Why the smartest brands are investing in affiliate marketing

In this episode, Tye DeGrange — founder and CEO of Round Barn Labs — makes the case that affiliate and partner marketing, done right, is a trust-building channel rather than the “bottom feeder” its reputation suggests. He explains why the modern trust gap creates an opening for authentic third-party partners, why affiliate is better understood as a multi-channel lever with 15+ partner types than a single channel, and how incentives quietly determine outcomes. Tye digs into the measurement problems that plague the channel — why server-to-server tracking beats pixels, why last-click rewards the wrong partners, and how to feed impression data into marketing mix models. He shares standout campaigns (eBay Motors’ multi-year Bring a Trailer build; an 81% traffic lift from a single mid-tier YouTube creator for Atlassian) and the misconceptions that keep brands from managing affiliate like the real channel it is. It's a practical tour of a channel most performance marketers underrate.