Every few years, game console manufacturers prepare to reveal to the world their definition of the future of gaming. The first hints land as head-scratching easter eggs hidden in promotional marketing. There's little to see and little to know. Over time, the curtain pulls back, teasers pop up on social media, and prices and release dates become public knowledge. All the while, customers of the largest entertainment industry in the world follow closely, eagerly ready to pre-order their own next-generation Sony PlayStation®5.

After last Wednesday's Sony Showcase, the affiliate industry geared up for the event, eagerly awaiting for the moment they could publish pre-order links. High-intent customers weren't sure exactly when, where, or how they'd secure their unit, but they knew they'd need to act quickly, and they knew they'd need to monitor their favorite publishers for the quickest and most reliable access to the prized links.

Taps per second and installs over time (ET) across Button's platform on September 17, 2020

On Thursday, September 17, Button's infrastructure immediately alerted us to a major event: traffic spiked 10x in a matter of seconds and app installs for major retailers tracked more than a 20x increase. PlayStation 5 pre-orders had begun on a major retailer, and Reach™ was poised at the ready.

With Reach, brands, publishers, and users alike benefit from always-on, automatic optimization of mobile affiliate traffic, ensuring that even at the peak of this major pre-order event, users experienced the most seamless path to purchase, regardless of where their treasure hunt began. Reach gave users who clicked on a publisher link the opportunity to either install the retailer's app if they didn't have it or routed them directly to the pre-order page in the retailer's app if the user already had the app.  Reach gave users their best shot at the win.

With the console officially launching on November 12th, Sony sharing promises for additional pre-orders in the next few days and Microsoft's competing console gearing up for its own pre-orders tomorrow, this is just a small preview of the activity Button anticipates heading into this year's holiday shopping season. Driven by both consumer trends and COVID-19, this season of online shopping is gearing up to be like none we've ever seen before.

Check out Reach to learn more about how you can maximize profitability of your affiliate program and give your customers the best possible path to purchase. Reach has proven to deliver 3x higher conversion rates with app-routed users compared to mobile-web-routed users, generating 46% more revenue per tap than standard mobile web affiliate traffic—benefiting both brands and publishers.
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