It’s a cold, rainy night here in Bumblefart, New York. Kind of the perfect setup for chapter 1 of the information/data dump I promised, eh? I’m going to deliver this in two parts. It’s just too much information to deliver in one breath.
Let’s get into it, because I’m not getting any younger, you probably don’t want to read for so long that you have to bring this into the bathroom… and it’s SVU night.
Also, this email is totally open and free for everyone. It’s a love song that I’m dedicating to the gals I work with, because it’s heavily related to our industry and useful for entire teams but like… not a roundup of the 10 Best Halloween Costumes for Goats (although I would LOVE to write that article and am practically begging for the assignment).
Fact 1: Surprising trend growth
Well, a lot of things, but I can see search traffic and affiliate purchases ticking up in a bunch of really, really interesting areas:
THC-infused products, especially drinkables. Yes, some of these brands have made it onto affiliate platforms. I’m not sure how. I assume they dropped brownies off on the right desks, but the point is this… people are buying. Eagerly. Weed soda is to 2023 what CBD cream was to 2020. …anyone have any insights on whether weed soda is replacing booze? I can’t tell. Carbs are my main drug.
Blazers. For women, for men… for everyone. This one isn’t surprising at all, but what may be is the total baskets at checkout. Essentially, a customer comes for $149 blazer and leaves with a bunch of other stuff that totals more like $300. That means pitching a really cutesy blazer + landing a mention could bolster your client’s sales like whoa. And I mean, I’m not going to speak for every magazine, but a healthy commission on $300 is pretty jazzy. Jazzier than $149. Love that.
Supplements. It’s that time of year. Vitamins. Minerals. Wellness gummies. Magic drops…. you name it. People are buying. That said, the big names from the last few years don’t seem to be doing as well as they once were. Not here to shame anyone’s game, but I will say that there’s room on the playing field so-to-speak. The clear, bubbly-looking pills we all saw on IG ads like wild in 2019/20/21 are no longer the front-runners.
Velvet. Remember when velvet exploded in fashion circles last year and the year before? I mean, who isn’t pro-cozy? And it’s been major in furniture upholstery for several years… but holy macaroni, it JUST got trendy for bedding and tabletop according to internet stats. Maybe it always has been for some of us, but the broader web shopping crowd just showed up to the velvet party. If you make or sell velvet/velour blankets, pillows, curtains or table runners—this is your time to shine.
Fact 2: Social Media Games are the Next Frontier
Mobile gaming is a damn trick. Nobody cares if you pop all the bubbles or whatever that app is getting you to do. The point is that you spend an average of 22 minutes per day playing these games (really, there’s hard data supporting it) and the games are designed to funnel you into a crazy loop of clicks. In the end up to 2.3% of these BS games lead to a purchase… and so gaming is the next affiliate frontier to explode. Mark my words. I’m not talking like, major gaming. Literally Candy Crush a la 2023. Dumb stuff. Stuff you play while waiting on a train platform. They’re studying your every login, move and time-on-screen to deliver exactly what you want to buy.
The best part? A majority of mobile gamers are women (56%), and that the majority of mobile gamers are between the ages of 18 and 24 (41%).
What works best? Impulse items for those in the 18-24 age range. Fast fashion. Beauty/hygiene. Entertainment.
I have a good friend who is in the glittery eyeshadow biz. A lot of you know her, but I’m keeping her name out of this for all the obvi reasons. She is selling a bonkers amount of holographic cream eyeshadow through these funnels right now. BONKERS. She pays 9% commish + a flat fee and is selling tens of thousands of units per month. From a bubble popping game zomg.
Fact 3: Apple came to mess with affiliate commissions
Did you see the news about the new Apple SKADNetwork 4.0 updates? Sheeeeesh, it’s a whole API thing that is likely too boring to bother with here, but I’ll boil down why YOU should care. Conceivably, it could kill the art of web fingerprinting. This “fingerprinting” tracks app installs and user data, something that affiliate publishers often rely on to make their bucks.
And again, affiliate dollars are the best kind when it comes to democratizing this entire industry. We all remember 10-15 years ago when it felt like the only way to get noticed in a trendy glossy was to buy pages. Small and medium brands couldn’t compete. Now, though? Even playing field based on the merits of a product and how sharp and innovative their scrappy web teams can be.
TLDR; Apple woke up and chose violence.
In addition, Apple’s new update adds a parameter that makes it much harder for ad platforms to decipher specific devices. Ya know, the whole basis of affiliates and whatnot.
Why is this important? Why do YOU care?
Glad you asked. You’re about to watch this already-lightning-fast affiliate and commerce industry shift and adjust faster than ever to adapt. It took over a decade for major publishers to catch on to the profit windfalls of affiliate marketing, and they’ll be damned if they’re going to lose a dime now. Everyone’s come too far. Worked too hard. Written about too many woolen socks.
…and Apple knows it. Frankly, they’re geniuses. I don’t blame ‘em a bit. They have to protect their game by offering a secure, privacy-enabled user experience to the customers that want it. They also have to balance it with tip-toeing into a broader world of publishing, social media and big biz. What a balancing act. I don’t envy them.
Constipated + have an extra 20 minutes to kill whilst you take a break from googling excellent sources of fiber? This is a fascinating window into the Skad stuff.
All this is pretty early, so I expect savvy developers and thought leaders to roll about insanely innovative new tracking material by Q1. That’s important, because as publishers grow, shift and shimmy through this… the big affiliate platforms like SAS/Rakuten/CJ etc are going to have to hire extra jazzy developers. Soooo, even if the economy tanks a bit (we can debate that another time), I think the the affiliate biz is going to see massive continued growth—especially on the coding and development ends.
Okay, that was all a lot for Thursday night. But we needed to start there to make sense of the incoming data dump.
And as always, feel free to send along your questions, thoughts, jobs and pet pictures. I’ll send along images of the local dingo tomorrow.
Fascinating stuff about affiliate and apple. You are a wealth of knowledge and a delightful read! 💕
Always such good information. I would like to know how to get products into games for sale? Any intel?