Businesses in a wide range of industries are relying more and more on affiliate marketing as a source of revenue.
According to Statista data, Affiliate marketing is expected to be an $8.2 billion industry in the United States by 2022.
Perhaps you’re already an expert on affiliate marketing.
Maybe you’re just getting your feet wet and still have a lot to learn.
Regardless of how you look at it, there’s one thing everyone wants to know:
What’s the future of affiliate marketing?
A look at how affiliate marketing has evolved and where it’s anticipated to go in the future can be found here in this article.
Keep reading!
What Is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is the process in which an affiliate earns a commission for promoting another company’s products.
With affiliate marketing, companies rely on marketing partners (affiliates) to promote their products or services to their followers in exchange for a commission on each website visitor, sale, or lead that the partner generates.
Affiliates (also known as publishers) can be bloggers, social media influencers, etc, with a following that is similar to the company’s target audience.
This allows the company to reach a new group of potential buyers.
These campaigns are successful because of the involvement of three different parties: advertisers, publishers, and the consumer.
For every sale made through the publisher’s affiliate link, the publisher receives a percentage of the sale’s revenue.
As a result, it boosts sales for the brand and provides a source of income for the publisher.
A new product is introduced to customers who might not have otherwise purchased it.
Organic inclusion of the product in relevant content helps publishers earn money online by promoting or encouraging the sale of the product.
In addition, the corporation that sells the goods generates additional revenue.
What Has Changed In Affiliate Marketing In The Last Few Years?
The demand for affiliate marketing has grown as the number of blogs and bloggers has increased.
In order to make money online from their blogs, the most successful bloggers use affiliate marketing and are picky about the products they promote.
This establishes their credibility and builds trust with their readers and followers.
As social media becomes more and more popular, affiliates have more options for promoting their affiliate products.
Affiliate marketing is big on social media platforms including Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and YouTube.
In the last several years, mobile affiliate marketing has gained importance.
Over 63.4% of individuals in 2019 access the internet through their phones.
Brands and publishers are increasingly focusing on mobile content and mobile advertisements as the number of mobile users continue to rise.
We’ve seen a lot of progress in analytics and tracking technology in the last few years.
As a result, affiliate marketing strategy assessments have become considerably simpler for businesses.
Companies can now use data to see if their affiliate plans are actually working.
Since 2013, the amount of interest in affiliate marketing has been steadily increasing.
In the past, many businesses were wary of the potential benefits of affiliate marketing.
These same businesses are now putting in a lot of effort to expand their digital marketing efforts by including affiliate marketing.
Affiliate marketing is currently used by 81 percent of all brands.
What Is The Future Of Affiliate Marketing In The Next Five Years?
So, what can we expect in terms of affiliate marketing developments in the following years?
Here are seven predictions on how it will evolve and expand in the future:
- Influencers will become more important.
- There will be an increase in the number of people doing voice searches.
- An increase in the need for mobile-friendly content will make e-commerce retailers expand their affiliate marketing programs.
- Push notification traffic may experience a slowdown.
- There will be a rise in the amount of money spent on affiliate programs.
- There will be an increase in the number of affiliate marketing agencies.
These points are discussed in detail below!
1. Influencers Will Become More Important.
As long as influencers are doing what they do best, they’ll keep doing it.
Authenticity and regular interaction with followers are the keys to success for influencers.
Having a larger fan base gives them more possibilities to persuade their followers to purchase their affiliate products.
Consumers place a great deal of faith in the influencers they follow on a daily basis.
Affiliate marketing is only going to get more important as these relationships grow.
In the eyes of the public, influencers reflect a brand’s face in the marketplace.
Because of this, many have a personal connection to the work they do.
That’s what every brand wants: a relationship with their customers that makes them feel more connected to their brand.
Instagram, on the other hand, is now experimenting with a new guideline that could complicate the use of influencers in marketing.
The number of “likes” a user has on a post is no longer visible in some locations of the social media giant’s app.
Only the user can see their own amount of likes, but no one else can.
Companies and brands that are searching for a successful affiliate to work with are also included in this.
In Canada, this new strategy was first introduced, but it has since spread to countries such as Japan and Brazil.
Studies showing how users compared the number of likes they received with those of other users led to low self-esteem and mental health difficulties motivated the move.
If a company is attempting to identify a strong publisher, the number of likes they receive might be quite helpful.
Although the number of followers and likes will still be used to evaluate influencers, this will no longer be the case.
Whether Instagram will keep this restriction in place indefinitely is still an open question.
It’s still under beta testing at the moment.
However, if this trend continues, Instagram’s use for affiliate marketing may shrink.
2. Voice Searches Are On the Rise.
There has been an increase in the number of people using voice searches.
Increasing use of Amazon Alexa, Cortana, and Siri will require higher quality content for voice searches in the affiliate marketing sector.
It’s already happening, and I think that most affiliate marketing agencies will continue to improve in this area.
As a result, high-quality audio and video material will be a major focus of attention in 2022.
Audio and video content are just as important in marketing as written copy and visual ads have been in the past.
Affiliate marketing strategies will be more successful if publishers can interact with their audience in as many different ways as possible.
In order to score well in search results, bloggers have perfected their SEO skills to a form of art.
Voice search optimization, on the other hand, requires a somewhat different approach.
When asking a query to Alexa, what someone writes into Google’s search field may be considerably different from what they say out loud.
Optimization for voice searches will have to take into account how people speak naturally.
A lengthier query is more likely to be asked than one that is typed.
Voice commands don’t have an autocomplete feature like Google’s search bar, which is a major drawback.
As a result, more long-tail terms will be included in voice searches.
Content must be tailored to voice assistants in order to make the most of this new technology.
3. Affiliate Programs Will Become More Mobile-Friendly.
Mobile-friendly content is becoming increasingly important as voice searches become more popular.
According to Google Analytics, mobile devices are used to complete 40% of all online transactions.
More than two-thirds of mobile searches result in a purchase within an hour, according to the same study.
Affiliate programs will be required to improve their content for mobile use as a result of this reality.
Some advertisements and internet marketing content will be optimized for consumption on mobile devices.
Some will just need to be tweaked to provide a better mobile experience.
Despite the fact that conversion rates for PC users are still higher, the ratio is anticipated to shift to a higher percentage of smartphone users.
It is critical to have a site that is mobile-friendly.
A publisher who doesn’t have mobile-friendly content is not worth cooperating with.
Prospects will leave if they can’t get the information they need on mobile devices.
4. Expect More Ecommerce Stores To Use Affiliate Marketing.
Online retail and affiliate marketing go hand in hand.
As we approach 2023 and beyond, we expect to see an even greater number of internet businesses collaborating with publishers.
However, major brands and businesses throughout the world are already jumping on board as early adopters.
Having the backing of influencers is extremely important for beauty and fashion brands.
A total of 18.7% and 11.1% of all affiliate programs are associated with these two industries.
Sports and outdoor items, travel, computers, and electronics are some of the other popular categories.
Most online shops are expected to use some form of affiliate marketing by 2025.
It is now easier than ever to enroll and measure the success of affiliate marketers.
Many more companies are looking for publishers that can boost their brand awareness and revenue.
Many more companies are looking for publishers that can boost their brand awareness and revenue.
5. Push Traffic May Slow Down.
White Hat SEO is a search engine optimization (SEO) strategy that is taking priority over other search engine ranking methods.
Push alerts and push advertising may lose their significance as a result of this development.
While push traffic is still highly effective in e-commerce, customers appear to be becoming irritated by the practice.
Pop-up and push notification ads can now be disabled more easily in Google Chrome, for example.
The more people opt out of seeing these adverts, the less relevant they will become for them.
6. Businesses Will Spend More Money On Affiliate Marketing In Order To Increase Their Sales.
Affiliate marketing accounts for an average of 15% of all marketing expenses.
In 2017, affiliate publishers influenced 5 billion product and website clicks.
And 170 million of those 5 billion clicks resulted in actual sales.
As a matter of fact, in the United States and Canada, affiliate marketing and email marketing account for 16 percent of all e-commerce sales.
According to data collected since 2015, affiliate revenue has risen by 10% per year.
Until at least 2022, this tendency is expected to persist.
Affiliate marketing programs are expected to take a larger percentage of advertising money in the future.
7. Expect To See More Affiliate Marketing Agencies.
As the importance of affiliate marketing develops, so does the number of agencies that exist to assist in the process.
There is little question that the number of agencies will be higher than it has ever been by the year 2021.
Is there, however, a genuine need for them?
The answer to that is, yes.
The majority of shops do not have an in-house affiliate marketing and analysis expert.
Many businesses do not have the resources to hire a full-time staff just for the purpose of handling affiliate marketing responsibilities.
Many businesses outsource their marketing efforts to third-party organizations in order to save money on employee salaries while also increasing sales.
Using a marketing firm frees up internal resources and specialists to focus on other projects.
But there’s also a big advantage to working with an agency: they have a proven track record.
Every area of the business is covered by a dedicated team at an affiliate marketing agency.
As a result, they have clients from a variety of industries.
A company that has worked with other clients in your industry in the past is a good choice in most circumstances.
As a result of their expertise, they’ll be able to locate the most suitable affiliates to work with and devise the most effective business plans for you.
Conclusion.
The relevance of affiliate marketing is only going to increase in the coming years.
The future of affiliate marketing sector is crucial to the growth of nearly every form of business.
