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Welcome back.
This week, we share a perspective on writing the new marketing playbook, Tom Bourne delves into top tips for your AI visibility strategy, and we take a look at how shoppers feel about AI’s usefulness this holiday season.
We’ve also released our official GPMA shortlist and heard from 2026 judges on what stood out this year, and last week, we held BuildLab, the competition to architect the tools of the future. Some of the biggest names in the industry battled it out to create a time-suck solution prototype — more on that below. And we also share a take on what hits next after Reddit’s ChatGPT citation drop…times are a’changing.
Plus, one for the calendars: the PI LIVE app drops next week, so now's the best time to lock in your spot to be the first to book in sessions and meetings before diaries fill up!
Also, a little note from me: I’m heading off on holiday at the end of the week, so we’ll be hitting pause on the Affiliate Pulse until I return. When I’m back, we’ll be powering full steam ahead with PI LIVE festivities. Strap in. Until then, catch you on the other side ✌️.
Now, let’s get on with the good stuff.
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In today's newsletter:
- Pick of the day: Your Affiliate Programme Is Already Your AI Visibility Strategy.
- Trending: Taking Time Back: BuildLab Set to Architect Time-Suck Solution.
- Industry Insight: What’s Next on the ChatGPT Chopping Block?
Pick of the day
Your Affiliate Programme Is Already Your AI Visibility Strategy.
In this piece, Tom Bourne delves into how affiliate teams can win at AI visibility.
"Affiliate teams need to focus efforts on AI Visibility by using the content they produce in an effective way that meets the standards AI Models look for," says Bourne. "The hardest part of doing this is knowing what to change, and how to execute that change."
But improving AI Visibility isn’t just as simple as putting out good, impactful and high traffic content, he adds.
"...it’s a careful consideration to be made by affiliate teams when putting together their entire marketing strategy."
Trending
What's hot on Hello Partner right now
Wannabe reaching new audiences? You gotta spice up your marketing plans
In this op-ed, Snapchat’s Kate Bird says stop confusing the old playbook with the right playbook.
Fresh, Impactful, Innovative: The GPMA Shortlist is Out
From partnerships that took risks and broke records to campaigns that defied convention to unlock growth, this year’s shortlist is the crème de la crème. Our 2026 judges share their thoughts on the entries.
Taking Time Back: BuildLab Set to Architect Time-Suck Solution
Some of the biggest names in the industry are battling it out to build the tool that best serves the industry.
Ahead of the Holiday Season, Shoppers Show AI Caution
However, there’s still confidence in AI for order tracking and shipping updates, according to new research.
Industry Insight
Stay at the top of your game
This week, we’re sharing a take from Jimmy Park on what hits after Reddit’s ChatGPT citation drop.
According to Jimmy, six months ago, he predicted that Reddit’s citation drop would happen — and it did.
Because big drops have happened before: People identify an SEO/AEO hack to get pages ranking higher on Google; this gets abused; it corrodes search experience; Search engine algorithms hit back by deweighting the hack.
Based on this logic, Jimmy says that what’s next is what’s working “too easily.” This includes programmatic content.
“Search engines and LLMs like programmatic pages because they answer a narrow question and gives them content to respond to low search volume queries.” But anyone can spin up thousands of these pages for a minimal cost, says Jimmy.
And while an LLM might want a shortlist with decision factors attached, listicles could also be in the firing line, according to Jimmy.
“... it's easy to generate this page by spinning up sub agents to research competitors and build an objectively useful page.”
Then there’s Medium and open publishing, where anyone can publish under a trust domain. LLMs pull from these platforms because they’re highly valued, crawlable and topically dense.
“However, a source with no barrier to entry gets flooded, and a flooded source stops carrying signal. Medium will go the same way Reddit did.”
Jimmy recommends investing in SEO/AEO activities that are “always hard to fake.” Including review sites, press and first-party data and research.
And how do you make sure your AEO/SEO strategy is defensible?
“- Pull your citation report and list every source type feeding it.
- Score each source on how hard it is to fake from 0 to 5. 5 being easy to fake, 0 being difficult. Anything about a 3 is at risk.
- Move budget into difficult to replicate AEO/SEO activities.”
Do you agree that these content forms are next on the chopping block? How do retrieved sources factor in? Is there another you’d include in this list? What’s a key consideration you’d prioritise in AEO?
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Until next time,
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Madaline Dunn Community Editor Email me Connect with me on LinkedIn |
