In this interview with CalvinAyre.com’s Becky Liggero, XLMedia CEO (Israel) Inbal Lavi shares how affiliates can succeed in a competitive marketplace.
Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about affiliate marketing is that there is a steady flow of money in the affiliates’ bank accounts even without owning or operating a business that sells a product. A lot of people think earning money from affiliate marketing is as easy as mentioning few products and providing them with affiliate links.
Truth be told, making a living on affiliate marketing is tough. Affiliates must fight to stay afloat in a competitive marketplace. Smaller affiliates are always in danger of being eaten by their larger competitors.
XLMedia CEO (Israel) Inbal Lavi pointed out that larger, public companies have the advantage in the marketplace since it is easier to adjust their activities to match operators’ needs. Larger public companies also have teams that take care of such demands, according to Lavi.
“Obviously, there is the advantage of our size, meaning once you have the relevant tech and the relevant people to actually manage all these sites and make all the changes that are required, it’s much easier than if you are a small time affiliate that has now to go about and change all these overnight. I definitely think this is an advantage for us being a competitor,” Lavi told CalvinAyre.com.
For smaller affiliates to succeed, Lavi said they need to offer an innovative product and establish a strong bond with operators.
“In general, I think there’s always room for innovation. There’s always room for the smaller players, who may be, by the way, faster in specific niches or in specific types of products. I think that once you have a very interesting product, obviously you will need to also adapt yourself to all the external requirements,” the XLMedia CEO (Israel) said. “But then, I think it can be done once you have a very open relationship with the operators and make sure that the communication is there, and that you actually do what they require you to do.”
In the case of XLMedia, Lavi said the company’s priority over the past years is in innovating their technology, focusing more on the mobile space.
“This has been something that we have been investing in the previous years and we already see the benefits,” Lavi said. “I think that the mobile space is definitely a space that we have tapped into very aggressively… in the last couple of years, both in terms of acquisitions, acquiring mobile app user acquisition companies, and in terms of our organic activity.”
