The Backbone of Affiliate Marketing

Written by Brook Schaaf

It was Christmas Day when our new shopping lifestyle started. Wife gifted me “The JGOOT Way of Travel: When You Just Get Out of Town,” a padded pamphlet full of tips to get the most out of reward travel. 

Ambitious world traveler that she is, Wife stole away my very Christmas gift and joined JGOOT’s paid community (referral link, of course) on behalf of our family. The outlines of the game are simple, but, like the game of Go, its play and intricacies are never-ending. The gist: the consumer looks for various ways to maximize point earnings, preferably beyond churning credit cards for sign-up bonuses. The consumer-turned-traveler next eyes various redemption possibilities to maximize the spend ratio, seeking to get at least two cents’ value for each point, ideally five or more. For example, if a business class flight is $2,500, then getting that flight for 50,000 points is a sweet win (this community is very obsessed with flying only business class). This is most typically effected through transfers.

The community’s favorite way to earn points? Rakuten Rewards, often after a first search on CashBack Monitor. But how does this even make sense when Rakuten pays cashback? Because it has a little-known feature to convert cashback into American Express points.  

This has turned into our family’s new go-to pathway for shopping. I am somewhat chagrined to admit that many of our past purchases were simply made on Amazon—for speed, if for no other reason. This pattern has been disrupted.

The PMA’s excellent new study on affiliate marketing underscored the importance of loyalty sites (congrats to Executive Director Tricia Meyer and Board President Jade Mayberry for their third report). Commissions in the United States grew from $9.1B in 2021 to $13.63B in 2024. The only category to hold steady at 35%—the plurality in both surveys—was Cashback, Loyalty, & Rewards Websites.

Some foolishly scorn this category, but I submit to you it is the very backbone of our channel. Consider this: 

• The relationship requires a commission—no other payment structure is workable. 
• Consumer intent is very high (as with the JGOOT community, which emphasizes the importance of downloading, yes, the browser extension). 
• There is strong loyalty to a given affiliate and an incentive to shop regularly and to try new stores. 
• This is a form of price segmentation helpful to merchants.
• Cashback sites are particularly well positioned for conquesting. 

As the affiliate channel weathers the Zero Click storm, we can take comfort in knowing that reward affiliates are our redoubt, and now and tomorrow, they shall have their own communities and ability to acquire users outside organic search.

With apologies to T.S. Eliot: 

We shall not cease from exploration of new shopping portals 

And the end of all our exploring 

Will be to arrive at eBates (now Rakuten), where we started 

And know the place for the first time.