How Will Tariffs Impact Performance Marketing?
FollowYou can’t talk commerce in the U.S. right now without talking about tariffs. Whether your business is set to thrive or barely survive in the face of the tariffs, there will likely be some impact. For those in the performance marketing space, changes in economic conditions always present not just challenges but also opportunities.
In early March, the Interactive Advertising Bureau (IAB) reported that 94% of advertisers are “concerned about tariff impact on ad budgets.” However, 35% of respondents indicated that part of their plan to address financial contraints was to “increase focus on performance-based campaigns.”
What Are PMA Members Saying?
Rather than wade into politics and gamble a guess ourselves, we looked to our PMA members for their takes on how tariffs may impact our industry. Here’s a sample:
A New Search Order (Brook Schaaf, FMTC): “In this time of volatility and anxiety, marketers must focus on what works. Affiliate marketing, which delivers measurable results in alignment with advertiser needs, meets consumers where they are now and will meet them there in the future.”
Tariffs, Tactics, and the Affiliate Advantage: How Smart Ecom Brands Are Navigating 2025 (Part 1) (Part 2) (Advertise Purple) “For affiliate marketers and brands who know how to pivot, this disruption can actually unlock competitive advantage. As imports become more expensive and volatile, domestic brands—especially those with local fulfillment—have an opening to capture market share.”
How Trump’s Tariff Plan Could Reshape Digital Advertising and E-commerce in the US (Affiverse) “Opportunities for Affiliate Marketers: While some may lose revenue from promoting Chinese brands, others could benefit from an increase in domestic e-commerce partnerships.”
Key Takeaways
Pulling from all of the various articles and conversations we are seeing, here are some of the biggest considerations for performance marketing as the tariffs (possibly) take effect:
- Supply shortages for foreign-produced goods but possibly excess of domestic goods
- Some product categories will necessarily be impacted more than others
- Retailers looking to maximize their advertising spend with the lowest possible risk
- Consumers needing to look for better deals
- Longer buying cycles for high-ticket consumer goods
Any one of those things alone can impact performance marketing, but taken together they combine to create opportunities for our industry to prove its value.
