I have been in the affiliate marketing universe since 2006 and the one constant about this industry is change. Nonstop, everlasting, unrelenting change. Mergers and acquisitions, search algorithm updates, the death of third-party cookies, the resurrection of third-party cookies, new toolbars, new platforms, new agencies, new promotional methods. It never ends. And that is what keeps it fresh, interesting, and challenging for all of us as we navigate the many dimensions of what affiliate can mean.  

While as an industry we tend to take pride (and rightfully so) in the more sophisticated problems that an affiliate/partnerships program can solve for, there are many unique, valuable, and relatively untapped markets out there that need our help.

What am I talking about? I am talking about the exciting world of “Affiliate Adjacent.”  

What Is Affiliate Adjacent?

What the heck does Affiliate Adjacent mean? Let me give you a real-world example.  

Several years ago, I received an inbound lead through our website from a partnerships team at a very well-known global credit card provider. Believing that this was another affiliate opportunity I eagerly reached out, set an in-person meeting, and prepped my affiliate partnerships conversation with the limited information that was given. This was to be a working discovery session, as both sides were a bit unsure of the correct language to use in identifying the pain points that the software could solve.  

I was excited to show them our robust reporting and detailed commissioning tools and to talk about our advanced clearinghouse system for payments. I jumped right in and was ready to knock their socks off. We were going to get this deal! (Spoiler: we did!) 

But my amazing pitch was cut short. Very short. As soon as I explained that we could track activity across thousands of potential partners, that was all they wanted or needed. This was a field marketing team with thousands of representatives manually passing information through to call center reps, who then loaded it into SFDC. It was a mess. They had no need for the bells and whistles. Tracking alone was the solution.  

This was an eye-opener for me, and a significant opportunity. What was this, though? It was definitely not traditional affiliate in any form — this was Affiliate Adjacent! 

Since that time, I have seen increased interest in Affiliate Adjacent use cases from advertisers, publishers, and agencies alike, and I can say for certain that no platform is better suited to these unique engagements than TUNE.  

TUNE Affiliate Adjacent Use Cases 

The use cases below are only a few of the creative ways customers are using TUNE to accomplish their business goals. 

A digital streaming service uses TUNE to work with TV manufacturers to promote its streaming service.

• Connected TVs and streaming platforms are incentivized to promote the streaming service to their consumers via smart TV interfaces.
• The streaming service provides each brand partnership with tracking links and creatives, without needing to go through a complex application process.
• Activating a new brand partnership accelerated from two weeks to two minutes with TUNE.

A multinational automotive manufacturer uses TUNE to work with physical dealerships and collision centers to promote its branded auto insurance.

• Salespeople in the brand’s dealerships are incentivized to promote its auto insurance to consumers when they shop for a vehicle, and collision centers when they bring in a vehicle for repairs.
• Individual dealerships and collision centers use insurance-branded QR codes to allow customers to get a quote in minutes.
• The goal is to insure every brand vehicle in the U.S., and to also be able to insure other makes/models, where traditional affiliate is being added next.

A national insurance subsidiary uses TUNE to work with property management companies to promote its renters insurance product.

• Property management companies are incentivized to promote the insurance product to renters when they sign a lease.
• The insurance subsidiary provides embeddable lead forms, which the management companies embed directly into their rental agreements.
• The goal is to enable affiliate partners who have access to audiences that are uniquely positioned to purchase renters insurance.

A digital media agency uses TUNE to build technology solutions that enable brand-to-brand partnerships on checkout pages.

• The agency enables additional monetization opportunities for retailers and brands by providing them with technology that effectively turns them into affiliates.

A national real estate marketplace uses TUNE to work with niche real estate partners to drive realtors to sign up for advertising accounts on its platform.

A parking marketplace app uses TUNE to work with hyperlocal partners — MLB teams, sports arenas, airports, and more — to drive sign-ups and reservations.

• The app uses app-based activations via targeted local and regional events to offer convenient parking opportunities to attendees.
• The partners used deep linking to provide a seamless experience for event attendees to view the closest parking options near their event.

An online home improvement platform uses TUNE to work with recruitment partners to advertise jobs to contractors, and to track when individual contractors set an appointment for a job.

What’s Your Affiliate Adjacent Use Case?

Is there a unique use case your current platform can’t support? I want to hear about it — and help you make it happen on TUNE! Send me a note at partnermarketing@tune.com and we’ll tackle your challenge together.

Today I’m pleased to announce Blake Cantrell has joined TUNE as our new Vice President of Partnerships. Blake is an industry veteran, working at some of the most well-known companies in the space and interfacing directly with brands, publishers, and agencies alike. As part of his welcome to the team, I asked Blake a few questions about his new role and his outlook on the industry.

Can you give us a rundown of your experience in the affiliate industry?

I have been active in the affiliate space since 2006 when I began my career at CJ Affiliate. While at CJ I managed a large team and high-revenue portfolio spanning multiple lines of business.

From there I jumped to Impact.com where I was a founding member and leader of the Channel Partnerships team. At Impact I created mutually beneficial, revenue generating partnerships with agency and tech partners alike. I was also able to build internal alignment across GTM teams, CS, Support, and more in order to create a frictionless partner path for all parties.

What led you to decide to join the TUNE team?

Throughout my interviews with the TUNE team it was clear that everyone I spoke to is eager to grow the business with a high level of integrity and a spirit of collaboration. It is extremely important to me on a personal and professional level that any work be done in a thoughtful manner while treating both internal and external partners with transparency, consistency, and equality. I believe that this approach aligns with the TUNE approach as well. Simply put … the willingness to be a good partner.

What will you be doing at TUNE?

In my role at TUNE I will be scaling up the marketplace offering. This will include product enhancements, recruiting and onboarding partners of all types as well as helping to facilitate partnership growth. It will also be essential to work closely with all internal teams to gather feedback, establish joint processes in order to serve our partners and have a shared understanding of where we are strong and where we can improve. This is a large undertaking but very exciting as TUNE is nimble enough to create a truly unique partner marketplace.

What are the biggest learnings you’re bringing to TUNE from your previous roles?

Listen to partners. They are always happy to tell you what they want and need. There is no need to guess or to have the most advanced tech or build AI in to every function. While highly advanced features are always exciting the majority of the players are dependent on easy to navigate and dependable tracking, reporting and payouts in order to build high growth partnerships.

How has affiliate marketing evolved since you started out?

When I began, affiliate was the Wild West. Trademark bidding rules were not in existence, cookie stuffing was rampant, and in many ways the entire industry was still figuring itself out. It is now 18 years since I started and the level of sophistication in technology and partnership types has advanced by light years. Brand-to-brand partnerships, the rise of influencers, sophisticated tracking and attribution have all changed the game for the better. That said, the core remains the same in that only mutually beneficial partnerships brokered by thoughtful players on all sides will be able to continue to push the industry forward.

How do you see the growth of influencers and creators changing the industry?

Content creators have been pegged as “the next big thing” in our space for the last five plus years but are just recently starting to make a significant impact across the industry as both the technology and understanding of how to work with this new partner type has evolved. Moving forward, I expect that there will be a day of reckoning as large brands see diminishing returns on massive influencer spends with relatively limited reporting outputs. Robust tracking and payment based on value is at the core of affiliate, and when applied to the influencer category could help provide additional insights, control, and value to brands while helping to expand reach and influence.

What’s the next big thing in affiliate marketing?

For better or worse, AI will be the next big thing in all of digital marketing. From content creation, analytics, marketing, and even creating company mission statements … AI will soon be pervasive. For even the casual observer who has played with ChatGPT it is easy to understand how AI could help shorten research times, automate a number of functions, and level-up the affiliate industry across the board.

That said, it is concerning that the transparent and creative partnerships that are currently brokered today by thoughtful players in the space could begin to look more like programmatic ad buys or other campaign-based strategies that are pay to play. Why is this concerning? Because it will stifle innovation. Some of the most powerful partnerships in this industry have and will continue to be brought about by intelligent people speaking to each other one-to-one. If AI can support those conversations without eliminating them, then I am all for it.

What’s the top challenge you see in affiliate marketing today?

The biggest challenge I continue to see is setting correct expectations for advertisers both big and small about how affiliate can add value. Many small and/or new-to-market programs with little brand equity expect to launch high-revenue programs by only using influencers. On the flip side, larger established brands are seeing the value of the affiliate channel being chiseled away by internal attribution tools. The last-click attribution model based on sales revenue only will never allow for a true read of the contribution of affiliate. Not only is a full-funnel strategy a requirement (both in the affiliate program and coordinated across all digital marketing teams), but so is a flexible, collaborative attribution method. Affiliate partnerships contribute in so many more ways than bottom-of-funnel sales that need to be tracked, recognized, and rewarded in order for brands to see the full value of the channel.

How can TUNE help the industry address this challenge?

TUNE is in a unique position to help guide brands on the best way to create meaningful partnerships based on their business needs. TUNE is not a massive, one-size-fits-all solution for partnerships like many of the players out there. Rather, TUNE is a nimble organization that is eagerly soliciting customer and partner feedback and continuing to iterate their product, process, and people practices in order to service ever-changing client needs

What are some of your immediate goals as you join the TUNE team?

I am extremely eager to do a deep dive on the product and existing partnerships, as this will help me to understand where to focus my efforts first. While I have some strong ideas about where to begin, I am eager to hear from the TUNE team and our partners directly about what they feel is needed to help elevate the TUNE Marketplace.

What gets you the most excited about the future of partner/affiliate marketing?

There is always something new around the corner that you can never predict, which keeps the industry exciting. A new advertiser vertical, a new promotional method, or even a small change from Google that completely upends all previous best practices. The challenge now is to not only navigate these external changes but do the best we can to try and drive the industry toward new best practices so that all players can benefit.

I’m excited to see how Blake can help supercharge TUNE’s partnership efforts in the coming months. His first opportunity to represent TUNE in the market will be at PI Live in Miami from April 16th through the 18th. You can reach out to Blake at blake.cantrell@tune.com to schedule time to meet with him and the TUNE team!

Every day, something crazy and new happens in the world of affiliate marketing. But who has time for that? We’re backing up a few steps to take a wider look at the industry in 2024. With two months down, what big trends and topics have emerged to lead us through the rest of the year? We asked colleagues at TUNE and around the industry to share their top predictions with us. Here’s what they said.

2024 Affiliate Marketing Trends

AI Expansion Will Continue

This is a no-brainer, which is why it’s first on our list. The AI expansion into every corner of the digital world continues following the explosive introduction of ChatGPT in January 2023. According to recent surveys, when it comes to marketing, generative AI has seen the most growth in content marketing, sales enablement, business intelligence, video marketing, and chatbot applications. We don’t see this trend slowing anytime soon.

“In 2024, integrating AI in affiliate marketing programs and strategies will grow in popularity — for content creation, content promotion, analysis, and much more.”
—Yakir Gal, Head of Sales, EMEA & APAC

“AI is going to be big, big, big this year. I see lots of discussion ahead on how partners will use it to optimize ROI for brands, and how brands use it to identify new opportunities and automate their ongoing evergreen ads. And beyond partners and brands, will groups like Publisher Discovery use AI to keep better hygiene and pull in new, unique traffic sources? We’ll have to wait and see.”
—Matt Miltenberger, Head of Sales, East Coast

Brand-to-Brand “Barter Marketing”

We see plenty of pairing up in brands’ futures for 2024. By partnering to promote each other to their respective audiences, brands that barter can save money and access new markets that are a solid fit. And once a relationship proves successful, there’s no telling how far it could take both brands.

“I predict that brand bartering will become more of a mainstream partnership type this year. With costs rising across the board, brands can explore promoting non-competitive brands with similar demographics by essentially ‘trading’ placements, for example, on each other’s email newsletter list.”
—Dan Buontempone, Business Development Specialist

Influencers and Creators Catch Fire

Influencers are still a hot trend after rising in popularity over the last several years. Content creators and social influencers, especially those with small but engaged followings, are proving just how valuable they can be for brands trying to cut through the noise. And yet, many advertisers are still confused on the best ways to attract and reward them.

Luckily, we’ve got just the thing to help: our newest e-book, Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint: Building High-ROI Creator Communities. Created in partnership with growth agency ZeroTo1, it’s a guide on why and how to add influencers to an affiliate program. Download it here to learn how to create your own community of brand ambassadors.

“The rise of creator-affiliate and influencer-affiliate programs as a brand’s foundational channel. Influencer-affiliate is a wellspring that can feed most other channel marketing efforts, all while spinning off new revenue streams.”
—Meredith Singer, VP, Marketing & Operations at ZeroTo1

Customer Experience Will Evolve

In addition to incorporating AI tools into their customer service platforms, brands in 2024 are changing the way they interact with customers by meeting them where they are: in their chosen communities. Social platforms like Reddit and TikTok are thriving thanks to the self-made niche communities found there, where like-minded users gather for advice, entertainment, and authentic connections. Smart brands are joining and participating in these communities to engage with their users — not to sell to them.

Accurate Data for Optimization

Without optimization, there can be no improvement. And without accurate data, there can be no optimization. We’ve heard recently from some marketers and partners who are starting to distrust the accuracy of their data on traditional platforms. Whether this is a result of changes to how web browsers collect and report data, like GA4’s transition to data-driven attribution, or because traditional platforms tend to move slower when it comes to advanced tracking methodologies, remains to be seen. Either way, having access to accurate, reliable data remains top of mind for marketers in 2024 (as it should).

“Right now, everyone is focused on optimizing resources and excluding unnecessary costs. Thus, I foresee marketers optimizing their programs in 2024: cleaning up, keeping only highly performing partners and influencers, and focusing on Tier 1 markets.”
—Iana Starostovich, Head of Customer Success, EMEA

Privacy and First-Party Data

Speaking of accurate data … first-party data and privacy-centric practices are no longer optional for marketers in the performance space. It’s the way of the future, period. We’ve already seen efforts around SEO make a big comeback in 2024 thanks to AI and the proliferation of sub-par content splashed across the web. Any business that doesn’t make an honest effort at upholding consumers’ privacy and security while they look to improve their digital presence won’t be in business for long.

What’s Next

Whatever the rest of the year has in store, we’re betting that the trends and topics above stay in regular rotation. Good luck!

If you’re looking for new ways to scale your program while maintaining a strategic edge, we have news for you: the TUNE Marketplace is now open to all customers! Read about what makes our marketplace different from the rest in this blog post, or check out our website for more information on partnering through TUNE.

This isn’t your parents’ influencer marketing.

Say goodbye to flat fees and sponsored posts. Today’s top influencers are low-risk, results-driven partners who work closely with brands to promote the products and services that resonate with their highly engaged audiences.

Adding influencers to your affiliate marketing program can increase revenue and prove affiliate ROI — if you know what you’re doing. The Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint is your guide to making it happen.

Download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint

Knowing influencers and creators are a partner group unlike any other, TUNE teamed up with powerhouse growth agency Zeroto1 to develop an instructional e-book that doesn’t pull any punches. In it, you’ll read up on how influencer marketing really works, why and how it’s different from traditional affiliate marketing, and the steps you can follow to recruit and empower influencers in your program.

You’ll also learn from real-life use cases, including Zeroto1’s insanely successful launch and subsequent growth of the Instacart Tastemakers affiliate program. (Yes, they’re behind that Tastemakers, with TUNE technology driving the program.)

We don’t sugarcoat the tough stuff — like the fact that you’ll need to give up some control to get quality creative content. Or that no matter how hot your product is or how high your commissions are, some influencers just won’t want to work with your brand. What we do is provide you with insightful, actionable information to put you on the path to successful influencer-affiliate partnerships.

What Is Influencer-Affiliate Marketing?

There was a time when the term “influencer marketing” meant shelling out big bucks for celebrity sponsored posts; focusing on brand awareness and virality versus measurable conversions and KPIs; buying followers instead of engaging with them.

Not anymore.

Instead, today’s creators and influencers run the gamut from social media stars to niche role models. They have built up highly-engaged communities and loyal followings, with a deep understanding of what resonates and what feels inauthentic. They count on their audience for a living, so when they promote a product or a service, they’re confident it’s a fit.

This is why creators and influencers are embracing the performance-based model that is the foundation of affiliate marketing, resulting in a hybrid model: influencer-affiliate.

Why Are Brands Embracing Influencer-Affiliate?

As more influencers are making the change to a performance basis, more brands are embracing influencers.

Here’s why.

Most traditional publishers — in other words, your favorite websites and platforms — thrive on advertisers and networks. Their bottom line is tied to impressions, engagement, and clicks. This has led to many of them prioritizing these metrics over user experience.

As a result, across the digital ecosystem, the perception of engagement has become more important than actual engagement and quality user experiences. You can see it for yourself by searching on your laptop or smartphone for a topic you’re interested in. Increasingly, all that gets you is a confusing jumble of results, ads, and AI-generated answers to questions you haven’t asked, or links that lead to broken interfaces and frustrating interactions.

Brands, consequently, are moving away from platforms with shallow engagement and vanity metrics, following their target audience. People want authenticity and trustworthiness, communities where they feel engaged and accepted.

Influencer-affiliates are a bridge to these communities. They help brands build connections to them without the corporate side — the advertising ick — of marketing getting in the way.

Get Started with the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint

Over the next few months, we’ll be exploring key chapters from the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint here on the TUNE Blog. You can read Part 2 of our series here, which dives into the differences between influencer programs and traditional affiliate programs.

We also recorded a webinar with our friends at ZeroTo1 about influencer-affiliates and how they fit into today’s marketing mix. Check it out here.

So, while we’ve barely scratched the surface of influencer-affiliate programs, you don’t have to wait for the rest of the blog series to come out. Download the full e-book now to discover:

• the four steps to success in influencer-affiliate marketing
• what makes influencers and creators different from traditional affiliates
• how to find and engage the right influencers for your brand
• the technology and teams you’ll need to get started
• real examples and use cases from everyday brands

The most successful influencers connect with their audiences through authenticity, honesty, and winning personalities. We hope to do the same.

Enjoy!

Download the Influencer-Affiliate Blueprint

At the beginning of 2022, my colleague Dan and I made a few predictions about the challenges and trends partner marketers would encounter this year. Now that we’re at the end of 2022, we’re looking back to see where we went right — and where we got it wrong. Without further ado, here’s my full post of original predictions from earlier this year, and below are snippets and how close they were to our current reality. Don’t forget to check out Part 1 to see how Dan did, too!

Web 3.0

Snippet:

“We can anticipate this will continue to evolve, but we don’t know what we don’t know yet … and this year we’ll start to see an increase in dedicated managers, consultants, and even brands that specialize in the nuances of this ecosystem, including more marketing dollars being funneled into this ‘test and learn’ environment.”

Reality:

Well, in some sense we were right in that we didn’t know what we didn’t know. The year started strong with several brands gaining traction or amplifying their awareness, i.e. ExPopulus and FTX, but we quickly saw the common consumer become disillusioned with crypto and a massive wave of distrust followed, largely driven by the latter. Despite a massive crypto winter, there is still a demand for digital coins.

Full prediction: We’ve discussed in the past how cryptocurrency and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are starting to reshape the digital ecosystem, but now, it’s matured into a legitimate channel creating a seismic shift in the global economy. When brands like Coca-Cola, Gucci, and Clinique are leveraging NFTs in their marketing playbook, people tend to take notice. Web 3.0, a potential new version of the internet based on blockchain technology, has officially crept into everyday conversations amongst brands and consumers alike. This isn’t limited to blue chip companies with deep pockets; even the emerging startups are using this strategy, not to mention a whole industry is being built around the metaverse, its currency, and social engagement. Even former critics of the new currencies are slowly coming around.  

What brands, networks, and agencies need to prepare for are the unknown variables this landscape is going to bring out. We can anticipate this will continue to evolve, but we don’t know what we don’t know yet. There are thousands of different currencies and blockchains, with more coming into the market all the time. What makes that exciting is innovation is born from change, and this year we’ll start to see an increase in dedicated managers, consultants, and even brands that specialize in the nuances of this ecosystem, including more marketing dollars being funneled into this “test and learn” environment.  

Social Commerce and the Influencer Next Door

Snippet:

“… but just paying for Facebook ads isn’t going to do the trick anymore (and it’s only getting more expensive). User-generated content and social proof will continue to play a big role in helping consumers decide if the product they want or the business they support meets their individual expectations.”

Reality:

Nailed it. Social commerce is anticipated to near $1 trillion dollars before the end of 2022 and is on track to drive $3 trillion in the next three years. Consumers continue to align their buying patterns with creators who deliver an authentic view into the product’s value. TikTok continues to dominate the charts and has become its own search engine for consumers looking for validation on goods. Brands continue to leverage Facebook ads because of their reach, but returns are smaller and costs are higher. Moving into the new year, we’ll continue to see a shift away from traditional paid social ads, and a heavier investment in the creator economy.  

Full prediction: I know, I know … we’re all kind of tired of hearing about it but are secretly in love with it: TikTok. You can’t escape limited attention spans and the need to connect with consumers as efficiently as possible. Long-form content is still a massive industry with popular podcasts and live streams getting strong viewership, but it’s getting harder to keep someone’s attention for long.   

Social media has been a critical ingredient in the marketing mix for many years, but just paying for Facebook ads isn’t going to do the trick anymore (and it’s only getting more expensive). Many brands have been leveraging influencers and creators for a while now, but as this arena becomes more saturated, it’s important to sift through the noise and understand which campaigns are driving true value based on your internal success metrics. I’m confident brands will lean in more with performance-based campaigns and try to avoid paying massive upfront fees. With rising costs and a more competitive playing field, authentic connection combined with relevant content is a home run; just make sure you can deliver the message quickly.  

User-generated content and social proof will continue to play a big role in helping consumers decide if the product they want or the business they support meets their individual expectations. This year we’ll continue to see platforms like TikTok create new super-influencers with highly engaged audiences. The real challenge will be for brands to capture their mission statement, product value, and positioning in a short-form way that hits all the right notes before someone swipes up. Broader digital and growth teams will also see the value these partnerships can bring for loyalty and retention as a byproduct of getting the “right” customers over the most customers.   

Competition for Business and Talent Intensifies

Snippet:

“It’s vital that brands understand their competition and rework their positioning to match their customers’ needs. It’s easy to assume that if you have amassed a strong number of users, your work is done. On the contrary, now more than ever brands need to take an introspective look at their identity and make necessary (and sometimes difficult) decisions to improve on the experience.” 

Reality:

Not far off. It’s no secret the back half of 2022 has been a whirlwind for several brands, largely in the technology sector. Massive layoffs and macroeconomic conditions are influencing investments and predictions. That said, we’re continuing to see a shift in consumer behavior. Walmart’s revenue surpassed Amazon’s on Cyber Monday, and we saw the most successful Cyber Monday on record with $11.3 billion in sales (almost 6% more than last year). The affiliate industry saw more consolidation, with Acceleration Partners acquiring Grovia, Influencer Response, and Volt Agency, all within about nine months. 

Full prediction: With a massive wave of new businesses launching over the past few years, several have evolved and matured, but competition remains fierce. We’re seeing an increase in mergers and acquisitions due to shortages in technology talent and brands starting to challenge conventional beliefs about where their customers engage the most; one example is Betterment and Makara joining forces to take a bigger bite out of crypto.  

It’s vital that brands understand their competition and rework their positioning to match their customers’ needs. It’s easy to assume that if you have amassed a strong number of users, your work is done. On the contrary, now more than ever brands need to take an introspective look at their identity and make necessary (and sometimes difficult) decisions to improve on the experience. This includes digging deeper on who your customers are, and where they spend their time; in other words, stop wasting marketing dollars chasing results where they don’t exist.  

Brands should prioritize hiring specialists for the future of digital and partner marketing, not just for traditional channels. This includes those who can jump into the deep end on all things Web 3.0, and most importantly, understand how culture and media intersect to push the boundaries into the next generation. We’ll continue to see a diversification of acquisition streams, and more flexibility with budgets to innovate.  

Personalization, Loyalty, and Retention

Snippet:

We know grabbing a consumer’s attention is challenging enough as it is, but how brands engage with those customers is even more critical for retaining them long-term. First impressions can last a lifetime for people who are keen to shop around frequently; everything from site experience and brand alignment to messaging and timing can shift the outcomes. 

Reality:

Not far off in this assessment — according to industry research from companies like Oracle and American Express, customer experience and customer service were common threads that compromised a brand’s ability to retain consumer trust. One bad experience is enough to push many buyers to a competitor, or at least sow doubt in their mind. Many consumers also noted their intent to buy more frequently from brands who make an effort to personalize that experience.

Full prediction: Customers will be particular about the brands they engage with, and often have high expectations for them, even if those expectations aren’t obvious. We know grabbing a consumer’s attention is challenging enough as it is, but how brands engage with those customers is even more critical for retaining them long-term. First impressions can last a lifetime for people who are keen to shop around frequently; everything from site experience and brand alignment to messaging and timing can shift the outcomes.  
  
I would argue that people want to feel immediately connected on an intrinsic level — don’t doubt the emotional aspect of what a brand or product can mean to someone — and are willing to double-down with groups that fill that need. If you’ve hit that note as a brand, a proper retention and loyalty strategy should be a priority. Using a personalized approach will increase the odds of that customer having a strong lifetime value, and reward both parties with a long-standing relationship. All that said, rolling out the red carpet and making each individual feel like they are the most important person to walk through your doors can’t hurt.  
  
In conjunction with internal loyalty efforts, a tactical partnerships program can help support this across the board. By aligning your brand with publishers, creators, and innovators that speak to your audience’s needs, you’re not only expanding your brand presence, but making the path to purchase or join that much easier. 

What other affiliate marketing trends do you think we will see in 2023? Let us know in the comments below!  

Earlier this year, my colleague and I made some predictions about the biggest trends we would see in the affiliate marketing industry in 2022. Now that the year is almost up, we are revisiting those predictions to see if our visions into the future were clear or cloudy. So how did we do? In the meantime, here’s my original post on 2022 affiliate marketing trends, and below is my (maybe too honest) analysis of how accurate they turned out to be. And don’t forget to check out Part 2 from Matt! 

1. Brands Will Shift Dollars Toward the Performance Model 

How’d I do?
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: This is absolutely true! Guaranteed dollars from brands have continued to dwindle, and the affiliate industry is projected to grow nearly 10% year-over-year.

“(The affiliate) pay-for-performance model will mean that available dollars will shift from less accountable media to our channel.” Grace Murray, Fohr’s VP of Strategy, told Marketing Brew that she estimates about 20% of Fohr’s clients — which include companies such as Estée Lauder, Sephora, and Kohl’s — at least considered reallocating some of their paid social spend toward influencer marketing.  

2. Publishers Will Beef Up Their Performance-Driven Editorial Teams

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: Publishers like Buzzfeed, the Wall Street Journal, Capital One, and the New York Post have all created their own performance-driven shopping channels like Buzzfeed Shopping, Capital One Shopping, NY Post Deals, and Buy Side from Wall Street Journal. As the expert from Durée & Company says, “Everyone from NBCU, Turner, Hearst, Conde, Bauer, Meredith, have all been on board for years at this point.” Watch for this to grow exponentially in 2023! 

3. This Year Will Be a Death Knell for PR and Earned Media 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: Earned media definitely still exists, but I have personally spoken to over a dozen PR agencies this year — and almost all of them have come to us with clients that are either exploring or launching new affiliate programs. Alyson Dutch for Forbes says, “Today, 40% of reporters my company pitches simply will not report without an affiliate program. Some reporters will kindly say, ‘We need an affiliate link to include you,’ but most will just maddeningly ignore your pitches. If you are lucky, they will forward your pitch to their publication’s e-commerce department, a new set of contacts every publicist must build.” While this is not happening quickly, I do still believe that it is an ongoing trend that will continue in 2023 and beyond.  

4. There Will Be Ongoing Editorial Integrity Struggles 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: The magicians behind blending honest reviews and paid advertisements are now called E-commerce Content Managers (or similar). Advertorials, listicles, and reviews all come across as authentic when content creators are — you guessed it — authentic, as well. 

5. Snackable Content Will Grow Exponentially 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: TikTok has absolutely blown up in 2022, growing 72% this year. TUNE Connect partner Find Your Influence reports that Gen Z is utilizing TikTok as their primary search engine, funneling tons of revenue to brands that have a presence on the social platform. Now is the time to jump on this! 

6. Programmatic Will Shift More Toward Performance 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: Programmatic actually grew roughly 16% this year. Programmatic might still take a hit in the near future, with cookies and current attribution methods becoming a thing of the past. While programmatic may eventually shift more towards performance, it seems that this may not happen for a while. 

7. Influencer Marketing Will Integrate into the Performance Mix 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: The line between influencer and affiliate is nearly non-existent. It’s acceptable to call both content creators, with no limitations to the creativity that can be involved to tie brands with the audience of said creators. Just look at how seamless Delish.com’s campaign with Instacart looks!

8. The First-Party Data Takeover 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: Data drives decisions, it’s as simple as that. Find out here what Prodege did to get more access to their first-party data, instead of relying on limited third-party data — and the result was growing 20% month over month! 

9. Branded Promo Codes Will Be on the Rise 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: Branded promo codes help content creators bridge the gap between their audience and brands. 93% of shoppers will use a promo code at least once this year, and it is a great way to attract new consumers to your brand. With TUNE, you can even track influencer campaigns without the click!

10. Brands Will Learn to Embrace the Full Partner Ecosystem 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: In order for brands to grow, they need a healthy mix of ALL different partner types, and not just rely on coupon or deal sites, influencers, or bloggers. Brands diversifying their affiliate portfolios allows them to engage with customers at different points within their digital path to purchase. Even podcasting can be a great affiliate play, as Athletic Greens showcases here.

11. Loyalty and Referral Programs Will Flourish 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: Loyalty programs initially started as mere discounting, but they have evolved into so much more — particularly for new customer acquisition! 

According to Acceleration Partners, “Today’s shoppers, especially in the height of Q4, have their go-tos, visiting those sites (like Rakuten, Honey, or Coupon Cabin) or clicking on an email as a way to discover new brands.”

12. Companies Will Continue to Consolidate 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: This continued to happen, from The Wall Street Journal buying Amobee, Global Savings Group acquired Coupons.com, NerdWallet acquired On the Barrelhead, ironSource merging with Unity, and many more. Yahoo and Taboola even teamed up on for a creative native partnership. Watch for more non-performance brands purchased affiliate companies for 2023 and beyond! 

13. The Cookieless Future is Now 

How’d I do? 
Nailed It! / The Jury is Still Out / Whoops! 

End of Year Thoughts: While Google pushed back their phaseout of third-party cookies until 2024, the cookieless future is definitely upon us. If your brand is not quite there yet, there is still time to set up your tracking for long-term success. The quicker you act, the more accurate your tracking will be! 

What other affiliate marketing trends do you think we will see in 2023? Let us know in the comments below! When you’re ready for Part 2, click here to head to Matt’s post.

It’s a tale as old as time (or as old as marketing and advertising goes): a brand wants to increase its visibility to the market, sell more goods, or tap into a new customer base. Often, these businesses are leveraging a medley of services and technologies to help support their efforts. Many of these show their strengths when siloed specifically to their specialty, but lack the flexibility and sophistication to stretch beyond those boundaries when stretched beyond their limits. In our world of performance and partnership marketing, traditional tracking networks have largely relied on antiquated solutions that leave many users frustrated. A general lack of innovation has left many programs stagnant, and without much to leverage.

Most platforms will share common functionality at a base level: they’re all tracking some type of event from point A to point B, maybe through app or mobile, across several touchpoints, or along a conversion funnel. But what separates the good tech from the great tech really comes down to the details, some of which are easily overlooked if you’re not the person who is managing the nuances day to day.

Beyond these minor details, a strong technology is built with infrastructure that can evolve with your business. Not only does TUNE have the most robust two-way API on the market, we also have a team of professional solutions architects who can customize features for your unique business needs. We know brands can get access to APIs for reporting purposes – but what if you could manage most of your daily operational processes with them? *Lightbulb moment*

What we’ve done is turn many of these pain points into opportunities for greater efficiency. We have designed our platform to be your strategic solution, built with maximum flexibility. Because that’s what brands need to survive and thrive in today’s economy: flexibility. In this blog post, I’ll cover just a few of the ways our platform is providing that flexibility to more and more brands every day.

The Pain of Partner Onboarding

A common challenge I hear from brands and partners alike is how frustrating the onboarding and activation process can be with many of the traditional network solutions on the market. Delays with getting links, or even just getting through the door to be approved to a program, can take days or even weeks. This is particularly challenging when you’ve spent countless hours hunting for new partners or building rapport, only to be stopped on the doorstep.

The past few years have shown us that there’s a massive market of new partnerships, including creators who have dedicated fan bases and are eager to support brands they care about. What if you’ve spent weeks, or even months, building a relationship with a creator? In that time, you’ve discussed the value of your product, shared intimate details about the painstaking process it took to bring it to market, and the hours you invested to make it a reality.

At this point, you ask them to join your partnerships program. But wait! Your traditional network has red tape across the front door – so your new partner has to apply for the network, and in that process, provide substantiating evidence that they know how to promote brands. Then they must be approved by the network, which is typically done on a first-come, first-served basis. Once approved, they are added to a massive marketplace with hundreds of thousands of other partners, leaving virtually no visibility for their individual brand. And, finally, once a partner is officially active in your program, generating links for them can take even more time – so you’re restricted by your platform capabilities before you can even get started. 

At TUNE, we understand the difficulties this presents to businesses looking for flexibility and autonomy. We’ve designed our technology with this in mind, so you can bring partners on board within seconds. (You read that right – seconds.) As the business owner, you dictate the master terms and conditions partners must abide by; you can control whether they are automatically accepted or if you prefer to put them in a queue for further evaluation. Once your partners have accepted the terms, they’re in and can get a tracking link in under a minute; our links propagate in real time, and they don’t have to be assigned a specific insertion order.

Many marketers still find it difficult to bring influencers, podcasts, and other new media onto traditional tracking platforms because of this lengthy sign-up process; gone are those days with TUNE. And because our platform generates links in real time, it allows you to work with any partner type you want. If you want to test a unique B2B campaign, a syndicated piece of content, and a display ad network, all at the same time, you can make that a reality on one platform – TUNE’s.

Automation and Program Hygiene to Scale

Many program managers spend an absurd amount of time dealing with operational needs before they can invest time thinking strategically about how to grow their business. For example, dealing with application approvals alone can take hours each week to evaluate the quality of the partner in question. And that’s just scratching the surface.

I often hear from colleagues how much time they spend reviewing individual campaigns for not just performance, but traffic quality, and how much this slows them down. They might see a huge spike in traffic over the weekend, but it’s coming from a sub-affiliate network, so they have to spend time drilling down to find which specific partner was responsible. Or they launched a campaign earlier in the week to generate more leads, but find out a sizable percentage were fraudulently driven by bot traffic. Now what? I guess they’re spending the rest of the day (or even week) figuring out how to reverse those transactions, negotiate with partners over non-qualified commissions, and try to sort through what’s legitimate and what’s not.

What if I told you TUNE has tools that are natively built into the platform to proactively combat these situations at a campaign level, and that you can automate them? Tools such as performance automation rules, which allow you to set specific criteria and then get instantly notified if something seems off. That sub-affiliate driving a massive spike? Let’s set up a rule that tells you which source (i.e., partner, page, specific article, or more) is responsible so you can get in front of it. Those fraudulent leads coming through? Use TUNE’s time-to-action features to ensure all leads are being ingested within a proper time frame.

TUNE’s powerful controls don’t just enable you to automatically combat issues like these; they can also help you block a partner in their tracks before they turn a small problem into a big one. What’s more, these tools make testing new partner types or campaign structures far less risky, which means scaling your program can be done without diluting your traffic quality; every click that comes through TUNE is instantly put through a quality filter and presented in a separate report, so you can rest assured you’re combating illegitimate activity and keeping a record of every action.

Data Accuracy and Customization

Several traditional platforms have a delay when pulling in data to their system. It’s not unusual to see hours between when a click or a conversion takes place, and when it shows up in your account. In some cases, waiting that long for performance data to populate might not be a showstopper – but I’d argue that optimization and growth can move much more efficiently if you can get what you need quickly to make informed decisions. The beauty of our platform is both brands and partners are getting access to immediate performance data, so collaborating on optimization efforts can be done without any details being lost in translation.

TUNE pioneered the postback as a server-side tracking solution years ago, and it remains the standard in accuracy, speed, and sophistication today. Postbacks enable marketers to reduce their reliance on third-party cookies, future-proof their partner programs, and filter first-party data in real time. This makes tracking everything from a typical retail conversion event to a multi-touchpoint lead funnel incredibly simple. And since postback tracking allows you to customize what events matter most, you aren’t restricted to data fields that may not be valuable to your business, and you can structure the links to build customer cohorts along the way. TUNE’s technology allows you to add additional event trackers right in the interface, so there’s no need to worry about going through a network solutions team or getting stuck in a setup queue. The brand remains in control of which customer data fields to include on a link, all done at a campaign level, which means getting granular data by partner type or source is fast and accurate. Partners can even be granted the ability to append unique variables to their links.

With our Firehose product, you’re getting the best of both worlds: the real-time data ingestion into your private TUNE program, and simultaneously feeding that data into your internal systems. A powerful tool when you’re comparing multi-channel data and deciding where to point the ship next.

Conclusion

Whether it’s apparent or not, brands need flexibility. Period. They need the ability to onboard a new partner quickly and easily. It doesn’t matter where they drive traffic from, or how long they’ve been active. The only criteria should be the one each business sets for itself, not what a network limits you to. They need data – and they need it fast and reliably. A growth manager shouldn’t have to spend hours sifting through potentially fraudulent data or tell an influencer they have to follow a lengthy process just to support their products. They don’t need another pretty graph; they need to know that if a link needs to be updated, it can be done in real time, without compromising their campaign progress.

No longer are you relegated to a set of strict platform guidelines that leave no room for coloring outside the lines. Or ones that tell you what you should be tracking, rather than listening to your business needs. Some technologies pride themselves on a mentality shaped around a closed ecosystem, and quite frankly, it’s putting handcuffs on your business before you even get started. Brands need real solutions. Real data. Real control. The landscape has evolved and continues to reinvent itself frequently – work with the technology that hoisted those sails. You deserve it.

And if you need something custom built to help accelerate your program or simply make your daily life easier, just drop us a line, and TUNE’s Professional Services team can work their magic for your business.

Ready to learn more about how the TUNE Partner Marketing Platform can unlock your growth potential? Email us at sales@tune.com or request a trial.

Well, the new year came and went in the blink of an eye, but not without a wave of continued change. At the end of 2021, I talked about how much the industry shifted during last year, and now it’s time to look ahead at what we anticipate this year to have in store.

We know the crypto-sphere is here, and traditional currency is quickly being disrupted in more ways than one. The creator landscape is only getting more competitive and critical for brands to expand their presence. And customers have spoken; they want more meaningful connections with the products and services they align themselves with, so businesses need to level up. Which is all to say there will be plenty of challenges for marketers to tackle in the months ahead. Below are a few of the biggest. 

Web 3.0 

We’ve discussed in the past how cryptocurrency and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) are starting to reshape the digital ecosystem, but now, it’s matured into a legitimate channel creating a seismic shift in the global economy. When brands like Coca-Cola, Gucci, and Clinique are leveraging NFTs in their marketing playbook, people tend to take notice. Web 3.0, a potential new version of the internet based on blockchain technology, has officially crept into everyday conversations amongst brands and consumers alike. This isn’t limited to blue chip companies with deep pockets; even the emerging startups are using this strategy, not to mention a whole industry is being built around the metaverse, its currency, and social engagement. Even former critics of the new currencies are slowly coming around. 

What brands, networks, and agencies need to prepare for are the unknown variables this landscape is going to bring out. We can anticipate this will continue to evolve, but we don’t know what we don’t know yet. There are thousands of different currencies and blockchains, with more coming into the market all the time. What makes that exciting is innovation is born from change, and this year we’ll start to see an increase in dedicated managers, consultants, and even brands that specialize in the nuances of this ecosystem, including more marketing dollars being funneled into this “test and learn” environment. 

Social Commerce and the Influencer Next Door 

I know, I know … we’re all kind of tired of hearing about it, but are secretly in love with it: TikTok. You can’t escape limited attention spans and the need to connect with consumers as efficiently as possible. Long-form content is still a massive industry with popular podcasts and live streams getting strong viewership, but it’s getting harder to keep someone’s attention for long.  

Social media has been a critical ingredient in the marketing mix for many years, but just paying for Facebook ads isn’t going to do the trick anymore (and it’s only getting more expensive). Many brands have been leveraging influencers and creators for a while now, but as this arena becomes more saturated, it’s important to sift through the noise and understand which campaigns are driving true value based on your internal success metrics. I’m confident brands will lean in more with performance-based campaigns and try to avoid paying massive upfront fees. With rising costs and a more competitive playing field, authentic connection combined with relevant content is a home run; just make sure you can deliver the message quickly. 

User-generated content and social proof will continue to play a big role in helping consumers decide if the product they want or the business they support meets their individual expectations. This year we’ll continue to see platforms like TikTok create new super-influencers with highly engaged audiences. The real challenge will be for brands to capture their mission statement, product value, and positioning in a short-form way that hits all the right notes before someone swipes up. Broader digital and growth teams will also see the value these partnerships can bring for loyalty and retention as a byproduct of getting the “right” customers over the most customers.  

Competition for Business and Talent Intensifies 

With a massive wave of new businesses launching over the past few years, several have evolved and matured, but competition remains fierce. We’re seeing an increase in mergers and acquisitions due to shortages in technology talent and brands starting to challenge conventional beliefs about where their customers engage the most; one example is Betterment and Makara joining forces to take a bigger bite out of crypto. 

It’s vital that brands understand their competition and rework their positioning to match their customers’ needs. It’s easy to assume that if you have amassed a strong number of users, your work is done. On the contrary, now more than ever brands need to take an introspective look at their identity and make necessary (and sometimes difficult) decisions to improve on the experience. This includes digging deeper on who your customers are, and where they spend their time; in other words, stop wasting marketing dollars chasing results where they don’t exist. 

Brands should prioritize hiring specialists for the future of digital and partner marketing, not just for traditional channels. This includes those who can jump into the deep end on all things Web 3.0, and most importantly, understand how culture and media intersect to push the boundaries into the next generation. We’ll continue to see a diversification of acquisition streams, and more flexibility with budgets to innovate. 

Personalization, Loyalty, and Retention  

Customers will be particular about the brands they engage with, and often have high expectations for them, even if those expectations aren’t obvious. We know grabbing a consumer’s attention is challenging enough as it is, but how brands engage with those customers is even more critical for retaining them long-term. First impressions can last a lifetime for people who are keen to shop around frequently; everything from site experience and brand alignment to messaging and timing can shift the outcomes. 
 
I would argue that people want to feel immediately connected on an intrinsic level — don’t doubt the emotional aspect of what a brand or product can mean to someone — and are willing to double-down with groups that fill that need. If you’ve hit that note as a brand, a proper retention and loyalty strategy should be a priority. Using a personalized approach will increase the odds of that customer having a strong lifetime value, and reward both parties with a long-standing relationship. All that said, rolling out the red carpet and making each individual feel like they are the most important person to walk through your doors can’t hurt. 
 
In conjunction with internal loyalty efforts, a tactical partnerships program can help support this across the board. By aligning your brand with publishers, creators, and innovators that speak to your audience’s needs, you’re not only expanding your brand presence, but making the path to purchase or join that much easier.  

Conclusion 

This year is showing no signs of slowing down; each week seems more disruptive than the last, and we’re only a few months in! The world of digital currency and the metaverse are going to be commonplace for the foreseeable future, and brands are finally taking notice. This wave of change is going to push innovation beyond what we’ve seen, and usher in a new generation of marketers, financial analysts, creators, and everything in between. This will push the competitive boundaries and challenge both individuals and businesses to rethink their roadmaps.  

Marketing efforts will look noticeably different than before, and trying to create meaningful relationships with customers can no longer be an afterthought. TikTok and other social platforms will keep driving direct commerce, and the need for specialized talent is (or should be) near the top of any brand’s priority list when looking to the future.

What is the biggest challenge you see ahead for marketers in 2022? Share your opinion in the comments below! 

2021 was quite a year.

A new president was sworn in, millions of people got vaccinated (and boosted!), teachers and students returned to school, and employees returned to work — many at new companies, thanks to The Great Resignation.

With so much uncertainty in the global economy, what should the partnerships industry be prepared for in 2022?

Here are few of the top affiliate marketing trends I predict we’ll see in the year ahead.

2022 Affiliate Marketing Trends

1. Brands Will Shift Dollars Toward the Performance Model

When COVID first hit, brands pulled every marketing and advertising penny that they could, as no one knew how a global pandemic would affect the digital landscape.

Over the past year and a half, brands have shifted their advertising dollars away from traditional media buys (think CPM, CPC, pay per post, etc.), and shifted towards the affiliate or performance model, which allows brands to pay for tangible results (clicks, leads, sales, etc.).

Brands want to take buzzwords like “branding” and “exposure” and shoot them into space. A brand cannot buy anything with exposure, but most certainly can while paying to acquire a new lead or sale.

Brands have gotten a taste of paying for performance and a guaranteed ROI, and publishers may never see those guaranteed spends for unknown performance in the same way again.

2. Publishers Will Beef Up Their Performance-Driven Editorial Teams

As brands continue to shift towards a performance model, the obvious reaction is for publishers to be early adopters so that they can work with as many brands as possible.

Publishers are achieving this by staffing up their editorial teams, which are now focusing on monetizing content for these new brands in the performance space.

Reviews, listicles, and more will all get increasingly popular as brands try to monetize each and every article they put out.

3. This Year Will Be a Death Knell for PR and Earned Media

With guaranteed revenue streams no longer being “a thing,” publishers will pull their PR writers off earned media pieces, and focus more on content with monetary compensation.

Publishers will no longer have the bandwidth to create content for free, so more publishers will push brands to compensate them for their efforts, and the easiest medium to do that is with an affiliate program.

4. There Will Be Ongoing Editorial Integrity Struggles

If every publisher is trying to monetize every piece of content, we will inevitably see content that screams like a Billy Mays infomercial.

Publishers need to find that creative balance of worthwhile content their audience wants to engage with, and also drive performance (*cough sales cough*) without feeling like an ad.

5. Snackable Content Will Grow Exponentially

Thanks to social video platforms like TikTok (and Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram, etc.), snackable video content will make massive waves this year in the digital marketing space.

Instagram just recently allowed anyone to share links in their Stories, and TikTok is feverishly working on how to integrate measurable performance metrics for brands wishing to partner with their platform.

Look for snackable branded content, particularly short form video content, to grow exponentially this year, as it appeals to both the younger Millennial and Gen Z market, but also their parents, and even grandparents!

6. Programmatic Will Shift More Toward Performance

Digital companies first sold their display inventory on a website-by-website basis, and this slowly evolved to the trading desk targeting and retargeting that we are seeing today in the programmatic space.

The ability for brands to target certain target demographics is key, but a huge missing component is that true attribution piece on a source-by-source basis.

Many display networks now have the ability to adjust spend to hit target CPAs the brands set, arbitraging the CPM and CPC budgets advertisers are spending. Since these brands have other internal divisions that deal with the affiliate side, more programmatic deals will be forced to hit those performance metrics than rely on an algorithm in hopes of hitting a target KPI.

7. Influencer Marketing Will Integrate into the Performance Mix

I have seen brands get burned by influencers with a massive following charging an arm and a leg for a social media post, to not deliver one new customer for them.

I have also seen brands rely on micro- and nano-influencers to be loyal, consistent, and repetitive brand ambassadors for them.

Performance is key, and brands will look to push influencers towards more of a performance model, versus a pay per post model.

Remember that it is not the size of the influencers following, but truly how influential and engaging they are to their audience. The more organic the placement of brands within the influencer community, the more trustworthy potential consumers will be towards your brand.

8. The First-Party Data Takeover

While content can make you a king (or queen), content plus data can build you an empire.

Look for brands to directly collect whatever information about their potential customers, from email address (“Enter your email to save 15%!”), phone number (“Opt-in to receive text messages for new releases!”), and even physical addresses (shoutout to the direct mail industry still making it work).

9. Branded Promo Codes Will Be on the Rise

With more custom content around brands, publishers will want to feel like they are doing a true service to their readers by providing them with a branded promo code. This is not only important for written content, but huge for social media where it is not as easy to use affiliate links.

To prevent promo codes from landing up on a rogue coupon site, brands should make sure they are properly setting up their attribution settings.

10. Brands Will Learn to Embrace the Full Partner Ecosystem

A heads up to top, middle, and bottom funnel affiliates: brands will need all the channels to have a successful partner marketing program.

Brands that ignore entire segments of the partner ecosystem will not attract entire segments of the marketplace and will only drive up their acquisition costs for new customers.

You can run a successful program with both premium content partners and coupon partners — you just have to do it right with a healthy blend of both, depending on your performance needs.

11. Loyalty and Referral Programs Will Flourish

In 2021, 85% of customers said that customer reviews were influential to their buying decisions, along with 71% who said friends or people they know influenced their buying decisions.

By creating or growing loyalty and referral programs, brands can help solidify the notion that every customer is a potential brand ambassador.

12. Companies Will Continue to Consolidate

In 2021, we saw many companies consolidating, along with plenty of mergers and acquisitions in the digital space.

In the partner marketing space, performance agency Gen3 acquired Oak Digital, Acceleration Partners acquired Streamline Marketing, ironSource acquired Tapjoy, Dotdash acquired Meredith, and the list goes on.

Companies will double-up on existing strengths or leverage strategic partnerships to be able to provide a more robust offering.

13. The Cookieless Future is Now

Google and Apple are forever changing how third-party cookies will be utilized in the future, so the need for cookieless tracking is more important than ever before.

Google pushed back their phaseout of third-party cookies until next year to allow time for companies to plan ahead.

Brands that are not cookieless now are already behind the curve, so look for brands to quickly get educated or fall behind.

The reason for all of this? Consumer privacy. With so many data breaches over the years, consumers are demanding that their data is safe and secure, and a cookieless future will be the new normal.

What other affiliate marketing trends do you think we’ll see in 2022? Let me know in the comments below!

As we look back at 2021, it’s worth acknowledging the continual disruptions many are feeling coming out of this year, not simply from a business or industry perspective, but through our daily lives. While we collectively navigate the new world, a sense of whatever “normal” meant before is slowly showing its face again. Based on some of Google’s consumer insight trends for the year, people started going out to eat more frequently. Weddings were held after months, or even years, of delays. Movie theaters began filling up again.

Still, a seismic shift in the martech world that was already in motion gained a huge advantage in 2021 with work-from-home coming into focus for many people. The advertising game changed, and convenience-driven brands like DoorDash continued their path to dominance. The evolution of technologies like Zoom amplified a virtual life where people tried hard to replicate the real thing. Looking back, there is no shortage of interesting topics to talk about. Here, we review some of the top trends we noticed across the digital and partner marketing ecosystems in 2021.

2021 Digital and Partner Marketing Trends

E-commerce Takes Center Stage

Digital commerce has been around for decades, but the last year has proven just how powerful the partnerships channel is for business growth. With brick-and-mortar traffic stuck between mandated regulations and personal preference, shopping online has experienced a boom in more ways than one. Brands with long-established affiliate marketing programs are starting to think differently about the channel’s potential. What was once viewed as a secondary, direct-response channel at best – riddled with transparency and contribution challenges – has evolved into its next form; one that allows brands to tap into customers in several unique ways.

New business sprang onto the scene, the “buy now, pay later” movement exploded, and personalization became even more critical in a brand’s playbook. The fintech market has seen an uptick in businesses driving the emerging cryptocurrency and NFT (non-fungible token) verticals, and REIT (real estate investment trust) and fractional investing started making its way into the average person’s portfolio. Gaming and work-from-home brands boomed with a significant number of people spending more time away from their corporate offices. Esports competitions are expected to exceed $1 billion in revenue by the end of this year, and it’s easy to understand why.

Traditionally siloed marketing teams now interplay more than ever, pushing the omni-channel boundaries where they can consciously diversify their traffic sources. PR doesn’t have to be a “halo effect” anymore – we can track that more cleanly than ever – and can build on deep relationships with publishers who understand a brand’s customer. Search is no longer relegated to positions one and two on results pages, and SEO now has a broader home as external content sites help evangelize the core business mission. Executive teams are starting to appreciate a more diverse mix of partners to help drive their acquisition strategy and, anecdotally, seem more inclined to trust them to test into the unknown.

The Creator Economy Evolves

Over the last several years, a new generation of partnerships emerged that places more emphasis on authentic brand engagement: the creator economy. Influencers, brand ambassadors, and personal entrepreneurs took to their YouTube and Instagram channels to support businesses, ushering in a new era of social direct response that wasn’t just paying for Facebook ads, where costs continue to rise and a fight for privacy drags on. TikTok took the world by storm and didn’t show any signs of slowing down; their growth this year speaks for itself.

We’ve started to see a similar-but-different approach when working with true influencers versus content creators. The former is defined by generally talking about brands and products they like (with or without paid endorsement) on their established Instagram, YouTube, blog, or other digital channels. However, content creators are typically building new content specific to the brand or products they are supporting (again, often with paid endorsement) and attaching their personal flair to engage their direct audience.
 

“One thing that comes to mind for me is the new distinction between ‘influencers’ vs. ‘content creators.’ Influencers are recognized because of their high follower count, not necessarily engagement. Content creators actually spend time, thought, and energy into creating content that resonates with brands and audiences. On the surface, they’re one and the same, but in 2021, brands focused more on content quality as opposed to number of followers. They saw a higher ROAS from micro- and nano-influencers — smaller followers with higher engagement.”

– Tie Davidson, Partnerships Manager, TUNE

 
It’s great when brands can get their A-list celebrity endorsements, but often, they come at a high cost and often lack a sincere connection, which is arguably more important in the long run than immediate return on investment. The nano-, micro-, and macro-influencer communities are a potent antidote to traditional marketing. Despite fewer followers than the mega-stars, these content creators tap into their audiences with personalized, vulnerable, and relatable content. It’s much easier to understand the value of a product or service through someone else’s experience when that someone feels real and genuine.

Many brands have finally accepted the importance of this channel and are hiring talent to navigate the growing industry. More emphasis is now placed on bringing in managers who understand the influencer space and know how to tap into the right combination of talent, authenticity, and charisma to source the best creators. And yes, in case you’re wondering, influencers are here to stay for a while.

Smarter Data and Better Privacy Are Non-Negotiable

Can you remember the last time an app or a website didn’t ask if it was OK to track you?

Driven primarily by changes to the Apple and Google ecosystems, privacy and compliance continue to write a major narrative. Brands are forced to compete with changing policies that, at least on the surface, seem designed to protect people’s information. It’s a tough sell in a world that’s relied so heavily on third-party cookies for advertising targeting, and the partner marketing landscape is no different. With cookies quickly becoming a relic of the past, brands need partners and technologies they can trust to treat customer information with the right sensitivity. Proper data hygiene isn’t just important for your business, it’s critical.

In the past, a common challenge for many brands has been properly tracking and attributing results from their partner channels. This challenge was amplified when non-traditional partners (talking to you, influencers and podcasters) were added to the equation. Yes, you can have a tracking link with UTMs appended to a YouTube video or a swipe-up Instagram story, but as many brands have learned recently, Google Analytics is not the right tool for this job.

Plenty of businesses don’t rely on Google Analytics to track these campaigns, but far too many still do. By and large, Google’s solution is one of the lowest barriers for entry when a brand wants to kick off a partner marketing or influencer program with little impact to their tech stack. However, an increasing appetite for better insights is coming to the forefront as we enter 2022.

Read more about TUNE’s commitment to topics like GDPR, CCPA, and SOC compliance.

Consumers Lean Toward Authentic, Socially Conscious Brands

The shifting economy and a new generation of consumers drove many established brands to rethink their strategies in 2021. Meanwhile, a new legion of high-growth businesses has stepped in to fill gaps in the market; several of these are focusing on specific customer needs, long-standing pain points, and expanding traditional verticals to new limits. Is investing, crypto, or blockchain just too confusing to figure out? Tired of shopping at the same big-box retailers who may or may not be transparent in their production process? Ready to take that online course to learn coding during the weekend? New business growth has taken on new life in 2021 and, when paired with credible intent, is creating factions of loyal consumers.

The fourth wall has cracked. Consumers want brands to spark a legitimate connection with their values and needs. They need personalized, curated experiences (just don’t ask them to accept cookies…) before they will allow a product or service into their life.

While this shift may be new to some companies, many established brands are already playing their part to great success. One example is Patagonia, which announced it would donate 100% of their Black Friday revenue in 2021 to support environmental sustainability. The result? Patagonia saw a record-breaking $10 million in sales, five times more than they expected to bring in. Their site traffic has also seen a nice jump of over 47% from last year, as they continue to strike a social nerve with a consistent, purpose-driven message.

Acquisitions and Consolidation

There are always new partners, technologies, and agencies coming on to the scene, and 2021 saw a lot of consolidation across the media and marketing mix. Some agencies made the decision to join forces like Gen3 adding to its roster by bringing on Oak Digital, or Acceleration Partners and Streamline Marketing banding together, shifting the services dynamics.

Competitive fatigue and a wildly shifting economy has pushed several media companies to unify businesses for a healthier long-term outlook. Many of these brands share a similar customer base and strategic approach, so it’s not difficult to see why joining forces is attractive. From ironSource acquiring Tapjoy to Meredith joining forces with Dotdash, the new era of media giants is being born again. Even the Goliath that is Experian is taking out its checkbook in favor of product diversification and in recognition of the high-growth insurance technology vertical.

Influencer agencies and content creator managers are primed for heavy growth this coming year and should expect an increase in marketing dollars being pushed in their direction. Content publishers and mobile-first brands will continue to drive massive influence across all aspects of the digital landscape, with the partnerships channel seated at the intersection of the next stage.

Conclusion

As 2021 comes to a close, now more than ever we must accept that change is constant and no one can predict the future.

Consumers are simultaneously searching for more relatable experiences while rejecting much of traditional advertising; if you don’t have a proper mobile strategy, prioritize building one immediately. It’s more critical than ever for brands to implement a conversational marketing approach that speaks to consumers on a human level, and lean on their base of creators to develop uniquely crafted content. Attention spans are shortening, with short-form video becoming a much bigger factor as it is created and consumed by increasingly younger audiences on new apps and social media platforms.

Businesses with a purpose-driven or philanthropic message will continue to strike social nerves and chip away at market share. Convenience and technology-forward brands will keep developing new products and features to compete with emerging businesses in their vertical and a more diverse e-commerce landscape. And the partnerships industry will become one of the most valuable channels as more and more brands look to accomplish these goals in 2022.

Questions about adding partnerships to your marketing mix in 2022? Get in touch with us at sales@tune.com, or request a demo of the TUNE Partner Marketing Platform today.

Learn more about the partner marketing ecosystem in our Ultimate Guide to Partner Marketing e-book and blog series.

Question: How can you avoid making an error when you don’t know what the error is? 

Answer: You can’t.

This is the problem TUNE set out to solve in a new e-book, “10 Mistakes to Avoid When Starting an Affiliate Program.” In the e-book, we reveal the biggest affiliate marketing mistakes that industry experts have seen (or made) when planning, launching, and growing a program. Now, we’re covering a few of the best strategies and stories from the e-book in a new on-demand webinar.

Watch and Learn On Demand

On October 20, TUNE welcomed Sarah Beeskow Blay, Vice President of North America at Silverbean, a global affiliate agency, and Lyndsey Fish, TUNE’s Director of Partnerships for a candid talk about strategy in affiliate marketing programs. 

Titled “Lessons Learned: How a Clear Strategy Can Prevent Costly Mistakes in Your Affiliate Program” the webinar offers valuable advice for both brand-new programs and those that are established and growing. 

In addition to discussing the most common and most detrimental affiliate marketing mistakes they’ve seen, Sarah and Lyndsey present five important questions to ask to ensure a program is set up for success. 

Best of all? Each question is broken down into two sets of answers: one for advertisers who are just getting started with affiliate marketing, and another for advertisers who are looking to grow and optimize an existing program.

Here’s an example of what you can expect to hear and learn in this 30-minute webinar:

Unlike other channels where you can allocate budget, set up a campaign, and let it run, affiliate marketing is based on relationships. It’s an ever evolving slow growth channel that does require constant care and attention. Throughout my years, I’ve seen countless programs set it and forget it. Expecting that the action of setting up an affiliate program would alone drive buckets of incremental sales.
I like to use the gym analogy with new programs to better explain and paint a picture. You aren’t going to get fit by joining a gym alone. You will best achieve success by setting out realistic goals, create a solid game plan for achieving those goals, and consistently get at it. A tracking platform is your gym. They have the tools and resources to help you succeed. And you can enlist the help of a personal trainer to help get you there — these are your agencies.

—Sarah Beeskow Blay

Avoid Affiliate Marketing Mistakes with TUNE

While no one’s perfect, we think it’s possible to get close — especially when it comes to affiliate marketing relationships. For more tips and strategies on nurturing long-lasting, profitable partnerships (and keeping them that way), download the 10 Mistakes e-book here or watch our Lessons Learned webinar on demand. 

Ready to start your own affiliate program? Request a demo of the TUNE Partner Marketing Platform today.

When Apple announced iOS 15 at WWDC in June, they stirred up quite the fervor with the latest privacy updates (a predictable pattern for the last couple of years). “No more IP address in Safari” seemed to be the big takeaway. Now that we’re getting closer to the September release of iOS 15, some of the details are becoming clearer. Using the iOS 15 public beta, I was able to test out some of these new capabilities. Here’s what I found. 

Safari Will Hide IP Addresses for “Trackers” Whether You Have iCloud+ or Not in iOS 15

In the settings for Safari, there are three options to hide your IP address: 

• Trackers and Websites 
• Trackers Only 
• Off 

The default setting is “Trackers Only,” and this does not require a subscription to iCloud+ to use. If you choose “Trackers and Websites,” you’ll be prompted to subscribe to iCloud+ and enable Private Relay. Although it does not specify here what a tracker is, I can only assume it will use the same on-device machine learning algorithm employed by Intelligent Tracking Protection (ITP) since 2017. 

There Are Two Settings for IP Address Location with Private Relay 

When iCloud+ Private Relay is active, there are two settings for IP Address location:  

• Maintain General Location 
• Use Country and Time Zone 

I believe the first option is meant to be more granular, and the second option is much broader. Unfortunately, these options were not fully operational in the beta test I ran. Even when I chose “Maintain General Location” (the default), Private Relay gave me an IP address in El Cajon, CA, which is quite far from my actual location in Seattle, WA. I fully expect this to change when iOS 15 is released. 

TUNE Postback Tracking Will Still Function Over Private Relay 

While I didn’t expect Private Relay to have any effect on our postback tracking, I tested it to make sure. I clicked a TUNE tracking link with Private Relay enabled, then triggered a conversion by visiting a confirmation page. The transaction ID was passed as normal, and the conversion fired.

Since server-side tracking doesn’t rely on a cookie or the user’s IP address, Private Relay should not cause any issues to your offers using postbacks.  

Messaging Around AppTrackingTransparency Continues to Be Frustrating 

Various wording in the tracking settings has changed with iOS 15, and it highlights the stark difference between Apple’s description of their own tracking practices versus the AppTrackingTransparency (ATT) prompt for all other developers. 

As you can see above, in Apple’s own prompt, they clearly frame personalized ads as a good thing. What’s more, they highlight the fact that opting out of personalized ads does not reduce the number of ads you receive. I think this is one of the biggest misconceptions about ATT: the average consumer likely believes that opting out of tracking will reduce the number of ads. 

In the ATT prompt on the right, the difference is night and day. They put it on developers to mention anything about personalized ads (as DoorDash has done in this example) and use aggressive anti-tracking language that makes it sound very bad. 

The Only Constant Is Change 

In such a fast-moving industry, the only thing we can count on is that it will keep changing. Many businesses are caught in the crossfire between tech giants like Apple and their endless jockeying for position, so we’ll do our best to keep reporting on the changes and their impact on partner marketing. 

Questions or comments about iOS 15? Let us know in the comment section below or reach out to us at partnermarketing@tune.com.