation with a card-linked offer partner drove a 251% period-on-period uplift and a 131% increase in sales, cementing affiliate as a trusted, fully integrated performance channel.