January 15, 2025
Don’t let uncertainty in 2025 intimidate you. Where there’s change there’s opportunity.
From Challenge to Opportunity: How Smart Brands Grow in Uncertain Times
Uncertainty may have been the headline of 2025—but it’s also the catalyst for innovation. When growth slows, smart brands don’t retreat; they recalibrate. At PartnerCentric, we experienced the same volatility our clients did in the past year-plus—rising ad costs, weaker organic performance, and cautious consumer spending. The difference is, we used data, technology, and collaboration to turn that uncertainty into action.
Here’s how we transformed challenges into opportunities—and how brands can apply the same playbook this year.
Key Takeaways in This Blog
- Economic turbulence is universal—but so is the opportunity it brings. Inflation, tariffs, and tighter budgets have forced brands to test new approaches rather than play defense.
- Publisher diversification pays off. Expanding beyond traditional partners revealed untapped revenue streams and extended post-campaign impact.
- Attribution transparency drives smarter investment. Data revealed that some publishers credited with revenue weren’t truly incremental—allowing brands to shift spend toward proven performers.
- Affiliate is emerging as a hero channel. One client moved 45% of their digital budget to affiliate after proving its bottom-line value.
- BNPL partnerships are unlocking conversion growth. PartnerCentric data showed a 24% boost in conversions after integrating BNPL—reducing purchase barriers even in non-retail verticals.
- Creators are embracing affiliate income. Over half of U.S. content creators now list affiliate commissions as a core revenue stream, signaling the growing convergence between influencer and performance marketing.
- Coupon and deal partners remain resilient. In uncertain economies, 73% of PartnerCentric clients see these partners driving the highest affiliate ROI, including among premium brands.
Remember When?
We were there, too.
That moment in the middle of 2024 when all the muscle we were pouring into growth began to sputter. The unexpected changes that became telltale signs of uncertainty started to show up – for us and for our clients: Waning organic traffic, a drop in search volume, higher spending in paid channels that delivered only modest lift…
Quiet, stealthy disappointment after so much ambitious investment.
But, despair is not a strategy, right?
It was time to step back and take a look around us.
And we did.
Our executive team had many conversations with brand leaders about potential roadblocks to success:
- Inflation
- Tariffs
- Talent shortages
- Weakened paid channels such as #Meta and #Google Search
- Declines in consumer spending
If we’re going to believe in “Better Starts Here,” we don’t have a choice but to dig deeper for solutions.
We must take publisher diversity risks.
We have to mine our inventory of cross-industry solutions to test new approaches to growth.
We have to ask hard questions and break some rules. And because we’ve built our own tech that drives insights, we can do that.
We know that our success is integrally tied to our clients’ success. The result was record revenue and a significant increase in new enterprise business. We got there by sharing aggregate data across verticals and business models, and applying unique solutions to business-specific challenges our clients experienced as the year progressed.
Here are the questions we asked that yielded results:
- How can we expand the ‘shelf-life’ of new publishers and campaign ideas that work? We uncovered previously untested publisher partnerships that yielded weeks of post-campaign revenue through the affiliate channel even after the campaign period ended. Talk about shelf-life for a marketing investment…
- How can we improve our knowledge about revenue attribution across channels? We were able to illuminate where certain publishers previously thought to deliver incremental revenue for a brand’s business, were actually taking credit for revenue brought in by other publishers. Bye bye, misattribution.
- How can you know where your marketing dollars are working best to deliver net new customers and revenue? Better data enabled clients to shift marketing spend to the affiliate channel. One client alone shifted 45% of their digital marketing spend to the affiliate channel because they could prove its value at the bottom line.
Let’s work together to make the most of our 2024 lessons learned. I’ll leave you with a few sweet tidbits from the extraordinary year we’ve had at PartnerCentric:
- Our data showed PartnerCentric clients saw a 24% boost in conversions after integrating a Buy Now, Pay Later (BNPL) partner, even in less common industries. BNPL reduces purchase barriers by allowing customers to pay over time, making it an effective way for brands to attract new customers.
- More and more, influencers and creators are reaping the benefits of the affiliate channel. In fact, 58% of US content creators reported affiliate commissions as a key income source, making it the second most popular income type for creators after sponsored content according to eMarketer. We know that affiliate marketing is growing rapidly, expected to hit $36.9 billion by 2030 and creators are embracing its full potential. Have you considered influencer marketing as part of your digital marketing strategy in 2025?
- PartnerCentric data shows that 73% of our clients are experiencing the strongest performance in the affiliate channel from Coupon/Deal partnerships. With looming economic uncertainty, we know that these partners are sought out and perform well, even for customers of premium brands.
As always, I’m open to an introduction to any company who’s rolling up their sleeves and ready to plow ahead into 2025 with optimism and grit. I look forward to connecting.
FAQs: Turning Uncertainty Into Opportunity
Q: What should brands do when growth slows across traditional channels?
Don’t freeze your spend—refocus it. When paid channels underperform, diversify your partner mix through affiliate and performance-driven campaigns that align cost with outcomes.
Q: How does publisher diversity reduce risk?
By broadening partnerships beyond a single channel or publisher type, brands reduce dependency and discover new sources of incremental revenue. Fresh partners often perform better in underexplored verticals or off-peak seasons.
Q: Why is attribution analysis so critical right now?
Because data reveals hidden inefficiencies. Many brands overpay for non-incremental traffic. Transparent attribution allows you to see which partners genuinely drive net-new customers and which simply claim existing conversions.
Q: How can brands maintain consumer engagement during uncertainty?
Meet customers where they are—financially and emotionally. Tactics like BNPL, loyalty programs, and trusted influencer content create accessibility and trust, two key drivers of conversion when consumer confidence wavers.
Q: What’s the outlook for affiliate marketing in the next year?
Affiliate is becoming the anchor of performance marketing strategies. With proven incrementality, strong ROI, and measurable outcomes, it’s the most reliable channel for brands aiming to grow efficiently in volatile markets.
Want to learn more about our approach?
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