John Wright welcomes Artem Butov, founder of Marxel, for an in-depth conversation about the future of affiliate marketing technology and the rise of API-based performance marketing systems. Artem shares his journey from traditional advertising into affiliate marketing, eventually building both an affiliate network and a SaaS platform focused on helping businesses manage traffic, leads, and tracking more efficiently. Artem is the founder of Marksel.io. Thanks for our podcast sponsors Odys iGaming, StatsDrone, NousViz and Affilka. Together, they discuss how the affiliate industry is shifting away from outdated pixel tracking toward API-driven infrastructures that allow advertisers and affiliates to better manage data, automate workflows, and optimize traffic performance. The discussion also touches on AI-powered campaign management, smart links, affiliate ecosystems, and how smaller teams can now launch sophisticated affiliate operations without massive development resources. The episode also explores major industry trends, including shrinking margins, rising competition, traffic volatility, fraud prevention, and the increasing importance of analytics and conversion optimization. Artem explains why successful affiliate businesses must become more data-driven and operationally efficient in order to survive in today’s rapidly changing environment. If you’re interested in affiliate marketing, media buying, SaaS tools, API tracking, or the future of performance marketing infrastructure, this episode is packed with valuable insights and real-world experience from two industry veterans.