• by Laurie Sullivan  @lauriesullivan, March 11, 2019

Global services for mobile devices for publishers and technology partners that offer on-site optimization through a performance model will become a focus for affiliate marketers within the next six months.

Bob Glazer, CEO at Acceleration Partners, a global affiliate marketing agency focused on performance-based customer acquisition and partnership programs, has been working with a large unnamed marketplace to support these services.

“Ten years ago you would have had to go to find a different network in each region to take your business global,” he said. “Technology made it possible, but people needed a global integrated team.”

So Acceleration Partners has been building that global network for companies, but one major challenge that Glazer notes is the lack of professionals who are familiar with affiliate marketing. Although the channel continues to grow, the industry lacks the talent.

“There’s not enough talent to train,” he said. “We have clients that are trying to hire in-house talent to work with our team and can’t. There’s not enough senior-level talent. Suddenly there are senior roles available and no people to train." 

Senior roles in need of trained professionals include head of performance partnerships and head of affiliate marketing programs.

Marketers formerly thought affiliate marketing would be carried out by a junior person in a dead-end career, then went in-house to look for talent, and then looked somewhere else, he said.

Acceleration Partners' recent Q4 2017-2018 Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report shows something different.

The report analyzes more than 15,000 click-active affiliate programs from a sample group of clients between the fourth quarter of 2017 and the fourth quarter of 2018. 

Of the sample client group, Acceleration Partners reports that revenue from Black Friday sales rose 54% year-over-year (YoY), while Thanksgiving Day sales rose 25% and Cyber Monday sales rose 26% YoY. Total revenue from mobile devices increased from 19% in the fourth quarter of 2017 to 23% in the fourth quarter of 2018.

Commissions paid to affiliates during the holidays rose 39% YoY.

Black Friday saw revenue up 54% YoY, while Thanksgiving Day revenue rose 25% and Cyber Monday revenue increased 26% YoY.

For the fourth quarter of 2018, mobile revenue grew for retailers about 58% YoY, with revenue from desktop rising 22% YoY.