At Affiliate World Europe 2019, Topher Grant of the Giddyup Group discussed with Philipp Schoeffmann about why we should jump on the performance marketing train now. He breaks down what makes affiliate marketers the best salespeople as well as the opportunities to participate in the growing ecommerce revolution.

Watch his full AWE19 presentation here.

This post “Topher Grant On The Upward Trajectory Of Performance Marketing” was first seen on the AWC Facebook Page.

AWeurope Interview with Topher Grant, Co-founder & Director of Strategy, The GiddyUp Group

The Future of The Performance Marketing Industry

Phil:
🎙️ Good to have you Topher, good to see you again.
Topher:
Thank you. It’s good to see you too, Phil.
Phil:
🎙️ So, Topher really, is who I call the philosopher of the performance marketing industry, for good reason. He just thinks beyond.

So you’ve just come off stage and I’ve only been able to see like two or three slides, but I saw that you have trends there. You looked at data, which you combined with a very great vision.

Topher:
Yeah, I mean, the main thing that I came to talk about was about the future of our performance marketing industry and the opportunity and helping people see what can they do to participate in that future.

And so, the future is data-driven because I’m looking at trends as to how is our industry growing, how is advertising growing, how is global ecommerce growing, how is the world economy growing. You know, we talked a lot about that. Smart phone adoption, just new platforms.

The reality is we’re at an unprecedented time of the performance marketing industry changing and people being more and more connected and the opportunity to make money online is why we’re all here, but what should you do to participate in it? That’s what I came to talk about.

Phil:
🎙️ Right, and a lot of opportunities are there for the future to come, right? Because a lot people, they enter the market and they look at it very short-term because they have to make money short-term, maybe. They’re only interested in what happens right now, that’s fair enough. I do like your way of thinking, thinking beyond and seeing what the biggest opportunities are.

The Opportunity In Performance Marketing

Topher:
I’m going to take it back for a second. If you think about the opportunities, there are opportunities like building an ad platform. You could build a product. You could build a tool that enables ad technology. You could be an affiliate marketer. So there’s lots of ways people are going to participate in the growing, global, ecommerce revolution. For affiliates, people who want to make money online, and they don’t want to have to do everything.

We’re just kind of suggesting that they consider performance marketing, which is a subsect of affiliate marketing dedicated to really figuring out ads, really figuring out channels, figuring out new platforms, figuring out new things and really finding the best way to successfully connect people with products at the best economic price so it benefits the brand, the consumer, and themselves, and everyone can benefit.

Phil:
🎙️ That’s true, that’s true. And one thing that you coin is really that affiliate marketers are really the best online salespeople, right. And one thing that I learned from you as well is like, it really needs this affiliate mindset to become that great salesperson and most affiliates have to learn it the hard way right?

You said there is no university for performance marketing or affiliate marketing really. There’s a lot of guru sh*t and talk, but if you want to really learn how it works, you have to spend your own money and this will make you learn fast.

Topher:
I think that’s the power and I said this with performance marketing, number one, we only make money when we sell stuff profitably. If we don’t sell it profitably we lose money. So that’s like one powerful thing. Number two, we spend our own money, so that changes it.

And number three, our losses because of those first two, they teach us how to perform in a way that other people are just disadvantaged. They don’t get to learn it like that.

So I don’t think it’s some magical thing like we’re the best because we think it, we’re the best because of what we do every day repeatedly, and the more we do that, and the better we get at it, and the more we see ourselves as the best, the more we’re going to become better and better.

So that’s what I wanted to inspire people, it’s not magical that we’re the best. People in performance marketing are the best because of the rules and the game that we play and ultimately, I think with the right mindset and the right vision, we can take it to another level.

The Performance Marketing Industry Is Growing 20% Faster Than The Global Economy

Phil:
🎙️ That’s very true, so what is that level then? So share some numbers. I see that you have compared like, global growth compared to how ecommerce specifically is growing. Ecommerce meaning selling stuff online. And then comparing that to the niches that certain people here are working in, right? So which is affiliate or performance marketing or whatever you want to name it right.

So what are a couple of those numbers to put that in reference and basically make people understand how special it is to work in the performance marketing industry? And what kind of power they actually have.

Topher:
So, when I prepared for this speech and prepared to come talk to this group, I went and did some research on things that I’ve always been looking at and I just wanted to brush up on my numbers. So these numbers are like three or four different reports that anyone can go buy on the internet and kind of compile it and look at it, but what I was able to look at is this.

A five year comparison of when I started in performance marketing, affiliate marketing and ecommerce and started GiddyUp, where were we at and where we are today. After looking that global affiliate, global ecommerce, global advertising, and then just global GDP like all of the industries combined – advertising is growing faster than global GDP.

So we’re growing at like 20% faster than the global economy, which is awesome, being in advertising is a good thing, but affiliate marketing is growing 300% faster than advertising. So that’s faster than global advertising is growing, partially because we have a lot of catching up to do, but that’s a really good growth trajectory.

Ecommerce is growing 500% faster than global advertising and the global economy, and so, if you really think about that, you take every other industry – automotive, health, every industry in the world, lots of them are mature. But ecommerce and affiliate marketing, we’re really at the increment of growth stage and there’s a very long trajectory in front of us.

So not only are there going to be more people at the end of my career, there’s going to be a lot more people in the world, more of them are going to have devices, more of them are going to have new ad platforms.

There’s going to be new inventors making new stuff. But ecommerce and affiliate marketing, performance marketing, and advertising, they’re all growing and so I just wanted people to embrace there’s a reason to be proud of what you do.

Being the best salesperson on the internet, isn’t a bad thing, it’s a really good thing. Especially if you really understand how you’re participating in a burgeoning area of the global economy.

Put The Consumer First In Performance Marketing

Phil:
🎙️ That is very true. Especially if you sell the right things. It’s a power for good and for bad, right? So let’s hope a lot people understand what power they have actually. They mature their skills, right and they really use their experience for the right thing, selling the right stuff, maybe even a cause or two.
Topher:
All technologies and all groups can be a force for good or evil. So it all comes down to the mindset and what you’re looking to achieve with it. I think the way that we make our force for good, which by the way has the biggest upside, is by aligning ourselves with the consumer.

The consumer puts the dollar in the machine to start with, right. And so, if we’re not thinking about them, and we’re burning them, let’s imagine they’re getting the bad end of the stick, they’re going to be less likely to put the dollar in the machine again and then everyone loses.

And so, a lot of the times, I hear people thinking very short-term like how am I going to make more money today, and they don’t consider the consumer or the ad platform or the brand.

That’s a bad way of thinking because at some point, that’s going to stop. You need to really consider the consumer first, the platform, all five people in this ecosystem in order to make sure you have the most scale.

Phil:
🎙️ That’s very reassuring. I mean, even if you don’t really care about the people that you sell to, which is a really bad attitude but even then, you must understand that it’s about lifetime customer value. So if you want to have long lifetime value, obviously be nice to people, give them what they really need and just keep working with them and sell it to them.
Topher:
Even if you don’t care about the consumer, you should care about the trajectory of your own career. And your career will not go as high if you don’t care about the consumer. At least enough to make sure that they’re not unhappy with what you’re doing.
Phil:
🎙️ Right, well strong words. Thank you very much, Topher. It’s always a pleasure.
Topher:
Thank you.