In the second episode of Affiliate Leaders’ new video series, Insight Out, editor Jyoti Rambhai sits down with Tom Ridges, founder of AI-powered behavioural science platform, Herdify.
The pair debate one of the biggest paradigms in affiliate and digital marketing: are marketers relying too heavily on performance metrics and ignoring a key factor – human behaviour.
Ridges says there’s a tendency to “sometimes we stick to what can be measured easily”. He describes the concept of value capture and understanding how people are connected. Once you understand this, “it changes your acquisition maths”.
He talks about understanding word of mouth, which is a shorthand way of referring to offline social influence (not social media or influencer marketing). Marketers, including affiliates, have become “obsessed with the detail” and being “too deterministic”, trying to work out which channels have led to ROI.
So often, they will optimise the channel, whether that’s SEO, social or display, and forget about the human behaviour element and the layers in between the marketing channel and ROI.
Watch the full video to find out what Ridges thinks about measurement and attribution in marketing.
Insight Out is the new video series from Affiliate Leaders, exploring the impact of artificial intelligence, the changing marketing and tech landscape, regulatory pressures and more.
If you are a senior marketer working brand or operator-side, for an the affiliate or adtech side, as well as agencies, please get in touch with Jyoti at: [email protected]
