In an industry that prides itself on innovation, there is a certain irony in operators remaining loyal to technology that no longer meets their needs.
Whether it is fragmented reporting, manual data collection or systems struggling to accommodate additional brands and markets, affiliate management technology can quickly become an operational headache.
Yet, despite recognising these shortcomings, some operators remain reluctant to make a change.
For Camila da Silva, Sales Manager at ReferOn, this reluctance represents one of the more frustrating challenges facing affiliate management, particularly as operators pursue ambitious expansion strategies.
Speaking to SBC News during the SBC Summit in Lisbon, she explained that the limitations of existing technology often become apparent only when an operator has already outgrown its infrastructure.
Da Silva stated: “I think they notice when the operation is already scaled. Then they get lost and they don’t know exactly how to handle it anymore.”
The problem, she suggested, is not necessarily a lack of alternatives. Rather, operators can become comfortable with existing arrangements, even when those arrangements create unnecessary work.
“Sometimes there is this fear of migrating everything to another platform and they just stay,” she continued. “Maybe they already had issues with migration losing data sets with other platforms and other systems.”
For da Silva, this “daily issue” comes at a cost, with operators potentially accepting inefficiencies that restrict their ability to “grow”.
When growth exposes the cracks
Expansion is generally considered a measure of success, but it can also expose weaknesses in the technology supporting an operator’s business.
As operators introduce additional brands and enter new markets, affiliate programmes must accommodate increasingly complex reporting requirements, commercial arrangements and regulatory considerations.
Technology that once supported a relatively straightforward operation may struggle to provide the same level of visibility as the business grows.
Da Silva explained that the challenge becomes particularly apparent when operators attempt to analyse affiliate performance across multiple brands and jurisdictions.
“I know some platforms where you cannot really split your reports by market and brand,” she said.
“You need to have one brand, filter all the markets, then go to another brand and do the same. It’s insane. How can you expect to grow and keep up with analysing everything you have?”
The consequences extend beyond mere inconvenience. Without accessible performance data, affiliate managers may find it increasingly difficult to identify trends, assess traffic and understand how different markets contribute to their wider operations.
ReferOn, she explained, has approached this challenge by developing its platform around multi-brand operations.
“ReferOn was made to help to scale up businesses,” da Silva noted. “It is made to be multi-brand so operators can have an affiliate programme with many brands and many markets.”
However, the wider issue is one of timing. Operators may only recognise the need for more flexible infrastructure after their existing systems have become difficult to manage.
The spreadsheet problem
Perhaps the clearest illustration of outdated affiliate technology is the continued reliance on manual reporting.
Despite the volume of data available to operators, da Silva suggested that some affiliate teams are still required to extract information from multiple sources and build their own reports to understand performance.
“They are struggling with the rigid, complicated reports,” she explained. “They need to get data from many different tools because sometimes their tracking solution has these rigid reports. They don’t have the option to pick and choose.”
Rather than selecting the information they need directly from their tracking platform, operators may be forced to gather separate datasets for individual brands and markets before bringing them together for analysis.
She added: “They will need to get different reports per market and per brand to build their own pivot table and analyse how their traffic is performing.”
The result is a workflow that places additional administrative demands on affiliate managers.
Camila continued: “There’s a lot of manual work they need to do to get data in order to build their own pivot table. That doesn’t make any sense today.”
Transparency cannot be an afterthought
Beyond operational efficiency, the limitations of outdated affiliate technology can also affect relationships between operators and their partners.
Having previously worked as an affiliate manager for an operator and subsequently on the affiliate side, Camila has experienced the challenges from both perspectives.
That background has shaped her understanding of the importance of accessible data and transparency.
“Our mantra is transparency,” she said. “It’s very common for operators not to trust affiliates because they don’t know where their brand is being promoted. The affiliates don’t trust the operator because they don’t think they’re placing the stats correctly.”
ReferOn allows affiliates to manage postback configurations themselves, reducing the need for repeated intervention from operators.
She explained that some platforms charge operators additional fees for this functionality, while others make it difficult for affiliates to configure their own integrations.
Camila suggested that expectations have changed considerably over the past year. She noted: “Maybe a year ago when I joined ReferOn, it wasn’t one of the first questions but lately, I had operators asking if we charge for postbacks during our demo calls”.
Innovation without unnecessary complexity
While automation and artificial intelligence offer opportunities to improve affiliate management, Camila believes technology providers must remain focused on practical outcomes.
Introducing new capabilities simply to demonstrate innovation does little to address the underlying problems operators face.
Camila said: “Having AI just to say that we have AI is not going to bring any value.”
Instead, she argued that automation should concentrate on removing repetitive tasks and making existing processes more manageable.
She added: “We want to have something that is going to bring value and again automate as many of their activities as we can so they don’t have to do them manually.”
That approach also recognises the limitations of technology. Although reporting and administrative processes can be improved through automation, successful affiliate management continues to depend on human relationships.
Da Silva stressed: “I think there are things that AI can do that are going to give full results and easier results. Then there are things, for example, the relationship and trust with the client, where AI is never going to work.”
Is standing still the greater risk?
For operators considering a platform change, migration concerns are understandable. Established systems contain valuable data, support ongoing partnerships and form part of everyday operations.
However, Camila’s observations raise a broader question about the long-term cost of avoiding change.
As businesses expand, inefficiencies that once appeared manageable can become increasingly difficult to accommodate.
Outdated reporting, limited flexibility and additional manual work may not immediately prevent growth, but they can place unnecessary pressure on the teams responsible for supporting that growth.
For Camila, the danger is that operators become so accustomed to these limitations that they accept them as an unavoidable part of affiliate management.
She concluded: “To me, it doesn’t make sense. The price they pay for this fear is that it just makes their day more difficult, with more manual work.”
