9 APR-MAY2020Such an integration establishes influencers as new-age publishers and unlocks newer ways of mon-etising their reach and receiving payments. Moreover, through various support tools and perfor-mance data, affiliate networks also help influencers gain insights into the reception of branded content amongst target audience, enabling them to generate better content over time. Brands, on the other hand, get access to native content created by top social media influencers on a larger scale through affiliate networks. There is also the rip-ple effect ­ the hallmark of any engaging social media content ­ to consider. Native brand integrations in influencer content can create or-ganic conversations that can have a cascading impact through word-of-mouth, thus creating a strong reso-nance for the brand and/or product amongst the target audience. A strong enough influencer affiliate marketing campaign can also go viral and be picked-up by tradition-al and new-age media houses as a case study, further adding to the impact of the brand campaign. Affiliate networks can also help brands measure the perfor-mance of their influencer affiliate campaigns to identify what kind of content works well with which consumer demographic. This al-lows them to pursue more relevant influencer partnerships in the future. Through multiple mea-surement and verification tools, affiliate networks also ensure that only authentic traffic is reported, thus raising the trust and credibility in the digital marketing domain.THE ROAD AHEADIt's a fast paced digital world we're living in, and consumers love experimenting with new ways of consuming content. More than that, they trust the influencers that they follow to recommend products & services that are relevant to them. Social media has become the new word-of-mouth channel. Marketers should therefore look beyond paid online ad space or content to influenc-er affiliate marketing in order to pull-in and retain today's millen-nial consumers. After all, content is still the king, but it should also ignite conversations that interest today's millennials ­ through the channels that they most frequent-ly engage with. AFFILIATE NETWORKS CAN ALSO HELP BRANDS MEASURE THE PERFORMANCE OF THEIR INFLUENCER AFFILIATE CAMPAIGNS TO IDENTIFY WHAT KIND OF CONTENT WORKS WELL WITH WHICH CONSUMER DEMOGRAPHIC
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