With episode 21 we're launching a new recurring series: Affiliate Dialogues – Podcast Watch. We'll cover every new drop of the ad4mat podcast hosted by Hannah Schweitzer, summarising the core themes and giving context – so you know in 60 seconds whether the 23 minutes are worth your time. This one definitely is.
What's on the table
Lomborg, Regional Managing Director at Awin – one of the world's largest affiliate networks – takes Hannah Schweitzer on a tour of the European affiliate market. Three threads dominate: is the industry actually growing, how do DACH, the Nordics and Southern Europe differ, and what is AI really doing to performance marketing?
The future of affiliate in Europe
The central question: is affiliate still growing? Lomborg's answer is a clear yes, with a caveat. The numbers keep pointing up, but the drivers have shifted. Where cashback and loyalty used to deliver the volume gains, today's growth is increasingly powered by new publisher models, creator-economy mechanics and tech partners.
DACH vs. Nordics vs. Southern Europe
Lomborg unpacks the regional differences: DACH is a mature market with high publisher diversity and strong advertiser adoption. The Nordics are structurally more digital with higher willingness to adopt new tech stacks. Southern Europe is catching up fast on content quality but remains more price-sensitive and more dependent on loyalty and coupon models.
How AI changes the business
The third block is about AI – not as a buzzword, but as an operational lever. Lomborg maps where AI already shows impact today (content scaling on the publisher side, attribution, fraud detection on the network side) and where the hype still runs ahead of real-world deployment.
About the series
Affiliate Dialogues is the podcast by ad4mat. Host Hannah Schweitzer brings over six years of performance marketing experience and worked closely with publishers, advertisers and networks at ad4mat. New episodes drop regularly – all platform links are in the episode box above.
Affilitizer Editorial Team
This article was created with AI assistance and editorially reviewed.
