Rakuten Advertising Sets Up AI Labs for Affiliate Marketing

Rakuten Advertising unveiled Innovation Labs, a new undertaking intent on sharing AI application with the affiliate marketing domain. It is not, however, a complete solution or a finished product. It is a collaboration space where advertisers and publishers can see, test, and influence how new AI-driven features are built. Innovation Labs sits inside Rakuten Advertising’s Insights and Analytics portal and is meant to evolve continuously.

At launch, the main addition is AI Recommendations. For advertisers, this system looks at multiple signals at the same time. Advertiser profiles, product data, past performance, and campaign characteristics are analyzed together. The goal is to surface publishers that have already shown success in similar situations and to highlight entirely new publisher types that could drive growth. This reduces reliance on manual discovery and trial and error.

For publishers, AI-driven Product Recommendations are designed to cut down research time. The system scans trends across both existing partners and non-partnered advertisers. It then curates relevant product opportunities for specific audiences and narrows choices using brand and category filters. The aim is clearer monetization signals with less effort.

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Rakuten Advertising’s Data Science team will run ongoing experiments inside Innovation Labs. Features will be added, tested, and refined relying on the actual feedback from clients and partners. The wider picture is understood. Affiliate marketing is heading to AI as a permanent optimization layer rather than a one-time improvement.