Predictions for 2022 if You Work with an Affiliate Program

If you’ve been working with an affiliate program for a while, you’re probably already aware of how quickly things change. Different trends. Different ways of doing things. And different tech coming into play. Keeping track of each of these things can seriously impact your bottom line. Stay up to date, adopt the new processes, and you could lead the way. Fail to keep up with your competitors, and you’ll probably lose cash as well as followers. So, what trends should you be looking out for if you’re going to be working with affiliate programs in 2022?

Our Top Five Affiliate Program Predictions for 2022

1. Voice search enablement

As more and more devices are becoming voice search enabled, so more and more people are coming to rely upon it. So, you need to prepare your content. Long-tailed key words are the best way to do this. Why? Because when people use voice search, they usually use whole sentences and ask questions. Typing into your phone or table, you might just write ‘dating offers’ before hitting search. With voice search, you’re more likely to say, ‘hey Google/Siri/Alexa, what are the best dating offers right now?’ By using both long-tail and short key words in your SEO, you’re covering all bases.

2. Micro influencer marketing

Influencer marketing has got itself a bit of a bad name in recent years. Largely because of the behaviour of some of the most famous influencers. But if you can find an influencer working within your affiliate program niche with sub-10,000 followers, it can be a great way to generate dating traffic. Without spending too much cash. The big-name influencers will cost you a lot of money. Those with more modest follower numbers can offer you more realistic fees. But because they are working within your niche, you can still generate worthwhile results.

3. More tools

Affiliate networks have been around in one form or other since the mid-1990s. But the marketers who work with them are still relatively underserved. While there are digital tools around to help you, they’re not designed specifically for affiliates. But developers are beginning to recognise the potential that affiliate program members bring. And this means more tools, with more uses in 2022. And a particular focus on automation.

4. Goodbye cookies

This one isn’t going to be great news for online affiliate program members. But it’s not going to be much of a surprise either. The removal of third-party cookies has been in the pipeline for a while now. With all the big social media platforms making plans to make tracking cookies optional. And search engines – including Google – making plans to phase them out altogether. This is going to mean a whole new way of doing things for both affiliate programs and their members. Those that start making plans now are the ones that will be best prepared to make the transition.

5. The growth of revenue share

Affiliate marketing has, until recently, been all about the building of benefits for businesses and the marketers who work with them. But we’re now seeing a growing trend for revenue share (AKA revshare), which sees the customer benefit too. Whether it’s through loyalty programs, or cashback, more affiliates – and the programs they are working with – are likely to start offering more for their customer’s constancy.

Working with an affiliate program can be a really valuable way to monetize your blog or website. But to maximize your potential profit, you need to stay up to date with the changing trends. And these are the areas that we’ll be watching for 2022.