The Lessons on Affiliate Marketing & Leadgen from Lee-Ann Johnstone of Affiverse

From creating a media empire to conquering affiliate marketing, this is not some small feat, but rather one of the many amazing things pointing to the brilliant career of Lee-Ann Johnstone.

At the helm of Affiverse – the award-winning performance and affiliate marketing agency and media outlet – Johnstone drives the agency in its mission to connect and grow the businesses of publishers, suppliers, networks, agencies, and affiliate programme marketers.

Affiverse supports the people within the affiliate marketing ecosystem in learning how to thrive through agency services, content marketing, events, and training programmes.

For Johnstone, however, the road to being hailed as a trailblazer in affiliate marketing did not happen overnight. She was bestowed with an excellent reputation and more than two decades of experience within e-commerce, retail, FinTech, and iGaming industries.

Johnstone joined Phonexa Chief Marketing Officer Talar Malakian on the latest episode of the Amplify webinar series and gave some incredibly valuable insights and practical advice to all budding entrepreneurs and marketers.

Now, let’s get to the most prominent points – key takeaways and insights from this engaging talk.

View the webinar by clicking here.

Providing Assistance and Empowerment to Affiliate Managers

Johnstone kicked off her conversation by relating her experience of building an agency and media company to support advertisers, affiliates, and networks in their affiliate marketing.

“Very early on, I realised that people wanted the knowledge or for us to do the [work] for them, but that wasn’t ever really our focus,” said Johnstone. “So the agency is there for me to be in the weeds, actually understand what’s changing, and have that interface with publishers working in multiple industries.”

The mission of Affiverse is to help affiliate managers become more effective at their jobs. According to Johnstone, though the role of affiliate management has traditionally been about selling or customer support, it is really a skill because most affiliate managers are dealing with different channels and platforms; thus, they must know how to engage with their partners and support them to deliver amazing results with the end goal of driving growth.

“With the advent of better data and better technology, affiliate management has become a very skillful role, and many C-level execs don’t understand that yet,” said Johnstone. “They’re not supporting affiliate account managers, so we see a lot of burnout and brain drain … all of that has fed that fast-fuelling growth we’ve had at Affiverse because we’re pretty much a one-stop place where people can get practical advice.”

The Prospects for Lead Generation and Affiliate Marketing

The conversation eventually turned next to a discussion of the future of lead generation and affiliate marketing, particularly to marketers looking ahead toward the deprecation of cookies and the subsequent tracking changes that are going to continue to come over the next three to five years.

Johnstone warns smaller advertisers that they’re going to find themselves lagging behind their competitors at the point where cookies are officially phased out and traffic sources disappear.

“They’re going to need to learn very quickly how to do lead generation for themselves or work with lead generators who buy and sell leads,” said Johnstone.

To prepare for this, independent advertisers and smaller B2B brands will have to understand how to adapt their marketing when all of this takes place. Johnstone explained how lead generation and performance management are usually on opposite ends, but both now need to collide in a way as the landscape of marketing shifts.

“A lot of performance managers who haven’t had to work with lead generators are not going to understand how to incorporate that into their business,” said Johnstone.

Johnstone shared that one of Elevate’s intents — Affiverse’s virtual summit — is to help performance managers navigate through how to live in a world without third-party cookies.

“What we do at Elevate is bring people together to talk about the changes that are on the horizon, their impact, and how they can prepare for them,” said Johnstone.

Prepared for the Implementation of New Consent-Capture Requirements

Another important aspect of the emerging convergence of lead generation and performance management involves new consent capture requirements that regulators worldwide are imposing. Yes, new FCC regulations will apply to U.S. consumers starting in January 2025, but the EU has its own more restrictive regime under GDPR and the ePrivacy Directive. Companies operating internationally must comply with both sets of regulations, and local businesses targeting American consumers should prepare for the FCC’s enhanced consent requirements.

“We need to educate people on best practices before this comes into play because otherwise, we’re going to have another GDPR fiasco where everybody has a deadline to get up to date,” said Johnstone.

“When we look at the demand based on the changes in the market, you [address] that through transparency, visibility, authentication, validation, and compliance,” said Malakian. “All of those things are going to be really important because there’s going to be a surge in demand in that area but done differently than before.”

Assessing the Types of Partners in Your Affiliate Mix

Johnstone also provided tips for evaluating and auditing affiliate programs when you’re looking to bolster your partner mix, emphasising that success depends on your specific industry.

“Certain industries are reliant on certain types of partners simply because of the way they’re regulated and how they can or can’t promote,” said Johnstone. “What you want to remember is the customer funnel … the start of the customer awareness journey is getting longer before they actually purchase.”

Johnstone emphasised how important reaching your customers was by knowing where they were.

“If you’re not [reaching them] with your direct-to-consumer advertising channels, then that’s where you leverage your performance partners to come in and fill the gaps,” said Johnstone. “You need to have a good understanding of where your customers are coming from and where they’re bouncing off to, and then you can match that back to the types of partners you want in your programme.”

Why Constant Learning Leads to Success

Continuous learning is an inevitable process that helps be updated with the latest trends.

“Because this industry moves so fast – from the Wild West era to the regulatory era to the future trends era – it became apparent to me that there is no one place where people can learn,” said Johnstone. “We have to gather pieces of information all over the place because performance works across multiple channels.”

Johnstone emphasises that an affiliate marketer today has to be a jack of all trades just to keep themselves updated with new developments. Continuous learning remains a key activity for marketers of all experiences.

“I don’t believe anyone can be an expert in marketing since we’re constantly changing and learning as our consumers change and the channels we work in change as well,” said Johnstone. “Look outside of your own industry and what’s happening across multiple verticals because all of those things impact what’s happening in yours.”

Johnstone warns that narrow-minded marketers risk overcomplicating continuous learning beyond necessary.

“I’m a big believer in not only telling people how to do things but showing them too,” said Johnstone.

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