Affiliate Marketing Modernization Brings New Possibilities

Outdated. Old school. These are the labels tossed out to disparage affiliate marketing. As a long-term survivor of decades of ad-tech evolution and hyperbole, affiliate is often tagged as a low-tech marketing option that lacks the data sophistication and customization options of formats that rely on identifiers and cookies. This assumption couldn’t be further from the truth. The calls for modernizing affiliate marketing have been answered—and the result is something truly great. As digital marketing becomes increasingly dynamic, affiliate is doing the same. But rather than simply becoming more targeted, innovation in the space is bringing affiliate into new and uncharted territories. These innovations position affiliate marketing as a go-to solution for a wide range of marketing objectives, while directly refuting its reputation as an antique one-trick pony. Why Affiliate Marketing Is Poised to Rise as Third-Party Cookies Crumble Last click… and first, second, third Savvy digital marketers are starting to approach affiliate marketing as more than a simple performance strategy. Publishers have always been compensated for their ability to drive the last click of a purchase, but there’s so much more that advertisers get out of an affiliate investment than just conversions. It’s also a sophisticated solution for delivering against upper-funnel objectives like prospecting, lead generation and lead nurturing. Affiliate solution vendors have put a lot of thought and energy into updating attribution capabilities. The result is a more sophisticated, nuanced perspective on the role that affiliate links can play in the overall customer journey. In turn, this allows marketers to adjust publisher commissions based on their observed level of influence. Publishers have welcomed this change because they are recognized for the value they produce through the entire sales funnel, not just the conversions at the bottom. Commissioning becomes dynamic Beyond addressing their upper and lower funnel needs, affiliate advertisers have the ability to set dynamic commissioning rates directly reflecting their business objectives. This level of transparency around an advertiser’s business goals incentivizes publishers to post content that directly addresses advertiser priorities. When a publisher has the ability to match relevant content and embedded affiliate links with exactly the audience an advertiser seeks, that’s true marketing magic and a win-win for everyone participating in the ecosystem. Take a shoe retailer that wants to raise awareness and drive sales for the launch of a hot new line of basketball shoes. By offering increased commission rates, publishers will have good reason to promote it within their content, and they’ll be handsomely (and rationally) rewarded when someone clicks through to make a purchase. Once the excitement of the launch period is over, the retailer can lower commission rates and react to the next business objective at hand, whether that’s highlighting another product, driving signups for a loyalty program, or anything else that an advertiser may want. Dynamic commissioning is also a great way to snare the specific consumer demographic or psychographic an advertiser prizes. A credit card company, for example, could offer higher commission rates to publishers that can deliver consumers with excellent credit scores. Stacking and combining commission rates gives advertisers a clear-cut solution for meeting any business objective at scale and signaling to a publishing partner what it most values in their audience. Don’t sleep on an 'oldie but a goodie' Rather than being “outdated” or “a dinosaur,” modern affiliate marketing platforms have drawn from their history to bring marketers flexibility and utility beyond what many other digital solutions can deliver. It has evolved into a strategy that is far more dynamic than its reputation as a simple performance driver may lead you to believe. Affiliate marketing is a dynamic solution that will help marketers deliver against their objectives throughout the entire sales funnel. It provides the best of both worlds: contextually relevant authenticity without the need for third-party identifiers that creep out consumers and draw regulatory attention. A future-proof, data-driven, cross-funnel marketing strategy. Now that’s what I call modern. Steve From Blue’s Clues Just Gave Us All a Masterclass in Empathy Marketing