New trends
The world of affiliate marketing changes more often than our Advidi logo, Hiro (if you haven’t played with the interactive Hiro, do so after reading this post). With new trends and technological advancements constantly emerging, it’s crucial that affiliates and advertisers adapt to this ever-evolving landscape. We’re almost halfway through 2023 (Crazy, right?), so we thought it’d be a good time to run you through industry trends you should be on top of.
Trends we’re seeing:
- The Rise of the Metaverse.
- Optimization for Voice Search.
- Extinction of Third-Party Cookies.
- Video and User Generated Content.
- Social-Proofing.
Whether you’re looking to boost your earnings or simply want to explore new revenue streams, in this blog post we’ll take you on a journey through the latest tech and trends to help you do just that.
1. The Rise of the Metaverse
Welcome to the metaverse, a real-world simulation with a global audience, full of potential customers. Look, it may not be your go-to place to hang out on a Friday night, but the Metaverse is steadily growing and is expected to become an $800 billion market by 2024. Household names are already getting involved. We saw Nike’s success with Fortnite, where they partnered to allow players to purchase limited edition sneakers for their in-game avatar.
The Metaverse offers limitless possibilities for marketers to expand their affiliate marketing initiatives, but affiliates need to get creative. Whether it’s through a virtual storefront, creating engaging experiences within the verse, partnering with other brands in your niche or leveraging influencer marketing, the virtual world is your oyster.
2. “Hey Google”: Optimize For Voice Search
Whether you prefer Siri, Alexa or Google as your voice assistant, there’s no denying voice searches are becoming a part of our daily lives. More than 1,000,000,000 voice searches take place every month.
How many of these 1,000,000,000 voice searches could be related to your product or service?
Integrating voice search into your affiliate marketing strategy means deep diving into the search queries your customers ask and optimizing your content for those questions and answers. Naturally, most voice searches are done on mobile, so make sure your content looks fresh on mobile devices.
3. Third-Party Cookies are Crumbling
New privacy laws and regulations have made it a little tougher for affiliate marketers to find other ways to gather customer data. Third-party cookies are well on their way to going extinct, with Firefox and Safari already discontinuing them. While affiliates can still take nibbles from first-party cookies, many are turning to AI-power tools to help track performance and gather greater customer insights and personas. Software, Delve.Ai analyses your Google Analytics data to recognize patterns and trends that help you identify your target audience and create laser-focused buyer personas. We talk a little more about this, and other AI tools affiliates are using in this blog post.
4. Video is Still King
With TikTok becoming the fastest-growing app in history, and 40% of Gen Z choosing it as their go-to search platform over Google, it’s clear video isn’t going anywhere. But it’s time to leverage a certain type of video content called UGC, or User Generated Content. UGC are videos where influencers (and also regular people) talk candidly about how they use a certain product or service—this type of video appeals to a larger audience as it feels authentic.
Platforms like Upfluence or TINT allow you to reach out to micro-influencers to create credible-looking UGC videos that can be used in paid campaigns.
5. Social Proof: Five Stars, Baby
Online consumers have become more savvy and conscious about making informed purchases, which lead the way for a culture of product reviewing known as ‘social proofing’. We wrote earlier about UGC, which is just one type of social proofing, videos that offer credibility to a product or service. If video isn’t your jam (spoiler alert, it should be) then written testimonials and reviews also work. Add them to your creatives for extra credibility and trust.
It’s Time to Experiment
If there’s anything to take away from this blog, it’s that now is the time to experiment with your strategy. Explore the Metaverse, think about voice search when crafting campaigns and move away from third-party cookies to gather customer insights. In this fast-paced and competitive industry, staying ahead of the game is more important than ever. With forward-thinking strategies and a willingness to embrace the unknown, the possibilities are truly endless.
That’s all for now, folks. If you’re looking for some quality offers you can test with these new avenues, reach out to your AM. Or if you want become a high profile affiliate and start earning high commissions on exclusive offers within the Advidi network sign up via the button below.