Interview with Ricky Ahuja, Affiliate Director at Nutryst
What should an advertiser using performance marketing be thinking about in 2017?
Advertisers have come a long way in this industry and their arsenal of tools available to them make it a very lucrative and attractive sector to be in. However, many of them have a long way to go. It seems quite evident many of them do not take a longer term approach but in it to make the quick buck and pardon my French but f&*k over whoever they can. There have been a few mastermind groups started for best practices that these advertisers should be looking at and taking part in. For more information on these groups – feel free to reach out to me (gsahuja @ gmail.com).
An increasing number of networks have major new-investor money behind them, funding more sophisticated technology and greater scale. Are networks inevitably going to get bigger, and will small networks be driven out?
Mergers and acquisitions have been the par in our industry for the last couple of years and this will continue to happen. However, there will always be room for smaller networks who tend to focus on certain niches, geos and technologies. Facebook was once a small company compared to Yahoo as was Snapchat to Facebook – there will always be certain degrees of separation and benefits of working with and maintaining a smaller network – but then again – “small” is relative.
What were your takeaways from ASW?
Having attended Affiliate Summit for over 10 years now, I have seen many changes that have taken place, some good and some not so good. However – this last one I did come away having a better impression of our industry. It has certainly matured and the ones that are still at it – well perform at another level then the rest. Shawn and Missy have done an amazing job of changing with the times and taking into consideration feedback they are provided. Speaking from personal experience – I mainly go there for the clients, meetings (face to face still goes a long way) and the food. Rest is all gravy.
About
A serial entrepreneur, Ricky Ahuja has been known and well respected in the affiliate industry now going on 15 years, for his strong acumen as an online marketer and social media expert. His former agency Affiliate Crossing was constantly ranked in the Top 10 on the “Top 10 Networks” and was most recently ranked as a Top 10 CPA Affiliate Network on Blue Book survey by Revenue Performance. Ricky is now the Affiliate Director at Nutryst, an all Nutra based network. A passionate writer, blogger and traveler – always looking for the next adventure.