Disruptive technology in the affiliate marketing landscape

Join Richard Dennys (CEO of Webgains Ltd.) and Humphrey Sheil (founder of Hypercascade) and learn how technology is transforming the performance marketing landscape.

As the CEO of Webgains, Richard is responsible for the strategic and operational management of the company across all markets. He is an expert at driving international growth, optimising sales, marketing, and digital functions. Richard has a deep interest in disruptive technology, particularly its use and efficiency in personal learning and development.

Humphrey is passionate about designing and building software systems that improve performance by learning - in this case by using deep, rich content and analysing publisher and merchant behaviour in the performance marketing matching domain. His expertise in software and technology is demonstrated by his PhD in Machine Learning at Cardiff University.

Highlights Include

The Death of the Cookie

The golden age, from which eCommerce originally derived, has been slow to innovate. Businesses have built systems to accommodate their end goals without much consideration for data privacy. The impact of COVID-19 has accelerated the prediction of the removal of traditional strategies such as third-party cookies, in-line with the tightening of GDPR guidelines and data privacy. This shift provides an opportunity to disrupt the sector and to innovate with the assistance of sophisticated machine learning.

However, despite the glittering allure of innovation, it is imperative to ensure your core product feed is of high quality in order to achieve maximum success across various channels.

Affiliate Discovery

Richard and Humphrey discuss the trials and tribulations that arose when developing the Webgains Affiliate Discovery tool.

Affiliate Discovery transforms the discovery process for advertisers by directly recommending the publishers who will grow their programmes. The Affiliate Discovery tool uses unique AI and machine learning technology to analyse hundreds of data points to find the most compatible publisher.

The tool came to fruition as a result of first-order methods to achieve a successful and sophisticated system.

GTP3 is Alive!

The development of artificial personas and bots that generate human-like prose are prime examples of disrupters in the eCommerce sector. Artificial influencers such as Lil Miquela, provide a unique opportunity for merchants in the affiliate marketing space to monetise their programmes. The potential of weaponising artificial personas generates concern, as well as brand authenticity and integrity. This leads to further questions surrounding the best practice and the role of 'traditional' influencers in the marketing funnel. However, as AI and machine learning technology advances, so will consumer behaviour.

The possibilities that these advancements provide will create an interesting dynamic for updating and modernising marketing strategies.