Case Studies

Pets at Home

Full-Funnel Affiliate Optimisation for Sustainable Growth

The Results

In partnership with Rakuten Advertising, Pets at Home transformed its affiliate programme into a diversified, full-funnel growth engine:

52%

year-on-year increase in sales

56%

year-on-year increase in orders

68%

year-on-year increase in clicks

About the Brand

Pets at Home is the UK’s leading pet care retailer, offering a wide range of products, services, and expert advice for pet owners nationwide. Known for its customer-first approach, the brand is committed to improving the lives of pets and their owners through innovation and trusted service.

The Story

Facing a rapidly evolving digital landscape and shifting consumer behaviours, Pets at Home set out to future-proof its affiliate programme. The objective: drive over 50% year-on-year sales growth, restructure the publisher mix, and activate new publisher models to reach untapped audiences. To get there, the brand needed to diversify its affiliate mix, optimise partner engagement, and enhance the customer journey — all while maintaining brand safety and operational excellence.

The Rakuten Advertising Solution

By embracing innovation, data-driven strategy, and collaborative execution, Pets at Home and Rakuten Advertising delivered a resilient, future-ready affiliate programme — setting a new benchmark for sustainable growth in the UK pet retail sector.

Diversified Partner Activation & Dynamic Commissioning

Rakuten Advertising mapped the affiliate landscape to identify underutilised publisher types and dormant partners. Through proactive onboarding, tailored commission incentives, and exclusive opportunities, new partners including Blue Light Card and content publishers were activated, driving incremental value and reach.

Full-Funnel Optimisation & App Tracking

The introduction of app tracking enabled seamless attribution across all customer touchpoints, capturing mobile-first audiences and expanding reach. Bespoke campaigns and integrated content placements — powered by Rakuten Advertising’s Audience Engine and Skimlinks — unlocked upper-funnel growth and brought greater balance across the customer journey.

Operational Excellence & Brand Safety

Rigorous network quality controls, sub-network transparency, and proactive fraud monitoring ensured all partners remained aligned with Pets at Home’s brand values. Enhanced offers, such as ‘mega rate’ cashback events and exclusive discount codes for closed user groups, further elevated customer engagement and loyalty.

The team at Rakuten Advertising have been an integral part of helping us achieve our ambitious goal of +50% affiliate sales growth YoY. Thanks to the Rakuten Advertising team’s expertise and recommendations, we have managed to successfully diversify our portfolio of affiliates, now working with several publisher types including cashback, content, rewards, and more. Using Rakuten Advertising as our affiliate network of choice has enabled us to grow our affiliate program significantly YoY, helping us to overcome obstacles and blockers in order to introduce strategies such as dynamic commissioning (particularly with CSS partners). Following the team’s recommendations, we have also been able to focus on affiliate program health and ensure that the affiliate channel is driving high quality incremental traffic to our site. The introduction of these strategies has continued to support our business priorities and wider marketing efforts. We are continually impressed with the level of service we receive from our account managers, and look forward to a successful partnership throughout 2026.

Isobel Bridge
Affiliate & Campaign Specialist | Pets at Home

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