In my eight years of helping brands form influencer and content relationships in the affiliate channel, I’ve observed a familiar cycle: an affiliate team sets out to test with influencers, they dip their toes in the water with big expectations, scratch their heads over perceived lackluster results, and decide that it just didn’t work.
The problem here is that fixating on a very narrow view of success excludes valuable partnerships and prevents long term growth. It’s this “affiliate tunnel vision” – even subtle versions of it – that lead affiliate teams to sabotage their influencer marketing efforts by setting the wrong goals, comparing performance against established programme top performers, and giving up way too quickly.