Building the APMA: churn, engagement and industry data, with founder Kevin Edwards

The Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association is a not-for-profit trade body, now close to three years old. In this Lessons from Losing episode, founder and director Kevin Edwards tells an Awin interviewer about running it on subscriptions, keeping members engaged and the setbacks along the way, and about the data and advocacy work it has built for the channel.

In this episode

• Edwards started the APMA from a sense that the industry, which he puts at about 10% of e-commerce spend, had no collective voice (0:31, 1:00).

• Renewals are what keep him awake: members signed for two years first, then some churned, which meant shrinking ambitions to the revenue available, and he says the body is seen as discretionary spend (2:01, 2:32, 3:03).

• He names member engagement as the biggest challenge, and a HubSpot CRM now shows him how many staff at a member opened newsletters, downloaded reports or joined webinars (4:00, 7:30, 8:00).

• Accreditation and training were promised to members but not delivered, as the team is Edwards full time plus two part-timers; he says it would need someone dedicated at least part-time (9:00, 9:31, 10:30).

• He regards the annual industry size study as a key win: 12 networks supplied data to an independent consultant, now in its third year, and he cites travel growing 12% year on year (19:30, 20:00, 20:31).

• After churn, the APMA built sponsorship packages; cutting prices by half brought six more sponsors, so about a third of revenue is now guaranteed alongside fees (24:00, 24:31, 25:00).

Interview from Lessons from Losing by Awin, published on YouTube.