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Every year, thousands of brands, advertisers and partners look forward to meeting one another at . With the most well known SaaS brands and publishers in attendance at the conference’s New York City stop, it’s an unmissable event for seasoned tech marketers and affiliate aficionados. 

With two jam-packed days of whirlwind of meetings, talks and meet-ups — and it’s clear that B2B partnerships are on the rise. The ɫ��ֱ�� Network team was thrilled to attend and catch up with the most exciting professionals doing the work in B2B partnerships today!

Insight: Partnerships are about people and profits — plain and simple

Successful partnerships are built on trust, transparency and a good ROI. Trust and transparency can be facilitated through people and the right tools — like ɫ��ֱ��. But partnerships can only achieve true profitability if there is a fit between brands, partners and customers. 

Profitable B2B partnerships start with the brand and whether or not it has created product-market fit. Without a strong need in market, customers have no reason to engage with a brand, whether it’s through owned or paid media.

Under the right brand and product conditions, affiliate marketing is a profitable engine for SaaS companies to reach their high-intent customers via partners. For each and every affiliate partner that we spoke to at ASE, their growth was aligned with generating positive ROI for well-positioned SaaS partners. 

Insight: Affiliates can help SaaS brands carefully outsource paid search marketing

Affiliate partnerships that incorporate paid search traffic from trusted partners allow brands to pay for search page placements in exchange for leads and sign-ups. B2B partnership experts are increasingly leaning into paid search partnerships to generate a better ROI faster than ever before through:

• Paid search efforts allow B2B marketers to amplify already-successful partnerships on high-traffic domains.
• Independent keyword bidding experts can drive high-intent customers directly to SaaS brands’ demo forms or sign-up pages. 

As tight budgets continue to put pressure on ad spend and ROI, true digital marketers are able to get a leg up on their internal key metrics and search page results via paid search partner marketing. We heard from a variety of publishers, partners and brands alike who are continuing to explore paid search marketing as a viable channel to generate increased commissions and revenue.  

See more: Read our guide on how to recruit your first 100 revenue-generating partners.

Insight: Publishers continue to diversify their monetization strategies 

Affiliate marketing is no longer just about competing for editorial real estate or coupon site listings. Savvy affiliate partners are targeting every level of the customer funnel, from generating top-of-funnel impressions to lead sharing across exploding SaaS industries like marketing, commerce and ERP.

Every bit of partners’ websites and backlink real estate represents avenues of engagement with their audience and brands’ end customers. For the industry-leading partnership marketers, none of that is going to waste. From lead forms and backlinks to owned coupon sites and featured sections to strategic paid search tactics, publishers are getting increasingly adept at reaching end customers, wherever they are in their buying journey.  

Related: Expert advice for building a defensible B2B affiliate program that wins buy-in.

Insight: Reddit is up next for partnerships 

In March earlier this year, the partnership community was rocked by news of the that sent (what Google deemed) low-quality content plummeting to the bottom of search results pages. 

Given the incredible value that publishers derive from their Google search page rankings, the industry was loud and distracted — so much so that many may have missed just a couple of weeks prior. According to last Spring, Google has been actively “developing ways to make it even easier to access [Reddit] across Google products.” . 

While the partnerships industry is still figuring out exactly what this means for monetized content, it seems likely that Reddit will grow into a cornerstone of partnerships marketing. It was a hot topic in happy hours and lunches as the industry adapts to Google’s new direction, leaving us wondering — what’s next for Reddit? 

The magic of returning to in-person events has not yet worn off for many partnership pros. For the ɫ��ֱ�� Network team, the glow of meeting with partners for two days will certainly stay with us for the rest of the quarter! 

It’s incredible to connect with colleagues, friends and new folks in a space dedicated to sharing the latest industry news and opportunities. We are already counting down to the next Affiliate Summit event — see you in 2025, Las Vegas!