2025’s Growth Engines: AI, YouTube, and the B2B Partner Surge #68

Executive Summary

2025 is the year of explosive growth for B2B affiliate and influencer marketing, powered by AI, YouTube, and bold partner strategies.

Streaming platforms are being reshuffled, AI is rewriting the rules of search and content, and SaaS companies are seeing record-breaking partner-driven results.

In this edition, we break down the data and tactics behind these shifts. Why YouTube is now the channel to beat, how AI tools are driving urgency in the C-suite, Google is changing the SEO game via AI and new features, the B2B investment game is changing, and why B2B partner programs are outpacing consumer growth by nearly 2x.

Google and AI changes are making partner marketing a necessity.

That means affiliate and influencer marketing are no longer an add-on; they are a MUST-HAVE.

If you want to future-proof your marketing, capitalize on trillion-dollar trends, and unlock outsized ROI, this is your playbook!

If you want your performance marketing plans to die, stick with the status quo; if you want to win, then keep reading.

Streaming Platforms: The New Landscape

• Now more than ever, consumers are stacking and cancelling streaming services like Netflix, HULU, HBO, Apple, Amazon, etc.

• Netflix is the most powerful; YouTube has the most viewership

• The WSJ confirms: YouTube is the channel of 2025—just as predicted in this newsletter!

• Action: Double down on YouTube for reach and engagement

Google I/O 2025: SEO’s Death Rattle, or Reinvention?

The search landscape is undergoing its most radical transformation since Google’s inception—AI Mode and AI Overviews have turned traditional SEO into a relic.

With 1.5 billion users already engaging AI Overviews monthly, the era of “10 blue links” is collapsing. Here’s why SEO will never be the same—and what experts say you must do to survive.

The Death of Traditional SEO

Google’s AI Mode isn’t an experiment—it’s a full-stack overhaul that prioritizes synthesized answers over organic links. Key shifts:

• Search real estate is AI-curated: Competing for “position 1” now means fighting for inclusion in Gemini’s summaries, not ranking for keywords.

• Queries are 2–3x longer: Users expect reasoning, citations, and multi-step solutions.

• Traffic is evaporating: Barry Schwartz notes universal declines in organic clicks post-AI Overviews, with Google prioritizing “query volume growth” over SEO metrics.

Expert Warnings: Adapt or Die

• Mike King (iPullRank): “AI Mode will become the core search experience. SEOs must evolve into ‘relevance engineers,’ blending AI literacy, UX, and digital PR.”

• Jordan Koene (Previsible): “Visibility now hinges on citable content—if Gemini can’t excerpt it, you’re invisible”.

• Rand Fishkin: “The SEO opportunity pie is shrinking. Double down on brand building or risk irrelevance”.

• Kevin Indig: “AI Overviews are a traffic siphon. Structured, authoritative content is your only lifeline.

The New SEO Playbook

The Bottom Line

Google’s AI pivot isn’t a trend—it’s an extinction event for unprepared marketers. As Mike King warns: “Hoping for a return to 2010s SEO is delusional. The future belongs to those who treat AI as a collaborator, not a competitor.”

Take this guy for a spin —> Athena AI to see how your brand is performing not in SEO but in “GEO” = Generative Engine Optimization.

Adapt now, or join the digital fossils.

The State of SaaS, AI, and Venture in 2025

5 Key Takeaways from 20VC:

1. Capital is Plentiful—If You Have the Metrics:  Companies with 10% + MoM growth and $40M+ ARR can close $100M+ rounds in days, even though Series A rounds are down 81% overall. The “haves” and “have-nots” gap is at an all-time high.

2. AI Drives Urgency and Fear: CMOs are buying AI tools out of fear of obsolescence, fueling a gold rush for vendors positioned as job-saving solutions.

3. Trillion Dollar investment thesis: VCs now focus on the “odds of trillion-dollar outcomes,” justifying sky-high valuations for companies with even a small chance at massive scale.

4. Non-Technical CEOs can win in AI: OpenAI’s success shows that leadership, recruitment, and partnerships matter as much as technical chops.

5. Aggressive Capitalization is Key: The winners raise more than they need and “scorched earth” the competition—speed and scale are everything in AI-enabled markets.

B2B SaaS Partner (Affiliate & Influencer) Marketing: The Fastest Growing Segment

• Market Data & Growth: Global affiliate marketing industry: $18.5B in 2024, projected to reach $31.7B by 2031, 8% CAGR for the sector overall. The PMA is coming out with some data that will update this with an even higher number, I estimate, so some of these signals are debatable. 

• SaaS affiliate marketing: Projected CAGR of 15.6% from 2025 to 2028, nearly double the consumer market’s pace.

• B2B Influencer Budgets:  81% of B2B marketers have dedicated influencer budgets; 53% report growing budgets,

• Commissions: SaaS affiliate programs routinely offer 20–70% commissions, among the highest in affiliate marketing.

eMarketer Data:

• US affiliate marketing spending: $11.99B in 2025, up from $10.72B in 2024 (11.9% YoY growth); projected $15.8B by 2028

• Affiliate marketing drives 16% of all US online orders and accounts for 5–25% of total online sales for major brands

• B2B influencer marketing ROI:  $5.20 return for every $1 invested

• 67% of B2B brands use influencer marketing for awareness; 54% for credibility/trust

RBL’s B2B SaaS Affiliate Marketing Playbook

Having grown leading B2B SaaS brands like Atlassian, Hopin, Ironclad, and Grammarly, we have some thoughts.

• Performance-Based, Not Plug and Play: B2B affiliate marketing is not “set and forget.” Success requires strategic recruitment, segmentation, and relationship-building, especially with high-potential “managed” partners.

• ICP & Buyer Journey: Define your ideal customer profile and map the buying journey. Incentivize affiliates to take risks, and structure rewards to align with actual value delivered (often 20 %+ of year-one revenue).

• Managed vs. Unmanaged Partners:  Prioritize high-impact partners for hands-on onboarding and support; automate for the long tail, but segment by type (agency, publisher, influencer) for tailored enablement.

• Attribution & Incrementality: Utilize advanced technology to ensure credit is attributed to partners who introduce new customers, not just those at the last click. Optimize for incremental value, not just volume. If you read the previous issue of this newsletter, you understand the importance of this to us and our clients' benefit.

• Full-Funnel & Post-Purchase: Reward partners for driving qualified leads, not just closed deals. Utilize partnerships to nurture, expand, and retain customers after the sale.

• Tiered-Payouts This is something I will likely touch on in my upcoming discussion at Stack’d

• Think Big - beyond traditional affiliate, with B2B in particular, there is an opportunity to think of it as a multi-channel lever, not a channel,l and to think about tapping into:

  • Affiliates: Content, Media, CLO, Loyalty, Paid Media Partners, Tech Partners, Reddit

  • Podcasts

  • Influencers & Creators: YouTube, LinkedIn, X, Meta

  • Value Added Resellers that are already working with you and promoting your SaaS offering

  • Technology partners that plug into your API / ecosystem

• Think Longer Term - This presents an opportunity to offer payouts in perpetuity or for longer durations than are typically seen in the consumer world, which can make it extremely mutually beneficial for all parties and attractive to sought-after publishers and partners.

• Buy-In & Alignment - Leverage the opportunity to collaborate with your team on goals, KPIs, and challenges, and work cross-functionally with your network and agency to align and maximize the program's effectiveness.

• Education & Enablement - Remember that partners are the lifeblood of the ecosystem, so treat them accordingly and provide them with the best intel and resources to promote you. From Loom videos to dedicated sites, fresh content, and insights into what works and what doesn't, the more you empower your partners, the better.

  What does Amy Scanlon, Tye DeGrange 📈, and Kevin J. Dean all have in… | Adam F.

  What does Amy Scanlon, Tye DeGrange 📈, and Kevin J. Dean all have in common? They'll be speaking at STACK'D CONNECT 2025!

  www.linkedin.com/posts/adam-f-4a5027b9_stackd-connect-2025-just-dropped-the-full-activity-7331379967198408704-muNI?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop&rcm=ACoAAACxWn8BE2oj4V0jvZHFc7peQ1L_uxORtk4

  

Honored to be named in the same breath as Elena Verna by PartnerStack!

Recap

1. YouTube is the channel of 2025 as we predicted here.

2. Google and AI are dramatically changing how marketers think, with significant changes requiring new approaches and fast. Traditional SEO is “Departed” to say the least.

3. It’s time to adapt or die.

4. Venture Pulse for SaaS and AI

5. The B2B Partner Marketing Opportunity is real - we’re here to help

Go forth and do likewise, gents and ladies…

On The Road Again!

• See you in Austin, Texas, for IPX June 9th - 11th! The Round Barn Labs team will be there with sweet merch and featuring our great clients.

  • 20% discount for subscribers, enter 1RBL at checkout

• Affiliate Summit East is coming up August 4th - 5th in New York.

  • 20% discount for subscribers: https://www.affiliatesummit.com/east/register?promo=RBL20 (or use the code RBL20 at checkout)

  • Discount code for CEL is: RBL15 – register here: https://www.creatoreconomylive.com/east/register

• Stack’d (PartnerStack) August 5th - 6th in New York - looking forward to speaking.

Let me know if you want to meet up!