First of all, Happy New Year.
Wishing you and your family a year full of health, happiness, and great times. I hope you are enjoying your time away from work, spending it with your friends and family.
As this is the first newsletter of the year, I thought what could be better than our own version of ‘Affiliate Marketing Predictions’?
But it’ll be a short read. (I don't want you to read a detailed marketing essay today instead of enjoying your break! lol!)
Many of these trends are already underway as we enter 2026. But expect some rapid transitions by Q2.
As our audience base is broad…Brand marketers, CMOs, and affiliate managers, people from diverse backgrounds interested in ‘affiliate marketing’, read these weekly emails.
For each prediction, I’ll share actionable advice for both brands and affiliate managers.
So let’s get to the real points.
1. Media Buyers Will Become the Number One Driver of Affiliate Revenue
More brands will come to realize that creators and coupon sites cannot match the scale, consistency, and firepower of dedicated media buyers.
If you're a brand, now is the time to build media buyer-ready offers with strong CPA, high AOV, and optimized checkout flows. Approve payout tests faster and fix funnel leaks before sending traffic.
If you're an affiliate manager, recruit proactively instead of reactively. Create dedicated media buyer enablement kits and stay in daily communication about tests, angles, EPCs, and potential scale.
2. Listicle and Editorial Placements Will Be Locked In by Early Fall
Premium publishers will finalize BFCM and Q4 slots between July and September. Brands need to approve offer structures in Q3, allocate budget early for must-have placements, and understand that strong SEO publishers are now more valuable than some paid ads.
Affiliate managers should start outreach by August, pitch tailored angles per publisher, and build evergreen and seasonal listicle pipelines instead of last-minute scrambles.
The best spots will be gone before you realize it.
3. Affiliate Programs Will Be Judged on Economics, Not Volume
Affiliates will choose offers based on EPC, AOV, and conversion rate. Not brand name.
Brands should strengthen AOV through bundles, upsells, and subscription paths, improve load speed and checkout flow, and raise CPAs where margins allow.
Affiliate managers need to share economics transparently with partners, run ongoing landing page and funnel tests, and monitor EPC health on a weekly basis instead of monthly. If your offer doesn't make affiliates money, they'll move on to one that does.
4. Creator Affiliate Marketing Will Shift from Quantity to Conversion Creators
500 creators posting random content will be less valuable than 20 creators who understand hooks, selling frameworks, and landing page synergy.
Brands should stop sending free products to creators who cannot sell. Instead, they should build creator sales scripts and UGC briefs, and repurpose strong creator content into paid ads.
Affiliate managers need to recruit creators with proven conversion content, provide templates and talking points, and track creator EPCs while pruning aggressively.
5. Brands Will Finally Expect Daily Communication and Deal Negotiation from Their Affiliate Team
The "set it and forget it" mindset will officially come to an end.
Brands need to demand weekly updates on deals, activations, and funnel improvements, treat affiliate management as a revenue function rather than administrative work, and measure their affiliate team in the same way they measure a sales team.
Affiliate managers should work like salespeople, focusing on outreach, follow-up, closing, and negotiation. They should maintain a CRM-style pipeline of affiliate leads and adhere to a daily outreach quota. If you're not hustling daily, you're already behind.
6. CPA Networks and Hybrid Models Will Explode in Popularity
As CAC rises for brands, more will test CPA networks and niche leadgen channels to acquire customers profitably.
Brands should test new traffic sources cautiously but consistently, build offers with room for network margin, and ensure product LTV justifies CPA payouts.
Affiliate managers need to vet networks carefully, track lead quality and refund rates, and create hybrid deals for high performers, such as CPL plus rev share or CPA tiers. The days of ignoring networks are over.
7. AI Will Become a Standard Tool in Affiliate Operations
Brands should adopt AI for forecasting, reporting, and partner segmentation, build automated dashboards for EPC health and partner quality, and utilize AI to identify trends more quickly than the competition.
Affiliate managers should use AI to generate outreach angles, content briefs, and partner scripts, automate follow-ups and reporting summaries, and offload low-value tasks to focus on partner activation and negotiation. As the cliché says, AI won't replace affiliate managers, but affiliate managers who use AI will replace those who don't.
That’s it for the email.
Feel free to ask your questions, share your doubts, or express your ideas. Let's engage in a conversation through this email.
Let's make 2026 your strongest year yet.
Rooting for you:)
Fred