PR and Affiliate Marketing: A Rising Tide Lifts All Ships

Some days, I just want to shout, “Wake up, marketers! The days of siloed marketing channels are long gone.” It's time to integrate our marketing efforts in order to get the profitable growth we need. These siloes show up often in the way brands still treat PR and affiliate marketing like oil and water. This is short sighted, and that puts teamwork and efficiency at risk.It’s simple math:

PR generates interest, engagement and awareness. Investment in affiliate marketing works best when it can shorten the purchase cycle for brands that have strong awareness. Do you see where I’m headed?

The Disconnect

Brands can be confused about how affiliate marketing and PR work together because these disciplines have traditionally been seen as separate functions with different goals, metrics, and execution strategies.?

Brands also assume that affiliate marketing serves a performance marketing function, while PR is about awareness. Different departments; different teams. This siloed approach is wrong and can lead to:

• Missed opportunities to monetize PR-driven traffic through affiliate links.
• A lack of coordination when pitching media outlets that also participate in affiliate programs (Ex. Forbes, Meredith, BuzzFeed).
• Inconsistent messaging between affiliate-driven content and PR narratives.
• Uncooperative teams that are territorial and concerned they’ll encroach on each other’s success.

But there’s another way. One that creates alignment on strategy and execution to help a brand reach its goals the right way.

PR and Affiliate Marketing Done Right

One of our clients, a multi-brand platform that supports other digitally native brands, has known from the beginning that PR and affiliate marketing must work together for optimal performance.?

They’re aware that many top-tier media outlets now expect brands to have an affiliate program in place before featuring them—which means affiliate and PR must be integrated.?

Instead of siloing their PR and affiliate marketing programs, they brought everyone to the same table. This yielded efficiencies because both teams had:

A Unified Strategy: PR and affiliate teams joined each other’s weekly status calls, ensuring complete transparency across all fronts.

Clear Role Definition: PR focused on content and placements, while affiliate marketing provided the incentives to supercharge those placements.

Collaborative Outreach: If PR wasn’t able to get in touch with an editor, we would reach out to our contacts to try to get them a response and they would do the same for us.

Shared Goals: Everyone rallied around a common objective – the brand's success. No more turf wars, just teamwork.

Get Aligned

Without a unified strategy, brands waste budget by paying influencers separately for PR features and offering them affiliate commissions through different channels. A smart integration ensures PR teams pitch outlets already in the brand’s affiliate program, maximizing both earned media and sales. Other ways brands can ensure these two teams are aligned include:

• Using unique affiliate links in press placements to measure PR-driven conversions.
• Equipping PR teams with transparency into affiliate marketing activities and insights so they can pitch publications that align with affiliate partners and provide gap-filling where affiliate cannot play (aka “editorial discretion”)
• Offer a tiered compensation model combining flat-fee PR sponsorships and affiliate commission incentives.

Brands that successfully blend PR and affiliate marketing can turn media coverage into a sustainable revenue channel, rather than just a brand awareness tool. They just need to reframe what success looks like and realize that it's a team win, not just a win for one side. By breaking down silos and aligning incentives, brands can maximize both reach and ROI in a sustainable and consistent way that leads to growth and proven success from both channels. What are your thoughts? Leave them in the comments!