It’s time! Everyone’s favorite performance marketing conference is back again! We are thrilled to announce that our performance marketing community can connect once again this year at Rakuten Advertising’s DealMaker USA 2023!

The 2023 Golden Link Award nominations are officially open! Help us honor the best and brightest in affiliate marketing by submitting a nomination today. 

We are honored to have been voted the Best Affiliate Network for the 12th consecutive year by our partners and clients in the industry.

The influencer marketing landscape has changed, with more consumers turning to creators for recommendations and brands increasing their spend in the channel. This, combined with tech advancements, is driving the democratization of content creation, with more people identifying as creators or influencers.

Taylor Swift said, “this is a new year. A new beginning. And things will change.” While some see change as scary, we at Rakuten Advertising view it as an opportunity. For advertisers and publishers to be successful this year, they will need to change their thinking and how they run their affiliate programs.

In October and December 2022, we surveyed 15,000 US Consumers about their holiday shopping plans. Then, after all the celebrations ended and the holiday decorations came down, we followed up with another short survey to see if their anticipated spending and gifting went according to plan.

This year was a banner year for Rakuten Advertising, we celebrated our 25th birthday, returned to our in-person DealMaker Events, and took home numerous notable industry awards.

It’s hard to believe that another year is ending with many people looking back on the year that was and forward to what’s to come. And at the risk of sounding like a broken record, 2023 promises to be another year that keeps everyone on their toes.

This year’s Cyber Week 2022 was predicted to be a fluctuating shopping season, but many retailers still met, or exceeded, last year’s numbers. Overall, among the top categories on the Rakuten Advertising Network, the sales for home goods, luxury, jewelry, and travel ranked the highest for this season.

This past month in Austin, Texas, the Black Employee Alliance ERG represented Rakuten at AFROTECH™ Conference.

We had the pleasure and privilege of sitting down with the Founder and CEO of Partake, Denise Woodard.

Now that Singles’ Day 2022 has come and gone, we can reflect on the click trends from across the globe. Our live data feed ran through November 12th and compared live click trends in 2022 with click trends from 2021.