Season 24 in Review: The Industry is Changing: Here’s What We Learned This Season

Every major insight, turning point, and uncomfortable truth from the season that changed how the industry thinks about performance

If you missed any episode this season, or if you listened to all of them and want to make sense of where they connect, this is the one to come back to. Lee-Ann revisits every guest from Season 24 and draws out the thread that ran through every conversation: affiliate marketing is not evolving slowly anymore. It's shifting in real time, and the programs that are built on old assumptions are already falling behind.

Talking Points Include:

• What our guests collectively confirmed -- the season's guests came from different corners of the industry, but they all arrived at the same conclusion
• Why last-click attribution was already broken before AI made it worse -- the season built a steady, cumulative case against over-reliance on a single measurement model, and this episode pulls that argument together
• The themes that surfaced again and again across eleven episodes -- zero-click search, compliance as a growth lever, open attribution, human relationships in an automated world, and what it really means to diversify a program in 2026

Listen to Find Out More About:

• Why Lee-Ann opens the wrap-up by referencing what the season opener promised, and whether the season actually delivered on it
• What Jon Ostler called "the great affiliate bypass" and why the structural shift he described is only going to accelerate from here
• Stuart Miles's central lesson about low-friction partnerships and why it applies far beyond the tech and gadget publishing world he comes from
• The moment in Lauryn Day's episode where the conversation about creator content and AI changes in search made clear that this is no longer a future concern
• What Lee-Ann says she's taking into the next season, and the note of genuine optimism underneath a very clear-eyed summary of how much pressure the industry is under

Key Segments of This Podcast and Where You Can Tune In to Go Direct:

[02:27] Ishtvan Torpoi revisited: the mega lag controversy and why disciplined monitoring beats partner volume every time

[06:20] Jon Ostler's great affiliate bypass: AI citations, publisher investment, and the attribution gap that last click can't explain

[18:47] Adam Ross on invisible revenue: how AWIN's Conversion Protection Initiative recovered $250 million in previously untracked value

[28:56] Alex Springer on open attribution: why collaboration across networks, publishers, and brands is now happening for the first time

[33:49] Lee-Ann's season close: what the industry learned, what still needs to change, and what Season 25 is already being built around

Stay Ahead with Affiverse

If Season 24 raised questions about how your program is structured for what's coming, the Affiverse newsletter is where Lee-Ann continues the conversation between seasons. You'll get the insights, industry commentary, and practical frameworks that don't wait for a new episode to drop.

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