Affiliate Marketing Trends in 2023

The affiliate marketing industry is estimated to be $17 billion in 2023.

Without a doubt, affiliate marketing has become a critical facet of business strategy practices in recent years, 2023 being no different. More than 80% of marketers utilize affiliate marketing to raise brand recognition. A low-cost and high-value business plan, affiliate marketing plays a significant role in optimizing growth. 

Check out the benefits of affiliate marketing for brands diagram by Affiliate.

Let’s explore the trends in the affiliate marketing world. But first, just a heads up for those attending any affiliate marketing-related events in the next few months, some Adcash team members may be attending, so check out the events list.

Affiliate Marketing Events:

TES Portugal: February 22 – 25, 2023

Affiliate World Dubai 2023: March 1 – 2, 2023 (See you there!)

LeadsCon: March 13 – 15, 2023

Before we look at the trends, we’d like to share something with you. We’re not making any judgments. We’re just looking out for you. We made a list last year of mistakes to avoid in affiliate marketing. It’s still relevant for 2023, so make sure to keep it in mind.

Micro-Influencers

We’re starting off with this one because it was a popular trend in 2022 and continues to be popular for 2023.

Social media marketing is a valuable tool for affiliate marketers. Connecting and partnering with influencers who have amassed a focused and niche yet strong following (micro-influencers) have great opportunities for brand recognition, engagement, word-of-mouth marketing, and brand loyalty.

Tip! Don’t exclude “nano” influencers. These influencers are smaller than micro-influencers and may only have a following of less than 1,000, but they still offer a unique and rewarding benefit to the business strategy.

Cross-Device Tracking

With several different technological devices available worldwide, it’s no wonder tracking across devices has become vital for performance.

We constantly see the battle between mobile and desktop ads here at Adcash, so we recommend cross-device tracking for either, depending on your performance success. However, as you can see in our January 2023 monthly report that mobile (57%) is performing slightly better than desktop (43%). This trend is happening in the online advertising environment as more people utilize their mobile devices.

Think Local

Want to print something but don’t own a printer? Your pants ripped, and you need a tailor? In these cases, the quickest resolution for those using a device would be to search for the nearest places to address each problem. From restaurants to clothing stores and everything in between, people are searching for things in their local area. 

The increased traffic is a great avenue to explore as an affiliate marketer if you operate with verticals such as Food/Beverage, Sports, and Entertainment. Pairing this trend with micro-influencers is a recipe for success.

Contextual Targeting

Targeting users never come without a hitch. Contextual targeting has been practiced before, but now it will be extremely vital. With changes to third-party cookies, first-party cooks will reign supreme as they collect relevant and critical information for contextual marketing.

Look at this as more of an opportunity than an obstacle. Contextual targeting provides a chance to reach a niche, highly-committed audience. You can select and precisely target by user interest in the advertiser platform.

You can select as many user interest verticals as you like for your campaign and supplement it with a website category.

 The end of third-party cookies is happening in 2024, whether we like it or not. In the meantime, affiliate marketers would be wise to start transitioning and testing new strategies in 2023 in preparation for 2024.

 

Those are the most popular trends we’ve noticed in the affiliate marketing world. Let us know if you plan to follow these trends or choose a trend we didn’t list.

If you have questions or comments, you can contact us anytime.

-Adcash Team