Full funnel ahead: how affiliate marketing is shaping the entire consumer journey

With tightening budgets and ever-increasing options for reaching consumers, the winning channels will be those that can influence each stage of the customer journey.

So, how is affiliate marketing evolving to become a full-funnel strategy? That was the focus of our CJ Travel Afternoon panel, which included Charlotte Morris from MG OMD, Callum Kennelly from Sovendus and Weather2Travel.com’s Colin Carter, and chaired by CJ Client Development Director, Claudia Argomenti.

But first, the panel was asked where AI was being applied in the market. And the key areas where they were seeing benefits were around:

Improving decision-making:

Reporting, analysis, and insights are being sped up, from researching market trends to analysing traffic and user behaviour. In doing so, AI is accelerating learning. Tests can be run faster and the insights implemented quicker, allowing smarter decision-making to be made earlier in the customer journey.

New tools are also helping brands understand how they are represented in AI-generated results. They are helping spot gaps in a brand's narrative (or where they’re over-indexing) while revealing how publishers contribute to customer decision-making.

In doing so, they are allowing more sophisticated payment strategies to be introduced that move beyond last-click and, instead, reward influence across the entire user journey.

Supporting content development – but not creating it:

When it comes to content, yes, AI can prove valuable in planning as well as building frameworks, structures, headlines and clustering topics. But the human element remains imperative.

Far from handing its creation to AI, it’s inspiring the authentic content from journalists and writers that readers want. Making sure content is credible and readable still requires adherence to Google’s EEAT framework (Experience, Expertise, Authoritativeness, and Trustworthiness). And it still needs to be written by humans.

Delivering personalisation:

AI is enabling brands to become ever more personal and improve the relevance of offers, whether onsite, at checkout pages, or offsite, to enhance the customer journey and benefit both the user and the brand.

“We can see where there are gaps in narratives or where we're over-indexing in some narratives, and we can, most importantly, from an affiliate perspective, see where publishers are contributing to customer decision-making journeys much earlier than a traditional touch point.”

Charlotte Morris, Head of Affiliates, Aggregators and Lead Gen MG OMD.

Given the desire to adopt full-funnel strategies, affiliate marketing appears well-positioned. In particular, the panel highlighted the importance of the following areas to showcase its value.

Move beyond the conversion:

While the affiliate space has been built around performance, people are now looking at what happens before and after the conversion.

Retention is a critical element of the full-funnel approach, especially in travel, which has so many competitors. Applying affiliate programmes to reward customers not only generates positive brand sentiment but also helps foster trust, which is vital for building loyalty.

Recognise context must inform content:

Publishers act as introducers to the advertisers they work with and, in doing so, drive top-of-funnel activity. But with AI changing the landscape, the way they approach content must also change.

In search, users can now ask AI agents more complex queries than was traditionally possible. But it’s less obvious where these results take them. While visibility across all the new platforms may be good for a publisher, zero-click search means this visibility isn’t translating into site traffic, so they aren’t getting the same rewards.

This makes understanding user intent so important, and here, context is becoming king. Recognising this and identifying what different content types need to be developed in today’s AI-driven world is essential.

Use metrics to shift mindsets:

An increase in measurement tools is helping fight the case of affiliates when it comes to the full funnel.

Crucially, those available can show brands and stakeholders that affiliate marketing doesn’t just come in at the last click but has a cross-funnel impact. Having this evidence also allows companies to reward content partners for the visibility and influence they drive throughout the funnel, not just for performance.

“So, the idea of content is king, really it's context is king, because you're trying to identify how to get that user through to your website with a different type of content that you would have done before AI was around.”

Colin Carter, Director, Weather2Travel.com.

As affiliate marketing seeks to prove its full-funnel value, the panel suggested a number of practical ways to approach this, including:

Move upstream by being part of the brief:

A proper affiliate strategy has always been full funnel, but traditionally it’s brought in at the end of the briefing stage. It’s been viewed as purely a conversion activity.

Fighting your way into briefs for awareness or consideration activities by using the available measurement tools to show affiliate marketing’s cross-funnel impact is essential. These insights must then be translated into action so partners are rewarded for the visibility and influence they drive across the whole funnel. By doing so, affiliate marketing will start to be recognised as a demand-shaping engine rather than just a performance channel.

Think long term:

The lifetime value of a customer is a hugely important metric because conversion is the starting point, not the endpoint. This approach calls for understanding everything that brought the customer in and keeps them converting, which requires a full-funnel focus.

Change the performance conversation:

The last-click model isn’t fit for purpose, given how people interact with AI. How do you measure the influence of an activity that doesn't even generate a click?

The nature of performance itself is changing as partners and stakeholders measure success differently. For some, it’s not even transactional but more about awareness, exposure or engagement. That’s why it’s essential to understand the full picture and adjust the conversation so it relates to what’s happening now.

“I think in terms of a metric, the lifetime value of your consumers is huge. It takes in everything across the full funnel, from why that consumer keeps converting and the cost, which makes it invaluable.”

Callum Kennelly, Sales Manager UK, Sovendus.

And when it came to advice from the panellists about how to be successful in today’s market, they had a wealth of ideas, including:

• Don't develop AI tools for the sake of it. Have a business case and make sure that you are aware of all the financial costs. Because the moment you try to scale it, you might find that it's not economical.
• Be flexible and stay nimble. Avoid big, slow projects. Do something small, test it, learn from it and then expand.
• Ensure you remain authentic and transparent with your partners. As you test and learn what works in these dynamic times, maintain that critical dialogue between your business, your clients, and your partners so everyone knows and understands what's going on. Ultimately, authenticity wins out over any technological or market changes.
• Trial and test continuously: Know what works today, not what worked yesterday.
• Broaden your horizons: Realise it’s not all about work. So, make sure you travel as much as you can because it’s a natural part of being human.

What the panel session highlighted was that the pace of change in travel is accelerating as new behaviours and technologies come into play. So, to help you develop your business, we’ve published a new guide – 6 Growth Strategies for Travel Commerce.

This lays down practical steps to drive measurable growth across the full customer journey, from first inspiration to final booking and beyond. Download your copy of the e-book here.