Three members of the Blue Moon Digital Affiliate Marketing team attended Rakuten Symposium West in Scottsdale, Arizona February 10th-11th. Advertisers, agencies, and publishers come together to share industry insights and build relationships which is an important aspect of affiliate marketing. The conference also includes multiple strategy sessions to inform attendees of new affiliate marketing strategies, how publishers are evolving, and the current shifts in the industry.
The BMDi team met with approximately 25 partners. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss growth opportunities within all Blue Moon Digital’s affiliate programs. This is the best time to meet publishers face-to-face who we communicate with every day. We really enjoyed meeting with all the publishers and learning more about their technologies + how we can optimize the relationship.
The team also attended multiple strategy sessions for industry insights. One of the informative sessions spoke about the growth of the affiliate channel, the shifts that are happening in the industry, and findings from a new study conducted by Forrester Consulting. Below are the key takeaways from this strategy session:
- 81% of advertisers and 84% of publishers have turned to affiliate marketing in search of differentiated marketing content or new opportunities for driving ad revenue to their sites
- Nearly nine out of 10 advertisers said that affiliate programs were important or very important to their overall marketing strategy, and over 80% said that they were devoting more than 10% of their marketing budgets to their affiliate programs
- The survey revealed that advertisers running affiliate programs are more likely to leverage affiliate content to raise awareness of their products and services, encourage ongoing customer engagement, as well as drive purchases and conversions
Overall, the conference was very valuable. Between the many publisher meetings and new strategies we learned about, our clients’ affiliate programs will definitely benefit.
