Survival Kit: How to Recession-Proof Your Affiliate Marketing Strategies

“How many recessions have taken place in the United States since the Great Depression?” George Yuhba, Director of Client Strategy at Paylode, asked the morning crowd gathered round the Rakuten Advertising Stage on the second day of PI LIVE Miami. Despite the previous night’s afterparty surely taking a toll, many audience members were happy to participate. “Two or three.”; “A lot.”; “One every ten years,” voices called out.

Yuhba confirmed that the official answer is fourteen. But, he put forth, “Are we heading towards a fifteenth?”

And if we are, do we know how to weather it?

The last major recession was the 2007-2008 financial crisis. At the time, Yubha was working at CJ, and his experience here proved to him that the affiliate space can stand tall in periods of economic uncertainty, even taller than many other marketing channels. “Affiliate marketing shined the brightest,” he observed.

Similarly, speaking with Hello Partner after the show, panelist Jade Mayberry, Head of Affiliate & Performance Partnerships Marketing, US at dentsu international, said that it is “not a new battle” for affiliate marketers. “Recession is a space that we’re not uncomfortable with. We can do more with less; we've always been forced to do more with less because people didn't understand the channel, and we couldn't negotiate like kings and queens.”

With this in mind, what can we learn from affiliate’s performance during the last financial crash to help with recession-proofing businesses this time round? Not only that, which new advancements in the affiliate space are primed to withstand an oncoming storm?