Agency Partner Spotlight: Acceleration Partners

Our Partner Spotlight series interviews experts from our killer network of agency partners and highlights their impact in the field of affiliate marketing.

This month, we caught up with Chelsey Holt at Acceleration Partners.

Chelsey Holt is the Senior Director of Client Services at Acceleration Partners, where she leads the Strategic & Enterprise client delivery teams across North America, LATAM, EMEA, and APAC. With over 10 years of experience in the affiliate and influencer marketing industry, Chelsey ensures her teams operate at the highest level of client service and strategy, consistently exceeding goals. 

Prior to Acceleration Partners, she gained valuable agency and network experience, including Pepperjam (now Partnerize) managing top beauty and fashion brands. Outside of work, Chelsey is a passionate traveler, foodie, and proud "crazy dog mom" to a spoiled chocolate lab. 

How did you get started in the world of affiliate/partner marketing?

I got started in affiliate marketing while in college through an internship at a boutique digital marketing agency who offered Affiliate, SEO, and Paid Search managed services for clients. I ended up loving the affiliate marketing world and have been in this industry ever since. The industry has evolved so much since that time, and I am fortunate to be a part of the continued evolution of this industry!

Why should a brand consider working with a partnership marketing agency?

A brand should consider working with a partnership agency if they are looking for dedicated experts to drive their affiliate and/or influencer marketing strategy to new heights, bring in fresh perspectives, and to take the lift of execution off their team. 

The agency is the industry expert for strategy, tracking platforms, operational systems, data analysis, and partner relationships – ensuring your efforts run efficiently, are effective, and are scaled to drive growth.

What is Acceleration Partners?

Acceleration Partners is the world’s largest and first-to-market Partnership and Marketing Agency creating and nurturing partnerships that drive exceptional, measurable outcomes for their clients. 

Managing clients in 40+ countries, their global team of 300+ focuses on data-driven strategies that help connect brands to the right consumers through performance partnerships, traditional affiliate, influencer, performance PR, content and B2B partnership marketing. Serving over 200 brands with household names like Amazon, Target, Google, Warby Parker, Crocs, Reebok (to name a few) their diversified staff is creating what’s next in the industry by building balanced portfolios of high-performing partnerships. 

As the only truly integrated global partnerships agency, Acceleration Partners prides itself on being on the cutting edge of new industry developments, and leveraging their proven expertise to bring unique solutions to the most complex challenges for brands that aim for growth. 

What makes Acceleration Partners so innovative? What sets you apart from the competition?

AP has been a leader in the Partnership Marketing space for over 15 years. We've achieved this by hiring the best talent in the industry and combining it with our deep understanding and vision of the industry. This combination of talent and knowledge has allowed us to stay ahead of trends such as dedicated partner development, compliance, incrementality, multi-touch attribution, single view reporting as well as the convergence of Affiliate, Performance PR and Influencer partnerships. 

Our teams leverage robust benchmarking and insights from APVision, our proprietary data platform, as well as develop strong publisher relationships to understand what new innovations are happening. One of our Core Values is “Excel & Improve,” which focuses us on an always-on vision to learn, grow, test, and continuously innovate.

What types of brands do you work with?

We work with a variety of brands – from SMBs to Fortune 500 companies, servicing numerous sectors such as B2B, DTC, Retail, Subscription, FinTech, and Travel.

How does Acceleration Partners typically work with clients?

The client and their brand are at the heart of what we do, we take time to understand your business, products, customers, challenges, opportunities and stakeholders and create an affiliate program that you can be proud to represent within your business. 

Our approach is to create partner marketing programs that drive incremental revenue, deliver consistent growth at a strong return on investment and are equipped to continue evolving and unlocking new opportunities. 

To put it simply, we work with clients to exceed their goals and forge strong, long-term relationships where you see Acceleration Partners as a trusted partner to your business.

What is one unexpected opportunity for brands to scale up their partner marketing efforts?

One word – TEST! Take the swing, try something new, foster a continued learning approach in your overall strategy. This can be anything from testing with a new commissioning model, a new technology partner, hosting in-person or virtual partner events to build brand awareness, promotional strategy, presenting yourself to new audiences, exploring how AI can improve efficiency, and more. 

Partner marketing is constantly evolving and while testing seems like it is to be expected, I see many brands still remain cautious to testing and questioning the “what ifs.” In order to stay ahead of the curve and your competitors, it’s crucial to be open to data-backed testing to drive incremental growth, secure more wins, and ultimately – keep up with your customer needs, which are also constantly evolving.