Impeccable ad campaigns that drive quality traffic are more crucial than ever for marketers and brands alike. Competitiveness is the name of the game in the affiliate marketing industry, and marketers are no strangers to utilising affiliate marketing tools like ad intelligence. While coming up with new concepts and ad approaches is a complicated but standard process, such tools are instrumental in tailoring campaigns that establish brand presence and drive the crucial traffic flow to affiliate websites.

Ad intelligence tools have emerged as invaluable assets for affiliate marketers and solopreneurs. They provide businesses and marketers with deep insights into the competitive landscape, audience behaviour, and ad performance metrics.

Here’s the global advertising expenditure spanning 2021 through 2026 that will help you understand the allocation of ad resources within the industry:

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This article aims to help businesses make smarter decisions by giving them the full list of the best digital ad intelligence tools specifically tailored for affiliate marketers.

To lead off, let’s dive into the principles of digital ad intelligence. Understanding what ad intelligence tools you need and why you need them will help you build your ultimate affiliate marketing toolkit as well as optimise and maximise your affiliate marketing efforts.

Digital Ad Intelligence Unveiled

Understanding how advertising works helps marketers make informed decisions in their promotional strategies, especially in affiliate marketing.

Data needs to be regularly and carefully collected and processed, and that’s how digital ad intelligence works. Ad intelligence tools are incredibly productive — you can evaluate competitive campaigns and branding effectiveness in detail.

Often called competitive intelligence or spy tools, these instruments bring valuable insights, including keywords, ad creatives, and promotional platforms.

What are ad intelligence solutions? They come in the form of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML) platforms designed for advertising analysis and optimisation.

Armed with this information, let’s discover how ad intelligence tools work:

The Data an Affiliate Marketer Can Collect With Ad Intelligence Tools

The table above is not exhaustive to the data you can collect with the right set of ad intelligence tools for affiliate marketing. With some calculations and extrapolation, you can get a fairly accurate number for the metric in question and predict your success against the competition.

Are you ready to find the hidden keys to success that will elevate your marketing game to new heights?

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Discover Winning Ads With These Digital Ad Intelligence Tools

SensorTower

The first player on the list is SensorTower — a comprehensive digital ad intelligence and analytics platform tailored for the mobile app industry. The main value is in providing a qualitative assessment of the performance of your applications, as well as user engagement and market trends.

In the world of digital marketing, keywords are king. SensorTower allows marketers to discover the keywords that drive the most traffic and conversions for their competitors.

With SensorTower, developers and marketers can track app rankings, estimate revenue, and identify competitive strategies. This might include information on ad creatives, ad spending, and ad networks for various apps.

What is great about the platform is its App Store Optimisation (ASO) tools, which enhance an app’s visibility on app stores. If you seek irreplaceable resources to optimise the performance of your applications, SensorTower.com is the most relevant option.

AdScan.ai

AdScan is your go-to digital ad intelligence solution for uncovering successful advertisements across Google, Facebook, and TikTok Ad Libraries.

What are the key features of the AdScan ad intelligence platform? Let’s examine them in more detail:

1. Exploring winning ads: You can access a diverse collection of 28,302 unlisted ads from YouTube, TikTok, Facebook, and other social media. The extensive library covers diverse markets and is updated daily.
2. Unveiling Facebook ad spend: The AdScan Chrome extension grants access to impression metrics for EU-targeted ads to gauge top-performing campaigns.
3. Reveal YouTube ad budget: With this solution, it is easy to estimate the actual YouTube ad spending and view counts to make informed decisions.
4. Save live ads: AdScan Chrome extension adds a convenient “See YT Ad” or “Save Ad” button to major ad libraries to use as future references.
5. Comprehensive data: Get significant insights into ad spend, transcripts, and AI-based performance scoring for each ad to optimise your advertising strategy.

Numerator

This data platform delivers valuable insights into consumer behaviour and retail ad intelligence operations.

Businesses and affiliate marketers use Numerator to understand consumer preferences on a deeper level and reveal the full potential of one’s marketing efforts.

The company provides impressive visibility into customer behaviour across various channels. The popular ad intelligence platform tracks shopping trends and offers shopper sentiment analysis.

Within Numerator, marketers and businesses receive real-time data and promotional effectiveness metrics to gain a competitive edge.

Similarweb

Sometimes mistakenly considered as a narrow-focused SEO tool, Similarweb can be a very effective ad intelligence tool for affiliate marketing.

Here’s how you can use Similarweb for ad intelligence, among other opportunities:

• Analyse competitors’ display ad strategies using the Ad Intelligence feature
• Analysing referral traffic to understand what advertising platforms are used by your competitors
• Improve your ad placement with customer insights like demographics

If you’re good at SEO, you must be already familiar with Similarweb and thus know about the potency of these marketing tools. Besides website and keyword analytics, Similarweb can help you look at your advertising strategies from a different perspective, giving you a competitive edge other affiliate marketers might neglect.

With Similarweb, you will be able to learn from your competitors’ mistakes and choose the most reliable and profitable media partners, whether you are an affiliate or advertiser. To be more specific, you will be able to identify competitors’ best and worst-performing creatives, ad placements, and ad networks.

Price-wise, Similarweb provides a free and paid version, with the latter billed at $125 or $333 per user per month, depending on the plan. The more expensive Professional subscription plan provides more website results and keywords per report, supports 6 instead of 3 months of historical data, and provides a worldwide geo view.

SplitMetrics

The best tool for providing mobile ad intelligence app A/B testing and CRO is SplitMetrics. The all-in-one ad intelligence platform helps marketers and brands run experiments with such valuable features:

• Landing page optimisation
• Creative testing
• User behaviour analysis

The global company makes things easy for mobile businesses and brands in the mobile world. Top app and game makers prefer it thanks to over 30,000 tech experiments backed by solid data.

Another great feature is SplitMetrics Acquire — a platform to automate and optimise Apple Search ads campaigns. With it, you can take charge of your data and handle ads like a pro. Top advertisers have already automated 95% of their optimisation using SplitMetrics AI algorithms.

AppTweak

Do you want to skyrocket your application’s awareness and performance on app stores? AppTweak is a nice choice for entrepreneurs and marketers alike.

It’s an ASO (App Store Optimisation) system, which provides:

• Keyword tracking
• Competitive investigation
• Personalised recommendations

In order to attract more users and enhance app store rankings, utilise Atlas AI, AppTweak’s revolutionary digital ad intelligence engine. The solution unravels the intricate connections between various apps and keywords.

The company spent years examining information, including 6 billion data points, 20 million keywords, 6 million apps, and insights from over 100 countries.

With AppTweak, marketers can unlock Google and Apple app store algorithms.

MediaRadar

One of the most efficient resources for ad sales intelligence activity is MediaRadar. It’s truly your cloud-based ticket to the advertising and market analysis realm, tailor-made for businessmen and marketing agencies.

This ad intelligence platform transcends boundaries, covering TV, print media, email, events, and the vast digital landscape.

MediaRadar serves up verified contacts, spending distribution, and real-time competitive analysis for the Ad tech sector.

It offers insights into ad spend, ad creative analysis, and ad campaign performance, allowing businesses to identify potential advertising opportunities.

Comscore

In the fast-changing media world, Comscore comes as a useful online ad intelligence tool to plan, buy, and assess media across different industries.

Marketers and media companies can quickly connect with their audiences by understanding how consumers behave across platforms. Comscore partners with the biggest names in digital media, brands, agencies, and film studios.

Why choose this ad intelligence tool? It collects and provides data on advertising effectiveness and audience measurement.

Amazon Web Services (AWS)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) may not be the most narrow-focused affiliate marketing tool in your toolkit, but it does provide you with some functionality to collect and analyse advertising data insights.

Here are some of the numerous AWS features you can use for affiliate marketing:

• Amazon Kinesis – real-time ad data management: collecting, capturing, and analysing
• Amazon Elastic MapReduce (EMR) – ad intelligence data management via frameworks like Hadoop
• Amazon Quicksight – ad data visualisation, including interactive dashboards

Likewise, you can use the Amazon Comprehend NLP model to analyse feedback regarding your ad campaigns and many more tools. For example, Amazon Rekognition can help you analyse the visual impact of your affiliate ad campaigns.

AWS is one of the most complex affiliate marketing tools, with a steep learning curve and countless features for omnichannel marketing. You may need time and perseverance to beat the steep learning curve, but the good thing is that some AWS affiliate marketing tools are free, and you can start from there.

As for the paid version of the software, AWS runs on the pay-as-you-go pricing model, which means the subscription price depends on the services you use. Here’s the  AWS price calculator to estimate the cost of your affiliate marketing tools.

Data.ai

Predicting revenue is like chasing a moving target in the ever-shifting marketing landscape. Mobile monetisation has never been so easy as with Data.ai.

This artificial intelligence ad and machine learning platform is designed to help businesses leverage data for decision-making. It provides predictive analytics, data modelling, and automation tools to improve business processes and outcomes.

BIScience

One of the greatest digital ad intelligence tools for consumer behaviour analytics and brand monitoring is BIScience.

The popular platform offers such features:

• Online marketing and audience analytics
• Extended consumer behaviour analysis (product searches, customer journey, etc.)
• Real-time online brand monitoring
• Purchase data insights

The Connection Between Ad Intelligence and Affiliate Marketing

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based approach where brands collaborate with individual affiliates for effective promotion.

Affiliate marketing tools are essential for companies and marketers as they guarantee increased sales and a wider reach. After all, affiliates receive substantial commissions for successful sales and high-intent leads.

To promote the brand effectively, ad intelligence data is highly essential. Such platforms and ad intelligence tools deliver the information you need while enabling you to evaluate ad campaigns and marketing strategies your rivals use.

Let’s take a second and dissect the principal benefits of ad intelligence solutions for affiliate marketers.

1. These tools enable hassle-free competitor analysis, providing insights into their advantages, profitable niches, the most relevant keywords, and top-performing ads.
2. Ad intelligence tools can inspire affiliate marketers to create the most appealing and engaging ad campaigns. Analysing the successful advertising efforts across the industry makes it easier to create quality content.
3. Supercharging your efforts with the ad intelligence platform helps increase traffic flow and ensure intelligence resource allocation within an affiliate campaign.
4. The examined digital ad intelligence tools provide real-time monitoring of competitors’ efforts, which allows brands and marketers to fine-tune their performance-based strategies.

Rising to Triumph: Crafting Your Martech Ecosystem

To make the most of your affiliate marketing campaigns, you can use the prominent Phonexa offerings. Phonexa’s single operating solution for partner and performance marketing will help you create customised campaigns, improve the user experience, make educated decisions, and close the loop between clicks, calls, leads, and revenue.

• LMS Sync — proficient lead management system
• Call Logic — impactful call tracking and distribution platform
• Cloud PBX — competent virtual phone system
• Lynx — state-of-the-art click management software
• E-Delivery — sophisticated email marketing tool
• HitMetrix — ultramodern user behaviour analytics and CRO software
• Opt-Intel — progressive email cleansing and suppression list management solution
• Books360 — next-generation accounting software with an invoice generator

Optimise Your Campaigns With the Best Digital Ad Intelligence Tools

The proposed list of key ad intelligence tools will be useful both in affiliate marketing and in any other field of commerce and digital media.

Such platforms as Adscan.ai, SensorTower, SEMrush, and others play an important role in decision-making for the enterprise. Your business will flourish while constantly increasing your competitiveness and yielding higher revenue streams.

Ultimately, enhancing your affiliate marketing tech stack with any of these ad intelligence tools will allow you to save time and resources while surpassing competitors. Unlock your business potential with these popular digital ad intelligence tools and take your affiliate marketing efforts to the next level with Phonexa.

Frequently Asked Questions

How do ad intelligence tools work?
Ad software like SensorTower or AdScan.ai uses complex and advanced algorithms that take into account many factors. In particular, this applies to advertising scripts, ad costs, and performance evaluation of individual ads. Marketers and businesses can easily identify highly effective advertising materials.

What features are included in ad intelligence platforms?
Such programmes have many functions in their arsenal aimed at understanding the effectiveness of your advertising and gaining important experience.

Ad intelligence platforms perform diverse tasks, for instance:

• Advertising expenditure statistics
• Advertising impression rates
• Performance scoring based on artificial intelligence
• Tracking mobile app ratings
• Evaluation of competitors’ strategies

How can ad intelligence tools benefit affiliate marketers?
Digital ad intelligence is highly essential for affiliate marketing campaigns, as it allows advertisers to:

• Get valuable information about competitors
• Discover new profitable niches for yourself
• Analyse successful ads
• Find relevant keywords

In addition, ad intelligence platforms stimulate the creation of first-class content and enable a reasonable allocation of resources in conditions of competition.

What is the most effective ad intelligence tool on the list?
One of the most popular solutions from today’s ad intelligence review is the AdScan.ai option. Of course, using a multifunctional solution is beneficial — AdScan.ai is a successful Google ad intelligence tool but offers successful YouTube, TikTok, and Facebook ad intelligence data.

The platform’s key features include analysing ad spend insights, ad budget estimation, and comprehensive ad data for strategic optimisation.

We’re very involved with conferences throughout the year, making sure we have the opportunity to network and meet with companies from around the world. There are countless shows that take place each year – even if it feels like every other show is held in Las Vegas.

We compiled a recap of the top conferences of 2016, highlighting many we were attending and some we thought were simply putting on spectacular shows. We figured it’s time to do that again, so we’ve put together our list for the top upcoming conferences that are on our radar.

Brand Minds 2017

The Central and Eastern European Business Summit of the Year, Brand Minds 2017 has its sights set on creating “experience events” that help better people’s lives. This year’s show is a few days away, on May 22, in Bucharest. Their line-up of speakers is impressive – Lenja Faraguna, Nordström and Ridderstråle, Gary Vaynerchuk, Julian Treasure, and Robert Murray.

LA Awwwards Conference

LA Awwwards Conference brings together international digital masters and influencers. If your work is in design and web, this is where you should be. This year’s speakers include Jessica Walsh from Sagmeister & Walsh and is being held from June 1-2 in Los Angeles.

Digital Summit Portland

Digital Summit hosts a series of conferences in various cities throughout the year. There are still twelve stops left on the tour, including Denver, Kansas City, Detroit, Philadelphia, and, of course, Portland. It’s no secret that Portland is a mecca for creatives. The city is home to major companies including Adidas and Nike, as well as leading creative agencies such as Wieden + Kennedy and Swift. Digital Summit stops in Portland from July 12-13. Their previous speakers have included Mark Cuban, Steve Wozniak, and Gary Vaynerchuk, so you can’t miss this show.

MozCon

MozCon is “three days of forward-thinking actionable sessions in SEO, brand development, CRO, the mobile landscape, analytics, customer experience, social and content marketing, and more.” It’s put together by the lovely folks at Moz, which means you’ll be receiving some great information that you can’t get anywhere else. MozCon runs from July 17-19 in Seattle, just in time for some great weather in the city.

Affiliate Summit East

Affiliate Summit East is the show of the year, where you know you’ll see familiar faces and new ones. We were at this year’s Affiliate Summit West in Las Vegas, where we took the stage during Demo Day and introduced our new products. We’ll be at this year’s show in New York, so if you’re attending, make sure you connect with us!

LeadsCon’s Connect to Convert

This year, LeadsCon has rebranded into LeadsCon’s Connect to Convert. We are Sponsors at this year’s conference in New York. We believe in the quality of the attendees at this show, which hosts a second show in Las Vegas earlier in the year, much like Affiliate Summit. We attended LeadsCon Las Vegas 2017 and put together a short recap video highlighting our time there.

If you can’t make your way out to a future conference and want to learn more about our platforms, you can request a demo online. We’ll schedule a personal one-on-one demo with you and your team members!

As inflation and increasing interest rates continue to take a toll on the revenue streams of insurance businesses worldwide, non-traditional sellers are entering the space to gain a competitive edge by offering embedded insurance to their existing customer base.

Today, major financial institutions, including banks and credit unions, are leveraging third-party embedded insurance programs — or “insurance-in-a-box” solutions — to supplement their traditional revenue-generating activities from lending and other core business efforts.

And, as flagged in One Inc’s 12 Insurance Industry Trends in 2022 report, embedded insurance continues to move into broader partnership ecosystems, driving more insurer growth through new distribution channels.

But what does that mean for these new non-traditional insurance marketers?

With these programs, insurance is positioned alongside existing trusted offerings and wrapped in the larger relationship which already exists between the institution and the consumer, rather than being a separate commodity provided by a different entity. Doing so dramatically increases the likelihood of consumers accepting these offers due to the inherent trust that already exists in an existing relationship.

This is particularly relevant now, during the time of a growing insurance trust deficit amongst consumers.

Source: IBM

What’s one thing that can make insurance buying a better experience for consumers? Buying it from institutions they already have trusting relationships with.

The growing implementation of embedded insurance programs highlights the need for non-traditional insurance sellers to utilise robust marketing solutions that don’t require substantial operational investment or infrastructure.

Let’s take a closer look at how automation technology can arm institutions new to the insurance space with the necessary marketing tools to scale their embedded insurance offerings.

What Is Embedded Insurance?

Embedded insurance allows consumers to bundle and purchase coverage as an add-on feature when buying a product or service. Financial institutions achieve this by partnering with insurance agencies that offer policies for a given transaction. For example, real estate agencies and mortgage lenders can embed homeowner insurance offers into real estate transactions.

Unwrapping the Gift of ‘Insurance-In-A-Box’

Embedded insurance programs serve as an “insurance-in-a-box” solution, allowing non-traditional sellers to embed insurance offers into their transactions at the point of sale. This solution provides these institutions with additional revenue streams while enabling consumers to mitigate gaps in insurance coverage.

Consumers tend to purchase insurance in haste, often forgoing the time and research needed to make a sound purchase based on their budgetary and coverage needs. This results in gaps in coverage and customer dissatisfaction — two pain points consumers face when rushing to find coverage.

On the flip side, these provide a chance for insurers and the institutions they partner with to engage with a captive, already-engaged, and high-intent audience, improve the customer experience for that consumer base, and tap into new market opportunities.

This results in a win-win situation for insurance carriers, the institutions they partner with, and, most importantly, their customers, who will ultimately reward these efforts with their continued business and brand loyalty.

Taking It a Step Further With Omnichannel Outreach Strategies

Now imagine if your financial firm — say, a mortgage company — has a requirement and a fresh contract with an agency that offers private mortgage insurance or PMI coverage. You need to market the offerings to first-time homebuyers with lower down payments.

You can have your agents offer these solutions straight up, or if you’re aiming for a more organic conversion on this front, you can launch an omnichannel drip campaign that ensures your clients understand the need and benefits of a PMI offering from the firm of your choosing.

Creating relevant informational touchpoints through calls, email, and other campaigns will ensure that your clients understand and value your solution. But how do you get there? Through a singular marketing automation solution.

Embedded Insurance Programs Need a Singular Tech Solution

Thinking of embarking on the embedded insurance space? You’ll need a tracking solution for your marketing channels, even if you think you don’t.

Any organisation that offers an embedded insurance solution — or wants to enter the space — cannot afford to put forth a half-hearted effort simply because this revenue stream is considered easy money. Embedded insurance is a new revenue stream, so capitalise on it.

This is where newcomers to this unchartered territory can count on the all-in-one element of Phonexa’s performance marketing software to pay huge dividends. The enterprise-grade solution is built for companies with complex use cases, and the platform is one that no institution will outgrow.

Here are some of Phonexa’s turnkey marketing solutions that can help you sell more insurance policies:

Call Logic and LMS Sync to Simplify Call and Web Lead Management

Financial institutions can create speedy interactions with call representatives by using trackable phone numbers to acquire detailed attribution on all inbound call traffic. Outbound calls can also be managed to expand offerings and re-engagement strategies.

With this dynamic duo, call and web leads can be tracked and distributed quickly, building a more efficient workflow and expediting speed-to-contact with customers interested in embedded insurance.

Identifying efficient marketing channels can be tricky with embedded insurance since most organisations are not buying traffic from multiple locations, but they may be running different types of marketing to their existing client base.

For instance, a credit union with 20,000 account holders may launch email campaigns and use Facebook ads to entice prospects. With Phonexa’s Call Logic and LMS Sync, you can centralise outcomes from various campaigns to determine the best marketing channels for conversions.

E-Delivery for Client Engagement and Re-Engagement

Financial institutions offering embedded insurance can leverage ESP integrations to build campaigns that reach customers and prospects on their mobile phones and email inboxes.

Phonexa’s E-Delivery is the perfect bridge between initial communication and eventual conversion, as it helps clients send automated emails and email chains to re-engage audiences.

HitMetrix & Lynx for Conversion Rate Optimization

In the insurance marketing ecosystem, HitMetrix monitors which personalisation tactics trigger conversions. When working together, the duo provides actionable data insights for conversion rate optimisation if you’re experimenting with different offerings and deals across various landing pages.

Moving the Industry Forward with Embedded Insurance

When looking for a comprehensive solution to streamline your embedded insurance initiatives, pick one you will not have to change in two or three years, just as your needs change.

Phonexa’s all-in-one marketing automation solution for calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more, has carried the industry toward a more synchronised omnichannel direction across different verticals and initiatives, including embedded insurance.

Are you going to InsureTech Connect in Las Vegas from September 20 to 22?

Let’s connect on LinkedIn to start the conversation around embedded insurance initiatives ahead of the world’s largest gathering of insurance leaders and innovators.

Interested in learning more about Phonexa’s all-in-one offerings? Schedule a consultation with one of our UK agents to discover how we can power your embedded insurance marketing strategy.

As data becomes increasingly more complex to process for performance marketers, the significance of artificial intelligence grows to be more essential.

The abundance of information available calls for careful handling, as mishandled data can result in uninformed decisions and unapplied analytics, leading to ineffective campaigns and missed revenue opportunities.

Erik Huberman, founder and CEO of Hawke Media, joined Phonexa CMO Talar Malakian on the debut episode of Amplify to talk about “How AI is Changing Marketing Without Losing the Human Touch.”

The duo discussed new ways in which marketers can leverage AI to optimize ad spending, identify trends, drive results, and refine marketing strategies with better accuracy and time efficiency.

Hawke Media is one of the fastest-growing marketing consultancies in the United States. Huberman has grown the company valuation to over $150 million by working with over 3,000 brands worldwide and expanding the company portfolio with Hawke Ventures and Hawke AI.

Huberman’s insights on the advancements of AI shed light on why the human touch is still needed to thrive in the competitive space of performance marketing. The key for affiliates, lead generators, and influencers alike is understanding that what an AI tool can do, and what it is needed to do, are two very different things.

As Huberman stated, “This all takes years; it’s not like tomorrow. I come across a lot of people really stressed out and a little over-focused on what’s the next tool. Just go build your business, go do the things you’ve been doing, and slowly add this stuff over time. Then, you’ll be fine.”

Let’s dive into Huberman’s insightful input and uncover some of the essential takeaways centered around AI and performance marketing.

Your Ultimate Guide to Using AI for Performance and Affiliate Marketing

Using AI Effectively to Optimize Marketing Efforts

The conversation started with an in-depth discussion on how marketers can leverage AI to avoid wasting time sifting through data to determine where problems are, and why they’re happening.

“All of that is easy to automate. We can get to the point where the four hours of research you do a day, we’re just going to give that back to you,” said Huberman. “So, instead of spending four hours on research and four hours on implementation, you can spend 30 minutes double-checking insights and go for seven and a half hours on implementation.”

For those skeptical of how AI fits with marketing initiatives reliant on the human touch, Huberman reiterated that AI automates processes that ultimately allow marketers to have improved and efficient use of their time and resources.

Ad & Content Creation That Maintain Tone & Brand Identity

The discussion then shifted to marketers using AI to create ads and content while keeping their tone and brand image intact.

“It’s a great way to get started. You can get some good ideas from it, but it needs a human touch still,” said Huberman. “We’ll sit here and go, ‘What’s a good tagline?’ and we’ll be like, ‘I don’t know. What about this? What about that?’ You just run it through ChatGPT, and it’ll come up with 30 taglines that fit this parameter, and then from there, you actually could get some good ideas.”

With regard to the trends brands are seeing with AI-driven offer development, Huberman suggests that marketers must clearly define how using AI-powered tools can actually benefit them before implementation.

“When you talk about offers, the reason offers need to work well — what’s going to get someone to buy? what’s going to get an affiliate to want to run it? — is AI can’t account for all that and how people are going to react to that yet,” said Huberman. “So, what it can do is see what the results are and maybe adjust, but at that point, you’ve already burned out a bunch of people and a bunch of affiliates. It’s not at a point yet where a computer can do that piece.”

Integrating AI into Your Brand

Huberman also explained best practices around integrating AI into a business.

“Don’t get super distracted by shiny objects and hear AI all the time and think, ‘We’ve got to change everything,’” said Huberman. “We’ve watched other agencies go full AI, and it’s not there yet. So congratulations, you just wasted a ton of attention, a ton of effort, a ton of sweat and tears to do no better than you were doing before.

“You’re in the hype cycle of AI right now — everyone has an AI tool. Most of this stuff is going to be a waste of time. There are going to be tools that are interesting, and we’re playing with some, but is that going to change the base of our business?

“Don’t get too stressed out on the fact that the whole world hasn’t shifted yet. There’s a lot coming, too.”

To learn more about upcoming Amplify webinars, connect with Malakian on LinkedIn.

Read our guide to learn more about using AI for performance and affiliate marketing.

In the fast-paced world of affiliate marketing, adaptation is the key to success. Traditional affiliate partnerships – once the bedrock of the industry – are evolving, and embracing this transformation is crucial for staying ahead.

Phonexa UK CEO David Pickard recently joined Affiverse founder Lee-Ann Johnstone on the Affiliate Marketing Podcast to discuss lead generation and offer valuable insights into the vital role lead generation plays in the affiliate marketing ecosystem, approaches to affiliate management, and embracing the entire affiliate partnership economy.

Let’s delve into the highlights of the captivating dialogue from the Affiliate Marketing Podcast episode, “How to Embrace the Whole Affiliate Partnership Economy: Non-Traditional Affiliates Can Make Great Partners Too.”

Shaping Success by Looking At Lead Generation on a Performance Basis

The conversation kicked off with Pickard providing affiliate programme managers advice on how to build momentum by relying on concrete statistics and performance metrics.

“Start at the [beginning]…look at what the problem is, which is typically acquisition is not transparent,” said Pickard. “Attribution is complex and difficult and not all sources along the funnel generate the same quality – performance differs.”

Pickard’s advice boils down to having a clear vision of success from the outset and being open to course correction based on real-world results.

“You have to have a good idaea of what success would look like for you prior to launch,” said Pickard. “And most importantly, and I say this from experience, [prepare] to be wrong.”

Pickard suggests starting with a clear plan by outlining what you believe would constitute a favourable result. However, he warns affiliate programme managers to be prepared to set aside any preconceived notions if the data reveals a different performance reality. In such cases, they must be humble and open to exploring new directions for improvement.

“If you’re using true end-to-end tracking – which is another no-brainer by the way, so make sure you are – you’ll likely have an idaea of what conversions need to look like along the way in order to achieve what you need,” said Pickard. “But if and when they don’t, be ready to make changes and adapting to ensure that you’re not just hoping things will change when you’ve done nothing to help that change happen.”

Why Cookie-Cutter Approaches to Affiliate Management Are Ineffective

With regard to approaches to affiliate management, Johnstone and Pickard acknowledged that affiliate managers often abandon strategies too quickly when they don’t see immediate results.

Pickard advises affiliate programme managers to embrace a mindset of continuous learning and improvement.

“They’ve heard what someone else tried and think, ‘I’m going to give it a go.’ That’s not good enough,” said Pickard. “Have an idaea of what success looks like for you, first. And that has to be based on your internal requirements, not just what someone else has done and they’ve had positive effects because you will never understand someone else’s campaign as well as them.”

No one understands your campaign better than you do. Therefore, Pickard stressed the importance of defining success based on internal goals rather than blindly following what others have done.

“They haven’t told you the optimisation processes that they’ve been through to get there, and you haven’t seen them, so you need to be prepared and have a more realistic approach.”

Tips for Embracing Non-Traditional Affiliate Partnerships

The chat then shifted to a discussion on how programme managers can adapt to the evolving affiliate marketing landscape. Pickard emphasised the importance of engaging with non-traditional forms of affiliate partnerships to make affiliate programmes run more efficiently.

“We need to stop looking at [affiliate partnerships] as traditional versus non-traditional. If you’re letting the numbers do the talking, what difference does it make if it’s traditional or non-traditional?” said Pickard. “You’ve got to do what works. Carry out the due diligence on your partners to ensure that you’re starting with a level playing field and then track the journey from start to finish.”

By embracing data, staying adaptable, and setting clear objectives, affiliate programme managers can navigate the changing landscape and build long-lasting partnerships with affiliates, no matter their scope or size.

“Get used to putting yourself in those advertiser’s and, most importantly, the consumer’s shoes and use the analytics to deliver an experience that will encourage the outcomes you’re looking for,” said Pickard. “Nowadays, with all the tools we’ve got, we have no excuse not to [optimise] every single call in that [customer] journey.”

Pickard’s insights on the Affiliate Marketing Podcast remind us that in the ever-evolving world of affiliate marketing, success is not a one-size-fits-all formula.

To continue the conversation with Pickard, connect with him on LinkedIn.

Marketing automation platform, Phonexa, and Tellus Brokerage Connections, leading life insurance IMO, have announced a multifaceted marketing relationship.

The marketing relationship calls for Tellus to facilitate introductions between Phonexa and the Tellus Direct Markets agency members. In turn, Phonexa will provide preferred pricing and access to its industry-leading lead management and marketing automation solution, used by call centres and direct advertisers, for calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more.

This relationship further affirms Phonexa’s commitment to facilitating Direct Marketers, Insurance Carriers, and Wholesalers to make smarter marketing decisions. Phonexa is pleased to join forces with a tech-forward organisation, such as Tellus, that has a unique value proposition aligned with helping high-volume insurance direct marketers grow their businesses by adopting best-in-class technologies. Tellus looks forward to putting the Phonexa technology to use.

The suite of Phonexa products and solutions and digital sales opportunities that Tellus Direct Marketers will now have access to include:

LMS Sync (lead tracking and distribution)
Call Logic (call tracking and distribution)
E-Delivery (email and SMS marketing)
Cloud PBX (cloud phone system)
Lynx (click tracking)
HitMetrix (user behavior recording and analytics)
Opt-Intel (suppression list management)
Books360 (automated accounting)

There was a time when marketing agencies and brands did not fully appreciate telephone conversations. Today, the success of positive customer experiences and conversion rates relies on various factors, including streamlined and modernised call procedures.

Marketing calls play a crucial role in an effective strategy and a thriving business. Cultivating positive interactions with clients has a lasting impact on how brands operate and develop their implementation strategies.

That’s why brands aiming to improve customer experience and gain insights into lead quality establish call centres using call centre recording software.

But what exactly is the functionality of sales call recording, and why is it valuable for brands? To address these questions and more, let’s delve into the practicality of call recording software and its role in streamlining call processes.

The Value of Recording Marketing Calls

It’s well known that processing calls can assist brands in comprehending buyers’ concerns, needs, and expectations. However, this doesn’t exempt businesses from a potential lack of insight into the customer experience.

Why do businesses record calls? Integrating recording functionality into the call centre’s daily toolkit aids brands in achieving better outcomes for their customers, monitoring and improving call flows, and refining their marketing strategies.

Furthermore, recording marketing calls enables companies to evaluate new strategies, assess customer sentiment, identify experience trends, and determine whether agents require additional training. It’s also important to collect specific call data for compliance and quality assurance purposes.

Brands and marketing agencies often seek a sales recording solution bundled with a call tracking service, analytics, and a cloud phone system.

With Phonexa, you gain access to Cloud PBX (cloud telephony system) and Call Logic (call tracking and distribution platform) — software solutions that work seamlessly to enhance customer conversions and streamline call processes. Recording call data is an integral part of this collaboration. It helps users acquire and utilise call insights to shape growth strategies and identify improvement opportunities.

Call recording software is a component of Phonexa’s Call Logic, serving as a digital tool that enables brands to create an audio record of phone calls between their representatives and clients. Let’s delve into the call recording process.

Consumers are informed that their conversation may be recorded when they call a business. Phonexa’s call recording software initiates a digital sales recording of these calls once consumers connect to the IVR and, eventually, a company representative. These recordings, stored in the cloud for a specific period, can be accessed for future use.

There’s no denying that call recording software is a potent tool that equips brands with all the essential information needed to enhance sales, training, and marketing processes.

Every business prioritises its performance. So, let’s explore why brands and marketing agencies should implement sales recording tools bundled with call tracking, lead management, and other essential marketing solutions to maximise revenue.

Why Utilise Call Recording Software & Other Tracking Solutions

Businesses must maintain constant communication with their prospects and clients to understand their needs and provide optimal solutions to their problems. Robust tools like sales call recording significantly streamline these tasks, making critical information readily available for businesses to comprehend and base decisions on.

Here’s how businesses can harness digital call recording tools bundled with other vital marketing solutions.

Pinpointing Issues & Concerns

Every sales call recording serves as a wealth of information. It aids brands in identifying the challenges their clients face, their concerns, the objections they encounter, and their reactions to any given offer or strategy.

Listening to such recordings enables marketing and sales teams to adjust their customer journeys and refine their processes to ensure the favourable outcome of future conversations.

Recovering Overlooked Details

One of the objectives businesses aim for when recording calls is to have the capability to revisit specific conversations. This can be particularly valuable in cases of confusion regarding a purchase, complaint, or delivered service.

Keeping Your Marketing Team Informed

It’s no secret that marketers collaborate with buyer personas. These target audience descriptions assist marketing experts in segmenting the audience and customizing content, products, messages, and services to meet clients’ needs and align with their behaviour.

However, marketing teams need to know and fully understand their customers to create an accurate description. Listening to recorded real conversations with consumers can help agents craft more targeted marketing messages to which these audiences can relate.

Harnessing the Potential of Untapped Insights

Sales call recordings enable brands to access different types of data. It helps qualitatively and quantitatively assess team performance and pinpoint areas for improvement.

For instance, some call recording software can have a speech-to-text feature, aiding in creating a transcript of the recorded calls. Marketing experts can use these transcripts to cheque if specific keywords were used during the conversation. This way, marketers can utilise recorded marketing calls to enhance performance among call centre agents.

With agent scoring functionalities, Phonexa’s Cloud PBX provides call centres with the ability to identify and flag the efficacy of each of their agents while allowing them to direct specific calls to the agents best suited to answer these enquiries.

But, of course, all of this can only be identified through the use of IVR technology, which asks a series of questions to determine the reason for the call and to whom the call should be directed.

Final Thoughts

Businesses often concentrate on well-known KPIs such as sales growth, profit, support tickets, customer retention, satisfaction, engagement, and other metrics, each of which are essential goals. However, brands must also harness all marketing and technology channels to access every piece of data that can significantly impact business development.

Collecting call data can achieve precisely that. Brands equipped with the appropriate call tracking service and call recording software can identify concealed revenue opportunities and uncover critical parameters like call distribution, sources, the company’s call capacity, speech speed, individual sales agents’ performance, and much more.

In essence, utilising call recording data enables brands to fine-tune their customer service, elevate the customer experience, enhance conversion rates, and train new agents.

Seasons change, but one thing remains constant – marketing executives across all verticals are looking to land the keys to the lead generation promised land.

The conference calendar has certainly swung into second gear over the last few weeks, and Phonexa had a presence at four separate marketing events in New York with Insurtech Insights America, Affiliate Summit East (ASE), MailCon, and LendIt Fintech.

The Phonexa team navigated miles of conference floor real estate, talked to hundreds of industry-leading leadgen executives, and consumed enough happy hour cocktails to sink a cruise ship.

Here are the key takeaways from the week-long conference-going.

• Insurtech Insights America: Arising Opportunities for Embedded Insurance Solutions, an Emphasis on the Role of AI & Tech
  • Unwrapping the Gift of ‘Insurance-in-A-Box’
  • How Technology & AI Help Insurance Carriers Vet High-Intent Leads

• Affiliate Summit East: Conversations Around Marketing Lead Quality & the Importance of Personalised Partnerships
  • The Unforgivable Lack of Focus on Lead Quality
  • Partnerships Elevate Brand Awareness & Impact
  • Investing in Networking Results is an Immeasurable ROI

• MailCon Mixer: A Growing Future for the Email Industry
  • How Companies Embrace the Potential of Personalised Interactions
  • MailCon’s Growth Is Scaling the Email Industry

• LendIt Fintech: The Digitization of the Financial Services Vertical
  • Growing Popularity of Cryptocurrency Calls for New Martech Solutions

Insurtech Insights America Presents Opportunities for Embedded Insurance Solutions, Affirms the Role of AI & Tech

May 25 to 26

Chief Operations Officer Jeff Schaffer: Unwrapping the Gift of ‘Insurance-in-A-Box’

For Schaffer, Insurtech Insights America put a bright spotlight on the trend of non-traditional insurance sellers entering the space by leveraging third-party solutions to sell insurance to their existing customer bases.

“With the increase of interest rates, inflation, and the difficulty that banks and major financial institutions are having with making money from lending and other core business activities, we are seeing a massive proliferation of embedded insurance programs or ‘insurance-in-a-box’ solutions being marketed to these institutions,” said Schaffer. “Banks, credit unions, and other sizable organisations that aren’t built to sell insurance are heartily embracing these elegant and surprisingly robust turnkey solutions that do not require substantial infrastructure and operational investments in order to create new revenue streams from their existing captive audiences.”

Chief Revenue Officer Nasser Aftab: Technology & AI Are Helping Insurance Carriers Vet More High-Intent Leads

In another perspective, Aftab highlighted how technology and AI are driving the change for agencies to underwrite more qualified policies amid economic uncertainty.

“Insurance companies are experiencing losses to their lead buying strategy above the threshold they’re willing to accept. As a result, they’ve turned down the spigot as far as buying from various publishers,” said Aftab. “They’re trying to find new and innovative ways to reduce their budgets on their lead buying initiatives and improve their organic marketing strategies to sell more insurance policies through those channels. However, there are many back-end AI, automation tools, and data platforms geared towards the retention of their clientele while being hyper-focused on speed-to-contact to getting a policy quoted, offered, signed, and sold. This approach focuses on spending less upfront and relying more on organic marketing and new technology that complements their back-end processes.”

Did you miss our article on the importance of call tracking for insurance businesses? Click here to learn more. 

Affiliate Summit East Raises Questions Around Marketing Lead Quality, Nurtures Personalised Partnerships

May 24 to 25

Director of Business Development for Home Services Patrick Boyd: The Unforgivable Lack of Focus on Lead Quality

On the leadgen side of things at ASE, Boyd recognised the intentional marketing gap among publishers who solely focus on lead volume instead of holding conversations around the quality and intent of leads they sell.

“One thing that didn’t differentiate with many attending publishers is that they didn’t talk about the quality of their leads,” said Boyd. “In the last few months, we’ve led discussions around where Phonexa and other martech can sit in the middle of lead transactions to vet qualified data. I didn’t talk to many publishers who could convey the true value of their leads.”

Chief Strategy Officer Amanda Farris: Partnerships Elevate Brand Awareness & Impact

Especially in the post-Covid-19 conference world, Farris has recognised the elevated inclination toward using people and personal connections to build better brand awareness and business partnerships.

“It boils down to finding a centralised location where everyone is, placing yourself in the middle of everything, and then connecting with people through personalised interactions,” said Farris. “What I’ve learned is that people are more conducive to having in-depth conversations about their workflows and other topics in an uncontrolled environment around a dinner table or networking lounge versus on the exhibition floor where the main focus is to sell something. This way, we get to know people as we merge work and life to build stronger connections and associate these connections with our brands.”

Vice President of Partnerships Sara Malo: Investing in Networking Results in an Immeasurable ROI

“Now is the right time to invest in meeting rooms, outside meeting areas, dinners, and happy hour networking events instead of relying on booths. It’s important to pay attention to what events are going on and what you already have tentatively planned around conferences,” said Malo. “Time allocation is hugely important, and making yourself visible and available, especially when new things pop up, is critical.”

Interested in what a Phonexa Partnership entails? Reach out to David Pickard to get started. 

MailCon Forecasts a Growing Future for Email Industry

May 23

Events like MailCon have the power to unite industry veterans and newcomers alike under one roof for collaboration and partnerships. This is precisely what Malo and Aftab explained in their observations from the networking soiree at the ultra-posh 48 Lounge in Time Square.

Malo: More Companies Are Embracing the Potential of Personalised Interactions

“There’s nothing conference-goers value more than personal encounters and their time with partners or event organisers. To that end, I see that MailCon and other similar networking events have embraced the power of personalised interactions with every single attendee,” said Malo. “This simple act results in great feedback after the event, which always makes people want to return to do business with you.”

Aftab: MailCon’s Growth Is Scaling an Entire Industry

“MailCon has officially arrived! The brand is scaling and gaining traction in a significant way. We see an influx of diverse brands across various verticals leveraging MailCon’s platform by participating in an industry-leading event,” said Aftab. “MailCon is a well-oiled machine that is making a sizable impact on this ever-evolving industry.”

MailCon is the world’s preeminent email and omnichannel marketing conference that connects its global community of marketing professionals with the latest technology, trends, and strategies in email marketing, lead generation, marketing automation, and mobile and omnichannel marketing. MailCon is owned and operated by Phonexa.

Learn more about how MailCon is leading the change in the email and omnichannel marketing landscape with annual conferences and networking events. 

LendIt Fintech Moves to Digitise the Financial Services Vertical

May 23 to 24

Director of Business Development for Financial Services Redha Benchetrat: Growing Popularity of Cryptocurrency Calls for New Martech Solutions

Benchetrat yielded a slew of new and innovative opportunities for tech expansion from participating at LendIt Fintech.

“This year’s LendIt Fintech heavily focused on digitising all practices by showcasing new tech infrastructure for marketing, the continued implementation of cryptocurrency, and how technology ties all of this together,” said Benchetrat. “We see finance companies moving deeper toward digitised and automated marketing efforts while also actioning data insights to increase customer retention and loyalty and prioritising the overall customer experience.”

Seize Tech and Partnership Growth Opportunities With Phonexa

The next marketing technology conference is always around the corner, and Phonexa teams are always on the ground with a massive slate of offerings beyond the all-in-one marketing automation solution for calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more. You can keep track of our travels on our Events page.

Working with Phonexa means that you’re always ahead of the competition with a first look at cutting-edge, all-encompassing marketing technology, partnerships that make a difference, and so much more.

Schedule a consultation to discover which of Phonexa’s all-in-one marketing solutions can best scale your business and drive your strategy.

Owned and operated by Phonexa, the all-in-one marketing automation solution for calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more, MailCon successfully united top professionals throughout omnichannel marketing, email, and the lead generation communities at the Caesars Palace in Las Vegas during the company’s first-ever standalone conference Jan. 11 to 13.

The industry-leading event exceeded previous MailCon gatherings by covering more space and offering a robust selection of sessions, workshops, and panels, as well as an exhibition space for companies. It also featured multi-dimensional networking opportunities, such as a game lounge, welcome reception at Topgolf, the Marketer’s Ball afterparty at the Omnia Nightclub — which was headlined by a special performance from multi-platinum award-winning artist Ja Rule — and the MailCon Spotlight Awards and AFFY Awards luncheon.

MailCon’s three-day event fostered partnerships, community, and marketing technology innovation, which mirrors the mission and ethos of Phonexa.

“I’m impressed with how the email marketing community united in support of MailCon’s first-ever standalone conference,” said Lilit Davtyan, CEO and CFO of Phonexa. “It’s great to see that everyone else believes in our companies, and how we’re continually creating and nurturing an environment for brands to catapult their businesses.”

Speakers from Deloitte, LinkedIn, Dotdigital, and Hawthorne Advertising were among those who presented a wide range of panels and workshops around deliverability, technology, email personalization, branding, lead generation, and more.

“Our standalone conference was exceptional as it created a huge networking opportunity for our community to rely on,” said Kristen Haines, CEO at MailCon. “We’re especially excited to spotlight and recognize visionaries in our space, giving them a platform and an opportunity to shine and share their insights, knowledge, and products with us. We look forward to continuously combining efforts with Phonexa to promote growth and empower each of our community members, sponsors, partners, and speakers for many years and events to come.”

“Even as we battled obstacles caused by a pandemic, our MailCon community retained its strength in coming together to make an impact that reaches beyond our three-day program,” said Sara Malo, Director of Sponsor and Exhibitor Success at MailCon. “I was inspired to see everyone gather to engage and educate the next wave of innovation. We look forward to a bright future and taking MailCon to new heights.”

Over 70% of MailCon attendees are directors, C-level executives, and company decision-makers.

“MailCon has always been a key event for me to get insights about the latest email and omnichannel marketing trends, and learn about the best practices from top industry experts. This time, it was even more special,” said Faruk Aydin, CRO at Inbox Suite. “I’m bringing back a lot of positive feedback, energy, and motivation because the MailCon community is a true booster.”

MailCon also recognized leading companies with the joint MailCon Spotlight Awards and AFFY Awards luncheon by honoring exceptional innovation and leadership across the industry.

MailCon Spotlight Awards Winners:

• Email Service Provider Choice: ExpertSender
• SMS Choice: Addicted Affiliate
• Automation Choice: Contact Center Compliance
• Innovative Tech: Pushnami
• Top Email Marketer: Synergy Interactive

AFFY Awards Winners

• EmailOversight, Optizmo, and Elite-Calls received the AFFY Digital Marketing Awards
• Ron Hart of Mobile Pushers won Super Affiliate honors
• Wade Tonkin of Fanatics and Tom Wozniak of Optizmo also received individual AFFY Awards.

The event marked the fifth conference since Phonexa’s acquisition of MailCon in 2018 and the eighth event overall.

Previous and most recent MailCon events included the 2021 MailCon Meetup in Manhattan, the Virtual Experience in 2021, and the MailCon Las Vegas event in 2020.

Learn more about how Phonexa powers MailCon to build a diverse community of omnichannel marketers, all while introducing unparalleled brand partnerships and opportunities for professional development.

The ever-evolving digital marketing landscape beckons us toward a future brimming with innovation and transformative trends.

The marketing arena is set to undergo significant shifts, propelled by advanced technologies, changing consumer behaviours, and a relentless pursuit of excellence.

From artificial intelligence to the rise of hyper-personalised marketing, each trend holds the promise of reshaping the way we connect, engage, and inspire in the digital age.

Join us on this journey as we anticipate the dynamic landscape ahead.

1. AI Continues to Power Digital Advertising

2023 was marked by the rise of artificial intelligence, as this transformative technology took centre stage in helping shape marketing strategies, and AI will continue to reach new heights in 2024. The dynamic landscape of consumer behaviour and shifting market trends demands precision and insight that only advanced analytics powered by AI can provide.

With an increased focus on predictive analytics, AI will allow marketers to foresee consumer preferences and behaviour for more targeted and resonant campaigns in 2024. AI’s capacity for personalisation will evolve into a crucial element in shaping unique customer experiences. By leveraging advanced analytics, marketers can decipher intricate nuances in consumer journeys, tailoring content and interactions to suit the unique preferences of each audience segment. This level of customisation, driven by AI insights, enhances engagement and fosters a deeper connection between brands and their consumers.

The marriage of AI and advanced analytics in 2024 signifies more than just a technological evolution. It marks a paradigm shift in how marketers perceive, interpret, and respond to the complexities of the digital landscape as AI continues to facilitate consumer interactions.

Learn more about AI’s role in analysing and optimising marketing data and uncover how affiliate marketers can enhance their martech stack by leveraging cutting-edge AI tools.

2. Personalisation 2.0: The Evolution of Hyper-Personalised Marketing

Expect Personalisation 2.0 to take a giant leap in 2024, evolving into a realm of hyper-personalisation.

Consumers have come to expect a level of personalisation that goes beyond surface-level customisation. Personalisation 2.0 will impact consumer behaviour by creating more meaningful and relevant interactions. Consumers will be motivated to engage with brands that genuinely understand their preferences and provide customised experiences designed to meet their individual tastes and needs.

Personalisation 2.0 is expected to foster a sense of loyalty and trust. As consumers experience personalised content and services that resonate with them on a deeper level, they are more likely to form lasting connections with brands that prioritise their individuality. This, in turn, increases customer retention and advocacy and positively impacts overall brand perception.

The influence of hyper-personalised marketing promises to redefine the consumer-brand relationship, creating a landscape where each interaction feels uniquely crafted, fostering a deeper sense of connection and loyalty among consumers.

3. The Crucial Role of Native Advertising in Influencer Marketing Success

In 2024, brands will leverage native advertising to forge authentic connections with their audiences. Native advertising seamlessly integrates promotional content within the natural context of the platform, creating a harmonious blend that resonates with users. This subtle, non-disruptive approach aligns perfectly with the ethos of influencer marketing, where authenticity and relatability are paramount.

As brands collaborate with influencers to convey their messages, native advertising serves as the canvas upon which these narratives unfold. Whether it’s a captivating Instagram storey or a genuine product review on YouTube, native advertising allows influencers to seamlessly incorporate brand messages into their content. This symbiotic relationship will not only maintain the trust established by influencers with their followers but also ensure that promotional material feels organic and aligns with the tone and overall aesthetic of the influencer’s platform.

4. Interactive Content Marketing

The resurgence of interactive content has the promise to redefine brand engagement in 2024. As we journey into the new year, interactive content marketing emerges as a key trend and a powerful strategy to captivate and involve consumers in a more immersive brand experience.

Brands will continue to leverage augmented reality, quizzes, polls, and surveys to create content that goes beyond the passive consumption of information. Interactive content actively involves users, turning them from mere spectators into active participants in the brand narrative. This shift ultimately enhances engagement and provides valuable insights into consumer preferences and behaviours.

5. Short-Form Content Will Dominate Marketing Campaigns

The dominance of short-form content, particularly video marketing, shows no signs of waning. The fast-paced, attention-grabbing nature of short-form videos aligns seamlessly with the preferences of today’s on-the-go consumers. In the blink of an eye, these succinct yet impactful videos convey brand messages, tell compelling storeys, and engage audiences in ways that resonate in the era of digital immediacy.

The surge of platforms dedicated to short-form content, coupled with the widespread adoption of features like Storeys and Reels across major social media networks, reinforces the staying power of bite-sized videos. Brands, recognising the goldmine in capturing attention within seconds, will double down on creative and visually enticing short-form content to cut through the digital noise.

6. The Enforcement of Strict Consumer Privacy Regulations

2024 will bring a seismic shift to the digital landscape as strict consumer privacy regulations come to the forefront due to the deprecation of third-party cookies. This transformative evolution marks a watershed moment in online privacy, ushering in an era where consumers have heightened control over their personal data.

With regulations such as GDPR and evolving laws in regions like California, brands are compelled to reassess their data collection and usage practises. The phased elimination of third-party cookies is not just a response to regulatory mandates; it’s a strategic imperative for brands to foster trust and transparency with their audiences.

As third-party cookies fade into obsolescence, the emphasis on obtaining explicit user consent, respecting privacy preferences, and leveraging alternative tracking technologies becomes paramount. In this new era, brands that champion privacy and embrace responsible data practises comply with regulations and build enduring relationships with their audiences based on trust and respect.

7. Pivot Towards Zero and First-Party Data

The shift away from third-party cookies will require a recalibration of digital marketing strategies, pushing marketers to prioritise ethical practises and user-centric approaches.

In response to third-party cookies being phased out, forward-thinking marketers are strategically pivoting toward harnessing the power of first-party data. Recognising the limitations posed by the diminishing reliance on third-party tracking, brands are also actively engaging in direct interactions with consumers to build a reservoir of valuable zero-party data.

By transparently obtaining explicit consent and encouraging consumers to willingly share information, marketers can create a robust foundation of first-party data. This intentional shift not only aligns with evolving privacy regulations but also empowers brands to establish direct and meaningful connections with their audience. Leveraging first-party data allows for a more accurate understanding of customer preferences, behaviours, and interests, enabling marketers to craft personalised experiences without compromising user privacy.

Learn how to navigate the impending cookie deprecation, embrace first-party data, and take actionable steps to prepare and thrive in the evolving digital marketing landscape.

8. Increased Reliance on Conversational Advertising

The digital advertising landscape has witnessed a significant increase in the adoption of conversational advertising, marking a paradigm shift in how brands engage with their audiences. Recognising the power of authentic and interactive communication, marketers are increasingly turning to conversational advertising strategies to foster genuine connections with consumers. Through chatbots, messaging apps, and voice interfaces, brands are creating personalised, two-way dialogues that go beyond traditional ad formats, meeting consumers where they are most comfortable.

Conversational advertising facilitates real-time interactions and allows brands to collect key insights into consumer preferences and behaviour. This approach transcends the conventional one-sided communication of traditional ads, bringing more engagement and participation to digital marketing. As consumers seek meaningful connections with brands they conduct business with, conversational advertising emerges as a dynamic tool for creating memorable experiences and building lasting relationships.

9. Voice Search Results in a New Approach to SEO

The echo of voice commands continues to reverberate in the marketing landscape. In 2024, optimising for voice search is not just a choice but a necessity.

The prevalence of voice search in 2024 heralds a transformative approach to SEO strategy, necessitating new tactics to align with the nuances of conversational queries. Unlike traditional text-based searches, voice searches tend to be more natural, colloquial, and contextually driven. As consumers increasingly interact with devices through voice commands, marketers are adapting their SEO tactics to cater to this evolving landscape.

The new approach to SEO involves a focus on long-tail keywords that mimic how people speak, embracing the conversational tone inherent in voice searches. Brands are optimising their content to address specific user intent, recognising the importance of providing direct, concise, and relevant answers to voice queries. Additionally, structured data and schema markup play a pivotal role in enhancing search engine comprehension, ensuring that content is well-positioned for voice-enabled devices to interpret and deliver results accurately.

10. Advanced & Augmented Analytics

In 2024, the realm of digital marketing witnesses an unprecedented era of precision and insight through the integration of advanced and augmented analytics. These cutting-edge technologies redefine how marketers interpret data, moving beyond traditional analytics to deliver actionable insights and foresight. Advanced analytics, driven by artificial intelligence, enables marketers to not only understand historical trends but to anticipate future consumer behaviours, allowing for proactive and strategic decision-making.

Augmented analytics, on the other hand, elevates human capabilities by leveraging machine learning algorithms to sift through vast datasets swiftly. This synergy between human intuition and machine-driven analysis enhances the efficiency of data interpretation, revealing hidden patterns and correlations that may elude traditional analytical approaches.

As we traverse through 2024, the aforementioned trends will become instrumental in shaping marketing strategies, driving targeted campaigns, and ensuring that businesses stay at the forefront of the rapidly evolving digital landscape.

A successful affiliate marketing campaign relies on the ability to optimise strategies based on accurate data and valuable insights.

Phonexa COO Jeffrey Schaffer recently joined Merged Media co-founder and CMO Jason Hunt on the Merged Marketing Podcast to share his expertise on A/B testing in affiliate marketing and highlight the importance of identifying and leveraging original lead sources.

The Merged Media Podcast delivers valuable insights from industry leaders to help listeners make informed decisions and grow their businesses online.

Let’s dive into Schaffer’s expert input and explore some key takeaways he shared regarding A/B testing, original lead sources, and more.

Understanding the True Origin Source

“Standard metrics that most marketers look at when it comes to A/B testing would be things like open rate, click-through rate, and, for those that can then measure the result, the conversions that those yield,” said Schaffer. “But the way in which A/B testing is done rarely, especially in a world where brands are sourcing traffic from multiple affiliates, takes into account the true origin source of that given lead — specifically the publisher Sub ID.”

The Shift to High Intent Response

“We’ll use email specifically to really cover two things. One is really bifurcating the audience that you’re putting into a given test to separate it as much as possible and be able to identify which publisher source that came from,” said Schaffer. “Depending on what your tech stack looks like, you may or may not be able to do that, particularly if you’re dealing with aged data that ends up in the ‘non-converting’ bucket.”

Schaffer further discussed A/B testing by focusing on another approach to A/B testing that is less about measuring CTR and more about generating the highest intent response: a phone call.

“Many marketers, including major brands, have been very slow to adopt appropriate call tracking mechanisms. And when they do, what we see is that email is commonly left out of the mix.”

Schaffer suggested that marketers should get granular about the original source of their traffic, especially when it comes to Sub IDs, to gain a clearer understanding of the customer journey.

Revealing the Impact of Original Traffic Sources

“We recently had a client who was A/B testing a non-engaged audience at our recommendation. They had two different creatives, and we tested it two ways,” Schaffer shared. “One was the old way — they changed up the creatives and used the same subject line for both so we could strictly measure click-through rate. The first way we noticed a blended click-through rate variance of only 10%. These are leads that came from six different publishers over the last eight months.”

“In the second case, we broke down the audience by Sub ID for these six publishers, and what we found was that the click-through rate variance was over 40% for two of those publishers,” Schaffer explained. “By actually breaking down the audience into where the real traffic source came from — even if you don’t know the whole journey the consumer went through — we’re able to get much better insights into how to get portions of that audience to engage.”

Tailoring Creatives and Call Tracking

“In an ideal world, if you’re a brand controlling the entire consumer experience, then you can really tailor everything in an email — the creatives — because you know where it originated,” Schaffer stated. “When it comes to the call tracking component of things, very often marketers are scared to make the primary call-to-action a call because the thought process is that you’re going to have a higher amount of people that are going to click through an email at some given time than those that are going to call.”

“Calls tend to be very disconnected and even those entities that are using call tracking to measure call duration and things like that very commonly will find that there is a big disconnect between their customer management system, their CRM, and having information about conversions trickle back up the funnel in a ping-back disposition to the original lead source,” Scheffer explained. “So they’re mixing and matching reports from multiple data sources to be able to see what converted, and what didn’t. Whether it’s a click, a call, an email, or another form fill — a re-engagement of some sort or first engagement if we’re talking about cold emailing — you want that to be attributed back to the original source.”

The Challenge of Lead Generation Marketing

“One of the biggest challenges has to do with getting different technologies to talk to each other and to be able to have clean and seamless reporting that can truly show you what the consumer journey is,” said Schaffer. “That’s one of the challenges we solved at Phonexa. We have a singular, all-in-one platform for all things performance marketing that can allow you to optimise your campaigns whether you’re in the affiliate space and you’re dealing with a thousand publishers and hundreds of buyers, or whether you’re a network or a brand that’s sourcing traffic.”

Schaffer’s insights on A/B testing in affiliate marketing shed light on the importance of leveraging original lead sources and adopting a more strategic approach. By understanding the true origin source of leads, segmenting audiences, and incorporating call tracking, marketers can optimise their A/B testing efforts and drive higher engagement.

Furthermore, utilising an all-in-one platform like Phonexa provides a competitive edge by streamlining the process and facilitating seamless reporting.

As Schaffer stated, “Anything you can do, especially as a network, to give yourself a competitive edge, is crucial.”

To continue the conversation with Schaffer, connect with him on LinkedIn.

GA4 offers advanced analytics insights and various features designed to help website owners make data-driven decisions and better understand their customers by providing a complete picture of user behaviour across multiple platforms.

The insight is crucial because it allows website owners to leverage collected data with GA4 to enhance the user experience and drive more conversions. GA4 introduces substantial transformations in data collection and metric focus, shifting from session and hit-based data modelling to event-based modelling with all accounts transitioning on July 1st, 2023.

This month, we’ve released a seamless integration between Phonexa and Google Analytics, the advanced iteration of Universal Analytics from Google. By integrating Phonexa with your existing GA4 account, you gain the ability to transmit all your call and form submission data to the Events you have defined in Phonexa, gaining much more transparency and visibility across your key analytics and attribution reporting platforms.

Getting Started

To initiate the integration process, ensure that you have a GA4 property established and the GTAG installed on your website. We’ve provided a comprehensive guide on how to upgrade manually here. We also provide guidance on key terminology shifts, reporting metric changes, and more.

Integrating Phonexa with Google Analytics 4

If you’re an existing customer looking to integrate Phonexa and GA4, you can find our step-by-step guide to enabling Event tracking for GA4 with Call Logic and LMS Sync here.