“We Need Better Standards” APMA Announces Audit of Attribution Rules in Affiliate Marketing

If you can’t measure it, you can’t manage it. 

When I launched the Affiliate and Partner Marketing Association at PI LIVE in 2023, I was acutely aware that I was missing a vital piece of intelligence. 

How big is the industry I was hoping to advocate for? It’s a valid question, and frankly, it was a bit embarrassing that no one could answer it definitively.

The IAB’s annual adspend report was the closest thing any of us had to a source of truth. And while that dataset has been a great guide, it’s only a partial view and also doesn’t model Amazon’s Associates numbers.

I knew that if I was to succeed with one of the APMA’s central goals (championing the diversity and reach of the affiliate channel), I needed a more complete picture.

That would take a leap of faith by the networks and platforms. They would be the source of our numbers, but would they trust a tiny not-for-profit with the most sensitive of data; their revenue, commissions and sales?

In the end, I needn’t have worried. We had ten in-depth submissions and expert help with modelling Amazon’s performance, resulting in the most detailed view of the UK affiliate market to date. One of the prize insights was how ubiquitous affiliate marketing is, with consumers’ everyday shopping habits driving around one in ten e-commerce sales nationwide.