Affiliate Marketing Trends 2018

 Also in 2018, there will be some important trends that will keep us busy. Multi-attribution will for sure become more important. Advertisers want to partner with a higher number of content publishers, who usually don’t receive compensation due to the user journey and last-click logic. Influencer marketing is growing up and advertisers will pay more attention to the performance of influencer campaigns. This is where classical affiliate marketing comes into play with the rise of sophisticated compensation models for publishers who tend to play in the front-end of the user journey and, of course, cross-device and cookie-less tracking.

AI is also a hot topic. Through Alexa, Google Home, etc., the end user interacts quite differently with advertisers. It will certainly be exciting to see how publishers will find new ways to target end customers and which new models will evolve.

Matthias Stadelmeyer, CEO Tradedoubler

 Online influencers have taken a lot more importance in the advertiser’s affiliate mix in the last few years. A big trend in 2018 will be the increase of partnerships between Media Performance and Media Branding companies. Some affiliate networks took the lead and are already able to develop content creation projects (articles, infographics, white papers) on premium media websites in order to bring advertiser’s affiliate program to the next level.

Data marketing will obviously stay a hot topic in 2018 in the affiliate sector. The use of client’s DMP in their affiliate program will allow the customization of messages (banners for example) used by publishers. Therefore, web marketers will have a more targeted marketing approach (new customer, regular customer, …) rather than a marketing channel approach when piloting their affiliate program. Affiliate networks which have not already developed alternative solutions (device-fingerprint tracking for example) to replace the old tracking solution based on cookies will strongly be penalized.

Philippe Laforêt, Country Manager Tradedoubler France

Content publishers will become even more important in the affiliate landscape. The demand for relevant content publishers by advertisers will grow. As a network, providing the insights about the role of each publisher in the user journey is key.

Reinout van der Lende, Sales Manager Tradedoubler Benelux

 I believe that 2018 will continue to follow the path of an increasing importance of affiliate marketing in the digital business – today already 15% of total digital revenues come from affiliate marketing and that share can grow. Increasingly, performance-based activities will replace reach-based activities. In my opinion, the most salient trends will be:

  • An increase in the importance of video and mobile channels in performance marketing and affiliate marketing.
  • An increasingly important role of data measurement and analysis – especially between the devices and marketing channels. In this context –a major importance of cross-device tracking.
  • The changing role of companies that deal with affiliate marketing – from managing the partners network to full business partnership, taking care of all aspects of meeting marketing and sales KPIs. “Traditional” affiliate marketing agencies have undergone many changes, offering now much more complex and comprehensive solutions. In line with the trend, I believe that these companies will be focusing more on strategic and technology consulting.
  • The impact of GDPR on the entire industry.
  • High ROI with respect to the utilization of e-mailing databases.
  • Using the potential of influencer marketing.
  • High importance of technology and niche solutions supporting the development of affiliations.

Łukasz Szymula, Regional Director Tradedoubler CEE

 Data, the Bitcoin of 2018

This year we will see continued investment and fine tuning in the way our advertisers approach and interact with customers thanks to big data. A clear marketing shift, from the good old “shotgun mentality” will be noticed and transformed to a more customer centric approach bringing in greater results for advertisers, publishers and consumers alike.

The challenge for us along with countless agencies and marketers will be to understand the connectivity between various data points in the user’s complex purchase path. Once this is done and understood conclusions can be formulated and optimization can take shape, in order to generate true value for our advertisers.

Patrick Ammann, Country Manager Tradedoubler Switzerland

 The trend that grows strong in all Nordic markets is that more of the largest Multichannel players with both offline- & online stores understand that their online business is not just a shopping window for offline commerce. It´s actually a channel that stands on its own legs and helps the companies to expand their business.

The understanding of the importance to be present in the right contexts, aim at the right audiences and present in all channels will blossom, as well as adjust the communication to laptops, tablets and mobiles to drive business in a symbiosis together both online and offline is very important.

Also influencers will continue to be an important part of the networks and hopefully we´ll see more of influencer marketing also in other verticals then retail, beauty & fashion during 2018.

Kristoffer Klockare, Regional Director Tradedoubler Nordics

 2018 will be an exciting year in the Spanish market with new affiliate models on the rise, such as artificial intelligence used to establish conversations that will turn into conversions, and content publishers, which are gaining strength and will essentially direct advertisers to other models such as fixed fees and CPCs, always oriented towards CPA.

The GDPR will also mean some changes with regards to how we manage the data of our advertisers and publishers. We will have to see how the regulation applies to our market.

Data Management is still at the center of attention as advertisers are focusing on targeting the right customer. Therefor we must work on the attribution model and the user journey.

Finally, there is a trend that affects mature advertisers that manage publishers directly and via different networks. Agencies and large advertisers are investing in technologies that allow them to manage these programs directly.

Soraya García Merino, Country Manager Tradedoubler Spain

 Influencer marketing has grown fast in the past couple of years. Many Companies in Italy are willing to invest in influencer marketing to engage their audience. The challenge for influencers in 2018 will be to prove their potential driving consumers to convert in-store.  At the same time attribution models will be relevant for digital marketers to measure the success of influencers and all other online advertising channels.

Having a tracking in place to monitor in-app conversions will be also a prime priority to analyze digital marketing campaigns since purchases in-app are becoming even more rising for online brands.

Alma Renna, Country Manager Tradedoubler Italy

 

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