The minute you cut off an affiliate that’s bringing you customers and traffic you cannot reach without them, you burn that relationship and they put your competitors there instead. 

That’s the stark warning from Adam Riemer, marketing strategist, keynote speaker, and columnist, in a recent discussion with Reza Moaiandin on the Flipping the Playbook podcast. It’s a reality check that will have many CMOs sitting up to take notice. 

While many brands treat affiliate marketing as a budget-burning exercise filled with coupon code interceptors and last-click attribution games, Adam argues that the real opportunity lies in building genuine partnerships with content creators who bring customers you can’t reach any other way. The problem? Most companies are sabotaging their own growth by capping budgets on their most valuable affiliates. 

Are you value-adding or budget-burning? 

Not all affiliate programs are created equal, and Adam doesn’t mince words about the current state of the industry.  

“Some just want to burn budget so they can keep budget, which is why they allow zero value touch points, which happens to be a huge portion of the channel,” he said. 

The difference between a successful program and a wasteful one comes down to where you find your affiliates. Value-adding partners exist in places where your audience has disappeared, where they forgot about you, or didn’t know you offered a specific product or service. These could be YouTubers, Discord communities, Reddit groups, or niche content creators producing listicles and reviews. 

The real magic happens when you identify search terms that convert but aren’t profitable through PPC anymore. By partnering with content publishers who rank for these terms, you can still capture that traffic without paying inflated ad costs. Instead, you operate on a revenue share model where profitability is predictable because you already know your conversion rates and average order values. 

Why budget caps are business killers 

Here’s where most companies get it catastrophically wrong. Adam is emphatic: “Don’t ever cap a top funnel affiliate with budget because that is how your company is growing.” 

The reasoning is simple but often overlooked. When you cap an affiliate who’s bringing genuine top-of-funnel traffic, they don’t just stop sending customers your way—they replace your links with your competitors’. You’ve essentially funded their audience-building efforts only to hand that audience to your rivals. 

But the damage runs deeper. Even if that affiliate traffic doesn’t convert immediately, it populates your email lists, SMS subscribers, and remarketing audiences. Cut off that traffic source, and 60 to 90 days later you’ll be wondering why your conversion rates have mysteriously dropped. The culprit? You starved your own funnel by capping the affiliate who was feeding it. 

Building trust over transactions 

The most successful affiliate relationships aren’t built on who pays the highest commission, they’re built on trust and stability. Adam shares a telling example of a top partner who lost all their Google traffic after AI-generated content was detected. Despite being courted by competitors offering higher payouts, they stuck with Adam’s program because he helped them recover and rebuild. 

“Affiliates that add value sometimes will make less money if they know they can trust the partner because they want someone who’s responsive, someone that understands the strategy,” Adam said. 

This relationship-first approach means showing affiliates why a lower commission might actually earn them more money in the long run. By demonstrating higher conversion rates and better customer quality, you can build partnerships based on actual revenue rather than just commission percentages. 

The AI attribution revolution 

As AI reshapes digital marketing, affiliate attribution is evolving in unexpected ways. Adam revealed that affiliates are already earning commissions through ChatGPT referrals.  

“One affiliate just sent a $6,000 sale to one of our clients,” he said, explaining how their listicle appeared in ChatGPT results, leading to a click-through and conversion. 

This emerging “citation economy” means content creators who build trust with AI systems will become increasingly valuable affiliate partners. The fundamentals haven’t changed (it’s still about being where your audience is) but the channels are multiplying. 

Stop chasing channels, start following customers 

When asked about up-and-coming affiliate channels for the next few years, Adam flips the question entirely.  

“You shouldn’t be looking at the affiliate network or the affiliates,” he said. “You should be looking at where your customers are and how you could reach them.” 

This customer-first approach has led to affiliate strategies ranging from roadside QR code signs to push notifications offering food delivery to bar-goers at closing time. The lesson isn’t to copy these tactics but to think creatively about where your specific audience congregates and who influences them. 

The bottom line 

Affiliate marketing isn’t dying, it’s just being done wrong by most brands. The channel will always evolve, from websites to Discord servers to whatever comes next. But the core principle remains constant: find people who can reach your customers where you can’t, build trust with those partners, and never cap the budget on affiliates who genuinely grow your business. 

“If you’re always hitting the panic button and thinking a channel’s dead, you’re probably just going to be increasing your stress levels and sending yourself to an early death when there’s no reason,” he said. “Look for solutions. Look for ways to work with it.” 

Ready to rethink your affiliate strategy? Listen (on Apple of Spotify) or watch the full conversation between Adam Riemer and Reza Moaiandin on the Flipping the Playbook podcast.