Semrush migrated over 1,000 partners from its proprietary system to impact.com, achieving 400% increase in new sign-ups within six months through modern attribution.

Digital marketing platform Semrush achieved a 400% increase in new affiliate partner registrations within six months of migrating from its proprietary system to impact.com’s partnership management platform. The transition addresses technical limitations and attribution challenges that hindered growth under the company’s legacy infrastructure.

Semrush operated an in-house affiliate management system developed in 2009 that utilized first-click attribution paired with a 10-year cookie life, according to the case study released November 2025. The system initially rewarded partners who discovered and promoted Semrush’s digital marketing tools during early growth phases. However, as the platform expanded, this configuration created structural obstacles to recruiting new affiliates.

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The outdated attribution model skewed performance measurements by emphasizing initial touchpoints while diminishing recognition for partners contributing to conversions later in customer journeys, according to the case study materials. This imbalance deterred prospective affiliates who struggled against the extended cookie duration. The interface lacked modern visual reporting capabilities, presenting partners with basic data tables that provided limited actionable insights for optimizing promotional strategies.

Semrush, which serves over 10 million users with more than 55 tools for SEO, content marketing, PPC, and social media management, required updated tracking infrastructure, flexible attribution models, and improved user experience to maintain competitive positioning. The company needed enhanced transparency and effectiveness for both new and established partners.

Before implementing impact.com fully, Semrush conducted parallel operations comparing its in-house first-click attribution with 10-year cookie life against impact.com’s last-click attribution with 120-day cookie duration. The six-month evaluation period demonstrated impact.com’s superior partner acquisition performance, resulting in the 400% increase in new sign-ups compared to 2021 baseline metrics under the legacy system.

The migration encompassed over 1,000 existing partners following the successful evaluation, including long-standing affiliates dating back to 2012, according to impact.com. The company’s technical team executed the transition through dedicated technical managers who enabled seamless API integration without disrupting ongoing operations. Multiple contract terms streamlined onboarding by differentiating partners migrating from the previous program versus new participants.

“The impact.com platform is a massive partnership hub, and migrating there was a game-changer for us,” stated Olga Leonteva, Senior Operations Manager for Semrush Affiliate Program, in the case study. “Thanks to impact.com’s innovative platform environment, our affiliate program grows faster than before.”

The attribution system transformation proved pivotal for program performance. Shifting from rigid first-click measurement to dynamic last-click attribution provided more accurate representation of partner contributions while enhancing transparency. The 120-day cookie life aligned with modern privacy standards and delivered clearer visibility into affiliate marketing effectiveness, ultimately improving partner satisfaction and program results.

Impact.com’s platform replaced outdated navigation with intuitive interfaces featuring comprehensive dashboards that offer clear program performance insights. The system provides detailed business profiles for each partner containing information about promotional channels and geographic focus, supporting data-driven partnership decisions. Approved partner profiles receive continuous updates with performance data, ensuring Semrush maintains current insights for effective collaboration.

Customizable dashboards and real-time data access improved operational processes while enhancing user interaction and productivity. These capabilities met current industry expectations while establishing infrastructure for sustained partner engagement. Enhanced product and commission launches became possible through sustainable API integration with impact.com combined with customizable payout structures, enabling affiliates to expand reach and earnings quickly.

Integrated email systems including newsletter functionality streamlined marketing communications, improving outreach efficiency. The platform’s Dynamic Payouts feature enabled Semrush to implement a comprehensive reward system supporting partners throughout their affiliate journey. Commission structures include $10 for every trial activation and $200 for each new sale, supplemented by regular monetary incentives, quarterly performance bonuses, and rewards for new promotional content.

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The infrastructure supports loyalty program benefits that escalate as partners achieve performance milestones. Personal support from Semrush’s affiliate team, extensive promotional asset libraries, and educational materials complete the partner support ecosystem. The transition demonstrated strategic value in selecting specialized partnership management technology rather than maintaining proprietary systems for complex B2B affiliate operations.

The partnership management infrastructure shift represents broader patterns affecting digital marketing operations as platforms modernize attribution and partnership frameworks. B2B marketing partnerships increasingly rely on specialized technology providers for measurement, tracking, and relationship management capabilities that exceed what individual companies can develop internally.

LinkedIn’s attribution tracking developments and measurement infrastructure improvements demonstrate industry movement toward sophisticated partnership tracking systems. These technological advances enable B2B companies to measure program effectiveness with precision previously unavailable through legacy systems.

Semrush’s recent enterprise partner program launch in October 2025 extends partnership capabilities beyond traditional affiliate relationships into agency collaborations. That initiative positions certified partners to sell, service, and scale with Semrush’s platform while creating mutual revenue opportunities. The company also recently documented a nearly 300% increase in AI visibility through systematic optimization.

The affiliate program transformation occurred against operational challenges including Google’s n=100 parameter elimination in September 2025, which multiplied data retrieval costs by 10x industry-wide. Despite infrastructure pressures, Semrush maintained focus on partnership program modernization as strategic priority for growth.

The case demonstrates technical debt consequences when proprietary systems age beyond their intended operational parameters. Semrush’s 2009-era platform initially provided competitive advantages through customization and control. However, technological advancement, privacy standard evolution, and user experience expectations eventually transformed those same customizations into constraints limiting program effectiveness.

Modern partnership management requires specialized infrastructure accommodating multiple attribution models, real-time performance tracking, automated partner communications, and intuitive interfaces meeting contemporary design standards. Building and maintaining such capabilities internally diverts engineering resources from core product development while creating technical debt as systems age and standards evolve.

Third-party platforms like impact.com consolidate these capabilities into specialized offerings serving multiple clients, enabling continuous investment in features, integrations, and improvements that individual companies struggle to justify for proprietary systems. The cost structures shift from capital expenditure on internal development to operational expenditure on subscription services, often providing superior functionality at lower total cost of ownership.

For B2B companies evaluating affiliate program infrastructure, the Semrush case establishes several considerations. Attribution model selection significantly affects partner recruitment and retention by determining how credit distributes across customer journey touchpoints. Cookie duration must balance partner incentive structures against privacy compliance requirements and realistic purchase cycle timeframes.

User experience quality directly impacts partner satisfaction and program effectiveness, as affiliate marketers operate multiple partnerships simultaneously and gravitate toward platforms offering superior interfaces and reporting capabilities. Integration capabilities determine how effectively partnership data flows into broader marketing analytics systems, affecting strategic decision-making quality.

The migration complexity increases with program maturity, as Semrush’s challenge of transitioning over 1,000 existing partners demonstrates. Companies must evaluate whether proprietary systems provide sufficient competitive advantages to justify ongoing development costs against specialized platform subscription expenses plus migration investment.

Timeline

• 2009: Semrush develops proprietary affiliate management platform with first-click attribution and 10-year cookie life
• 2012: Some of Semrush’s earliest affiliates begin partnerships, later migrating to impact.com
• 2021: Baseline year for comparison; legacy in-house program operations
• June 2025: Semrush launches Enterprise AIO and AI Visibility Toolkit
• June 2025: Impact.com begins parallel evaluation with Semrush’s in-house system
• September 2025: Google eliminates n=100 SERP parameter, creating industry operational challenges
• October 2025: Semrush launches Enterprise Partner Program with Dentsu as premier partner
• October 2025: Semrush documents 300% AI visibility increase through systematic optimization
• November 2025: Six-month impact.com transition shows 400% increase in new partner sign-ups; migration of 1,000+ partners completed
• November 2025: Case study released documenting affiliate program transformation

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Summary

Who: Semrush, a Boston-based digital marketing platform serving over 10 million users, partnered with impact.com, a partnership management technology provider, to modernize its affiliate program infrastructure. The transformation involved migrating over 1,000 existing affiliate partners while recruiting new participants.

What: Semrush replaced its proprietary affiliate management system developed in 2009 with impact.com’s specialized platform, transitioning from first-click attribution with 10-year cookie life to last-click attribution with 120-day cookie duration. The migration resulted in 400% increased new partner sign-ups within six months compared to the in-house program’s 2021 baseline performance.

When: The parallel evaluation comparing both systems began in June 2025, with the full migration completed and case study released in November 2025 after six months of operation under the new infrastructure. Some migrated partners had relationships with Semrush dating back to 2012.

Where: The program operates globally through impact.com’s platform, supporting Semrush’s digital marketing tools business which spans SEO, content marketing, PPC, and social media marketing services for customers worldwide. The technical infrastructure shift affects all affiliate partnerships regardless of geographic location.

Why: Semrush’s legacy system created structural barriers to growth through outdated attribution models that skewed performance recognition, extended cookie durations that deterred new affiliates, and inferior user experience that limited partner optimization capabilities. Modern partnership management required flexible attribution, contemporary interfaces, and specialized features exceeding what proprietary development could efficiently provide. The migration addressed these limitations while establishing infrastructure supporting continued program expansion.