How To Take Advantage Of New Affiliate Publisher Models By Segmenting And Targeting Your Audience

The affiliate channel typically focuses on discount shoppers and therefore operates at the bottom of the marketing funnel. As a result, its budget allocation is often smaller than other channels. Lately, a broader set of publishers have monetized the channel through improved tracking and payment technology. Commerce content, reviews, influencers, and legacy publishers now drive significant revenue from affiliate partnerships with brands. The result is a larger, more diverse audience for affiliate marketers to access. Successfully accessing these audiences requires improved audience segmentation and messaging. If done correctly, this broader audience can be an introducer, a new customer aggregator or brand enhancer, allowing the channel to compete for more budget.

What Has Changed in Affiliate Marketing?

With the continued expansion of new publishers and advertisers in the space, affiliate marketing spend continues to increase each year. There are three main factors driving this rapid channel growth: 1. Tracking. Sophisticated tracking platforms have enabled an explosion in the number and variety of publishers and content by increasing transparency within the digital marketing landscape. More publishers have joined affiliate marketing platforms to gain direct access to the brands they want to promote, which increases the reach of new audience targets. This increase in patronage includes anyone from a coupon site to an individual influencer who wants to promote a product they bought and track the performance of their efforts. The highest-growth partnership categories include loyalty programs, large content entities, and mobile enablements. ​​ 2. Mobile Buyers. With mobile-based purchases becoming increasingly simple, so has the propensity for consumers’ to make purchases from their device. As consumer mobile purchases continue to grow, brands and publishers focus on mobile targeting and driving users to in-app purchases. ​3. Presence. Some of the largest content entities are now omnipresent in the space. They work with brands that want to amplify their reach and those who also want to attract new customers.

How Changes Are Affecting Affiliate Marketing Programs

When we take a deeper look at how these changes are being implemented into affiliate marketing programs, we’re seeing examples from brands in all verticals expanding their reach in the channel. Some of these new strategies include:

• Targeted messaging and pricing to segmented audiences. As digital marketing expands, so do the need to keep your customers engaged. Brands will always want new customers but it’s also important to keep current ones coming back. The affiliate space has advanced in a way that supports both efforts. We’re seeing this done through targeted content to attract new users and retargeting consumers who have clicked on an ad but not purchased within a certain time-frame.