Affiliate North Recap: Affiliate Marketing, Attribution, and the Future of Sustainable Revenue
This year marked the first-ever Affiliate North event, bringing together the top affiliate marketers, brands, and publishers to discuss the evolution of performance marketing. Ezoic proudly served as a key sponsor, showing our commitment to innovation, transparency, and publisher sustainability across all corners of digital monetization.
Hosted in Manchester, UK and drawing more than 150 attendees, the event covered topics that reflected both the challenges and the immense potential within the affiliate economy. From conversations around AI’s growing role in search to the rising need for better attribution and audience visibility, Affiliate North proved to be a timely convergence of ideas for a space that is destined for transformation.
"Affiliate marketing isn't a channel, it's a model" - Panelist, Affiliate North 2025
The State of Affiliate Marketing: Uncertainty Meets Opportunity
Many attendees shared familiar concerns including declining organic traffic, AI-driven disruption, and a “Wild West” approach to attribution that continues to undervalue publisher contribution. In the affiliate world, where last-click credit still dominates, brands often remain “king,” leaving publishers with little visibility into their role in the customer journey.
Discussions throughout the event pointed to a strong desire for more equitable compensation models, including CPC and hybrid systems that recognize publishers for their influence and relationships, not just conversions. Attendees from major companies like ITV, Quidco, Reach PLC, THG Ingenuity, and Impact.com echoed this sentiment, signaling a growing appetite for change. .
Ezoic’s presence stood out as a technology-first solution provider in a room largely composed of performance and affiliate marketers. Conversations made it clear that both the affiliate and publishing industries are navigating similar inflection points: the erosion of third-party data, AI’s impact on search traffic, and the urgent need for first-party-driven, sustainable monetization strategies.
"Matching audiences at scale isn't done particularly well in the affiliate marketing space." - Speaker, Affiliate North 2025
The Role of AI and the Shift Toward Agentic Search
AI was another recurring theme of the event both as a disruptor as well as an enabler. Multiple speakers highlighted how generative AI is reshaping discovery and attribution, forcing affiliates to rethink how audiences find and interact with their content.
"The future of search queries is going to be more indicative of quicker intent to outcome" - Speaker, Affiliate North 2025
This transition toward Agentic search, where AI tools anticipate and execute user intent, could dramatically change how traditional affiliate and publisher ecosystems capture value. An example experience being e-commerce purchases completed purely through AI agents and making purchasing online vs in store as synonymous. As audiences rely less on traditional search and more on AI-assisted browsing, the ability to understand and activate first-party data becomes a key competitive advantage.
Ezoic’s Sweet Spot: Rewarded Ads and Identity Solutions
Ezoic’s on-stage session addressed the affiliate challenges and how publishers can better capitalize on non-converters while maintaining positive user experiences. Our team shared how implementing rewarded ads and ezID identity solutions give publishers a way to tie their first-party data directly to advertiser and brand relationships, improving attribution, retention, and revenue.
Rewarded ads offer a transparent “quid pro quo” exchange between the user and publisher, delivering high engagement without compromising user experience. Publishers at the event were especially receptive to this approach, viewing it as a fresh alternative to traditional display and a way to increase value per session.
Meanwhile, ezID helps publishers recognize and monetize their audiences consistently across sessions and platforms; a direct response to the attribution blind spots that frustrate affiliate marketers today. For affiliate networks seeking to better measure influence and contribution, deterministic identity layers like ezID bridge the gap between performance and trust. The affiliate marketing industry is all about valuing partnerships and promoting collaboration so this is inevitably a cornerstone of the impact that identity solutions can play in the space.
The Path Forward: Convergence Models
Affiliate North laid the foundation on the mere fact that affiliate and publishing economies are converging faster than ever. They depend on reliable identity, transparent attribution, and ethical monetization models that reward genuine audience engagement.
As these industries adapt AI-driven change and data privacy regulation, sustainable solutions rooted in first-party data activation will define the next wave of digital performance. The affiliate economy and digital publishing are, in many ways, cut from the same cloth, each driven by the need to understand their audiences and provide value. This event truly inspired and facilitated honest conversations among esteemed professionals and leaders from across the globe.
"I'm incredibly grateful for Ezoic's support in making Affiliate North a reality. The event exceeded all expectations - we brought together the cream of the UK's affiliate marketing community alongside huge global brands including Google, ITV, Sky and JD Sports, creating exactly the kind of high-quality gathering we'd envisioned. Ezoic's early commitment gave us the credibility we needed to attract the exceptional speakers and attendees who made the day such a success.” - David Prior, owner of Affiliate North
Ezoic is proud to be part of that transformation and our team gained valuable insights from the industry leaders who attended the event.
