The Affiliate Marketing Podcast

Lee-Ann Johnstone - Founder of Affiverse
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We're on a quest to help the world do affiliate marketing, better. Join your host Lee-Ann Johnstone, CEO of Affiverse an award winning Agency and Top 50 UK Affiliate Agency Owner as voted in The Drum Agency Census 2021 and listen to her podcast series all about Affiliate and Performance Marketing. Learn from an array of digital marketing veterans, business entrepreneurs, SaaS product providers and more to discover how digital and affiliate marketing is constantly changing. Hear how brands are building successful affiliate programs and driving consistent partner referrals and sales. Subscribe to hear exactly what it takes to launch, scale and grow a successful affiliate program in this fast moving digital age. Enjoying what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe for more thought-provoking insights and industry-leading content delivered straight to your inbox. Visit https://www.affiversemedia.com/newsletter-sign-up/ to get started. Visit www.affiversemedia.com for more great content or discover our AMPP (Affiliate Manager Performance Program) training program for affiliate  program  managers who want to launch, scale or grow affiliate marketing programs in under 90 days! Need help with your Affiliate Program? Want to launch an affiliate program successfully? Talk to our agency team and find out how our consulting and account management services and how we  can help you drive consistent sales for your business! >> Book a free call HERE: https://affiversemedia.com/contact/

  1. 5D AGO

    Open Attribution: The Fix for the Zero-Click Era

    Why Every Affiliate Manager Needs to Understand What's Happening to Search Right Now Search is changing faster than most programs can adapt. AI-powered platforms like ChatGPT and Gemini are absorbing customer journeys that used to generate trackable clicks, and the content that influences purchasing decisions is increasingly going unrecognised and unpaid. In this episode, Lee-Ann sits down with Alex Springer, Director at openattribution.org, and Leanna Klyne, Head of Agency at KonverJ, to unpack what open attribution actually means, why last-click attribution was already broken before AI arrived, and what the industry is doing about it together, many of them for the very first time. If you work with publishers, run an affiliate program, or depend on content-driven traffic to generate sales, this conversation will reshape how you think about measurement, value, and what comes next. Talking Points Include: Why content creators are producing value they will never be paid for and what needs to change before the affiliate industry loses its commercial foundation entirelyThe difference between how people shop and how AI thinks people buy and why that gap is exactly where affiliate marketing's future opportunity livesWhy last click was always a fiction and why the shift to AI-assisted search is finally forcing the industry to confront itWhat Open Attribution actually is and why it starts with something as simple as a list of URLs that changed everything Listen to Find Out More About: What the agentic commerce protocols from OpenAI and Google actually do, and why the contributions Open Attribution is making to them matter for every publisher and brand in performance marketingWhy some of the highest-quality publisher content has been deliberately removed from AI training sets, and what that means for the accuracy of AI recommendations right nowThe early warning signs that brands and affiliate managers should be watching for as AI-generated content starts to game LLM visibility the same way SEO was gamed in the early days of GoogleHow the SPUR initiative and the APMA AI task force connect to what Open Attribution is building, and where compliance and governance conversations are actually happeningWhy Alex believes websites are not going away in five years, and what types of purchases will continue to require the kind of considered, content-led journeys that affiliate publishers are built to support Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct: [02:47] Alex introduces Open Attribution, his decade in performance marketing, and why he shifted focus from AI as a technology to AI as an industry actor [05:45] Why last click was already broken before AI, and what transparency and usage auditability actually mean for content owners and brands [27:05] The CPA debate: whether cost-per-acquisition still makes sense, what influence really means now, and why the shopping journey has always been more complex than the model we used to measure it Ready to Build a Smarter Affiliate Program? If this episode raised questions about how your program is measuring influence, attributing value, or preparing for an AI-first customer journey, the KonverJ team can help. We work with brands and publishers to build affiliate strategies that are built for where performance marketing is heading, not just where it has been. Get in touch with the KonverJ team to find out how we can help you build a program that performs in the new landscape. Send me a text with your questions

    37 min

  2. FEB 26

    The Hidden Affiliate Risk That Could Sink Your Brand

    How treating compliance as a marketing function rather than a legal checkbox can protect your program, your brand, and your bottom line. If compliance makes your eyes glaze over, this episode is worth pushing through. Sarafina Wolde Gabriel, CEO of Rightlander and a 20-year veteran of affiliate marketing, joins Lee-Ann to make the case that compliance is not a legal formality but a direct driver of revenue. They get into why the biggest programs are still leaving massive blind spots unchecked, what AI-generated content is doing to risk exposure, why a large affiliate is not automatically a compliant one, and the practical steps any affiliate manager can take today to audit their program before a regulator does it for them. Listen to Find Out More About: Why even a compliant, long-standing affiliate in your program can still be exposing your brand through content they published years ago and have forgotten aboutHow the Honey browser extension scandal is a preview of the tracking integrity challenges that are coming for affiliate programs this yearWhat Sarafina would prioritise in the first week of managing a new affiliate program to put the right compliance foundations in place from day oneWhy proving to a regulator that you had systems and monitoring in place before a problem occurred can be the difference between a warning and a fineHow to split compliance responsibilities across your team so it does not all sit on one person and quietly fall off the priority list during busy periodsThe one piece of advice Sarafina would give any affiliate manager building a program from scratch, and why knowing your affiliates is still the most important thing in this industry after 20 yearsKey Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct: [03:05] Why the foundations of affiliate marketing have not fundamentally changed in 20 years, and what that means for how you should still be operating today [05:09] What actually happens to revenue when compliance fails, and the moment a customer walks away because your affiliate's promotional content did not match reality [06:38] Rightlander's core function explained: scanning, risk scoring, and giving affiliate managers an action step rather than just a data dump [21:58] The two compliance trends coming in the next two to three years that most programs are not yet preparing for [23:26] The five-point compliance checklist Sarafina recommends for any affiliate manager who has never formally audited their program before Call to Action A big thank you to Sarafina Wolde Gabriel for joining us this week and for making compliance feel like something worth paying attention to rather than something to hand off to legal. You can connect with Sarafina on LinkedIn and find out more about what Rightlander does at rightlander.com. If you want more practical insight like this delivered directly to you, sign up for the Affiverse newsletter at affiversemedia.com. We cover the latest in affiliate marketing strategy, industry news, and program growth every week, and it is one of the simplest ways to stay ahead without having to go looking for it yourself. Rate, Review & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts "I love the Affiliate Marketing Podcast." -- If that sounds like you, please give us a 5 Star rating here! Taking the time to do that helps us support more people in our community to access affiliate marketing insights, expert-led learnings, and allows us to share the latest tactics that help affiliate programs and businesses grow. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with fi Send me a text with your questions

    29 min

  3. FEB 19

    Trust Over Transactions: Building Loyalty in Modern Affiliate Marketing

    Why personalised affiliate recruitment still outperforms automation (and what the best affiliate managers do differently) If your affiliate recruitment is generating lists but not conversations, this episode is your reset. Frederic Jean-Bart, founder of Performance Partners, has spent 17 years building relationships across every side of this industry: affiliate networks, brand-side program management, and as an affiliate himself. Lee-Ann and Fred get into why the era of AI-generated outreach is actually making human connection more valuable, not less, how deal making with high-quality affiliates is where real program growth happens, and what separates elite affiliate managers from everyone else hitting send on the same mass email. Listen to Find Out More About: The exact communication gap between what affiliate managers send and what top publishers actually need to see before they say yesWhy media buyers are among the best affiliates for scale but require a completely different recruitment and relationship strategy than any other partner typeHow AEO and brand citation are starting to change where affiliate influence happens in the customer journey, and what that means for program strategyWhy Fred's advice to his 2009 self comes down to one word and what that means practically for anyone building a career in this industryThe rapid fire breakdown on CPA versus revenue share, the one book Fred says every agency owner should read, and why boring operations beat exciting chaos every single timeWhat trust actually looks like in practice with high-value affiliate partners, and why paying on time is as much a relationship signal as any personal outreach Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct: [01:51] Fred introduces his 17-year career spanning network, brand, and affiliate sides of the industry and why building Performance Partners came out of working with nine-figure e-commerce brands [05:05] Lee-Ann shares the exact outreach emails she receives that get deleted instantly, and what three pieces of information every affiliate needs before they'll respond [09:35] The case for getting on video calls with key partners and why the human ability to convey excitement and credibility over a call still closes deals that email cannot [15:30] Why media buyers are the most powerful affiliate type for scale but also the most burnt out by programs that overpromise, and what building genuine trust with them requires [17:40] Partner diversification as risk management, why brands default to influencers and coupon sites, and how Fred approaches segmentation from day one of a new program Call to Action A huge thank you to Frederic Jean-Bart for joining us this week. If this episode has made you rethink how you're recruiting affiliates and managing partner relationships, KonverJ works with brands at exactly this level, building programs that are built on strategy, not spray and pray. Find out how we work with brands here. And if you want conversations like this one landing in your feed every week, subscribe to the Affiliate Marketing Podcast so you never miss an episode. Share this one with an affiliate manager you know who's still relying on volume over quality. It might be the nudge they need. Send me a text with your questions

    29 min

  4. FEB 12

    Awin's Adam Ross: Why Affiliate Still Wins! Two Decades Distilled in One Episode

    Why tracking everything your affiliates do matters more now than ever before (and what conversion protection tells us about lost revenue) If your affiliate program isn't tracking properly, you could be losing millions without realising it. Adam Ross, CEO of Awin and 21-year industry veteran, reveals exactly how AI-powered search is fragmenting the customer journey, why deterministic tracking alone won't survive the next five years, and how Awin's Conversion Protection Initiative has already recovered over $250 million in previously untracked revenue. Lee-Ann and Adam discuss his leadership approach, why probabilistic tracking methods are becoming essential, and what the convergence of influencer and affiliate marketing means for program growth. Talking Points Include: The seismic shift happening in content attribution – how LLMs are citing publisher content to answer consumer queries, why this value currently goes unrewarded, and the new tracking signals needed to expose itWhy different traffic deserves different tracking methods – different traffic has different value and possibly needs different tracking methods and different reward mechanisms, ending the era of treating all affiliate partnerships equallyThe conversion protection wake-up call – how forcing tracking upgrades revealed $16 million in additional commission and what this tells us about invisible program value Listen to Find Out More About: Why Awin does quarterly seasonal product releases to bring meaningful improvements to advertiser and publisher experiences, with the winter release focused on simplifying what is still an incredibly complex channel to help everyone get much more value out of the spaceHow the new platform aims to get smaller advertisers to money-making partnerships as quickly as possible without needing account management support, using 25 years of data to know which partnerships work, what rates to pay, and how to increase active partnershipsWhy Adam is extremely bullish about affiliate's future, noting that while this disruption is probably going to be much bigger than past changes, affiliate is a wonderful monetisation infrastructure that can be quite agnostic about how end user experiences evolveThe exciting new influx of AI startups connecting at scale with multiple brands looking for ways to monetise, where the CPA model works very well for AI recommendations based on personalisationWhy the convergence of influencer and affiliate marketing continues accelerating and why people will always want to buy from other people, even when using AI for researchWhat it means that there's got to be an acceptance that in a lot of cases, the old ways of tracking from a technical perspective are no longer going to work, whilst deterministic tracking remains super important as the base Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct: [01:15] The unlikely journey from dentistry student to affiliate marketing through a recruiter who saw potential beyond experience [18:55] Why different affiliate traffic has different value and needs different tracking methods and reward mechanisms [27:00] How Awin's seasonal product releases bring quarterly improvements and what the winter release means for platform simplification Call to Action Master the tracking evolution that's reshaping affiliate marketing success. Adam's insights into probabilistic measurement, AI disruption, and conversion protection reveal exactly why upgrading your technical infrastructure isn't optional anymore. [Subscribe to the Affilia Send me a text with your questions

    32 min

  5. FEB 5

    Beyond Discounts: Zilch Reveals What Actually Influences UK Purchases Today

    If you're running an affiliate program based purely on last-click attribution, you're missing the complete picture of how customers actually buy. Phil Thompson, Partnerships Manager at fintech publisher Zilch, shares insights from their platform's 5 million UK customers to reveal shopping behaviours that challenge everything affiliate managers assume about consumer loyalty, price sensitivity, and partner value. Lee-Ann and Phil discuss why traditional cookie tracking leaves critical gaps, how to leverage first-party data without expensive integrations, and why the grocery shopper who seems loyal to one brand is simultaneously spending three times more with competitors. Talking Points Include: The affiliate channel's unique negotiation problem that happens after the sale instead of before, and why payment processing data fills gaps that cookie consent leaves behindHow Zilch's fee-free credit model converts competitor customers by offsetting the cost of interest-free installments through merchant commissions rather than charging consumers late fees or interestWhy price-led marketing is lazy marketing and what Valentine's Day dinner-for-two campaigns teach us about emotional storytelling that actually changes consumer behavior. Listen to Find Out More About: The exact moment UK consumers became willing to abandon brand loyalty for fee-free payment flexibility, and what this reveals about post-peak shopping psychologyWhy Phil refuses to position Zilch campaigns as integration-heavy when they run on standard Visa rails, and how this changes the barrier to entry for testing new publisher typesHow Intelligent Commerce tracking uses merchant ID data to close attribution gaps that cookie-based models leave wide openThe demographic shift that took Zilch from Gen Z fintech app to cross-generational payment tool, and why cost-of-living pressures create opportunities for value-focused affiliate partnershipsWhy diversification matters more than ever when clicks still exist but shopping behavior fragments across devices, apps, and privacy-conscious browsing Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct: [09:05] How Intelligent Commerce works: using merchant ID and payment processing data to fill attribution gaps that traditional cookie tracking misses [13:16] The consistent age-group patterns Zilch sees in 2025 spending data, and why everyone hunts for value right now, not just younger demographics [22:22] Why one-month campaigns don't typically move consumer behaviour needles, and the longer timeline required to shift shopping habits permanently [25:07] Phil's call for affiliate managers to stay open to testing and learning, even after being burned by publisher types in the past Call to Action The affiliate programs that thrive this year won't be the ones clinging to 2019 playbooks. They'll be the managers who embrace data partnerships, extend attribution visibility beyond cookie tracking, and recognize that publishers deliver value across the entire funnel, not just at conversion. Ready to build a program that leverages first-party shopping intelligence? Work with the KonverJ team to audit your current partner mix and identify the data gaps costing you revenue. We'll help you move beyond last-click thinking and build partnerships that capture the complete customer journey. Send me a text with your questions

    25 min

  6. JAN 29

    Conversations with a Pinnacle of the Affiliate Industry

    When Tricia Meyer's name was called as this year's Pinnacle Award winner at Affiliate Summit West, there was a moment of silence. Not because the room disagreed, but because Tricia herself didn't believe it. After two decades of watching her heroes receive that same recognition, the publisher-turned-executive director of the Performance Marketing Association finally earned the industry's most prestigious honor. This conversation explores what it actually takes to reach the top without losing yourself, why being kind isn't a weakness in business negotiations, and how staying curious about industry changes for 20 years reveals patterns that help you stop panicking about AI, zero-click search, and whatever disruption comes next. Talking Points Include: The attorney who left law for affiliate marketing when she realized publishers could earn more than lawyers and built a 20-year career that started with mom blogs and evolved into executive leadershipWhy community platforms fail but weekly calls succeed isn't just about affiliates – the same principles apply to how industry associations create genuine connection versus performative membershipThe shocking truth about affiliate marketing's growth that most brands miss – independent studies prove the channel is outpacing e-commerce itself, not just riding the online shopping wave Listen to Find Out More About: Why Tricia created custom tracking tools using AI to solve AI-caused attribution problems, and how small publishers can do the same with vibe coding platforms like LovableThe critical section being added to PMA's retailer agreement guide about AI usage, plagiarism, and disclosure requirements in affiliate terms and conditionsHow Google's constant testing of citations in Gemini (from detailed paragraph attribution to zero citations to YouTube video insertions) reveals nobody knows what's coming nextWhy publishers might strategically rewrite content to feature competitors if brands don't properly value their contribution to LLM-driven trafficThe new AI Council launching to address both publisher optimization for LLMs and technology solutions for brands dealing with compliance and trackingHow fintech and B2B affiliate marketing represent massive industry segments the PMA is finally addressing with dedicated resourcesWhy analyzing five years of industry study data would reveal cyclical patterns that help predict where apparent disruptions actually leadHow Open Attribution is creating free membership opportunities to discuss citation tracking and publisher rewards in the age of LLMs Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct: [06:02] Working from the bottom of PMA working groups to executive director, and why being an attorney made Tricia the perfect fit for part-time leadership [[19:54] Three critical areas where affiliates need preparation for 2025: LLM optimization, proving publisher worth through journey tracking, and staying educated on rapid changes [27:00] Why affiliate program terms and conditions need AI clauses now, covering content generation, plagiarism, and disclosure requirements [30:11] The five-year prediction: fundamentally everything stays the same but with different technical details, just like the last 20 years of disruption Send me a text with your questions

    32 min

  7. JAN 22

    Why Human Approaches to Building Affiliate Partnerships Still Work

    The OG Publisher's Blueprint for Building Partnerships That Actually Last Your affiliate program has hundreds of approved publishers, but only a handful are actively promoting you. Sound familiar? Stuart Miles, founder of Squirrel and former owner of Pocket-lint (which he grew to 12.5 million monthly readers before exiting), reveals why most affiliate managers are accidentally destroying publisher relationships before they even begin. Lee-Ann and Stuart discuss why product feeds matter more than commission rates, and the six tactical shifts that separate transactional affiliate programs from genuine partnerships that drive consistent revenue. Talking Points Include: The relevance test every affiliate manager fails – how understanding audience profiles transforms your outreach from spam into valuable partnership opportunitiesWhy making it harder for publishers to link to you kills conversions – the 15-minute friction point that costs you thousands in lost sales, and how removing barriers between story ideas and affiliate links changes everythingThe coffee shop approach to publisher relationships – why the best partnerships happen outside of product launches and promotional cycles, and what real-life relationship building looks like in 2026Listen to Find Out More About: Why standardised product feeds matter more than you think, and how retailers without them are losing visibility across major publisher platformsThe exact moment Stuart realised Pocket-lint competitors were stealing his affiliate links, and what Amazon's phone call revealed about attribution trackingHow international audience expansion forced Pocket-lint to build automated localisation, and why showing UK readers US pricing destroys conversion ratesThe pub test Stuart used with new journalists to determine if a story was actually worth publishing, and how this filter led to explosive audience growthWhy retailers that can't beat Amazon on price can still win publisher placements through customer service ratings and relevance scoringWhat happened when Stuart's team spent more time finding affiliate links than writing stories, and the efficiency breakthrough that led to Squirrel's creationCall to Action Ready to transform how you work with publisher partners? The strategies Stuart shared didn't come from theory – they came from two decades in the trenches building one of the world's most successful consumer technology publications. If you're serious about moving beyond transactional affiliate relationships into genuine partnerships that drive consistent revenue, subscribe to Affiverse's Affiliate Marketing newsletter for weekly insights that help you stay ahead of industry shifts. Our team translates complex partnership strategies into actionable frameworks you can implement immediately. Rate, Review & Subscribe on Apple Podcasts "I love the Affiliate Marketing Podcast." If that sounds like you, please give us a 5 Star rating here! Taking the time to do that helps us support more people in our community to access affiliate marketing insights, expert-led learnings, and allows us to share the latest tactics that help affiliate programs and businesses grow. Click here, scroll to the bottom, tap to rate with five stars, and select "Write a Review." Send me a text with your questions

    36 min

  8. JAN 15

    The Great Affiliate Bypass: Understanding the Impact of AEO in 2026

    Why Your Affiliate Program Might Be Losing Traffic Without You Realising It When 62% of AI citations reference affiliate sources but only 20% link to direct providers, something fundamental has shifted in how consumers discover financial products. Jon Ostler, CEO of finder.com and digital marketing veteran since 1997, reveals research that should worry every affiliate program manager: AI is scraping content from publishers, summarising their expert analysis, then sending consumers directly to providers while cutting out the affiliates who created that value. Lee-Ann and Jon discuss what this means for content publishers who've invested millions in editorial teams, how the performance model needs to evolve beyond last-click attribution, and why the publishers who survive will be those who understand their true value isn't just traffic anymore. Talking Points Include: The research findings that sparked this conversation - Jon analysed best-for-finance product searches across AI engines and discovered AI overwhelmingly cites affiliate content while bypassing affiliate links, fundamentally disrupting how publishers monetise their expertise Why this isn't plagiarism in the traditional sense - AI doesn't reason from first principles but delivers consensus answers by absorbing content investment from publishers, raising urgent questions about compensation models when your editorial work powers AI responses but generates zero clicks Listen to Find Out More About: Jon's LinkedIn research that quantified exactly how AI citations reference affiliate content while bypassing affiliate monetisationWhy branded search and direct traffic increases often mask AI influence you're not being compensated for under current attribution modelsThe specific vulnerability AI systems share with early search engines and why chasing short-term exploitation breaks long-term brand buildingHow Google's antitrust position creates pressure to maintain ad revenue growth even as AI overviews reduce organic click-through ratesWhy Reddit strategies and multimedia affiliate approaches create the consensus signals AI relies on when formulating answersThe exact metrics Jon tracks beyond sales figures to understand genuine community health and identify which publishers drive sustainable value Ready to Master the Next Evolution of Performance Marketing? If this conversation with Jon Ostler revealed gaps in your current affiliate strategy, Affiverse Agency can help you navigate this transition with confidence. Our team specialises in helping affiliate program managers rebuild their partner ecosystems for an AI-influenced world, from identifying which publishers bring genuine value beyond last-click attribution to structuring commercial models that reward upstream influence. Whether you need strategic partner segmentation, innovative attribution frameworks, or simply expert guidance on what deserves your budget investment right now, we've worked with programs at every stage of this evolution. Visit Affiverse Agency to explore how our consulting services can transform uncertainty into competitive advantage, or reach out directly to discuss your specific program challenges. The publishers and program managers who thrive won't be those who mastered yesterday's best practices but those who understood tomorrow's fundamentals before their competitors did. Send me a text with your questions

    33 min
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About

We're on a quest to help the world do affiliate marketing, better. Join your host Lee-Ann Johnstone, CEO of Affiverse an award winning Agency and Top 50 UK Affiliate Agency Owner as voted in The Drum Agency Census 2021 and listen to her podcast series all about Affiliate and Performance Marketing. Learn from an array of digital marketing veterans, business entrepreneurs, SaaS product providers and more to discover how digital and affiliate marketing is constantly changing. Hear how brands are building successful affiliate programs and driving consistent partner referrals and sales. Subscribe to hear exactly what it takes to launch, scale and grow a successful affiliate program in this fast moving digital age. Enjoying what you hear? Don’t forget to subscribe for more thought-provoking insights and industry-leading content delivered straight to your inbox. Visit https://www.affiversemedia.com/newsletter-sign-up/ to get started. Visit www.affiversemedia.com for more great content or discover our AMPP (Affiliate Manager Performance Program) training program for affiliate  program  managers who want to launch, scale or grow affiliate marketing programs in under 90 days! Need help with your Affiliate Program? Want to launch an affiliate program successfully? Talk to our agency team and find out how our consulting and account management services and how we  can help you drive consistent sales for your business! >> Book a free call HERE: https://affiversemedia.com/contact/

Information

  • Creator
    Lee-Ann Johnstone - Founder of Affiverse
  • Years Active
    2023 - 2026
  • Episodes
    281
  • Rating
    Explicit
  • Copyright
    © 2026 AffliateInsider Limited - T/A Affiverse Media
  • Show Website
    The Affiliate Marketing Podcast