CEO and founder of affiliate marketing company AffiliateINSIDER, Lee-Ann Johnstone, joins a panel discussion that talks about the current challenges she is facing in her industry and how blockchain can provide solutions to these issues during the recently concluded CoinGeek Conference held in Zurich, Switzerland.
“The fact of the matter is that we keep building on old systems and processes; and the ecosystem has almost become full of layer upon layer of tracking solutions, reporting solutions [and] ad-serving solutions. And so, there’s this kind of mess that everyone’s navigating and data is spread across multiple different platforms. And we don’t have one clear linear line between a brand and a customer… We need to get to the point where we can have more transparency,” Johnstone said.
Having over two decades of experience in Internet marketing, Johnstone says that the problem of making sense of this massive amount of data has not been fundamentally resolved even with innovative marketing technologies being currently used. And because of social media applications that allow for almost anyone to become an affiliate and influencer, it further adds to the muddled data that professionals like her have no way to organize and analyze that will present clear and accurate results, showing a linear line between the brand and its consumers.
“The fact that we all have a super computer in our hand is an amazing thing because pretty much anybody can become an affiliate. Anybody that can use a social media channel, can create a piece of content, can monetize their content and push it out so that customers can find it and then connect to the brands or programs or products that you’re promoting. So, it’s starting to become incredibly messy to actually use all of that data and to figure out where our customers are coming from and who gets the last click and how much money gets attributed to that influencer or promoter,” Johnstone explained.
Furthermore, there are discrepancies in the data presented by operators and affiliates, further complicating the payment system, as well as marketing data analytics. This is where the BSV blockchain comes in. It allows for data to be recorded and stored on a public ledger in an immutable way. And because all actions are timestamped, data can easily be tracked and organized, providing this much-needed transparency that has yet to be found in current data systems.
“So, there’s always going to be discrepancies. And I’m pretty sure that the paid advertising industry also experiences these things. But this is where I see blockchain really coming to the full because the actions are transparent and they’re immediate. So there is no tampering because it all happens within the blockchain, within the actual configuration. So I think, for me, this is where it’s going to make a huge difference in the affiliate space because there’a always been this kind of distrust with the data that gets reported between what sits between the affiliate and the operator. And I think this is where it’s probably going to be one of the biggest revolutionary steps that we take if we can incorporate this new technology into businesses,” Johnstone said.
And because the BSV blockchain is massively scalable, it not only allows for data transparency, but also the handling of big and bigger data. This means that each data block increases in capacity as the network continues to scale, which then allows for instant yet low-cost microtransactions. At a current median fee of $0.000086, agencies can process even the smallest amounts of payment transactions without really feeling that they are paying a fee. This is what makes the entire system revolutionary. It not only puts trust back into data, but it also prevents payment delays that can cause further problems or hinder affiliate programs.
“The benefit is that the money earned can be redistributed and reinvested to scale campaigns because you’re receiving payment immediately and not a month later. I think that’s probably one of the biggest touch points that is still a problem in the affiliate space… Because the payment system takes so long to credit, they can’t scale when [affiliates and influencers] are on to something good,” Johnstone pointed out.
