Publishers and Advertisers Gain Enhanced Transparency, Brand Safety, and AI-Driven Insights

Rakuten Advertising, a global leader in affiliate marketing, has introduced a suite of advanced tools designed to address key challenges in the affiliate space. Announced during Rakuten Optimism 2025, these solutions aim to elevate transparency, improve brand safety, strengthen creator partnerships, and deliver actionable AI-driven insights for publishers and advertisers.

Affiliate Conversion Journey – Transparency API

An upgraded version of Rakuten’s Affiliate Conversion Journey introduces a new transparency API. This tool offers publishers next-day visibility into their role in a customer’s purchase journey — all the way down to the individual order.

“The affiliate industry is facing a critical challenge where publishers are often reliant on the last click for commissions while advertisers often use multi-touch attribution technologies,” said Nick Stamos, CEO of Rakuten Advertising. “This new API will give publishers the data transparency to better understand and attribute the value they deliver for their advertiser partners.”

Rakuten Advertising Detect

Rakuten Advertising Detect is a comprehensive monitoring suite designed to ensure affiliate program safety and compliance. Key features include:

  • Fraud Detection: Powered by Rakuten’s data science capabilities and partnerships with Marcode, AdPolice, and Search Monitor, this feature proactively flags ad hijacking and keyword bidding issues.
  • Anomaly Detection: Automatically alerts advertisers to abnormal performance patterns, enabling quicker fraud detection and issue resolution.
  • Program Monitoring: Tracks financial products, content, competitor rankings, and cashback activity to deliver deeper program performance insights.

“Rakuten Advertising Detect is an all-in-one solution that combines the strength of our partnerships with our own proprietary technologies to deliver advertisers the oversight they need to ensure their affiliate programs are protected and optimized,” added Stamos.

Storefronts: Influencer Marketing Meets Affiliate

Storefronts is Rakuten’s influencer marketing solution, enabling advertisers to collaborate with curated creators to build shoppable experiences. Using simple linking tools, creators can promote brand-specific recommendations, offering advertisers access to loyal and engaged audiences.

This tool supports scalability, ensures campaign alignment with business goals, and facilitates long-term creator partnerships. It also brings together creator reporting, shopping behavior analytics, and strategic support from Rakuten’s in-house experts.

“This is our latest step towards bringing influencer marketing and affiliate closer together,” said Stamos. “We expect this to create a more efficient, holistic approach to influencer marketing investments and insights.”

Prompt: AI-Driven Custom Reports in Real Time

Prompt is a new AI-powered tool that enables advertisers and publishers to generate real-time, custom reports. Utilizing generative AI, Prompt delivers flexible insights and visualized data to help partners understand program performance and adapt strategies swiftly.

“Affiliate Intelligence helps brands and publishers realize the full potential of an affiliate program,” Stamos noted. “Prompt enhances this capability by enabling smarter, faster decision-making through custom analytics.”

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