Paid media and affiliate marketing are often treated as separate disciplines, run by different teams with different goals, KPIs and reporting cycles. In many programmes, affiliates focus on the end of the customer journey, while paid media manages discovery, demand and conversion. The result is fragmentation. Channels appear to compete rather than collaborate, attribution becomes contentious and commercial decisions are made in silos.

Industry awards, rankings, and endorsements have always been important markers of credibility. In the generative AI era, they carry even greater weight. Mentions of “award-winning” or inclusion in official rankings are not just useful for human perception — they become part of the structured information that AI tools draw on when presenting your brand to consumers.

For many ecommerce brands, Google and Meta still account for the majority of acquisition spend. They are familiar, scalable and often the fastest route to measurable short-term performance. The challenge is not that these platforms are ineffective. The challenge is dependency. When a brand relies too heavily on one or two channels, performance becomes vulnerable to factors outside its control. CPM inflation, auction competition, attribution changes, reduced audience precision

Original research and data have always been powerful tools for PR and marketing. In the age of generative AI, their value increases dramatically. Reports, surveys, and studies do more than earn press coverage — they create authoritative content that AI systems use when forming responses to consumer and business queries.

Performance marketing is now defined less by access to data and more by the ability to use it well. Every brand has dashboards, attribution tools and platform metrics, yet the gap between reporting and decision making remains wide. The teams that scale profitably are not the ones that collect the most information. They are the ones who convert insight into action quickly and consistently. In a high performing acquisition campaign, data informs every stage of planning, activat

Press releases remain a staple of digital PR, but in the age of generative AI their role has evolved. Today, they are not only announcements for journalists — they are also part of the content ecosystem that AI models scan when forming answers.

Many brands still receive media plans that look almost identical regardless of sector, business model or commercial goals. The numbers change, the platforms change, yet the structure is the same. A bespoke paid media strategy does the opposite. It starts with the business rather than the agency. It uses tailored media planning that reflects the realities of audience behaviour, margins, seasonality, brand maturity and operational constraints.

Thought leadership has always been a way for brands to share expertise and build authority. In the context of generative AI, bylined articles and opinion pieces take on added importance: they not only influence human audiences but also feed into the sources AI draws from when generating answers.

Digital PR has always been about managing brand reputation and visibility online. With generative AI now acting as an intermediary between consumers and information, PR efforts have a new role: shaping not just human opinion but also the “voice” of AI. 

As the final quarter of the year approaches, affiliate marketers brace for the most critical period of the calendar year. Q4 is when budgets peak, consumers spend more freely, and brands battle for visibility across every possible channel. For those in working in Affiliates, Q4 is not only about scaling performance but more about strategic precision.

Online communities and forums — from Reddit threads to specialist Q&A sites — have long been places where consumers share authentic experiences and advice. In the generative AI era, this content is also becoming part of the knowledge pool that tools like ChatGPT and Google Gemini draw from. 

Affiliate marketing has long been measured in terms of clicks, conversions, and sales revenue. While these are important metrics, they only tell part of the story. In standard network reporting, brands often see which publishers drive results, but not the exact content pages where their links appear. This creates a blind spot — one that becomes critical in the age of generative AI. 

Guest articles and thought leadership pieces have long been staples of brand building. In the era of generative AI, their role is shifting: these contributions don’t just reach human readers, they also help shape the datasets that AI tools rely on when answering consumer questions. 

Influencer marketing is well-established as a driver of awareness and consumer trust. But as generative AI becomes a key layer of product discovery, there’s a new question to ask: do influencer posts, blogs, and video transcripts influence what AI systems say about your brand? 

Affiliate publishers don’t just shape how your brand is seen — they also influence which competitors dominate consumer consideration and, increasingly, generative AI answers. By analysing competitor affiliate coverage, brands can uncover gaps, opportunities, and pressure points in their own visibility strategy. 

Affiliate marketing is often described as a channel in its own right. In reality, it’s better understood as the buying mechanism that underpins much of today’s content partnerships — the connective threads in a wider web. From top-tier editorial publishers to niche comparison sites, affiliate models enable brands to secure visibility in articles that shape both consumer behaviour and generative AI outputs.

Affiliate marketing is often described as a channel in its own right. In reality, it’s better understood as the buying mechanism that underpins much of today’s content partnerships. From top-tier editorial publishers to niche comparison sites, affiliate models enable brands to secure visibility in articles that shape both consumer behaviour and generative AI outputs. 

Affiliate publishers; from large review sites to niche blogs have become one of the most influential channels in consumer decision-making. They publish buying guides, comparison tables, and “best of” lists that shoppers use to evaluate products. Increasingly, this content is not only shaping human choices but also fuelling the recommendations made by generative AI platforms. 

For years, getting cited was crucial to SEO rankings: how many people clicked through to your site. But in the age of generative AI, crucial becomes an understatement. Success is no longer only about traffic. It’s about being cited

Q4 is the most critical time of year for retail brands, with Black Friday, Cyber Monday, and the festive shopping period driving a huge share of annual revenue. To cut through the noise and convert demand at scale, brands need a smart, full-funnel approach. Recent insights from Fospha show exactly what separates the top performers from the rest.