Thoughts on Affiliate World Europe 2022
The recent conference of the Affiliate World Global series took place in Barcelona and brought together more than 5K attendees and 200+ exhibitors on an unprecedented scale. This conference became the first actual full-on event after the pandemic years: no restrictions, thousands of people, and lots of communication.
The Yep Ads team is here to share our impressions from this massive event and also spill the beans on the most talked-about topics in the affiliate marketing industry. Let’s go!
Organization, exhibition, and speakers
Barcelona is a traditional location for the AWE conferences and the attendees know and love all the contrasts of the city and the possibilities it provides. And the AWE conference in Barcelona had it all: rooftop sunsets and beach festivals, fiery pre-parties and meet-ups, public and private parties and fiestas.
The venue, Fira de Barcelona, is one of the biggest trade fair venues in Europe, so there was enough space to hold all the booths and admit the guests. The styling and quality of the booths has been on a top-notch level, which added to the atmosphere and the convenience.
As for the talks, the technical side of this AWE has surpassed all expectations: several big screens featuring the slides and the speaker made it easy to follow the topics from anywhere in the audience.
In total, this AWE conference gathered more than 300 companies: 10+ advertisers, 35+ traffic sources and 150+ affiliate networks. Among them, there have been many new names. There was a noticeable lean towards lead generation, e-commerce, as well as iGaming. The booths were evenly spaced throughout the venue, so it has been easy to find our partners and start networking.
As for the speakers, the talks have been traditionally divided into themed tracks and several stages, one could follow a specific track or panel to get the most out of their time in the venue. The speeches have been scheduled back-to-back but not too tightly, which was also great for getting the know-how without any rush.
Hottest topics
The Affiliate World conferences are traditionally diverse in terms of topics they cover. Here are some ideas we enjoyed the most.
- Improving tracking and attribution, as well as fighting affiliate fraud.
- Media buying on TikTok, setting up and growing organic accounts, driving user engagement, as well as promoting paid ads.
- The challenges of buying a running business against developing a company from scratch.
- Driving mobile traffic and setting up the correct targeting and attribution with the lack of user data.
- Growing a dropshipping store into a brand with the power of user-generated content.
Key takeaways and trends to note:
- The casino offers tend to cover new GEOs, we also see evolving promotional approaches as marketers adapt to new traffic sources, such as messengers or ASO, and create more elaborate flows.
- The e-commerce niche is experiencing a shift from wow-products to more down-to-earth offers that, however, see high demand from the audience.
- There is an explicit lean towards video ad formats, especially pre-rolls and out-stream video. This is especially prominent in dating, e-commerce and gambling offers.
- TikTok seems to be everywhere, the platform is on fire both in terms of growing audience and the number of advertisers who are willing to conquer this traffic source. This AWE conference had a networking session dedicated to everything to do with TikTok, these mixers attracted a big audience which supports the importance of this source.
- We have also noticed that more marketers pay greater attention to small details when it comes to developing campaign funnels. This trend manifests itself on every level: design, copy, approaches, and marketing skills. We can conclude that nowadays it takes more time, effort, and budget to build a well-performing campaign flow.
Conclusion
The Affiliate World conference in Barcelona has been a powerful statement that brought the affiliate marketing conferences to the pre-pandemic level and even higher. The opportunity to meet with existing partners and find new ones is priceless, such events provide companies with an excellent opportunity for both formal and informal networking. Our team had plenty of time to catch up with everybody and forge new valuable partnerships as well. Moreover, we have added to the festive mood and hosted an exclusive VIP party at W Hotel, a spectacular sail-shaped seaside venue!
We are getting ready and are looking forward to the next AW conference in Bangkok!