With entries open for October’s inaugural International Performance Marketing Awards (IPMAs), this Q&A series looks back at the winners of the Awards’ ceremony last year, gathering insight into the some of the past winners and inspiration behind the industry’s newly-decorated campaigns and companies.
Today, we’re talking to Lumina Carmen, managing director at BitterStrawberry who won the award for Best International CPA Network.
Tell us about winning an International Performance Marketing Award?
Considering that the IPMAs is such a prestigious award ceremony, being recognised as the best CPA Network by such an impressive panel of judges was not only a great recognition for us but also a true honour.
It is an important award that showed us that what we’ve been doing for the last 7 years, all the consistent investment in technology, relationships and people, proved to be a winning formula. We appreciate the trust we were invested with and we’re thankful for all the help we received from our partners to get these impressive results.
It’s always nice to get recognition for your work, but like someone wise once said, to get recognition among peers “it’s equivalent of getting paraded through the streets while Queen’s “We Are the Champions” plays in the background”.
This being said, we are extremely grateful and excited about what the future holds. We look forward to continuing to grow and develop a more innovative solution so that our partners can have top performance, (financial) freedom and a lot more care-free time for themselves.
And for those that aren’t working with us yet, The IPMAs is a good reason to start. Performance marketing is still in its fancy and we are preparing a lot more surprises this year!
Where does the value lie in winning Best International CPA Network?
Winning Best International CPA Network is a unique opportunity to be recognised as a top performer in the industry. This award proves that our actions matter, that we managed to put affiliate marketing on the right track and that we can speak of excellence in terms of tracking technology, transparency and fraud prevention.
Being recognised at a global level, among the industry leaders, in such a competitive environment makes us feel proud and valuable.
We were deeply moved to receive this important prize because it speaks to our highest inspirations and it underlines the fact we are a reliable network to work with. In the end, people work with people they trust. That’s pretty much a universal truth.
Getting high votes from publishers and advertisers, for our innovative tools, for the great customer experience we provide, for professionalism and consistent ROI is the mark of a top network. And we’re happy to know that being the best CPA affiliate network in the world is on our business card.
We’re sure this award will enable our clients to fully embrace performance marketing and the CPA model.
Has anything changed for your company since winning the award?
If a company has something to be proud of, there’s nothing more important than an accredited award. Winning an industry award is a great way to stand out from the crowd, building recognition for the work your company has been doing. An award like this not only brings you prestige and credibility as a business but also it proves to your current and potential clients that you know your stuff.
Winning an IPMA helped us improve our business from inside, retaining the greatest existing employees and attracting new talents and it made our customers pick us over other important companies in the industry. People want to work for a winner and customers like also to be associated with a winning company and with the elite.
The IPMAs brought us more organic sources of traffic, improved the company ranking and send out great signals to new customers and we really appreciate that.
In your opinion, what kind of attributes stand out in succeeding in such regions as Europe?
In order to stand out as a successful performance network and to distinguish from the competition, you need to manage to improve your visibility and popularity to attract new clients and to deliver measurable results.
Creating a unique and engaging pitch, providing revolutionary tools to gather and analyse data and focusing on performance, will make your brand stand out from the crowd, all the time.
In Europe, transparency on all levels, from the moment the client engages to the moment he measures his profit, transparency on deals, sales validation, or data transparency- all these are much appreciated.
Providing better reporting tools for accurate info, deep links to the best offers affiliates want to promote, technology solutions that can help manipulate the volumes of data, support, advice and tips on how to turn traffic into sales, are valuable features on the European market. Also respecting the payment terms 😊.
As long as your main focus is to focus on ROI and you can tailor your campaigns’ success to your marketing goals, things should work well.
What’s your take on the IPMAs as a vital aspect of driving the industry forward on a global scale?
The IPMAs offers a unique opportunity to affiliates all over the world to showcase their latest solutions that will help both their companies and the industry drive forward.
Being in contact with the latest changes in the digital landscape and meeting the top performers in the industry, rubbing shoulders with performance marketers across USA & Canada, MENA, APAC, LATAM, Western and Eastern Europe is not just an amazing experience but a great chance to grow, gain recognition and move forward, expanding into new markets.
The IPMAs is the highlight of performance marketing domain where innovators, leaders, emerging affiliates meet in order to display new ideas, new trends and achievements that will drive the whole industry forward on a global level.
The diversity of challenges and developments and the richness of the specialists in the affiliate marketing area, give to this event “a global stature”, setting new standards in the industry.
Earlybird entries for the International Performance Marketing Awards 2018 close on July 10. Download the entry pack for more insight into the regional and channel-based categories that could see you, or your overseas teams, crowned international performance champions.