Hearst’s Good Housekeeping Boasts Record Affiliate Revenues

When the Good Housekeeping Institute launched in 1900, the product-testing facility predated both the FDA and the Consumer Product Safety Commission. Now, more than a century later, the Hearst-owned operation aims to use its track record of consumer trust and an ambitious internal expansion to turn its product-review program into an affiliate empire. In 2021, consumers bought 9.6 million items via product review content featured on the Good Housekeeping website, making it the most profitable year for the brand since 2002, said Laurie Jennings, general manager of the Good Housekeeping Institute, the testing facility that powers the product reviews. In December, the publisher had its most lucrative month ever for affiliate ecommerce, with revenue rising 26% compared to the year prior. Over the last decade, overall revenue has risen 400% and the brand is profitable, Jennings confirmed, though she declined to share specific financial figures. Affiliate Marketing Is a Safe Haven for Publishers in a Cookieless Future The website also netted back-to-back months of record-breaking traffic in December and January 2022, reaching 56 million and 49 million total visitors, respectively, according to measurement firm Comscore. By honing its SEO, bulking up its team and expanding its testing capabilities, Good Housekeeping has flexed its ambitions to translate its analog authority into the digital realm. Armed with over a century of experience and staffed by a small legion of chemists and material engineers, Good Housekeeping hopes to differentiate itself from its competitive set by emphasizing its technical approach to product recommendations. “In the magazine or online, the lab is involved in every kind of content we create,” said Jane Francisco, the editor in chief of Good Housekeeping. “Our scientists test products and our editorial team is immersed in that process. It all goes hand in hand.” Search engine sophistication The Good Housekeeping team had been building out its affiliate revenue operation in earnest since 2016, but when the pandemic struck, the publisher made two key changes that helped boost its capabilities: improving SEO and expanding the team. First, the publisher fine-tuned the process it uses to determine what products to test by analyzing search data to see what shoppers were looking for, including the specific language they used and the needs they expressed. The team then conducted tests designed to answer those explicit inquiries. For example, when breaking down its recommendations for the best carpet cleaners, Good Housekeeping offers sections such as best carpet cleaner for area rugs or the best carpet cleaner for pets, niche categories that reflect desires expressed in search data. By using reader behavior to inform its process, Good Housekeeping was able to improve its search engine rankings, boosting the visibility of its methodical testing, said Cristy Garcia, chief marketing officer of the partnership management platform impact.com. "Good Housekeeping is an eminent publisher that has accumulated extremely-strong domain strength," Garcia said. "They are well-positioned to succeed in the world of commerce content because of their domain authority and the trust that they have built over the past few decades, ranking for key household shopping search terms on Page 1 of Google." Home improvement at Good Housekeeping The publisher also expanded the Good Housekeeping Institute to broaden its range of reviews and speed up its rate of content production. In 2021, the testing facility launched three new labs––the Home Improvement and Outdoor Lab, Parenting and Pet Lab and Sales and Deals Lab––bringing its total to eleven. As home improvement projects skyrocketed in popularity during lockdown, Good Housekeeping used the opportunity to extend its expertise into new categories, reviewing tools like lawn mowers and pressure washers. Still, the publisher excels in a variety of traditional categories, said Pat Haegele, svp, group publishing director for Good Housekeeping. Its signature recommendation is for mattresses in a box, whose large price tag and at-home delivery make the product a cash cow for the publisher, Haegele said. In total, last year the publisher helped sell 385,000 vacuums, 295,000 air fryers, 138,000 cookware pieces, 134,000 mattresses and 83,000 air purifiers, according to Jennings. Good Housekeeping has also doubled the size of its in-house testing team, to 30 full-time employees, which enabled it to increase the number of products it tests annually, from 5,000 in 2019 to 11,000 last year. The publisher will also debut an additional 2,000 square feet of lab space for the Institute by the end of the year. Growth of GH+ In June 2020, Good Housekeeping unveiled its membership offering GH+ for $20 annually. Subscribers get unlimited access to digital content, the print magazine––which claims a circulation of 13 million––and, notably, the chance to become an at-home product tester. Good Housekeeping has built a roster of over 85,000 at-home product testers, the majority of whom joined before the launch of GH+. The publisher declined to share its membership numbers, though Jennings notes that the program is in its infancy. However, the at-home testing perk serves to both add value to the membership product––testers get to keep the products they research, including mattresses––as well as strengthen the review process of the Good Housekeeping Institute. “I was once testing a face cream in a glass jar at home, and I dropped it and it shattered on the floor,” Jennings said. “That would never have happened in the lab because we are so careful, but we ship these all across the country to all different kinds of people. So that just gives us an extra data point.” Architectural Digest Launches Home Improvement Vertical, AD It Yourself

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Hearst’s Good Housekeeping Boasts Record Affiliate Revenues

The publisher is capitalizing on its 122-year-old testing facility

Mark Stenberg

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Mark Stenberg