🧑‍⚖️ Rakuten Talks New Stand Down SDK

Welcome to another Affiliate Pulse!

This week, we’re delving into attribution and transparency, new creator tools, where brands are allocating resources and Google AI Overviews.

We’ve got a breakdown on Rakuten’s Stand Down SDK and ask: why now?

We also dive into newly launched tools aimed at the burgeoning creator economy, from Pinterest to LinkedIn. You can’t seem to go a week without a platform rolling one out — the era of the creator is certainly here.

Our USPA gold winners get a big Hello Partner shout-out — lots of innovation, disruption and solid teamwork. Big congrats to those who took the crown.

We also look at the increasing emphasis brands are placing on performance-oriented marketing and explore the recent court ruling on Google AI Overviews…we’ll be keeping a close eye on how this one plays out.

Now, let’s get on with the news.

In today's newsletter:

Pick of the day: Rakuten’s Stand Down SDK, Attribution and Transparency.
Trending: Pinterest Introduces Amazon Storefront Linking.
Industry Insight: The Legal Rope is Tightening on Google AI Overviews.

Pick of the day

Rakuten’s Stand Down SDK, Attribution and Transparency

Back in January, Rakuten Advertising announced it had removed PayPal’s Honey browser extension from its network. The decision came against a backdrop of controversy. The browser extension had become embroiled in a highly publicised scandal over its affiliate commission practices.

Viral YouTube videos were made, lawsuits were filed, and Honey found itself in hot water. Other networks cut ties and suspended payments.

Last month, Rakuten Rewards rolled out a new Stand Down SDK.

We found out more about how it works, why now and where the industry is headed when it comes to attribution.

What's hot on Hello Partner right now

BEER52 - Using Partnerships and Affiliates to Sell 100,000,000 Beers

In this session, discover how Beer52 uses data to supercharge acquisition across thousands of individual marketing campaigns and get a unique insight into subscription marketing as a whole.

LinkedIn Invests in B2B Creator Economy with Launch of Creator Marketplace

Paired with BrandWorks, the new function enables brands to connect with creators for content and campaigns.

Pinterest Introduces Amazon Storefront Linking

Pinterest said the tool enables creators to directly connect their Amazon Storefront to their Pinterest account, in an expansion of its creator commerce capabilities.

Bold, Innovative and Disruptive: The 2026 USPA Winners Who Took the Crown

This year’s gold winners demonstrated out-of-the-box thinking, outstanding execution and the power of partnerships — all the ingredients that make this industry a powerful marketing player.

Brands Are Shifting Resources to Performance Marketing, New Report Finds

In the last three years, 71% of respondents increased emphasis on performance-oriented marketing.

Industry Insight

Stay at the top of your game

Google’s AI Overviews have been getting a lot of attention recently, from the CMA’s recent opt-out shake-up in the UK to a German court ruling that Google is legally liable for false claims in its AI Overviews.

Nikki Pilkington has an interesting take on this.

As Nikki says, while the ruling itself is interesting, the figures on AI Overview's inaccuracies tell a bigger story.

Gemini 3 — the default model for AI Overviews — is correct 91% of the time. Nikki says this might sound reasonable until you scale it.

“At the volume Google operates, a 9% error rate means millions of wrong answers generated every single hour.”

Beyond that 9% error rate, the Oumi analysis that came to this figure also found that 56% of the correct answers couldn't be traced back to the sources Google cited.

Nikki writes that while there might be humour in some of its shortcomings, the ramifications of mistakes at such a scale are significant — and potentially reputationally damaging.

In affiliate and performance marketing, a space that’s rapidly building out GEO capabilities, this is certainly something to be mindful of.

Google is now challenging the court ruling, and it’s uncertain whether it’ll stick, but Nikki says if the legal logic gains traction outside Germany, this won’t just be limited to Google.

“And it's about f*cking time.”

Interested to hear the industry’s take on this.