Episode 75: 90% First-Time Buyers From the Channel Most Brands Dismiss

Sep 21

"We're bringing probably 90% first-time clients, higher average order values, higher conversion rates than the overall traffic to our client sites."

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TL;DR — Key Takeaways

Affiliate traffic is not coupon traffic. For Revit's clients it is first-time buyers in the low 90s percent, with 25 to 50 percent higher order values and conversion rates than the site's overall traffic.
One in three consumers now use AI tools for product research at least monthly, and the fastest-growing source of citations in AI answers is creators: affiliates, influencers, and independent content. The people writing about a brand are becoming its visibility.
"We do the same thing, but better" gives a buyer no reason to choose you. "We do it differently, and here is why" does.
Recruit creators outbound. Most of the affiliates on Revit's programs were sought out on purpose, briefed on a call, and often sent product before they wrote a word.
Sort channels by shelf life. Blogs and YouTube get found again and again. Instagram and TikTok are for a moment.
Position around one industry, then expand to its neighbours. Golf first, then pickleball, hiking, fishing.
Test for today: pull your last 90 days of traffic by channel and ask which sources bring first-time buyers. If you cannot answer, that is the gap Reid built a business in.

Does This Sound Familiar?

You know affiliate exists. You have probably run a program, or been pitched one. And somewhere along the way you filed it under coupon codes, last click, and margin leak. A channel to tolerate, not to build on.

Meanwhile your buyers have changed how they shop. They ask an AI which brands are worth a look before they ever see your site. The answer that AI gives comes from what other people have written about you. Not your case studies. Not your homepage.

Reid Colson saw both halves of that shift from an unusual seat. He spent 25 years in data and analytics and made it to chief data officer. On the side he ran a golf simulator site as an affiliate himself. Then one night on a drive home he asked his daughter, on a whim, whether they should start an agency together. She said yes. Three years later Revit Digital runs affiliate programs for golf and outdoor brands, and Reid has the numbers most founders never see — for most of his clients, affiliate traffic is over 90 percent first-time customers. This episode is about what those numbers say, and why the channel you dismissed may be the one that gets you found.

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Meet the Guest

Reid Colson is the founder and CEO of Revit Digital, an affiliate marketing agency for golf and outdoor brands that he runs with his daughter, a brand strategist. Before Revit he spent 25 years in data and analytics, finishing as a chief data officer, and five years in technology consulting. He came to affiliate as a practitioner first: a golf simulator site he built and monetised himself. That combination, data discipline plus a creator's view of the channel, is why this conversation is so specific.

Episode Summary

1. A question on a drive home

Reid and his daughter had talked for years about doing something together. It stayed abstract until an evening when she was working at a brand agency in Los Angeles and he was driving home, comparing notes. He said, with no plan behind it, "maybe you and I should start an agency together." She said, "Yeah, let's do it."

"Nothing cements that commitment for you like making a commitment to your children," he said. From there the shape of the business came from the assets they already had: her brand strategy training, his data background, and his side project as a golf affiliate.

2. The makeup email

Reid's clearest signal that affiliate management had a gap came from his inbox. As a golf affiliate he received broadcast messages asking whether he would like to promote somebody's makeup. "There's some management in this space that didn't really have their eye on the ball," he said. He compared it to getting direct mail from a company that already serves you. A data person reads that as a system nobody is watching.

So the founding question was not "how do we do affiliate" but "how could we do it differently." David picks this up: agencies that enter a category saying "we do the same thing, but better" give a buyer no way to choose. Reid credits his daughter's brand work for the standard they hold themselves to. "Differentiating your brand is actually being able to authentically live your promises, not just put something on your website that anybody else could do."

3. What fills the pipeline three years in

Reid is candid that pipeline is the part of the business he is still learning. His top channel is relationships: introductions from people who can bring credibility before the first call. "I don't think this is really a secret to anybody," he said, but they produce the best discovery conversations and the highest close rate.

Two newer channels are starting to compound. Account executives at Impact, the affiliate platform his clients run on, have begun sending referrals. And content on Revit's own content sites, not the agency site, recently brought in a client who sought them out. Reid is a data person, so he adds the caveat himself: "these aren't scale. This is onesie, twosie kind of stuff."

David's read is that this is exactly how sub-million-dollar agencies grow, and that even the large ones stay relationship-driven. Cold outbound works when your reputation arrives first. Events work because trust gets built in a room. Every channel is really a way to build authority, and authority is what makes an agency fee feel safe next to a software subscription.

4. Affiliate isn't a coupon channel

This is the section to send to anyone who still thinks of affiliate as last click. Reid starts with the industry number: roughly 9.5 to 10 percent of US e-commerce traffic has an affiliate touch somewhere in the funnel. Then he narrows to his clients.

First, who arrives. For most Revit clients, affiliate traffic is in the low 90s percent first-time customers. "The affiliates are bringing new discovery." Second, what they do. Order values run 25 to 50 percent or more above the site's average, and conversion rates run 25 to 50 percent higher too. Some of that is coupon behaviour. Most of it, Reid argues, is an educated buyer who has already read the comparison.

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"For most of our clients, first-time customers are in the low 90s. The affiliates are bringing new discovery."

5. The AI visibility case

Then Reid connects the channel to the thing every brand is anxious about. At a recent event an eMarketer presentation put two numbers together. One in three consumers now say they use AI tools for product research at least monthly. And the fastest-growing category of sources that AI answers cite is creators: affiliates, influencers, and independent content.

"Having this network that is writing about you, that isn't you writing about yourself, is going to be very important in this world of AI visibility," he said. The affiliate program he sells as a revenue channel has quietly become a discovery channel inside the AI answers his clients' customers are reading.

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Why do those buyers spend more? Reid offered it as opinion, not data. Affiliate content gets consumed at two points. At the top of the funnel someone searches "best golf clubs for a senior golfer" and narrows the field. Further down they read comparisons of brand X against brand Y on the features they now care about. By the time they click, they feel informed and confident. "They won't have regret afterwards."

6. How Revit recruits creators

The operating model is more deliberate than most brands expect. Revit sorts affiliates into categories, coupon, cashback, sub-affiliate networks, newsletters, blogs and sites, and pays each on terms that match the work involved. Recruitment is mostly outbound. "A majority of the folks that are on the programs that we manage are ones that we've intentionally sought out."

Each creator gets a briefing call. Revit's marketing director spends a large share of her week on those calls, learning what a creator makes well and matching it to a client's content strategy. Sometimes the creator sets the terms: no review without product in hand. Sometimes Revit places the content on the client's site as well as the creator's, and layers user-generated content into the client's paid media on top.

On channels, Reid sorts by shelf life. Websites, blogs, and YouTube keep getting discovered. Instagram and TikTok are short-term promotion. His research effort goes mostly to publishers, bloggers, YouTube, and Instagram.

7. Beyond golf

David closes on the constraint every niche agency hits: there are only so many golf brands before you compete with yourself. Reid's answer is a small firm's answer. "The nice thing about being really small right now is that we've got a long runway." He will not chase everything. Revit will stay golf and golf adjacent: sports, outdoors, active lifestyle. Pickleball, hiking, camping, tennis, fishing. The creators overlap and so do the people who read them.

Notable Quotes

"Nothing cements that commitment for you like making a commitment to your children."
"Differentiating your brand is actually being able to authentically live your promises, not just put something on your website that anybody else could do."
"Having this network that is writing about you, that isn't you writing about yourself, is going to be very important in this world of AI visibility."
"I don't want to try to be everything for everybody."