Affiliate Roundup: Affiliate Payment Reform, Media Measurement Standards, Marketplaces Block AI Agents, & More

This week in FMTC’s Affiliate Roundup: Affiliate publishers gained new payment protections with APMA’s cash-flow code of conduct. IAB is pushing to standardize media measurement across fragmented digital platforms. Marketplaces block AI shopping agents to retain control over traffic, data, and revenue.

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• Brands are learning how to influence ChatGPT’s answers, shifting SEO toward paid and authority-driven AI optimization.

• The Affiliate Marketing Professionals Association (APMA) launched its first Payment Code of Conduct to help address persistent publisher cash-flow challenges in the industry.

• Speakers at the AAB’s inaugural meeting called on the affiliate industry to improve how it tells its story and overcome perceptions about traffic quality and value.

• IAB is pushing for standardized, interoperable media measurement to improve consistency and comparability across digital advertising platforms.

• Marketplaces block AI shopping agents to retain control over user traffic, data, and monetization rather than allowing third parties to mediate purchases.

• Refersion opened its marketplace to ecommerce brands to help solve affiliate discovery challenges by making it easier for brands and creators to find and partner with each other.

• Geodesix, a new data marketplace from impact.com, aims to build infrastructure that connects licensed publisher content with AI systems and ensures publishers get fair compensation as AI increasingly uses their work.