Rakuten Advertising Launches "Innovation Labs" To Speed Up AI Use in Affiliate Marketing
Rakuten Advertising just introduced Innovation Labs inside its Insights & Analytics portal. It's a collaborative hub where advertisers and publishers can test AI features that drive more efficient spend and stronger partnerships across the network.
The focus is simple: shorten the build-measure-learn cycle, so teams see results faster and scale what works.
What's live now: AI Recommendations
- For Advertisers: AI scans your profile, products, and historical performance to suggest new types of publishers to recruit. It cross-references lookalike success, surfaces adjacent categories, and highlights partners that can unlock net-new growth.
- For Publishers: AI-driven Product Recommendations cut research time by flagging emerging product trends from both partnered and non-partnered advertisers. You can filter by brand and category to curate content that converts for your audience.
Why this matters for marketers
Manual prospecting and product research drain hours and miss signals. With AI Recommendations, both sides get data-backed suggestions that expand reach without guesswork.
Expect faster testing cycles, clearer prioritization, and smarter distribution of effort across campaigns and content.
How Innovation Labs will evolve
Rakuten Advertising's Data Science team will run ongoing experiments, taking direct input from clients and partners. Features will ship, iterate, and update on a regular cadence-so the toolset improves as the network learns.
Leadership frames this as part of Rakuten Group's "Triple 20" commitment to drive 20% greater efficiency across teams and clients. As CEO Nick Stamos put it, this initiative brings data, AI, partnerships, and strategy into one motion to improve outcomes for advertisers and publishers.
Action steps for advertisers
- Log in to the Insights & Analytics portal and review your AI Recommendations weekly.
- Shortlist 5-10 new publisher categories; test structured offers and creative per category.
- Set simple success criteria: acceptance rate, first-click to first-sale time, and 30-day ROAS.
- Feed results back into the portal so the model learns from your real performance.
Action steps for publishers
- Use Product Recommendations to build 2-3 themed content clusters around trending items.
- Apply brand/category filters to match audience intent (evergreen vs. seasonal).
- Track EPC, click-to-content time, and repeat clickers; promote winners, kill laggards.
- Test non-partnered trends with outreach templates to secure fresh deals quickly.
What leaders are saying
"Innovation Labs is the culmination of years of work growing our Affiliate Intelligence suite of AI-powered tools," said Nick Stamos, CEO at Rakuten Advertising. "Innovation Labs will shorten the build-measure-learn cycle of AI transformation, helping us fast-track future investment in capabilities that improve outcomes for our advertisers and publisher partners."
"This will be a space where advertisers and publishers can experiment, collaborate, and scale new use cases with AI to deliver greater efficiency for everyone and accelerate the industry's growth," added Adam Rostan, Chief Product Officer.
Where to learn more
Explore Rakuten Advertising's offerings at RakutenAdvertising.com.
If you're upskilling your team on practical AI for marketing, this AI certification for marketing specialists can help standardize workflows and measurement.
About Rakuten Advertising
Rakuten Advertising delivers performance-driven, brand-driven, and people-driven ad solutions that help global brands connect with highly engaged audiences-from first impression to final sale. Backed by technology, media properties, and a large partner network, the company uses data and experience to drive engagement, sales, and loyalty. It is a division of Rakuten Group, Inc. (4755: TOKYO) and is headquartered in San Mateo, California, with offices across EMEA, APAC, LATAM, and North America.
Media Contact
Carol Lee
carol.lee@rakuten.com
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