Affiliate Marketing Conferences and Events

We believe that affiliate marketing events fall into 7 key groups. Understanding these groups will help you make better decisions on which conference or gathering to attend, and why. Below you may find our classification of the types of affiliate conferences and events that exist out there. Over the decades of our involvement in affiliate marketing, we've attended all of these types, and can confidently state that each has its important place in the industry. Ultimately, just as every marketing campaign boils down to fulfilling its objectives, so should your attendance of any affiliate marketing event. We hope our classification will equip you to make the most of the events you'll choose to attend this year.

1. Major Conferences & Expos

These are the most noticeable, large-scale, global events in affiliate marketing. This group includes the events of the caliber of Affiliate Summit (West and East, with the former being about twice as big as the latter), Affiliate World (Dubai, Europe, Americas, Asia), and PI Live (UK and USA).

2. Geography-specific Conferences

While some of the conferences in the earlier group will take place in various geographies throughout the year, and, therefore, can also be included in both the first and the second group, here we are referring to those events that consistently happen in one geography only. For example, Afiliados Brasil which is a must-attend if you have interest in the Brazilian market, or Tactixx which is a must-go-to conference for German affiliate industry players.

A subset of this conference type would be a conference that is conducted in a specific language, even if not held in the country where the language is primarily spoken. For example, the MAC Affiliate Conference which is held entirely in Russian, even though taking place in Yerevan, Armenia.

3. Vertical-specific Conferences

Both of the above two groups will include players from an array of different verticals. However, if you are operating in a specific one, you do want to know if there exist affiliate conferences primarily dedicated to your vertical. A great example would be the iGB Affiliate conference which is all about gaming.

4. Vendor-specific Events

If you run an affiliate program on a specific affiliate network, you will likely benefit from conferences hosted by that network. Besides affiliate networks, we often see valuable events organized by technology solutions, affiliate agencies, and more. Examples would include Awin ThinkTank, Impact Partnerships Experience (iPX), CJU, and Rakuten Optimism. Some vendor-specific events are run more than once a year, while others may not be available every year (e.g., AvantExpo). Some may be open for all, while others may be by invitation-only. It isn't unusual to also see a vendor-specific event (e.g.: Moonpull Mini-Conference) colocated with a major conference, though not directly associated with it.

5. Affiliate Marketing Meetups

These smaller and more focused events tend to be either laser-targetted geographically or closely associated with a specific group. For example, Austin Affiliate Happy Hour or PMA Member Happy Hour. The latter ones (by the Performance Marketing Association) occur at every major U.S. affiliate confernece, several times a year.

6. Affiliate Marketing Workshops

These would be events solely focused on education and training, representing in-depth seminars which yield practical value to their participants. Nowadays, many of these are run online, though some still happen in-person, such as AM Days workshops, for example.

7. Affiliate Marketing Awards

Last but not least, awards-oriented events (which may or may not be run as part of a conference) are worth a mention. These would be industry recognition events such as Performance Marketing Awards, for example.

Whichever affiliate marketing conference or event is going to be your next one, shoot us a note to see if we're attending. We'd love to meet and talk shop!