Is GA4 valuable to affiliate marketers? Or is it their worst enemy?
We will be exploring this issue in depth at PI LIVE USA this year.
The GA4 quandary has been around since the platform became the default in 2023.
Pretty quickly, marketers began to notice a drop in commissions attributed to the affiliate channel.
Upon investigation, it was found that GA4 can undervalue affiliate partners – lower-funnel partners, in particular.
But, what do you use as the alternative? How do you convince advertisers to fairly track affiliates? And is GA4 even that bad?
These are the questions that will be put to debate at Hollywood’s Hard Rock Hotel next month.
The GA4 debate
“I’m one of the few people that doesn’t hate (GA4),” says Tom Rathbone, VP of Product at PartnerCentric. “I don’t universally love it, but I find value in it. If you think GA4 is ‘bad for affiliate’ you may not be looking close enough.”
Rathbone explains that GA4’s data is more nuanced than people realise. “It’s based on the distribution and the traffic quality of the sites and where they’re falling into the funnel. It varies so much that we can’t treat it all the same.”
Brook Schaaf, CEO of FMTC, takes an opposing view. “Google is no friend of affiliate marketing,” he says.
He argues that Google has revealed itself to be an untrustworthy and self-serving actor. Flaws in the GA4 platform, such as its prioritisation of Google products over affiliate referrals, would point towards this.
“As an industry, we should be pushing to move away to something else... I think we need to make changes,” he muses.
If affiliate marketing does not change tack, Schaaf foresees the risk of a decelerating growth rate.
“Retail media has left us in the dust,” he says. Despite starting much later than affiliate and receiving many of the same criticisms, retail media has maneouvered itself into a thriving, multi-billion dollar industry. Will affiliate marketing be left behind – and will this be due to the way it is measured?
Lacie Thompson, SVP of Growth, Affiliate at New Engen, believes that GA4 and its alternatives are not mutually exclusive options.
“You can’t rely on GA4 to get it right,” she says. However, Thompson suggests that GA4 data can be compared with data from alternatives, like MMM, to build a larger and more accurate map.
Alternatives, while useful, are not strong enough on their own. For example, Thompson sees MMM as valuable when tracking strong upper-funnel and mid-funnel activity, but not so much when it comes to lower-funnel partners.
Bringing together all of these tools may be the most sophisticated way to comprehensively track affiliate programmes – although convincing advertisers to work in this way can be a whole other challenge of its own.
Come to find out more at PI LIVE USA
As you can see, this is a thorny and vital subject.
I look forward to exploring GA4, alternatives, and the wider Google conversation with the three panellists above at PI LIVE USA.
It’s shaping up to be a crucial and spirited debate.
If you have not yet booked your ticket to PI LIVE USA, which also grants you access to IMS USA, you can do so here.
We hope to see you there!
