Written by Ciaron Dunne, Co-founder and Executive Chair at Genie Ventures, and has 21 years experience in performance marketing. Genie Ventures are founding members of the APMA.
Putting people first
At Genie Ventures, we’ve always known that success in affiliate marketing comes from a potent mix of innovation, teamwork, and industry collaboration. Winning both Publisher of the Year and Best Team at the recent 2025 Performance Marketing Awards (PMAs) was fantastic recognition – but more importantly, it affirmed our belief that putting people first drives long-term success..
Genie Ventures comprises three interconnected brands – Broadband Genie, Genie Shopping, and Genie Goals. Over the last two decades, we’ve built long-standing relationships with more than 1,000 brands, leading agencies and networks in the affiliate space, achieving considerable influence and scale. Remarkably, £1 in every £450 spent online in the UK flows through Genie Ventures, and £1 in every £79 of affiliate-generated ecommerce revenue is driven by our efforts.
Our PMA Best Team award was particularly special. It recognised the commitment from our leadership in building a business where team wellbeing isn’t just a nice-to-have – it’s core to our operations. Genie Ventures remains fully founder-owned, giving us the flexibility to prioritise employee welfare through wellness allowances, market-leading family leave policies, and a workplace culture designed around empowerment and growth. It’s no accident that our growth rate was 35% year-on-year during the awards period – seven times the industry average of 5%, according to benchmarks from the Affiliate and Partner Marketing Association (APMA) State of the Affiliate Nation 2025 report.
Elevating affiliate marketing standards
The APMA’s annual deep-dive research has proven indispensable, finally giving us – and the industry – accurate affiliate market share data. For the first time in our 20-year history, we’ve been able to benchmark accurately, understand our market position, and clearly showcase our impact to clients and partners.
Beyond performance metrics, Genie Ventures’ active role as a founding Gold member of the APMA demonstrates our commitment to elevating standards and transparency across affiliate marketing. Our team actively contributes to APMA initiatives, viewing these engagements as vital opportunities for personal growth and professional development.
Recently, Genie Goals made waves by confronting challenges posed by GA4, an area many found intimidating or opaque. Rachel Said and Imogen Collins championed a data-driven approach, offering clear, practical guidance on GA4 at PI Live that resonated widely, evidenced by queues at the door of their session. Meanwhile, Warrick Lambert, CEO at Genie Shopping, was the driving force behind a collaborative, groundbreaking Payments Guide project, ‘Everything you need to know about publisher payments’, demystifying affiliate network payment systems for the entire UK industry.
We strongly believe that supporting the APMA and actively engaging with industry challenges not only positions us as thought leaders but fundamentally aligns with our mission – to create lasting value for our team, our partners, and the industry as a whole.
Looking ahead, we remain excited about further collaboration, continuing to raise industry standards, and sharing insights that help us all grow together.
