Kevin Edwards on the Affiliate Renaissance

Kevin Edwards, Founder and Director of the APMA, is optimistic about the future of affiliate marketing.

In fact, he agreed with the idea that we’re walking into an affiliate renaissance.

To round off the first day of PI LIVE, he was joined by Helen Southgate, Chief Strategy Officer at Acceleration Partners, to share key findings from the APMA’s latest report.

I caught up with Edwards after the session to gauge his perspective on the industry right now.  

One of the initial findings from the presentation was the discrepancy between publisher categorisation and what they actually do.

When a publisher signs up to a network, they select a category for themselves. But rarely does this line up accurately with the whole scope of an affiliate’s efforts.

“Really, (the category) is the mechanic – it’s the end result,” said Edwards. “It’s not reflective of the activity you perform as a publisher. There are multiple touchpoints that might occur.”