“The sky is the limit for revenue” – Ashish Gaba

Ashish Gaba, Founder/CEO of Worify, joins the latest series of affiliate interviews on Affiliate Grand Slam

Ashish Gaba from Worify strongly believes in data which is needed for any campaign to perform well in advertising. He adds that A/B testing, trying different interests, keywords, and targeting can help in getting good ROAs – follow his story below.

When and why did you start considering affiliate marketing business as a career?

Back in 2014, I started blogging and at first I used Adsense to monetise. My traffic was less than 1k visits per day, so the revenue wasn’t high. Then I started searching how I can monetise better and got to know about Affiliate marketing. I added recommendations of relevant products in my blog and a few days later started getting sales. Since then, I’m into affiliate marketing and now I am doing it via media buying.

How did your affiliate marketing business take off?

When I started blogging, I didn’t earn anything from my blog for the first two years and kept learning. When my blog started getting traffic, I promoted some relevant products and started getting some sales. After that, I got more curious about paid ads and started learning about advertising and now doing marketing on many different platforms from the last five years.

Tell us a bit more about your business model, concept, and culture.

At Worify, we’re a small team of 6 working remotely and communicating via Microsoft Teams. We do marketing for some of the top brands, and our goal is to achieve results with the highest possible ROI. In 2020, we also started developing and promoting mobile games in 2020.

What helps make your performance successful? What are the main challenges?

I would say data is most helpful in making any campaign perform well in advertising. Doing A/B testing and trying different interests, keywords, and targeting can help in getting good ROAs. I know many affiliates who don’t care about analysing any data, but it can be beneficial. For example, if I am running a search campaign with ten different keywords, I might be profitable on 3-4 keywords, and then I might be getting profit or loss from specific match types and then devices. This data can help in making suitable bids which can help in generating consistent profits.

Click fraud is one of our main challenges, and it’s not just in alternative ad networks but on mainstream too. To prevent it, we monitor and analyse traffic consistently. In many instances, by providing proof of click fraud, we’ve been able to get refunds or ad credits from advertising networks.

By which KPIs do you measure your success?

For affiliate marketing, my main KPIs are conversion rate and ROI. Campaigns with high conversion rates are generally easier to scale.

Are you contemplating bringing in investors to scale or grow your business?

I am not looking for any investments in the marketing business, but our mobile gaming venture is in the validation stage. We’ll try to onboard some good investors once we have a successful game.

Can you explain briefly what, in your view, is affiliate marketing?

In simple terms, affiliate marketing is a performance marketing model where the affiliate gets paid for sales or leads. The affiliate usually joins an affiliate network and find some offers to promote and get their unique link and share those on social media, blogs, or advertise to generate sales.

How can affiliate marketing help someone’s business?

Affiliate marketing helps to generate sales or leads for companies. As the company only pays when the sale is generated, there’s only minimal risk involved.

What are the advantages and the disadvantages of this type of marketing?

The advantages for affiliates are that they don’t have to own any product and test many different products in various niches, and the sky is the limit for revenue. As for companies, they can get many affiliates to promote their products which can increase sales drastically.

Some disadvantages for affiliates are that they neither control the affiliate marketing program nor the competition. Even with a lot of ad spending, there’s never a guarantee for profits.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most in-demand skills. Why in your view?

I think that’s true. Affiliate marketing can allow the opportunity to work independently from anywhere globally with a good internet connection, and it can also be a secondary source of income for some people.

What makes a successful affiliate marketing campaign?

For affiliates to make their affiliate marketing campaign successful, they need to choose a good traffic source and then keep optimising the ads. Tracking and collecting data is vital to generate sales with good profitability.

How does technology play a part in your day-to-day?

I am a tech enthusiast and love to try new gadgets. From productivity and team meetings on MS Teams to searching for something on Google Tech plays an essential role in my day to day life. During the pandemic, I got Oculus Quest 2, and it’s a great VR device. I can’t wait for futuristic personal computing with AR & VR.

How do you see the future of affiliate marketing?

I think this industry will keep growing year on year. Good quality offers will keep coming out, so does the new platforms to promote them.

Have you ever been to SiGMA? SiGMA Europe, Africa, Asia, or Americas – which of these four expo shows would you likely book on your diary for 2021, COVID-19 permitting? Are you going to attend SiGMA Affiliate Grand Slam Expo in Dubai?

I haven’t been to any SiGMA event. If the situation with the COVID gets better, I would love to attend SiGMA Europe, and I am going to attend SiGMA Affiliate Grand Slam Expo in Dubai.

Tell us a bit about yourself – after all, business is done with people, not just companies! Your hobbies, favourite book, favourite quote, etc.

I truly love exploring new places and been to 17 countries as of now. I love getting to know more about different cultures and trying new cuisines.

I’m an avid reader, and some of my favourite books are Zero to One by Blake Masters and Peter Thiel, The Lean Startup by Eric Ries, Think and Grow Rich by Napoleon Hill, and The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho.

I value human connection, loyalty and people with a good heart. I am optimistic and believe we can achieve anything we want. Sooner or later, hard work pays off.

About AGS Dubai

The 3-day Affiliate Grand Slam event kicks off in one of the UAE’s most progressive emirates on the 24th of May, 2021 with a series of networking and registration events – before a content-rich conference and buzzing expo floor take over the city’s luxurious Intercontinental Dubai Festival City hotel on the 25th and 26th of May. The unique event is geared towards bringing together thousands of like-minded delegates, such as content marketers, lead generation specialists, media buyers, affiliates, SEO gurus, and influencers for an immersive conference experience. Visit our website to register your interest or for more information.