10 Affiliate Marketing Trends for 2024: Experts Share Their Thoughts
By Lauren Mohr
Over the past decade, affiliate marketing has transformed significantly as a result of evolving marketing channels, technology, and consumer behavior.
What was once a marketing strategy used primarily by B2C companies is now making its way into B2B partnerships. More businesses are recognizing the value of affiliate programs as a cost-effective way to increase brand exposure, generate leads and drive sales.
In fact, Google Trends shows that the global search interest for “affiliate marketing” has rapidly increased since 2020 — even reaching peak popularity in July 2023.
There’s no denying that affiliate marketing is a thriving industry with a bright future. To anticipate what lies ahead, we asked experts their thoughts on emerging trends that will dominate the B2B affiliate marketing space in 2024.
Let’s get into it.
Top Affiliate Marketing Trends, According to Experts
1. AI will change the affiliate marketing game.
“As AI continues to permeate this field, we can anticipate a more focused and strategic approach to increase performance partnerships,” says Lee-Ann Johnstone, Founder of Affiverse.
Lee-Ann continues, “New AI-driven affiliate matching already exists on various networks, streamlining outreach and recruitment efforts, reducing the labor-intensive nature of program management to support faster growth.”
Automation capabilities within affiliate platforms include:
- Identify and analyze potential partners and their audiences.
- Accept or decline affiliate applications based on a set of criteria.
- Detect and prevent fraudulent activity.
- Provide personalized affiliate support.
- Make performance optimization recommendations.
AI is also set to greatly impact content creators in particular. Ben Jolly, Global Affiliate Marketing Lead at ClickUp, suggests an interesting contradiction between AI advancements and regulatory shifts.
While new AI tools like HubSpot’s content assistant amplify human creativity and help scale content creation, “the Google antitrust suit, currently in progress, has the potential to dramatically reshape the search landscape,” Ben proposes.
“Affiliate marketing, historically reliant on strong content that ranks organically on platforms like Google, might need a significant recalibration. If search algorithms and interfaces evolve, or if alternative search engines gain prominence, affiliates and managers will need to be agile in adjusting their strategies.”
2. Businesses will take a unified approach to partnerships.
Teams and different partner types are going to intersect which will allow long-lasting and multifaceted partnerships to grow.
Nicolette Lopes, Senior Manager of Channel Partnerships at PartnerStack says, “I expect to see an increase in affiliate marketing overlaying the entire organization, instead of being an isolated team in the marketing department.”
“Leveraging affiliates to drive leads for resellers, strategic partners or other go to market strategies is not only a more cost effective route, but it’s increasing your organization’s reach and visibility to new customers by layering in the trusted networks of multiple partner types,” Nicolette adds.
How might affiliate marketing go from a siloed function to a channel with a holistic approach?
Adam Glazer, President of Partner Commerce recommends that, “Affiliate managers should be embedded into …read more
Source:: HubSpot Blog
