The Affiliate revolution & automation

Too much time is taken within this channel in manual tasks that add little or no value in the whole process, yet companies will prey on them as ‘USPs’ to show a thorough service. Shouldn’t it be the other way around, where innovative automation are the winning factor? In general there are several processes where the industry has fallen behind the times, such as the campaign initiation process. Programmatic has changed this into a 1-step process for lots of channels, so why is Affiliates stuck on a 7 step process? There needs to be a more marketplace style approachOne phrase that stuck in the memory was that Affiliates was stuck in ‘stumbled innovation’. The bad old kids of the affiliate model (CPA, Tenancy and ‘Assists’) still ruled the block and ground was being lost on Digital and Search growth. An approach is needed to revolutionise based on Top, Mid and Long tail tiers, with full funnel influence approaches and bolder pay outs. The top tier Affiliates must go programmatic in the long run, which may involve a form of moving back to CPC. Before that though there needs to be a way to be transparent with boards about putting customers, not payouts, first, with buy-in from the very beginning.Read part one and part three of our roundup.Alastair Kidner, Account Director