Meet the Partner: Leaf

This month we speak to Mark Stein, Director of Business Development & Partnerships at Leaf, a technology and data science company that delivers performance marketing solutions for high-growth eCommerce brands.

Who are Leaf?

Leaf is a Technology & Data Science Co. delivering performance marketing solutions for high-growth eComm brands.

We empower superior decision-making and paid media spending efficiency through a hybrid of hands-on expertise and our Performance Intelligence platform, Leaf Grow.
We’re headquartered in the UK with a remote team that extends from Costa Rica to Jakarta, giving us 24hr coverage, many languages & ‘global’ knowledge.

How did Leaf begin?

Leaf began as a music startup in an attic in Newcastle via Costa Rica (where two founders are from). 

We built a music app called Leaf Music, which became the Top 10 in a third of the world and is used by millions of people worldwide. We also built a marketing automation platform, Leaf Grow, to help us market the app. Facebook did a case study on us.

We started running campaigns for some of the top artists and labels in the music industry, and after getting some great traction selling merch, we started our pivot into eCommerce, where we specialise today. 

Who is in the Leaf team? 

The company is split 50x50 between Data Science & Engineering + Marketing & Creative. A conscious balance of science and art.

Unusually for a performance marketing agency, our CEO, Gil, is a software engineer who formerly ran teams at Intel and Microsoft. Even more unusual is our tech team, which is female-led. Our CTO Helga was formerly the lead iOS developer for Grindr, and our heads of engineering, data, and QA are also female. It seems odd having to point this out, but it is far from the “tech bros” moron vibe that seems to be the norm.

We have many different languages and cultures in the business, making for a much more interesting and nicer working environment. It’s less pretentious, gentler in tone and always throws up nice surprises.

Who are Leaf’s current customers?

Typically high-growth digitally native D2C challenger brands like Snug and Carwow use us as a managed service. We also work with more established brands such as Footasylum and GoCompare, but usually on a hybrid of expertise + tech.

Our typical media spend is north of £70k a month minimum.

We work across categories from fashion and cosmetics to homeware and electronics, and most of our customers sell internationally, mainly across Europe and the US.

Which key challenges do your customers face, and how does Leaf help them solve them?

The number one challenge for our clients is data management, processing, structuring and visualising data to enable smarter decision-making and, ultimately, better media spending efficiency and profitable sales growth.

Our data services team handles all our customers’ conversion tracking & analytics. Proper conversion tracking is tragically undervalued by brands and criminally underserved by the performance marketing industry. If you don’t take care of the signal, you cannot possibly control performance.

As part of the Leaf Grow suite, we have a solution called Connect, which handles browser and server-side tracking for Meta, Google & GA4 and also comes with a tool called Watcher which monitors tracking events and the stability of web pages so we can rapidly identify, diagnose and fix tracking issues. Broken pixels and tags cost the industry 10s of millions of dollars a year in wasted ad spend.

Our Answers tool handles analysis and insight. It helps us report on first-party sales, product and customer LTV performance, and channel and creative performance.

We also have an AI-powered performance forecasting tool called Predict AI, which we’re really excited about. More on that below.

Who are your future ideal customers, and who would you like to work more with?

We want to work with smart, innovative and ambitious teams that share our work and cultural ethos and understand their customers and unit economics. A long-term and pragmatic mindset is also rare, especially in high-growth businesses, but having a vision and knowing where you’re going is crucial.

Our technology really shines for businesses whose revenues are driven primarily by digital D2C, or at least the business has an ambitious desire to scale digital D2C revenues.

We’re also starting to help larger companies in-house their marketing operations, with the Leaf Grow suite providing a turn-key solution for doing that, alongside hybrid support from our team of data science and eComm marketing experts.

How does Leaf work?

We provide a holistic hybrid technology and services solution for companies wanting to outsource or in-house. Our services are powered by Leaf Grow and are split into four tiers:

• Performance→ Cross-channel performance strategy & execution, including media planning, forecasting and optimisation.

• Data → Conversion Tracking, Analytics (GA4), Product Feeds, Data warehousing & BI Reporting.

• Creative → Brand-tailored, data-led, performance-driven, multi-format social ads, optimised to meet ad channel best-practice and combat fatigue. Creative strategy, brand & competitor analysis and copywriting.

• Web →  Design & build, migration, SEO and CRO.

What makes Leaf unique? 

We’re a technology company in a sea of agencies. We don’t just use tech; we build it. It helps us deliver a level of service and results that other agencies can’t come close to. Our Data Service is really the USP of our service offering, and most of our technology stems from this expertise.

What’s new at Leaf?  

We’re building a new tool called Predict AI - no surprise it's a predictive AI-driven modelling tool for performance forecasting.

We see it as a post attribution, post cookie solution for smarter media spend allocation. Google is sunsetting most of its attribution models this year, and last-click attribution will probably die in 2025. Everything will be based on a data-driven attribution model, which has zero transparency about how the model works, so why fight it when AI can help you model the future based on the data you already have.

All anybody wants is a certain level of confidence that they’re allocating their spend against the right channels, audiences, and optimal creatives for the intent stage.

Who else do you partner with? Any emerging marketplaces and technologies retailers we should look out for? 

We partner with a lot of eCommerce focussed tech platforms (Klaviyo, Gorgias, Loyalty Lion, Attentive, etc.). We really like what Penny Black is doing on the post-purchase journey and Octane AI, which provides technology for gathering zero-party customer insight.

Any tips for preparing for peak? 

1. Conversion Tracking Audit - signal audit & fixing/enhancement.
2. Promo Planning - historical performance analysis against AOV and conversion rates, strategy & projections.
3. Budget Pacing Plan - week-on-week allocation against monthly projections.
4. Creative Planning - know what works with a funnel-tailored testing framework before you go into peak season. Then you’re only scaling winning concepts.
5. Web Regression Testing - cross-device and top browser performance & smoke testing.

Why did you decide to partner with Whistl?

Following a presentation we saw by James Hayes (Dir of Biz Dev at Whistl) at the Smart Retail Expo this year, it made us sit up and realise that Whistl is a forward-thinking and innovative company that understands the importance of data and how to use that data in the right way to drive better customer experience. 

We’re totally aligned in our thinking and complement each other very well.

What are the best things about Whistl?

1. Cost-Effective Solutions
   Whistl's services may provide cost-effective alternatives to traditional postal services, helping businesses save on postage and shipping expenses.
2. Customized Solutions
   They can offer personalised solutions tailored to specific business requirements, such as direct mail campaigns or targeted advertising.
3. Environmental Initiatives
   They emphasise eco-friendly practices, such as providing carbon-neutral delivery options or promoting sustainable packaging solutions.
4. National and International Reach
   With their network and partnerships, Whistl can offer domestic and international delivery options, enabling businesses to reach customers globally.
5. Innovative Technologies
   The company can utilise advanced tracking and technology solutions to enhance transparency and provide real-time shipment tracking.
6. Customer Support
   Whistl can offer dedicated customer support to assist businesses with shipping and mailing needs, ensuring a smooth and hassle-free experience.

How important is a multi-carrier delivery approach to your clients?

The multi-carrier delivery approach is crucial for our customers because it enhances their shipping experience and overall satisfaction. By utilising multiple carriers, they can optimise shipping costs, ensure reliable and timely deliveries, and offer flexible options such as faster shipping speeds or eco-friendly choices.

This approach minimises shipping disruptions, provides greater control over the delivery process, and ultimately improves customer retention and loyalty, which is good news for us and the client so they don’t lose customers they have worked so hard to acquire, especially with CAC rising.

How important is proactive customer service to your clients?

Clients want to know that you care, and they want to feel the energy you’re giving to their brand/project. Being proactive with ideas and forthcoming with issues and solutions is a surefire way to make clients feel they’re taken care of.
People don’t always remember what you say, but they do remember how you made them feel.

Where do you see Leaf in 3 to 5 years? 
In 3 to 5 years, Leaf will be the market-leading AI-powered analytics platform for high-growth eComm brands. We’ll be empowering both in-house teams and acting as an outsourced partner, and we’ll be riding the flying pancake all the way to Shangri-La, hopefully.

As the eCommerce space continues to evolve, Leaf and Whistl will strive to facilitate their clients with additional features and services. From performance marketing solutions to logistics and fulfilment, the two companies look to take this partnership from strength to strength.

Listen to Leaf's origin story firsthand from the company's CEO, Gilbert Corrales and CMO/CCO, Wesley Hartley, below!