What’s been happening in the world of affiliate marketing? We’ve collected some of the top stories from November. Let’s take a look at the hot topics from last month…
Influencers and other affiliate marketers have become an increasingly important part of Cyber Monday
According to new data from Adobe Analytics, social media influencers and affiliates who promote products through affiliate links contributed to approximately 20% of U.S. e-commerce revenue on Cyber Monday. This represents a roughly 7% increase compared to 2023, the company reported.
Adobe Analytics also revealed that products shared via affiliate links were six times more likely to result in a purchase than content posted on social media by brands or users that lacked affiliate marketing or similar promotional links.
Read the full article here.
“Google is Abusing Its Market Position” Affiliate Networks Respond to Site Reputation Abuse
Last week, in the midst of the Q4 flurry, Google launched a surprise update to its site reputation abuse guidelines. Google will start targeting any third-party affiliate content hosted on a well-known domain. Already, this has impacted some large monopolies in the space, including Forbes Marketplace, CNN Underscored, and Wall Street Journal.
Adam Ross, CEO of Awin, described the move as “yet another example of (Google) abusing its dominant market position.
Read the full article here.
What Meta’s New ‘Views’ Metric Means for Affiliate Marketers
Meta’s introduction of the “Views” metric, replacing “Impressions” across its platforms, is a game-changer for affiliate marketers. This shift focuses on actual content visibility, offering more precise insights into audience engagement.
This will affect affiliate campaigns by offering more accurate performance tracking, increased focus on quality content, and improve ad spend efficiency. Conversely, this will also bring challenges in competition for visibility and changes in partner expectations.
Read the full article here.
5 charts on affiliate marketing: Marketers Face Mixed Priorities
Affiliate marketing has rapidly evolved into a massive $10 billion industry, gaining recognition for its powerful ability to drive sales and customer engagement across various sectors. However, despite its effectiveness, many marketers still hesitate to prioritise affiliate marketing budgets due to challenges with attribution or because they categorise it as part of paid social spending. Take a look at the full article showcasing five charts of the current landscape of affiliate marketing.
Read the full article here.
Top Affiliate Marketing Trends to Watch in 2025
The future of affiliate marketing in 2025 is set to be shaped by exciting new trends. AI-driven optimization, social commerce on platforms like Instagram and TikTok, and a shift toward niche markets are all set to transform the industry. Affiliates will need to focus on personalised content, transparency, and staying compliant with evolving regulations to stay competitive and build trust with audiences.
Read the full article here.
20% of Consumers Used AI Chatbots to Find Black Friday Deals
20% of consumers turned to AI chatbots for help finding Black Friday deals in 2024, showcasing a significant shift in how people approach holiday shopping. This growing dependency on AI tools highlights their increasing role in simplifying the search for discounts for consumers, which will further reshape how consumers interact with brands during peak retail periods.
Read the full article here.
AI in Marketing: How to Prepare for the Future of Search
Gartner estimates that by 2028, many brands will see their site traffic from organic search decrease by 50% or more as customers embrace generative AI-powered search. Unfortunately, there are already signs of this prediction coming true. Google’s new generative AI (GenAI) search functionality is expected to impact brand organic visibility, search ad performance and website traffic.
For affiliates, this means a required adaptation of your brand’s content, influencer, and SEO strategies to prepare for these new changes. View the on-demand webinar from Gartner for more insights.
View the on-demand webinar from Gartner for more insights.
Atolls publishes its latest whitepaper uncovering the incremental value of cashback sites (unashamed self promo!)
Do cashback sites drive incremental value? That’s the big question. In this guide, Atolls explores each of the six incrementality drivers to see what the data and user insights say about each of them. These include first-time customers, repeat customers, average basket size, purchase frequency, marketing cost per customer, and conversion rate.
Read the full guide here.
