How publishers and marketers are refining affiliate and reporting workflows

Anyone whose business lies primarily on the web, whether a publisher, a media business, an influencer or an independent creator, relies upon various tools and services to help them streamline operations and reach their goals. 

However, when operating on the open web, the number of tools needed can quickly become overwhelming, leaving marketers struggling to identify which resources will benefit them most. 

To dive into some of the ways businesses, influencers, creators and more can streamline and improve operations, Walter Knapp, Sovrn’s CEO, recently spoke with Mike Shield, co-founder of Marketecture; they discussed how to make affiliate marketing and gathering multiple vendor reports more efficient.

How Sovrn is filling a gap in the affiliate marketing space 

While the affiliate space can be a significant opportunity for many publishers and marketers, it can also be challenging to navigate. From identifying which merchants carry the best-aligned products to tracking ever-changing commission rates, key tools are proving vital to successful teams. 

For example, providing price and merchant comparisons within an affiliate commerce carrying article is essential. And so is the ability to localize merchants. If someone views an article in the U.K., the affiliate link should send them to a nearby merchant, such as Tesco or Boots, instead of Target. 

In another example, while there are generally affiliate link creators available, workflow tools help media companies, influencers and creators close a gap in what can prove to be a tedious process, especially for influencers who tend to have some different steps. 

“An interesting thing that we did for the influencer market specifically is built an iOS app because most influencers operate almost exclusively on their iPhones,” Knapp said. “So, as they’re surfing the internet and come across Nike’s new Air Max golf shoe, for example, they can just copy the URL of the product page, go to our app and double tap.

“It grabs the URL, and because we know they have an account and affiliate setup with Nike, it converts that link to an affiliate,” Knapp continued. “Essentially, it appends their affiliate ID to it — and then natively from the app, they can post it to Twitter [X] or wherever.” 

Businesses need tools to aggregate fragmented reporting

The sheer number of ad tech vendors businesses typically use covers a wide range of services, from open bidding to transparent marketplaces, prebid/header bidding setups and more. However, unless teams are using a single programmatic platform, these systems are disconnected.

And, as many teams are tasked with doing more with less or simply don’t have enough time, people or money to waste, identifying tools that will streamline, simplify, etc., is essential. 

This results in ad ops teams spending hours upon hours downloading reports from each vendor and then figuring out how to organize the data because few vendor reports share the same format. Not only does this cost teams time, but it can also mean that data isn’t properly matched, analyzed or compared across vendors. 

“This is a job for software,” said Knapp on the challenge of downloading reports from multiple vendors. “We said, ‘OK, we can acquire that, and we can take that software and make it more robust, more scalable and easier to use.’ And that’s now our advertising management software.”

As various industries adopt emerging technology, such as generative AI, to assist in somewhat menial tasks, it’s becoming increasingly apparent that there are technologies available across the board that can reduce or eliminate tedious, time-consuming tasks. From establishing workflows for affiliate marketing to incorporating software to manage multiple ad tech vendors, publishers, media companies, influencers and independent creators all have easy-to-implement tools and services at their disposal. 

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Register for free to watch more of the discussion between Mike Shields and Walter Knapp and learn more about the tools and services businesses operating across the open web can use to simplify and improve operations.