Leadership Perspectives

“It Transcends Channel”: Brian Marcus Talks Affiliate Marketing Trends for 2021 on The Rick Magennis Podcast

Becky Doles

Image: Pixabay

Rick Magennis talks “all things affiliate management” on his eponymous podcast, where no topic is off limits to give listeners the best tips and strategies to grow their affiliate programs. Recently, TUNE’s resident affiliate marketing guru Brian Marcus was a guest on Rick’s show, where he shared his experiences and insights from over 20 years in the performance marketing space. The episode is now available to stream on a variety of platforms.


Listen in to Brian Marcus on The Rick Magennis Show:
“Affiliate Trends Heading into 2021”


Tune in to the 38-minute episode to hear Rick and Brian chat about everything from covid coping strategies to tactics for talking to the C-suite about CPA. Topics covered include:

  • What factors make affiliate more than a channel 
  • Why affiliate programs resemble portfolios in the financial services sector
  • How to structure the way we talk about affiliate marketing to help others understand it better
  • Examples of how new and emerging media organizations are running affiliate programs
  • Why optionality and diversification is key to performance marketing
  • How TUNE technology fits in and what Connect (TUNE’s partner ecosystem) is really about

“When I started I had no idea how vast the space was, or the dynamics and the resilience of the channel, or the longevity of the channel. But what was really interesting to me was the affiliate channel represented the internet at large. It was like a microcosm of all things internet, all these different types of ways to drive traffic, from people who used a variety of different tools. All those individual pieces felt familiar when you looked at it one to one. Search, email, content. You’d be able to say, ‘Oh, this is the publisher, and here’s how they drive traffic.’ But when you looked at it as a channel, it became more to me like a portfolio. It looked like a financial services business, where you had emerging business models addressing a common set of objectives. It became obvious to me that running a performance marketing affiliate program was running an entire marketing program within a CPA environment, which really made it unique.”

— Brian Marcus, VP of Marketing and Partnerships, TUNE

Click here to stream the episode now or find links to listen on your favorite platform.


Ready for more? Hear TUNE’s Brian Marcus on these other podcasts and webinars:

  • The Daily Marketer, “Former Google and eBay Executive, Brian Marcus, on the Silver Linings Playbook for Great Affiliate Partnerships – Part 1” (podcast)
  • The Snyder Showdown, “The Surging Affiliate Model with Brian Marcus of TUNE”
  • TUNE + Publisher Discovery, “Taking Ownership of Publisher Growth” (webinar)
Author
Becky Doles

Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she handled content strategy and marketing communications at several tech startups in the Bay Area. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned home to Charleston, SC, where you can find her strolling through Hampton Park with her pup and enjoying the simple things between adventures with friends and family.