Welcome to the second part of our Champion of Performance Marketing interview with Anna Gita, the founder of MaxWeb, a seasoned expert in affiliate marketing, and the author of Affiliate Insider.
Anna shares her journey into writing her book, offers practical advice for optimizing affiliate campaigns, and discusses the importance of mindset in achieving success.
Her insights are not just valuable for industry veterans but also for those new to the affiliate marketing space. Let’s dive into her experiences and learn what it takes to excel in this competitive industry.
Listen to the full episode on Spotify
Listen the full episode on Youtube
Q: Tell me more about your book. You recently launched a book, Affiliate Insider. How did you start? What prompted you to write it, and what are your messages there?
Anna Gita: I don’t like talking much about myself or the book [Affiliate Insider]. I honestly think it’s great because I wrote it from the perspective of someone learning. I wrote it as a passion project. I’m a reader. I always read. Like right now, I’m into fantasy. I read, like, I don’t know, like Game of Thrones, The Witcher tropes. I’m super into it.
Getting a good, interesting book relaxes me. And every reader at one point is like: ‘I will write a book one day.’
In my case, I wish I had written something more interesting, but I wanted it to be useful.
I started as a passion project, and I started putting down all the terms that I had to learn because I’m a person who enjoys learning, but it was a huge learning curve.
I remember being on one of my first calls, and it was a client, a product owner, talking about AOV and CPA and the CR and the postback pixels and the links.
And then, at the end of that time, I was like, ‘Well, I really need to learn the lingo of this industry because it doesn’t matter that I have a business background. I won’t be able to do business with these people if they see me so unknowledgeable.’
The first chapter of the book is literally just a bunch of terms, okay, but explained in a way that’s easy to digest.
As a reader, I think it’s brilliant when you read a book but it’s so heavily written.
Q: Do you share some optimization techniques in your book?
Anna Gita: Yes, and there’s a chapter for product owners, too, because many product owners would make so much more money if they were a bit more understanding on the affiliate side.
I specifically—not yell, because I never yell at anyone, but I’m a bit assertive in the book, and I tell product owners: ‘Look, you need to look at these numbers. You need to be aware of these problems. If you don’t understand your fulfillment, no one will run with you, right?”
I address some of those more difficult—but I think if product owners know all this ahead of time and plan a bit better, they could be more profitable.
Also, I want people just to be aware that all the money goes to this charity in Northern Romania. I sometimes share stuff from it on my page. Every money goes to the kids there. You can order the Affiliate Insider book from here!
Q: For media buyers, do you have any recommendations for optimizing campaigns, like for Nutra, for Native?

Anna Gita: Yes, it depends a lot on the traffic sources.
We are very good with Native, and now we have started running more with Facebook and YouTube Ads because our affiliates are very good in those niches.
We also wanted to be good so we could test offers before they do.
Facebook is now on our list of traffic sources. If let’s say, a product owner comes to MaxWeb if they want to utilize our affiliates, that’s great, but if they want to run with us— with our media buying side, we have more financial stability.
We usually do Native, Facebook, and YouTube now.
And there are special tools for every specific traffic source, but when optimizing, it’s very, very important to let the campaigns run.
I don’t know how many times I’ve said this, and good affiliates don’t listen.
They’ll send 300 clicks trying to see how the campaign is, and then they’re optimizing. But with 300 clicks, it’s very hard, close to impossible, to know if something is working.
My main advice is that you can apply to PPC, Google Ads, and Native and have a bit of patience.
Or don’t pick campaigns that you cannot afford to let that campaign live for 24 hours. It’s probably not a good fit for you.
But that’s the number one mistake I see every time there’s a new test. It’s like 300 clicks. It’s impossible to know.
From what I’ve seen, and I’ve seen a lot of traffic and a lot of spend, it’s nearly impossible to have a decent opinion if you don’t let that ad run for 24 hours. My number one advice that you can apply across all the different traffic sources is to be patient. Let that ad run for 24 hours or 48 hours, even if the spend is lower because that’s how you make an informed opinion if that lender works or if it doesn’t.
The second piece of advice is to make small changes.
For us, changing the headline, just the headline of the ad, many times increased the conversion rate.
Change the headline, then go with the thumbnail because this is advice that you can use on any traffic source. Change the thumbnail.
Don’t change everything on the page because then you’ll not know what works and what doesn’t, right? Small changes—headlines and thumbnails—are easy things that you can change and optimize without spending hours and hours on every single thing.
CPV Lab advice: If you want to change multiple elements, make sure you track these variations with a multivariate tool like MV Lab used to define the variations and track them in CPV Lab.
Q: How important is tracking for your affiliate network and for your media buyers?

Anna Gita: Oh, it’s paramount. It’s so important [tracking] that we decided to create our solution. We love our friends at Everflow, OffersLook, and Cake, which are platforms that offer tracking.
But we decided to create our own because I was very paranoid not to lose any visits or clicks. We created our own. But we integrate with any CRM or tracker that affiliates enjoy.
But it’s very important because it’s very hard for you to optimize your campaign if you don’t know the conversion rate, and the conversion rate is easy to grasp if you have 500 visits and one sale or 3,000 visits. It’s very important, and it’s important to keep track of it.
And as a product owner, I often see people very relaxed about stuff like this, and they’re almost like, ‘Oh, well, the affiliate should be grateful I let them run the offer.’ And that’s a silly way to look at it because you need to provide the affiliates with good tracking.
If an affiliate complains that they cannot see some clicks or checkout visits, don’t say, ‘Oh, all is good, all is great.’ Just look into it. That’s the big thing.
Q: Why are VSLs so powerful?
You can do so much with good marketing, and that’s why I like video sales letters. You can be aggressive in the sense that you can put very interesting music, a strong headline—but on the back end, you have to be very fair to the customers. Otherwise, you’re just going to have lots of refunds.
That’s what I enjoy about video sales letters: you can be aggressive with the marketing while still being very fair to the customers. And if you want to get into the health or nutraceutical space, you need to have a strong customer service team. If a customer calls and wants a refund, you have to accommodate them with no questions asked. That’s a big secret to why our offers work—we’re nice to the customers.
Another thing is that these videos convert like crazy. As mind-boggling as it is, customers actually sit and watch 40-minute videos. They have the time, and they enjoy it. After watching, they often order a six-month supply because the hook is so strong. We’re talking about $50,000 VSLs that are crafted to truly grasp the attention of the consumer.
The thing with VSLs is that they really work. When you first look at one, as an educated person, you might think, ‘This is too much—the colors, the sound, the length.’ But there are so many people in this world from different backgrounds, and stuff like that converts. I’ve learned to listen to the numbers. Even if a page has typos but converts better, we keep it as is.
VSLs are incredibly profitable, but many product owners are afraid to get into them. They think, ‘I’ll make a beautiful e-commerce page that looks perfect.’ Sometimes, though, less polished approaches, like VSLs, convert far better.
Q: Do you have any, special story, success story with MaxWeb affiliates that you can share with us, or did you share it in the book?

Anna Gita: So many, so many, but I’ll share one.
One of my good friends in the space, when he got started, he was working a 9-to-5. He lives in the UK, actually. He moved recently, but long story short, I love it because I remember specifically how he had a 9-to-5.
He had young children at the time, so he was trying to, like, surprise his wife with some extra profits for the holidays.
And it’s a beautiful story because this person didn’t even have a full-time day to learn, right?
He just had a few hours after his 9-to-5. He got one of the Facebook courses in our space. He learned the course, but that’s just 10% of the job.
Now, then, you have to focus on creating your creatives because if you go and copy-paste someone else’s creatives, it’s not a long-term solution. I remember it was right at the beginning of MaxWeb.
I was doing much of the day-to-day work, and I remember helping him with the campaign. I remember the first sale, which came a month after he started.
One of the main things that I always advise affiliates when I’m on stage or in my book is not to think about millions of dollars.
It’s very good to manifest financial stability, but think about one sale daily.
One sale a day because if you make one sale a day, that’s $100 a day, $700 a week. You already have almost a nice salary for Europe if you do one sale a day. I’m not saying stop there, but that’s the most important goal because if you’re capable of creating ads that will give you one sale a day, you can go to the next step of 1K a day, 10K a day, right?
My friend started, like, a month into affiliate marketing, he got his first sale, and fast forward two years later, not only did he quit his 9-to-5, but he was able to move his family to a beautiful place by the sea. He still does Facebook to this day. Even when things are very hard, he has the patience to sit through the hard times.
That’s one of my favorite examples because it was someone who I saw struggling with a job where you can’t afford a vacation every year.
Now, you can afford to go anywhere and buy a house or a car. And it’s just tangible, increasing the quality of life, and I love that.
And I know we have many examples like that. I just always think of my friend because I was there helping him with the campaigns.
Q: Nice story, and it shows how much you can do by learning and testing. What do you think about affiliate courses?
Anna Gita: There are many gurus in our space that create very silly courses, but there are a couple that are actually written by affiliates. But it’s not enough to just go through the course. The learning doesn’t stop there, right?
You need to really put in the effort. If I were to start again, and if I were 20 years old, I would definitely become an affiliate.
It’s just such an easy way to make money. If you put in the work, it’s almost a guarantee that if you put in the work as an affiliate, you’re going to have financial stability.
Q: If there is a problem now in the affiliate marketing space, something that you would like to solve, what would that be?

Anna Gita: Like with everything, something can always be improved. I tend to focus more on everything that’s positive. But one thing that I think would be overwhelmingly helpful to all of us is that there’s a lot of competition in our space.
I know the business leaders would tell you that competition is good, and it’s good to encourage each other. It’s good to always want to do better. But I’ve seen in our industry companies schedule events on top of each other because, ‘Oh, I want the affiliates to come to my party, not theirs.’ One thing I would change is for everyone to be more chill and encourage others. There’s so—the abundance mindset.
We are brilliant business people. We should know that the abundance mindset tells you just to be happy for whoever is doing better. Work hard on yourself. But I would probably change that mindset of, like, competitors.
I don’t know where they’re trying very hard to steal each other’s affiliates, where you can have the mindset, ‘Well if the affiliate is making lots of money there, he would have more money to spend on my platform.'”
Julia: Right, I think helping each other in this industry is not that common.
Anna Gita: Right, and I think we’re slowly changing that; at least, the other networks I work with, we’re changing that.
We are throwing parties together and doing things where affiliates can work with more than one network and be profitable and happy. I would change that for everyone across the industry.
Q: What is the one tip or piece of advice that you have for somebody wanting to start in affiliate marketing now?

Anna Gita: Well, the number one advice that I always have is to be very prepared to learn. Be prepared to learn because it’s such a profitable industry. Work on your mindset a bit where it’s not going to happen overnight.
There’s this—and I don’t want to be political or say something that’s not politically correct, but you have this wave of toxic masculinity, and you have this, like, podcast where, like, ‘Dude, what’s your net worth? How much money are you making?’ And it’s so silly.
Rich people, people who make money in our space, are not that aggressive. They are relaxed. They are chill. They want to help. They are calm-minded.
And again, I know you would think that people who make lots of money are sharks. They’re not. They’re chill people, relaxed. They’re thinking, ‘Okay, how are we going to make an impact? How are we going to help others around us?’ That’s how people think.
My number one advice is to work a bit on your mindset and your perspective because kindness will take you a really long way. And be really nice to other people. You have no idea who they are and what position they are. Be nice because do not be overly aggressive when you don’t have to be. And ask questions.
You’d be surprised.
There’s so many people like me, huge nerds, we get excited when we get asked questions.
If you go to a conference and don’t understand something someone is talking about, ask questions. I promise you 99% of people will be honored that you think they know what they’re talking about, and they’re going to be more than happy to share that information.
Q: And where can people get in touch with you?
Anna Gita: I usually give everyone my email or my Skype, but let’s do something different because I actually want to see the messages. You can use my Instagram because that’s what I use for family so that one is easy. Here is my account: anca_an

Just use my Instagram.
It might take me a while to get back to you, but I promise I always go through all the messages, even if it takes me a few days. In the worst case, if I don’t know the answer, I’ll put you in touch with someone from my team who can help you and get that answer for you.
And just mention, very important, when you message me, let me know you’re Julia’s friend because then I’ll talk to you. 🙂
Conclusion:
Anna’s journey from a curious learner to an accomplished author and leader in affiliate marketing is truly inspiring.
Her passion for knowledge, combined with a patient and strategic approach, has led to significant personal and professional success.
Whether you’re a seasoned marketer or just starting out, her advice on patience, continuous learning, and the importance of a positive mindset is a valuable guide.
As we wrap up this conversation, remember that the affiliate marketing landscape is as much about relationships and kindness as it is about strategy and numbers. Anna’s story is a testament to that balance.
Follow Anna Gita and get in touch with her:
- Website: MaxWeb
- Linkedin: Anna Gita Linkedin
- Instagram: Anca_an (but you need to mention you are coming from CPV Lab :))
- Get Anna’s book “Affiliate Insider” from here! (don’t forget you get to learn a lot about affiliate marketing and also donate to charity!)
Don’t forget to check out the full interview on YouTube and Spotify for more in-depth insights from Anna.

Author: Julia Draghici
Julia is the CEO of CPV Lab and CPV One ad trackers. She has 15+ years experience in the software industry, from development to management. For more than 6 years she is helping marketers get the best out of their marketing campaigns by using a performant ad tracker. Passionate about entrepreneurship, business and performance marketing, Julia loves helping people!