Built to Win the New Affiliate Era: Tombras’ Team Turning Chaos Into Incremental Growth

The Challenge

2025 was a year of rapid expansion in partnership marketing, with post-checkout ad tech, performance CTV and OLV, third-party prospecting email, creator commerce, and AI-driven discovery all accelerating simultaneously. For an affiliate team to remain effective in this environment requires not just technical capability but the organisational structure, cross-channel fluency, and commercial leadership to translate complexity into growth.

The Strategy

Tombras built its affiliate and partnerships team as a fully integrated unit operating alongside Search, Social, SEO, Programmatic, and Digital Media Buying, rather than as a standalone channel function. This integration allowed the team to contribute to full-agency new business pitches and to champion affiliate at the most senior levels of client and agency strategy.

The Work

The team developed a standardised incrementality methodology and a playbook for non-traditional partnerships, expanding the definition of what partnership marketing can encompass and delivering this capability across multiple client accounts.

Results

Client results included $18.8 million in verified revenue for LaserAway, $2.75 million in GA4 ecommerce revenue for Sally Beauty alongside a 35% lift in site traffic, and 37% year-on-year ecommerce revenue growth for PGA TOUR Superstore on only 6% more spend.

The Judges' Verdict

Judges recognised this as a standout team entry, praising the clear evidence of business impact, the investment in training and capability, and the focus on incremental, measurable, full-funnel partnerships. The expansion into non-traditional performance frontiers and the development of a standardised incrementality methodology were highlighted as marks of genuine industry leadership. An absolute powerhouse team.

"Evidence of team growth, with a focus on specialists, alongside clear business impact. Strong investment in training and certifications. Focus on incremental, measurable, and full-funnel partnerships, with expansion into non-traditional performance frontiers."