2025 in Affiliate Marketing. The Big Moments and the Moves Shaping 2026

What does it mean for 2026

Hannah’s momentum suggests that 2026 will see even greater emphasis on community-building within the affiliate space. With initiatives like “Women in Affiliate” and the potential return of the summer sports day, the industry can expect more inclusive, dynamic, and innovative events that continue to strengthen connections and elevate participation.

What happened?

Platforms like Tyviso continued to gain strong momentum, backed by major brand case studies demonstrating the effectiveness of becoming a “host brand.” Their model supports brands in boosting conversion rates, reducing churn, and opening up new revenue streams. As a result, brands began recognising the affiliate channel as more than just a driver of last-click conversions – increasingly viewing it as a tool for CRO and improving customer lifetime value.

Why it mattered

Tyviso’s success signalled a shift in how performance marketing can be leveraged. By proving that host-brand experiences can influence conversion, retention, and AOV uplift, they expanded the strategic role of the affiliate channel. For brands and agencies, this evolution creates opportunities to optimise on-site journeys, enhance customer engagement, and drive measurable value well beyond traditional affiliate attribution models.

What does it mean for 2026

As adoption of host-brand solutions becomes more mainstream, these platforms are expected to thrive further. Wider implementation will unlock new customer acquisition opportunities for clients and push the affiliate industry deeper into on-site optimisation and long-term value creation.

You can already see this momentum building. As Adrian Vella, CEO of Tyviso, explains:

“Brands are finally seeing the results for themselves: when you pair intelligent partnerships with the right moments onsite, the gains in revenue and loyalty are undeniable. We’re only scratching the surface of what this model can deliver, and 2026 will be the year it becomes a core growth lever for the industry.”

2026 will likely see more brands integrating these tools as core elements of their performance and retention strategies, creating more revenue opportunities for clients.

What happened?

Influencer marketing shifted decisively from experimentation to becoming a core pillar of brand strategy. Instead of ad-hoc campaigns, brands began allocating long-term, sustained budget lines to the channel. This included a clearer focus on activating loyal customers as advocates while simultaneously leveraging micro and nano influencers to drive incremental sales and new customer acquisition.

Why it mattered

This evolution shows that influencer marketing is no longer a “nice to have” but an important part of the partnership ecosystem that brands can leverage as a performance driver. By blending brand advocacy with performance-driven influencer partnerships, brands can generate trust, authenticity, and scalable growth. For agencies and publishers, this shift means greater demand for always-on programs, deeper measurement capabilities, and partnerships that integrate seamlessly with broader performance and brand strategies.

What does it mean for 2026

The trend toward strategic, always-on influencer activity will accelerate. Brands will increasingly focus on building community, nurturing long-term creator relationships, and harnessing high-intent audiences from customers turned advocates to niche micro creators. Expect more sophisticated attribution, tighter integration with affiliate and CRM channels, and greater emphasis on measurable outcomes such as lifetime value and retention. As an agency, we also suspect affiliate managers will require flexibility to outsource influencer only management.

This direction is already clear in the shifts we are seeing across the market. As Rebecca Marley, Head of Partnerships and Influencer at Silverbean, explains: 

“2026 will be the year performance-led influencer marketing truly comes of age. Brands are no longer seeing creators as just storytellers, they’re recognising their power as measurable revenue drivers across the entire customer journey. The real opportunity now lies in building long-term creator communities that behave more like ambassador programs than one-off campaigns. When brands blend brand influence at the top of the funnel with performance and affiliate partnerships at the bottom, that’s where scale happens. We’re seeing brands unlock huge value by activating their most loyal customers as advocates, then surrounding that core with highly trusted micro and nano creators who convert. This combination of authentic advocacy and scalable performance is rewriting what influencer marketing can deliver. In 2026, the brands who win will be the ones who invest in these communities, not just for impressions or reach, but for sustained activation, measurable sales, and stronger retention.”

What happened?

More than 80% of LLM-generated answers were shown to be driven by third-party content. This shift pushed Organic Search teams to invest in understanding how their brands appear within LLM search results, what external content is influencing those appearances, and how attribution flows through these new AI-driven discovery journeys. As a result, brands began exploring frameworks for fairly recognising and rewarding publishers whose content supports their visibility and positioning in LLM outputs.

Why it mattered

The rise of AI Search fundamentally changes how consumers discover and evaluate brands. If third-party content shapes the majority of LLM responses, then publishers, reviewers, and authoritative sources hold significant influence over brand perception and visibility. For brands and agencies, this creates a new frontier where SEO, content strategy, and partnerships intersect. Understanding and compensating these contributors isn’t just ethical; it’s commercially essential to maintaining relevance in AI-driven search ecosystems.

What does it mean for 2026

In 2026, expect accelerated investment in LLM visibility, attribution modelling, and publisher relationships. More organisations will treat LLM influence as a defined budget line, seeking structured ways to measure impact and reward the sources that shape their AI presence. This will likely lead to new commercial models between brands and publishers and a more transparent ecosystem around LLM-driven discovery.

You can already see this shift emerging. As Mike Logue, Co Founder at Obsero AI, explains:

“AI Search has fundamentally changed the economics of the internet. Publishers who were previously rewarded for their content through advertising revenue, be that through monetising impressions, clicks or leads, are seeing this revenue fall as consumers rapidly shift behaviour and increasingly use LLMs for brand and product discovery.

A huge driver of brands’ visibility in AI Search, however, is this same content which was previously generating traffic for publishers and which is now driving AI Search citations as LLMs lean on authoritative and independent sources to generate answers. These citations will be the basis for a new currency in the relationships between brands and publishers, and 2026 will see commercial relationships pivot with publishers being rewarded by brands for growing their visibility and crafting their positioning in AI Search. High quality third party content will remain crucial in brand and product discovery and consideration, and brands will pay to ensure that they’re in front of customers at this pivotal point in the purchase journey.

At Obsero, we’re excited to be partnering with Silverbean to re-define the frameworks for recognising the value of publisher content and to be enabling brands to maximise the growth opportunity which AI Seach presents.”

What happened?

MMM (Marketing Mix Modelling) created significant challenges for affiliate and partner marketing teams as they worked to improve measurement accuracy, reporting clarity, and justification for budget allocation. Throughout 2025, adoption increased across ecommerce teams. Affiliate marketing became more visible within budget decision-making processes, requiring an improvement in modelling outputs and a stronger understanding of how partnerships contribute across the full funnel.

Why it mattered

MMM has forced the affiliate channel to demonstrate its true commercial impact  not just on last-click performance, but on awareness, consideration, and incrementality. As brands push for more robust measurement frameworks, channels that are transparent, data-rich, and able to tie activity back to business outcomes gain strategic importance. For agencies and publishers, this shift elevates the value of partnership data, cross-channel alignment, and the ability to tell a more complete narrative about contribution.

What does it mean for 2026

In 2026, affiliate teams will be expected to integrate even more tightly into MMM conversations, using stronger data sets and more consistent methodologies. This will solidify the channel’s position in budget planning cycles and help unlock greater investment as its full-funnel influence becomes clearer. Expect more collaboration between affiliate, analytics, and finance teams and more scrutiny over measurement quality, incrementality, and attribution.

What happened?

Although still early in its adoption curve, brands increasingly began managing their Amazon affiliate programs through platforms like Levanta and Partnerboost. With more than 5,000 brands now active across these platforms heavily concentrated in the US, momentum grew around streamlined program management and improved performance visibility across Europe. 

Why it mattered

Amazon’s scale and influence make it impossible for brands to ignore. With thousands of new sellers joining the platform every day and an increasing share of product discovery happening within Amazon’s ecosystem, the ability to professionally manage and optimise affiliate activity here has become a genuine competitive advantage. Platforms like Levanta and Partnerboost give brands clearer visibility of performance, stronger partner relationships and more control over how revenue is driven across Amazon’s marketplace. For agencies and publishers, this shift creates new monetisation opportunities and a more structured way to support brands where consumers are already shopping.

What does it mean for 2026

With the US market maturing quickly, the untapped opportunity lies across the UK and Europe. 2026 is likely to see rapid adoption as brands seek to replicate US success, turning Amazon program management into a mainstream part of their affiliate strategy. Early adopters stand to benefit from reduced competition, stronger partner foundations, and improved commercial outcomes.

What happened?

“Content is king” remained true, but 2025 brought a notable shift in how content publishers were measured and valued. Affiliate teams that excelled this year aligned their efforts more closely with PR teams, creating unified approaches to amplification, storytelling, and high-intent content placements. This improved both top-of-funnel visibility and measurable performance outcomes.

Why it mattered

The integration of PR and affiliate strategies breaks down traditional silos and maximises the impact of content publications. By coordinating outreach, messaging, and timing, brands can secure more authoritative coverage, enhance their SEO footprint, and generate higher-quality traffic. For publishers, this alignment means clearer briefs, stronger partnerships, and improved commercial consistency.

What does it mean for 2026

Expect content partnerships to become more embedded in cross-functional planning. Brands will continue seeking joined-up strategies that unite PR, affiliate, and content teams, supported by better measurement models that value full-funnel influence. 2026 will reward brands that treat content as both a performance driver and a brand-building asset.

2025 showed the true breadth of what affiliate and partner marketing can deliver when brands use the channel strategically. This was not the year the industry discovered affiliate. It was the year it started to embrace its full potential. Community-led events, partnerships that support LTV and CRO, creator advocacy, LLM visibility, Amazon marketplace programmes and integrated content strategies all moved forward at pace. The brands and agencies that invested early now have clearer data, stronger relationships and a broader commercial impact across acquisition, retention and long-term value.

As we move into 2026, the opportunity only grows. We expect deeper alignment between affiliate, influencer, PR, CRM and CRO teams, more structured investment into LLM optimisation, wider adoption of Amazon programme management tools and more measurable, commercially focused content partnerships. The channel is expanding both its influence and its accountability, and brands that take an integrated, insight-driven approach will unlock the strongest growth.

Affiliate marketing enters 2026 not as a performance output, but as a strategic engine that shapes how brands acquire, convert and retain customers. The winners will be the teams that move with confidence, experiment with intent and build partnerships that create value across the entire customer journey.

If you would like to talk through any of the points we have covered and hear more of our predictions, we would love to speak with you. We can also support you in shaping a 2026 strategy that drives meaningful performance next year.