What is the Aggregator Business Model?

Have you ever found a new home or apartment on Zillow?  Maybe you have bought something from an independent business on Amazon?  Before watching a movie, do you read reviews on Rotten Tomatoes?

If you have done any of these things, you have used a website known as an aggregator.  Aggregator sites, in short, are websites in which related content concerning information, products, or services from different businesses and/or suppliers is gathered and organized in one place.  With the aggregator model, the aggregator website is its own entity that enters into an agreement or partnership with the providers of the information, products, or services to include this content on its website.  This partnership is a win-win situation because the aggregator is paid by the providers to display and market their products or services, and the providers remain the sole owners of their business as well as the products or services provided and get more customers and sales.

RestorationMasterFinder.com is an example of a website that uses the aggregator model to generate sales leads.  This website run by our team at RestorationMaster, consists of geographically optimized micro-sites that promote the services of disaster restoration contractors that we partner with.  We offer exclusive territories to our partners to avoid direct competition on our website, and the leads we generate go straight to the licensed service provider.  This is how we create win-win situations with our partners in the disaster restoration industry.

There are some who say that the aggregator model is not beneficial for businesses.  However, there are some major examples of successful aggregators benefitting their partners such as Zillow, Amazon, Grub Hub, Airbnb, and more.  In this guide, we will explain the aggregator business model, how it works, and how it can benefit your business.

What is an Aggregator?

Simply put, an aggregator is an online platform that collects related items of content and displays them.  This model can be applied to anything from a blog that features a variety of home recipes to a single website that displays the products and services of similar businesses.

As mentioned above, aggregators enter partnerships in which the included providers pay a fee to display their information, products, or services under the brand of the aggregator.  The aggregator collects the content and organizes it under a single domain so that users can easily find products and services in one place and even match prices.  In this partnership, the providers own the products and services being displayed and any orders or sales leads are sent to them directly.  The aggregator markets its own brand to increase its traffic and visibility so it can deliver more customers to its partners.

How Does the Aggregator Business Model Work?

The aggregator business model when broken down is quite simple.  It starts with the aggregator building, branding, and marketing a website to display related information, products, or services.  Effective management of the aggregator website will help it achieve high rankings in the Google search results and establish itself as a trusted brand within a particular field or industry.

Once established, aggregators apply the aggregator business model which includes the following steps:

• The aggregator reaches out to providers or responds to inquiries from providers within its particular industry.
• The aggregator offers a partnership plan in which it promises to deliver more customers and increase business sales or leads.
• The provider decides to become partners and signs a contract with the aggregator to sell their products or services on the aggregator website.
• The aggregator optimizes the content from the provider and markets it to improve its rankings in the search engine results pages (SERPs) and attract more customers.
• The customers purchase a product or schedule a service through the aggregator.
• The partners get more sales and leads.
• In some partnerships, the aggregator will get a commission of the sale. In other instances, such as with RestorationMaster, the aggregator will get a monthly fee from the provider and the provider gets 100 percent of the purchase or sale.

Characteristics of the Aggregator Business Model

There are many different types of aggregators that serve a wide range of industries.  However, the aggregator business model will always have the following characteristics:

• Partnerships: The aggregate business model is based on partnerships between the providers and the aggregator. The providers are never employees of the aggregator and the aggregator assumes no ownership of the provider’s products or services.  The provider remains its own independent business and may continue to make their own decisions regarding their business.  The terms of the partnership are explained in a contract that is signed by both parties.
• Contracts: The contracts between an aggregator and provider spell out what is expected of both parties. Typically, the aggregator is tasked with branding and marketing to generate more leads for their partners and the providers are tasked with providing quality products and services.  These contracts will also establish pricing, whether the aggregator gets a commission of each sale or collects a fee while the provider gets 100 percent of the sale.
• Industry: Aggregators serve a specific industry and will partner with providers that are of this industry.
• Customers: The aggregator business model has a dual customer base; its partners and the consumers that visit its website to make a purchase or book a service. Aggregators market their brand to gain the trust of consumers who go through them for products and services as well as providers to form a partnership and increase their customer base.
• Branding: Aggregators spend much of their resources building their brand to establish themselves as a trusted authority within the industry they serve. Providers who partner with an aggregator will benefit from their strong brand awareness.

The Benefits of Working with RestorationMaster

At RestorationMaster, we generate quality sales leads for disaster restoration contractors through our aggregate website restorationmasterfinder.com.  Our goal is to create a win-win situation in which our clients benefit from the rankings and visibility of restorationmasterfinder.com to attract more customers and get more sales leads for a better ROI.

Contractors who work with RestorationMaster benefit in the following ways:

• Efficient project management: When you enter a contract with RestorationMaster, you can expect efficient management of your project and good ROI. Your project manager will continually optimize and monitor your micro-sites, rankings and leads, and provide you with monthly reports.
• Efficient website management: You can also expect us to effectively manage and market restorationmasterfinder.com to maintain our visibility and rankings which benefits all included businesses. It is much more efficient to optimize and monitor the performance in the SERPs for one website like restorationmasterfinder.com than to manage different websites for each client.
• Exclusive territories: RestorationMaster offers exclusive territories for our clients, which means you will not be competing with other businesses included on restorationmasterfinder.com. Your company will be our only partner in your service area.
• Compliance with Google’s Local Services platform policies:com is a local services platform and must comply with the Local Services platform policies from Google to be successful. Our SEO experts will keep your micro-sites in compliance with this policy and use best local SEO practices to market your business in your service areas.
• 100 percent of your sale: Businesses who partner with RestorationMaster pay a monthly fee and their sales leads are sent directly to them. We do not take a commission from the sale, included businesses get 100 percent of the revenue.

Call RestorationMaster for Restoration Contractor Leads

If you are concerned that your restoration business is not getting enough leads or losing leads to your competitors, call RestorationMaster for effective lead generation services.  We have helped boost sales leads for many restoration contractors just like your business including water damage leads, fire damage leads, and leads for mold remediation.  When you work with RestorationMaster, your territories are exclusive and your sales leads will be sent to you directly.

You can call RestorationMaster at (888) 860-7679 to learn more.