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Affiliate Marketing Summer Round-Up #54

A lot is going on in the world of affiliate marketing

• Affiliate Summit

• MarTech Record Event

• Nike says too much performance marketing does not work

• AI Impact on Google and Implications for Publishers

• Reddit

• Google Delays Cookie Deprecation - Again

• Affiliate Marketing gaining on other channels

• Partner Stack Stack’d Conference

Affiliate Summit was a great experience.

NYC did not disappoint.

We welcomed new teammates!

The Team The Team The Team

In January 2019, I attended Affiliate Summit West alone, representing RBL with no affiliate clients. Seeing the team grow has been great—we have come a long way!

In April, we won boutique agency of the year and are fortunate to work with some of the best in the business—Grammarly, Atlassian, and Ritual, to name a few. The higher quality, data-driven, higher impact approach is resonating.

MarTech Record Event

I want to give Michael McNerney and the MarTech Record team a tip of the cap. They put together another high-quality event.

MarTech Record Affiliate Marketing Publisher Landscape

Key Takeaway: Newsletters are so hot right now

Key takeaway: Arbitrage is Dead —> Communities and Content to Drive Growth. Nilla Ali at GAAN Creative nailed it, referring to brands needing to take big swings and not be overly micro or data-reliant.

This is directly related to recent tweets from Nike stating that they do not see the return and business value from performance marketing.

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While it is hard to point to performance marketing as the sole issue in their recent performance challenges, and there is likely more to the story, I think there is some truth in this key statement for some brands:

I take that a balance is required, and community, influencer, word of mouth, and brand all matter, not just the lower funnel. Highly measurable is ideal, but brands need storytelling, authenticity, and big swings as well.

AI Challenge and Opportunity Continues

PMA Executive Director Tricia Meyer and I joined other affiliate and SEO experts on LinkedIn Live to discuss “Algorithm and AI Agony.” We discussed the latest Google changes and decreased visibility for publisher sites due to AI / AIO (covered in this newsletter).

And if you were not already spinning from the AI changes to Google, our ad-dominant friends at Google are rolling out - you guessed it - ads in AI overviews.

Reddit 

The Google changes have moved all eyes to Reddit.

I spoke with Hello Partner about how to roll out affiliate marketing on Reddit.

In February of this year, Google announced it was expanding its partnership with Reddit to bring more of the platform’s content into search results and use its information to develop its AI models. 

Reddit's traffic is up 39% year over year this month, according to Similarweb—a massive increase for a platform that's been around for almost 20 years.

This is another example of authentic voices taking over and being valued by individuals and Search Engines.

Google Delays Cookie Deprecation

Moonpull’s article does a great job of highlighting the change and no change.

Google is putting the onus to accept on users who historically have rejected tracking of this kind.

It does not change the inevitable direction but changes how we get there.

Affiliate - is gaining on other performance marketing channels

According to a recent study from eMarketer, Affiliate Marketing is gaining respect vis a vis other channels.

They polled 1,378 US consumers about their attitudes toward advertising and privacy and identified several trends that could shift the balance of power in affiliates…

• Affiliate content is at parity with other ad formats in consumers’ eyes

• Affiliate content is about as trustworthy as most other kinds of advertising

• Affiliate content is about as influential as most other kinds of advertising

In my talks with other affiliate experts, we see more reports of affiliate marketing gaining on programmatic. If you include influencer marketing - it’s a much more excellent opportunity and a way to avoid the Nike trap - an over-reliance on the lower funnel and highly measurable (predominantly Google and programmatic).

Speaking of the growth of affiliate marketing and its improved performance, quality, and perception among users, brands, and providers…

PartnerStack put on a great event in NY focusing on B2B SaaS. It was well-curated, intimate, and transparent, with good data-driven knowledge sharing.

It’s the fastest-growing vertical in affiliate marketing, and we are seeing excellent performance and focus.

Recap

• Affiliate Summit - good turnout, and the team is thriving

• MarTech Record Event - newsletters are hot arbitrage is not

• Nike - data and measurement is great, but you need authentic impact

• AI Impact on Google and Implications for Publishers

• Reddit - a real opportunity to tap trusted voices

• Google Delays Cookie Deprecation - Again - same same but different

• Affiliate Marketing is gaining on other channels - duh!

• Partner Stack Stack’d Conference reflected the growing value in B2B marketing.

Until next time, friends!