THE AFFILIATE MANAGER EXPERT BLOG

Affiliate Marketing Insights

Affiliate marketing insight, industry commentary, and practical strategy. Straight from the field.

Written by James Nardell  ·  Affiliate management since 2005  ·  SaaS, software, fintech, e-commerce

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AI search disrupting last-click affiliate attribution, with affiliate dashboards, partner touchpoints, and multi-touch attribution paths.

AI Search Is Breaking Affiliate Attribution | Why Multi-Touch Isn’t Enough | Affiliate Manager Expert

AI search is making last-click affiliate attribution even more dangerous. Multi-touch attribution helps expose the problem, but it's only part of the answer. Brands need better partner classification, better reporting, and a clearer view of who creates demand versus who simply captures it.
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Influencer Marketing vs Affiliate Marketing | They Were Always the Same | Affiliate Manager Expert

Influencer marketing is treated as a separate channel, but it has always shared the same commercial logic as affiliate marketing: a partner with an audience recommends a product and drives awareness, clicks, and sales. The real differences are pricing, attribution, and how much upfront risk the brand is willing to take, not whether we call someone an influencer or an affiliate.
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Affiliate Commission Cuts | How to Communicate Them | Affiliate Manager Expert

Affiliate commission cuts often feel personal to partners, especially when they’re driving sales. But the economics may be more complicated than the affiliate can see. Here’s why affiliate managers need to explain CAC, ROAS, renewals, retention, incrementality, and partner value more clearly before cutting commissions.
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Affiliate Manager Attribution | Pay for Real Influence | Affiliate Manager Expert

Your affiliate manager doesn’t need to be a data scientist, but they should understand attribution. Learn why last-click reporting can mislead brands, how partner value gets distorted, and what questions your affiliate manager should be able to answer.
hiring an in house affiliate manager Resize

Hiring an In-House Affiliate Manager | Compare Costs & Alternatives | Affiliate Manager Expert

Thinking about hiring an in-house affiliate manager? Before you commit to salary, tools, ramp-up time, and hiring risk, here’s the math behind why many brands should consider outsourced affiliate management first.
Affiliate Coupon Leakage

Your Affiliate Program Is Just a Coupon Feed. You Just Don’t Know It Yet.

Is your affiliate program a real growth channel, or just a passive coupon feed? Learn how coupon-heavy programs create false confidence, why last-click revenue can be misleading, and how to build a more strategic affiliate partner mix.
Affiliate Program Stalled

Affiliate Program Stalled? 9 Reasons Growth Has Flatlined

Has your affiliate program stalled? This guide explains why affiliate growth often flatlines, how to diagnose the real problem, and what to fix first if you want better partners, cleaner revenue, and profitable growth.
Best Affiliate Management Agency

Best Affiliate Management Agency? Choose the Manager First

Looking for the best affiliate management agency? The better question is who will actually manage your affiliate program. This guide explains why the assigned affiliate manager often matters more than the agency logo, what good affiliate management really involves, and what questions to ask before hiring an outsourced affiliate program management partner.
FLoC off! #nofloc

Google’s FLoC: Is Affiliate Marketing FLoCed?

Is Google's FLoc the death knell of affiliate marketing? TL;DR My guess is no. That said, like GDPR, FLoC will cause a lot of headaches for online marketers. First off, let's take a step back...