Whether you’re looking to sign up with an affiliate marketing agency for the first time, or you’re looking to switch, you may have already done research and come across DMi Partners.
It’s easy to assume that agencies that have the most influencers or brands under their belt are the best, but the right agency is always the one that aligns with your/your brand’s strategy and expectations.
Almost everyone promises transparency, strategic partnerships and publisher recruitment. But when you ask how they measure success, who actually manages your account and how they’ll prove that affiliates are contributing to overall business growth, you get to the meat of what an agency can do.
DMi Partners has built a great reputation in the affiliate marketing space but like any agency, it may not be the perfect fit. Here’s a breakdown of what they do well.
What makes DMi Partners a Great Choice?
DMi Partners has a strong network of brands and creators in the ecommerce, retail and consumer-based industries. They offer a wide range of services such as SEO and paid media, influencer marketing, Amazon marketplace management and content partnership.
DMi’s strength lies in its breadth of services, and their ability to help brands scale, and when you look at their affiliate marketing offering, there’s a strong focus on publisher recruitment and strategic partnership development, which sets brands up for success.
But it’s still important to measure agency success on four key points:
- Reporting
- Resources
- Account structure
- Specialized expertise
What Should You Consider When Evaluating Agencies?
Let’s take a look at those four key points in more detail that matter more than awards and big brands:
Reporting
Affiliate marketing has come a long way from coupons and cashbacks, which are the simplest metrics to report. The shift in affiliate marketing reporting was based on the amount of referring channels and ensuring revenue was attributed correctly.
When it comes to conversions, incrementality is what matters – whether a partner has actually generated incremental value or captured demand that already existed. Some agencies still tend to focus on attribution data only rather than looking into proprietary measurement technology that provides deeper insights into partner value.
Account Structure
It’s important to understand who will be looking after your account. Some larger agencies have multiple people within a team dedicated to a certain function rather than a client. You’ll find some agencies have a more dedicated account management approach where a small team is involved in your account from onboarding to strategy and execution.
Internal Resources
Similar to account structure, you need to ensure that there are enough resources to maintain the momentum of your brand, especially following a few successful campaigns. If you’re currently with an agency, these resources matter a great deal to support your transition to a new agency.
Correct onboarding should guarantee that customers or partners won’t even know that you’ve switched agencies! Building a strong relationship with brands and creators says more about an agency than their bragbook numbers.
Specialized Expertise
This is possibly one of the most important factors to consider. Affiliate marketing is definitely not a one-size-fits all channel.
Publisher strategies differ based on industries due to diverse demographics, unique customer journeys, buyer patterns and the level of trust required to make a purchase.
Here are four other agencies that are considered to be great DMi Partners alternatives:
| Agency | Size | Best For | Tech That Stands Out |
| PartnerCentric | Largest independent partnership agency in the US | Brands whose biggest challenge is proving real ROI, not just recruiting more affiliates | FUSE Incrementality™ and FUSE Precision, patented tools that isolate incremental revenue and flag duplicate commission credits |
| Acceleration Partners | 300+ remote staff, 170–230 brands, 40+ countries | Large, established brands running global or multi-market programs | APVision®, a proprietary reporting platform for real-time dashboards and predictive optimization |
| Gen3 Marketing | 200+ team across six continents | Brands with an already-mature affiliate program looking to scale further, especially alongside SEO/SEM | Full-funnel service model combining affiliate with PR, paid media, and Amazon affiliate management |
| Advertise Purple | Mid-sized, 300K+ affiliate relationships built since founding | Budget-conscious mid-market DTC and ecommerce brands | Performance-based billing model (one of few agencies offering this) alongside proprietary campaign-matching technology |
1. PartnerCentric
As an agency focused on affiliate and partnership marketing, one of their biggest differentiators is FUSE Incrementality™, which is their own proprietary measurement platform designed to help brands understand which partners are genuinely driving incremental value.
If you’re evaluating PartnerCentric based on the four key points listed above, they tick all the boxes. Their service offering is centered around understanding the actual contribution partners make to a brand’s growth. Plus, they have a dedicated account management approach, which is key to driving consistent results and building great partner relationships.
PartnerCentric goes beyond basic level reporting ensuring brands also have a good understanding of their ROA. They also cater to growing and established brands making them an excellent choice as an affiliate marketing agency.
Choose PartnerCentric if you’re looking for strong incrementality measurement, transparency and dedicated account management.
2. Acceleration Partners
Acceleration Partners is best known for helping brands expand internationally and achieve cross-regional and/or global reach. Their focus is on enterprise-level brands mainly in the retail market and have an outstanding reputation based on their long list of awards!
They also offer advanced reporting along with AI-driven analytics that promise customized solutions.
Having over 200 brands on their books speaks to their results-driven approach to affiliate marketing. This makes them a good choice if you’re looking to scale.
Choose Acceleration Partners if you have a large brand and you’re focused on international growth.
3. Gen3 Marketing
Similar to Acceleration Partners, Gen3 Marketing also has an appetite for bigger affiliate programs and brands that are focused on scaling as a primary goal.
Their offering is well rounded, too. Like DMi Partners, Gen3 not only helps brands with affiliate marketing but PR, influencer marketing, paid media, SEO and Amazon affiliate marketing as well.
This broad offering is appealing to brands that want diversity in their results and who already have quite a mature affiliate program. They offer transparent reporting that aligns with your brand’s objectives and use historical transactional data to shape their strategy recommendations.
Choose Gen3 Marketing if you already have a well-established affiliate program and you’re looking to grow.
4. Advertise Purple
Best for ecommerce brands, Advertise Purple boasts staggering numbers across their success metrics. They focus on aggressive growth by leaning on in-house marketing specialists.
Even though they’re a newcomer to the affiliate marketing agency game, partner relationships are important to them and they too have a transparent manner in reporting and billing. They are one of the only agencies to offer performance-based billing.
Advertise Purple’s commitment to scale could mean that their strategy may not align with your brand. Again referring to the four key evaluators above (reporting, account management style, internal resources and specialised expertise), their strengths lie in ecommerce industries and they also still rely on coupon and cashback methods.
Choose Advertise Purple if your primary goal is expansion.
Five Things to Ask Prospective Agencies
Taking everything into account, I thought it’d be helpful to share a short list of questions you can ask agencies up front to help make your decision.
How Do You Measure Success?
The answer you’re looking for here should be based on incrementality and not just revenue or the amount of publishers recruited.
Who Will Be Managing My Account?
You’ll want to know more about the day-to-day management of your account, not just the senior team members who guide the strategy.
What Experience Do You Have in My Industry?
Let’s hope that you don’t get an answer along the lines of “we’re experts in all industries”. Make sure they showcase examples that are relevant to your business.
What Does Your Onboarding Process Look Like?
A good onboarding process should include tracking validation, publisher communications, a review of existing partnerships and a clear transition plan.
How Transparent Is Your Reporting?
What you don’t want to see is a sales proposal with a screenshot example of a report. They should be willing to share what their reporting dashboard looks like and how it works.
Key tip: an agency should ask as many questions about your business / brand as you ask about them. This is a great indicator for whether they have a ‘one-size-fits-all’ approach.
How to Choose the Best DMi Partners Alternative?
In your reevaluation process, it’s easy to get influenced by agencies with the biggest clients, success rates, and the most awards but the most important thing to remember is the challenge you’re trying to solve.
The better starting point is to look at your own goals:
- Are you trying to expand into new markets?
- Improve reporting?
- Launch an affiliate program for the first time?
- Increase revenue from an existing program?
If you’re an established ecommerce brand with aggressive international growth plans, an agency with global experience and enterprise-level resources (like Acceleration Partners and Gen3 Marketing) will likely be a better fit than a smaller boutique agency.
On the other hand, if you’re a growing brand that values a close working relationship and hands-on strategic guidance, a dedicated account management model may deliver far more value than access to a large agency network.
If your biggest challenge isn’t growth but proving the impact of your affiliate program then an agency like PartnerCentric would be a good fit as they focus on incrementality measurement and dedicated account management. Having greater visibility into which partnerships are genuinely driving new business can make strategic decisions much easier as your program matures.
The more clearly you understand your own objectives, the easier it becomes to identify the partner that’s genuinely equipped to help you achieve them.
Frequently Asked Questions
Affiliate management alongside SEO, paid media, PR, email, and Amazon marketplace management. Good for brands that want one team across several channels.
Whether a sale happened because of a partner, not just alongside one. It’s the difference between real new revenue and a partner claiming credit for a sale that would’ve happened anyway.
Is PartnerCentric Only Good for Measurement-Focused Brands?
Mostly, yes. Its FUSE platform is built to separate truly incremental partners from ones capturing existing demand, and to catch duplicate commission payouts.
Acceleration Partners focuses on global, multi-market execution across 40+ countries. Gen3 pairs affiliate tightly with SEO and paid search in a single market.
No. It reflects a mid-market focus, and it’s one of the only agencies here offering performance-based billing. Just confirm account staffing upfront.
Not automatically. Ask for incrementality data first. A clear explanation and fix means adjust strategy; a vague answer means consider switching.
Can Smaller Agencies Support a Large Brand?
Often, yes. Headcount isn’t the best signal. Ask how many people are dedicated to your account and whether their tech matches your program’s scale.