This week Lee-Ann is consulting “the OG in affiliate marketing”, Spades Media CEO, Jim Banks. Having been in the industry for over 20 years, Jim is offering his unique experience and insights into the history of affiliate marketing.
Specialising, nowadays, in helping Shopify businesses grow, Jim is well entrenched in the affiliate marketing world. Listen in for all his insights on the industry.
How does affiliate marketing evolve?
Jim has an interesting take on how the affiliate marketing industry was established, saying: “We definitely exactly helped create the rule book.”
And Lee-Ann chimes in: “By breaking all the rules!”
Further in this conversation, when Jim is asked how he sees the future of affiliate marketing looking, he reiterates this point by saying: “So many people try and look back and go, ‘Oh, I made mistakes.’ We’re all going to make mistakes. And I think the more you do, the more mistakes you’re going to make and you’ve just got to accept that you make them learn from them and move forward again.”
So, there is likely a lot of stormy days in the future of the industry, but sunshine after too.
Work smarter, not harder?
It’s hard to play with the big boys, and in marketing the big boys are giants, like Amazon.
As Jim explains, “Amazon, when we were running against them, they were our biggest competitor. What we found was that Amazon were really aggressive right the way through the month until around the 20th of the month, and then they’d run out of money, so they’d stop ads at that point.
“So probably the last 10 days of most months, they wouldn’t be a competitor, and it was only by doing that analysis, we were able to understand that we had an opportunity in the last 10 days of the month.”
An industry thriving in tech downfall
In an anecdote that shows the saleability of affiliate marketing, Jim demonstrates the way affiliate marketing appears to be floating in a sea of recession worries and redundancies.
“I took a call yesterday from somebody at Tipalti who basically does the payment processing. They just raised, I think another £250 million yesterday, which I think takes their total raise now to £700 million. And you’re thinking this is like crazy money in our industry, but again, today Vodafone announced they’re laying off 11,000 people.”
Google, Amazon, Meta and other ex-employees should remember: there are always jobs in the affiliate marketing industry.
If you are interested in more affiliate and social media marketing insights, take a look at our blog for all the latest news and advice. Or for a more personalised approach, book a free call with a member of our team.
Or, for the very best advice from industry peers, register to join us for our ELEVATE Summit in July. Elevate aims to bring you the latest affiliate, performance, and partner marketing insights from across the globe and it’s all available to stream from our website.
Listen to find out more about:
- The effect of nurturing affiliate relationships
- The past of the internet and how the future of the internet will look
Key segments of this podcast and where you can tune into go direct
[5:00] – The journey in affiliate marketing that resulted in Jim’s grey hairs
[15:00] – How to play with the big boys
[25:00] – The real wealth that comes with affiliate marketing today
[35:00] – Jim’s take on the future of affiliate marketing which includes plenty of mistakes
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