Affiliate marketing has long existed in its own strange silo.
It can’t be targeted to specific users and it’s tough to sell on a CPM basis, which means programmatic is an awkward fit.
But, increasingly, the marketers who control affiliate investments are also buying CTV, social media and search. And “they’re accustomed to being able to identify and acquire the audience of the publisher,” said Anthony Capano, North America managing director for Rakuten Advertising.
On Tuesday, Rakuten Advertising announced the launch of Audience Engine, an optimization product that treats affiliate more like search and social media. In other words, addressable affiliate.
With Audience Engine, Rakuten Advertising is making its entrée into a new world of publisher first-party data and embracing online shopping trends.
In practice, Capano said, advertisers can set their acquisition rates and commission structures for specific audience targets or types of audience segments.
Another benefit for advertisers is that whereas advertising with Amazon or Walmart drives sales to Amazon or Walmart, the affiliate channel sends people back to a buyer’s own site.
Rakuten and the publishers in the Audience Engine program will direct traffic – and valuable first-party customer data – back to the brand.
“A great aspect of the affiliate industry is that it’s the one transparent channel and, therefore, low risk,” Capano said.
The product requires advertisers to upload their data to Rakuten Advertising. But Rakuten also needs publishers to bring their server-side data so that it can be matched with advertiser data and Rakuten data in a privacy compliant way.
Audience Engine’s public launch partners include Dealmoon, Slickdeals and 55Haitao. Dealmoon and 55Haitao are both Chinese online discount and cashback sites. Slickdeals is the same, but based in Las Vegas.
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All three publishers have preexisting deals with Rakuten Advertising.
Discount deal-finders are among the biggest adopters of affiliate marketing, which is no surprise. Affiliate sales are always tied directly to a conversion.
But publishers that channel traffic to financial or insurance companies – basically any site that asks if you’re interested in a mortgage right now, for instance – are also intuitive partners, Capano said, as are travel sites and search engines.
“What we’ve seen over the last few years is the rise of content, of influencers and of media houses coming into the affiliate ecosystem,” he said. “But we’ve also seen financial institutions building out loyalty programs and airlines building out their loyalty program.”
