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State of the Affiliate Nation 2026: Highlights from APMA launch event

Amy Jordan — Fri, 08 May 2026 08:43:52 +0000

Attending the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association’s annual State of the Affiliate Nation 2026 launch event last week at Everyman Broadgate offered a timely reminder of just how resilient, and increasingly sophisticated, the affiliate channel has become. We joined senior marketers from across the industry to get a first look at the numbers from the third edition of this report, which remains the only piece of UK research built directly from network and platform data.

A channel outperforming the market

The headline stats presented by APMA Founder & Director Kevin Edwards make a compelling case alone. UK brands invested £1.8bn into affiliate and partner marketing in 2025, driving £20.7bn in revenue – a 15:1 ROI. Even more striking is the growth: the channel expanded by 7.3%, outpacing the wider UK economy by a factor of five.

But beyond the top-line figures, what stood out in Kevin’s session was the depth and credibility of the data. Built directly from network and platform submissions, this isn’t modeled guesswork, it’s a reflection of real market activity. And that clarity is critical for brands and agencies looking to justify investment in an increasingly scrutinised media landscape.

Tech-driven scale and evolving performance

The affiliate channel now drives around 1 million sales per day, with approximately 470 clicks every second, which Kevin pointed out equates to a staggering (almost) 15 billion clicks annually. These metrics highlight the infrastructure and tracking sophistication underpinning modern affiliate ecosystems.

The report demonstrates strong growth across tech partners which is up 18% year on year, with partners, CSS and influencer-led activity all contributing across the funnel – from discovery through to conversion. This reinforces a key shift: affiliate is no longer just a “last-click” channel.

In fact, one of the most important findings is the move beyond pure CPA models. Around 20% of spend now sits outside traditional last-click CPA, with tenancy, CPC and hybrid models gaining traction. For brands, this signals a more nuanced, tech-enabled approach to attribution and partner valuation, something we see increasingly in our own client strategies.

Sector trends and where to watch

The report also surfaced some standout vertical insights. While retail remains dominant, growth is being driven by sectors like travel and finance, both seeing double-digit increases. Meanwhile, health & beauty is a clear breakout category, with spend up 20% and revenue surging by 48% year-on-year – fuelled by trends like influencer-led brands and evolving consumer behaviours.

For agencies and brands, this kind of granular data is invaluable in shaping both partner strategy and budget allocation.

Full-funnel thinking and CRO alignment

In addition to unveiling the report highlights, the day’s panel session reinforced many of these themes, particularly the importance of full-funnel optimisation. Featuring leaders from Genie Shopping, Genie Goals and B&Q, the panel discussed how brands are increasingly diversifying partner mixes and investing earlier in the customer journey, from content and editorial through to conversion-driving partners and a focus beyond last-click metrics.

There was also a clear consensus that affiliate’s flexibility, especially in testing new models and partners, makes it a powerful channel in uncertain economic conditions.

Final thoughts

The event closed with a keynote from McDonald’s, offering a broader perspective on brand partnerships and the role of creativity in driving engagement – a fitting reminder that performance and brand don’t need to operate in silos.

Thanks to the APMA for hosting an insightful afternoon of content and perspectives. Members can download the State of the Affiliate Nation 2026 report to explore the full data set and insights in more detail.

intent.ly is a proud founding member of the APMA and we continue to support their work through our Gold membership. Learn more about joining 50 industry leaders and 130+ brands here.

Amy Jordan

Amy is intent.ly’s marketing manager, and she has 15 years’ experience working in marketing for global events and technology.

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There’s a Super Bowl every day on social media. Not everyone’s got the memo.

Ceej Johnson — Tue, 05 May 2026 14:38:30 +0000

I was sat at Awin Global’s ThinkTank Americas last week in Chicago, listening to a keynote from Mike Cessario, founder of canned flavoured water brand Liquid Death that didn’t feel like a prediction of the future, but more like a very direct observation of what’s already happening right in front of us.

At one point, Mike made a comment that neatly reframed the entire marketing landscape in a single line.

“There’s a Super Bowl every day on Social Media.”

Same scale of audience, same potential reach, but with one fairly brutal difference, which is that nobody is forced to watch your ad, nobody is sitting patiently through your message, and nobody really cares unless you give them a reason to.

That one shift alone explains why so much of what we’ve all been doing over the last decade suddenly feels a bit ineffective.

The “Beige Decade” meets the scroll

For a long time, we’ve operated in what I’ve called the beige decade, where the goal was to create marketing that performed reliably, looked polished, and didn’t really offend anyone in the process.

It made sense in a world where distribution could be bought and attention was, to some extent, guaranteed, because if people were going to see your message anyway, you could focus on refining it, optimising it, and making it incrementally better over time.

But what that keynote made very clear is that we are no longer in that world, because the scroll has fundamentally changed the rules.

You are not competing with your category anymore, you are competing with everything that exists in someone’s feed, and in that environment, safe, well-crafted, perfectly balanced marketing stands much less of a chance.

Not because it’s bad, but because it’s ignorable.

If it looks like an ad, it’s already lost

One of the more uncomfortable truths Mike touched on is how quickly people disengage the moment something feels like marketing, because the second that “this is an ad” trigger goes off in someone’s brain, their attention is gone and they’re already halfway down the next piece of content.

That makes the first few seconds of anything you produce disproportionately important, not in a theoretical sense, but in a very literal one, because if you don’t earn attention immediately, you don’t get a second chance.

Which is why the traditional model of carefully crafting a message and pushing it out with media spend is starting to break down, because the assumption that people will sit through it simply doesn’t hold anymore.

The brands winning are creating things people would watch anyway

The most interesting part of the session wasn’t just the diagnosis, it was the operating model behind how they’ve responded to it.

Instead of thinking about marketing as something that supports the product, the approach is to treat it as something people would choose to engage with in its own right, which is a subtle but important shift in mindset.

That’s where a lot of the more unconventional examples come in, whether it’s taking negative internet comments and turning them into content, or creating ideas that feel more like entertainment than advertising.

Not because it’s clever for the sake of it, but because in a scroll-based environment, entertainment is the only reliable way to hold attention long enough for anything else to land.

Small bets, fast output, big outcomes

Another thread running through the keynote was the idea that nobody really knows what’s going to work, which sounds obvious but is often ignored in how marketing is actually structured.

The response to that uncertainty wasn’t to spend more time planning or refining, but to build a model that allows for more output, more experimentation, and more opportunities for something to break through.

That means producing content more quickly, more cheaply, and with less attachment to any single idea, because the goal isn’t to get everything right first time, it’s to create enough chances for something to resonate.

It’s a model that looks far closer to how creators operate than how traditional campaigns are built, which is probably not a coincidence.

As Rory Sutherland puts it, “not everything that makes sense works, and not everything that works makes sense,” which is exactly why the only rational response is to create more opportunities for those slightly illogical, unexpected ideas to actually see the light of day.

Why creativity is quietly winning again

When you step back from it, what that keynote really highlighted is not a new trend, but a correction that’s been building for a while.

The beige decade was built on control, predictability, and optimisation, all of which made sense when attention could be managed and distribution could be controlled.

Now that attention is fragmented and optional, those same strengths have become limitations, because they naturally lead to work that is safe, refined, and very easy to ignore.

At the same time, a smaller group of brands have leaned in the opposite direction, creating things that are more distinctive, more entertaining, and occasionally a bit uncomfortable, which in this environment tends to be exactly what is required to cut through.

The reawakening era is already underway

We’re not moving towards a creative resurgence, we’re already in the early stages of it – it’s just not evenly distributed yet.

Some brands are still operating as if attention can be assumed, continuing to optimise within familiar frameworks, while others have fully accepted that attention has to be earned every single time.

Those that have made that shift are starting to separate themselves, not because they have better tools or better data, but because they are approaching the problem differently.

They are not asking how to improve what they were already doing, they are asking how to create something people would actually choose to watch.

It also reflects a broader shift that System1 have been talking about for years, where the industry has leaned too heavily into salesmanship, focused on persuasion, messaging and rational proof points, when in reality the work that drives growth tends to be far closer to showmanship, built on emotion, entertainment and memorability.

As Orlando Wood put it when keynoting our intent.ly Live! event last year – “if you want to grow, you have to put on a show.”

So, WTF am I trying to say here!?

If the Super Bowl is happening every day, then it’s becoming increasingly clear that many brands are still operating with a model built for a time when attention was more predictable and far easier to secure.

That’s not a failure of creativity, but a reflection of how it was deprioritised during a period where efficiency and optimisation delivered consistent returns.

The environment has shifted, and with it the requirements for standing out. Creativity is no longer optional, it is the mechanism through which attention is earned.

And for ‘entertainment-first’ brands such as Liquid Death, those who have already adapted to that reality are not just outperforming, they are separating from the rest of the market in ways that will only become more pronounced over time.

Ceej Johnson

Chris ‘Ceej’ Johnson is CMO at intent.ly. With over 15 years’ experience in digital, affiliate and performance marketing, he has a passion for all things consumer behaviour and innovative advertising.

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From clicks to clarity – affiliate marketing’s most important era yet

Ceej Johnson — Tue, 03 Feb 2026 15:35:51 +0000

There’s been a lot of conversation recently about one thing affiliate marketing has never been particularly good at…

Storytelling.

It’s something I’ve personally been banging on about for a long time, even in 2019 during my time at Groupon I was referenced in an Awin report tackling the familiar “affiliate marketing is dead” narrative. Not because the channel was dying, but because it’s never really known how to talk about itself beyond spreadsheets and CPA charts.

Above, Awin article from 2019.

And here we are in 2026, still having the same conversation albeit it with slightly better alcohol-free lagers and slightly worse cookies.

I heard it came up as a focal point again last week at the Agency Advisory Board (AAB) inaugural meeting (congrats to Jess Smith and Kirsten Jayne Black on getting that off the ground – big moment, and seemingly long overdue).

But the theme was clear – affiliate is brilliant at delivering outcomes, yet seemingly still considerably rusty at backing itself whilst doing it. Which might explain why year after year we keep finding ourselves politely assigned the conference equivalent of the graveyard slot.

You know the one. The agenda reads:

Influencer Marketing (with mood lighting)
TikTok Creators (with a hype reel)
Brand Storytelling (with a founder doing barefoot keynote energy)
Affiliate Marketing’s Success Stories (Day 2 of 2, 4:45pm, in Room C next to the fire exit)

Not because the channel is less important, but because it’s historically been less well voiced.

And that’s starting to matter.

Storytelling now needs better data.

I’m going out on a (20+ career year) whim here – but from my perspective affiliate marketing doesn’t struggle with storytelling because we lack personality. If anything, this industry is full of smart, social, entrepreneurial people not exactly short of opinions, energy, or conference bar stamina.

The challenge is how we translate all that into a narrative the ‘outside-of-affiliate’ world buys in to. We struggle because for years we’ve largely only been able to describe ourselves through simple performance shorthand:

Last click
CPA
ROAS
“Revenue delivered”

And while those metrics are useful, they don’t create narrative. They don’t explain influence. They don’t capture decision-making. You can’t build a compelling industry story if the only chapter you ever read is the final line of the receipt.

If affiliate wants to be taken seriously as a strategic channel and not just a conversion mechanic, we need a more grown-up approach to measurement.

That means moving beyond CPA spreadsheets and into:

Behavioural insight
Intent signals
Contribution across the journey
Incrementality, not assumption
Understanding why something worked, not just that it worked

Better storytelling is inseparable from better data maturity. Because in today’s increasingly measurable world, the story has to be true.

2026 has to be the year of action for affiliate marketing.

I’ve sat on this post for about a month, partly because I wanted to properly reflect on what I heard at the first industry conference of the year, and also because the early tone coming out of affiliate in 2026 is noticeably different to previous years. AI is also the new asteroid heading toward the affiliate traffic model, forcing us to collaborate in ways we haven’t had to before.

That’s why a recent panel moderated by Moonpull’s Steven Brown at Affiliate Summit West stuck with me.

Above, panel at ASW26

It featured Adam Ross (CEO of Awin Global) and Santi Pierini (CEO of CJ), leaders from two of the industry’s most integral businesses. And if anyone has earned the right to comment on where this channel is going, it’s them.

That’s why it was worth highlighting some of the key discussions from that panel.

1. Affiliate marketing isn’t being disrupted. It’s maturing

The core takeaway from the panel discussion was quite straightforward, and I wholeheartedly agree in that affiliate marketing is not being disrupted, it is maturing.

For years, the channel has been judged by a familiar set of questions:

Did the click convert?
Did the sale track?
Did CPA deliver on our budget expectations?

And for a long time, that has been enough. But the panel made it clear that those comfort metrics are starting to show their age. Because brands are now asking harder questions. Better questions. More grown-up questions.

2. The end of comfort metrics

Clicks, impressions, last-click attribution. They’ve been affiliate marketing’s security blanket. Easy to report, to compare and to wave around in QBRs.

But brands are now asking things such as:

Why did the customer convert?
When did intent actually form?
Which partner influenced the decision, rather than simply converted it.

Because being present at the end of the journey isn’t the same as shaping it.

And in a world where budgets are tightening and scrutiny is rising, that distinction matters more than ever.

3. Intent is becoming the new currency

A central theme throughout the conversation was intent.

Not anonymous clicks moving through a funnel, but real behavioural signals:

What content did a shopper engage with?
How long did they spend considering options?
What actions suggest genuine purchase consideration?

These signals sit much closer to decision-making than traditional affiliate metrics ever have. And crucially this isn’t about invasive tracking.

It’s about first-party behavioural data, the information brands already own, but haven’t always known how to translate into insight.

4. Privacy isn’t killing affiliate, it’s forcing it to get smarter

Rather than treating privacy regulation and cookie deprecation as existential threats, the panel positioned them as catalysts.

A push toward better measurement. Better practice. Better trust.
The challenge now isn’t access to data. It’s interpretation.
It’s turning behaviour into understanding. And understanding into value.

5. Partner value is being redefined

The panel also explored how this evolution is reshaping relationships across the ecosystem.

Historically, partner value was often defined by scales of volume, conversion and revenue. But volume without context is losing its shine.

Brands are prioritising partners who can demonstrate:

Quality over quantity
Insight beyond attribution shortcuts
Meaningful contribution to the journey

The ecosystem is shifting from transactional delivery to consultative partnership – and I like that. A lot.

6. Data continues to increase, but we’re short of narrative

One of the biggest points that stuck with me is that brands aren’t short of dashboards, they are short of clarity. Affiliate marketing has never lacked performance but it has lacked storytelling.

The positive in this from what I can see is that the better we get at mining intent, measuring contribution and understanding influence, the easier the storytelling becomes.

Because suddenly affiliate isn’t just a channel that “drives sales”, it’s a channel that helps explain how customers decide. And that’s a much bigger story.

An industry growing up. Now it needs to speak like one

The tone of the panel was overall optimistic and it was a great way to kickstart the year. To reassure anyone that’s still reading, affiliate marketing isn’t declining, it is however evolving into a more intelligent, intent-led era where clarity matters more than clicks, and because agentic commerce is growing and driving clicks down, contribution will begin to matter more than convenience.

But if we want to increase our seats at the “grown-up marketing table” and not the fire exit breakout room, we need better voices, better narratives and better storytelling around what this industry actually does.

It’s one of the most commercially accountable engines in digital marketing. Now we just need to start talking about it like that.

Follow Ceej on LinkedIn.

Ceej Johnson

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Top event success tips for 2026

Luke Matthews — Mon, 22 Dec 2025 12:45:28 +0000

After attending hundreds of ecommerce, affiliate and performance marketing events over the past few years, one thing is clear: events don’t generate ROI by accident. They reward preparation, intention, and follow-up. As we head into 2026, here are my top tips to make every event count next year.

1. Define your “why” before you book.
Are you hunting new partners, closing deals, or learning industry trends and insights? Perhaps you’re looking to elevate your brand, or even your personal brand for career development. Clear goals shape every decision – from sessions to meetings, and how you will measure success.

2. Book meetings before you arrive.
Your calendar should be at least 70% full before you land, to account for any last minute drop-outs while still leaving space for those adhoc meetings too.

Use the official event app, LinkedIn, and warm intros to lock in time with priority contacts. If the event presents an opportunity to strengthen existing partnerships, then consider planning a group dinner or side event while these key contacts are in town.

3. Use social media as a pre-event warm-up.
Post that you’re attending, comment on speakers’ content, and DM attendees. Familiarity breeds conversations on-site. This is also a great channel to promote any speaking sessions or side-events you might be involved in over the course of the main event.

4. Quality beats quantity in networking.
Ten meaningful conversations outperform fifty rushed ones. But don’t go in with half a tank – you still need some volume to hedge your success. Have an agenda, ask smart questions, be curious and listen more than you pitch. Remember, you have a short space of time that you need to maximise.

5. Anchor yourself with a hub.
Whether it’s your booth, a partner stand, or just a nearby café, having a “home base” makes follow-ups and drop-ins easier to manage.

6. Attend with intent, not FOMO.
You don’t need to attend every party. Choose the events where your audience actually shows up – and where conversations can happen. Being smart about planning your time will keep you fresh for those meetings that really matter.
Take notes immediately.

7. Capture context after each meeting.
“Great chat” won’t help you three weeks later. Note down their title, likely influence and the pain points you know you can help with.

8. Follow up within 48 hours.
Reference the conversation, add value, and propose a clear next step. Speed signals seriousness.

9. Finally, measure what matters – and be patient.
Event success isn’t about how busy you felt or what a good time you had – it’s about outcomes. Track ROI against the goals you set upfront: meetings booked, qualified leads generated, deals influenced, partnerships launched, and pipeline value created.

Just as importantly, remember that event-driven growth often lives in a long deal cycle. Some of the most valuable partnerships and revenue wins surface months after the event. Monitor progress over time, attribute influence across the pipeline, and review what genuinely moved the needle.

When you consistently measure, refine, and stay patient, events evolve from a short-term expense into a long-term growth engine.

See where intent.ly will be in 2026 (with plenty more still to be confirmed) – see you at an event soon!

Luke Matthews

Director of Sales & Partnerships

intent.ly/

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The Truth About Affiliate Payments: Key Takeaways from the APMA Webinar

Patience Kibblewhite — Tue, 04 Nov 2025 16:28:05 +0000

On the 14th October, intent.ly CIO David Ayre joined a panel session on “The Truth About Affiliate Payments,” – a webinar that brought together publishers, networks, brands, and agencies to discuss one of the industry’s biggest challenges: slow and inconsistent payments. Hosted by the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association (APMA), the session tackled not just why payment delays persist, but also how the ecosystem can take practical steps towards real resolutions.

This summary was originally published in full by The APMA here.

Why Payments Matter

Julia Stent, Consultant Strategy Advisor & APMA Board Member opened with the headline findings from APMA’s research. “Over half of publishers in our study said payments impact their commercial progress and growth,” she said. She reminded attendees that the affiliate channel drives about £19 billion of revenue for UK brands. “If cash moved within 30 days, over half of businesses told us they would invest that cash flow in growth. Nearly one in five said they could create more jobs.”

The session is part of APMA’s Payments Project. The APMA has published a payments guide, Everything you need to know about publisher payments, that compares processes across 12 networks. It has run two publisher roundtables over the summer. The next step is a voluntary code of conduct for advertisers that sets clear standards. Julia’s message was simple: “This is not just an admin task. It is a fundamental growth task.”

What Publishers Are Facing

The panel painted a clear picture of the problem: months-long validation cycles, inconsistent rejection rates, and unpredictable reconciliation timelines. Warrick Lambert, CEO at Genie Shopping, described payment delays as “the biggest bottleneck in the channel.”

David Ayre, intent.ly CIO, focused on the day-to-day. “The first of every month is an administrative nightmare,” he said. “We were paid this year for transactions from 2019. It is good to be paid, but six years later is not a system you can plan around.” For David, transparency is as important as speed. “It is not always about cancellations. It is about knowing where the money is across multiple networks and invoices.”

The Network & Accelerator Perspectives

Carla Arrindell of Optimise emphasised that validation and payment are separate challenges, calling for better communication when schedules slip. Tools like “transactions-by-payment” reports are helping close the transparency gap, but consistency remains key.

Meanwhile, Rich Lane of Revving shared that the average affiliate payment (outside of travel) still takes around 100 days, far longer than what’s sustainable for many partners. He shared “Creators have ways to nudge brands on late payments. Affiliates don’t. We need a collective voice.”

When Faster Payments Unlock Growth

The panel shared real-world examples of how faster payments drive tangible business impact:

Genie Shopping, working with Revving, doubled growth for retailers with accelerated payment terms.
Optimise’s express pay model pre-pays high-quality partners, leading to stronger performance and trust.
intent.ly’s own experience shows that strong network relationships and clear communication can resolve blockers and speed up outcomes.

David commented, “We have improved outcomes by working with our network and agency contacts. Sometimes the blocker is on the advertiser side, such as POs or finance workflows. You need someone who can help resolve it.”

Final tips from the panel

Carla Arrindell, Optimise: “Get closer to contacts who can help, including finance. Build relationships so you get insight and support when things go wrong.”
David Ayre, intent.ly: “Talk to each other and be transparent, especially through peak. Get involved in the APMA.”
Rich Lane, Revving: “Share plans. If partners show what faster payments unlock next quarter, everyone understands the value.”
Warrick Lambert, Genie Shopping: “Leverage peak. Audit commissions, payment terms and rejection rates. Negotiate on timing and approvals, not only on CPA.”

The message across the board was consistent. Faster, predictable payments increase partner investment, reduce waste, and grow programmes. The fixes are known. The work is to apply them, communicate clearly, and measure the results.

Read the APMA’s full webinar summary for actions we can all take now and what’s next from the APMA.

Patience Kibblewhite

Patience is intent.ly’s marketing executive, with a passion for creative content marketing and social media strategies.

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Smarter Click launches new brand for US and APAC markets

Mon, 26 Oct 2020 11:52:15 +0000

intent.ly – the new name for Smarter Click’s US and APAC operations, launches today.

Reflecting the company’s position as leaders in intent-driven conversions, Smarter Click has launched its new brand ‘intent.ly’ initially across the US and APAC markets.

The global conversion company rolls out a new brand name, logo and overall image for its US and APAC operations as it is set to continue diversifying further into offering additional conversion tools across a host of new brand and publisher partnerships.

Ennis Al-Saiegh, CEO, said:

“Intent is at the heart of everything we do. Using intent-based data to drive incremental conversions and customer experiences is the axiom of our operations. Doubling your conversion rate is far more cost-effective and efficient than doubling your traffic levels, and intent.ly has a string of products that can do just that.”

“As I’m sure many others will be all too familiar with, 2020 brought us challenges that still remain across all our markets at the turn of the year. Whilst we kept the business operating soundly during these challenging times, we also utilised the time wisely, producing the next steps in our vision for the business through a new brand and identity to complement our push into the US and APAC markets.”

Operations Director, Chris Johnson, who has significant partnerships experience and a wide contact-base across these regions, will be supporting in spearheading the global reach to these markets. Speaking of the new brand image and reasons for the additional investment into these markets, Chris commented:

We’re excited to be bringing our intent.ly brand to new shores over the course of 2021. Conversion technology is becoming a core piece of many e-commerce marketing strategies and it’s a competitive marketplace wherever you operate, however our intent.ly products and proprietary technology has continued growing in its uniqueness and ultimately in value to our new and existing partner base.

We’re excited to be bringing this unique opportunity to pastures news, and I look forward to reigniting our push into these markets, showcasing our growing list of award-winning conversion tools which I have no doubts can offer value-add to the existing publisher base.

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