{"id":17296,"date":"2026-11-10T22:43:39","date_gmt":"2026-11-10T22:43:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/cpvlab.pro\/blog\/?p=17296"},"modified":"2026-11-11T07:56:34","modified_gmt":"2026-11-11T07:56:34","slug":"affiliate-grand-slam-rome-2026-recap","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/cpvlab.pro\/blog\/marketing-industry\/events\/affiliate-grand-slam-rome-2026-recap\/","title":{"rendered":"AGS Rome 2026: Game, Set, and Match – Affiliate Marketing Just Got a New Home"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

A while ago I shared what to expect from Affiliate Grand Slam Rome 2026<\/a>. Now that I am back and the Rome espresso has worn off, it is time for the honest version – what surprised me, what was actually useful, and a few things I would do differently next time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bigger Than I Expected<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

I will be honest – I did not expect AGS to be this big. I went in thinking it would be a solid mid-sized European event, something in the 1,000-2,000 attendee range. What I walked into at Fiera Roma was closer to AWE territory.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The venue itself is massive. 8 halls full of booths – everything from nutra networks and iGaming traffic sources to media buying tools and affiliate platforms. If you have been to any of the Sigma events, you will recognize the layout immediately, because a big part of the floor is Sigma’s iGaming crowd. AGS and Sigma share the venue, which means you get a mix of performance marketing people alongside the online casino and sports betting world.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For us at CPV Lab and CPV One, that is actually interesting – media buyers who run iGaming campaigns need tracking just as much as anyone else. So the audience was broader than I initially thought.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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The Exhibition Floor: Who Was There<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Walking the AGS floor, the mix was what you would expect at a European affiliate event in 2026 – CPA networks, traffic sources, tools, and payment processors. I stopped at quite a few booths and had conversations I genuinely was not expecting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NewsBreak<\/strong> had a solid presence there, which caught my attention since we had Kate from NewsBreak on our podcast earlier this year and we also have quite a few users running NewsBreak traffic. Great to connect with the team in person.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ClickBank<\/strong> was there as well. I had a good chat at their booth – ClickBank’s presence at European events has been growing, and it makes sense given how many vendors and affiliates they serve globally.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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JVZoo<\/strong> had a booth too. I stopped by and spoke with Steve – was great to catch up with the JVZoo team. They are still one of the main platforms for digital product launches and affiliate programs in the ecommerce space.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Adsterra<\/strong> was there representing traffic with their usual high energy. I had a quick chat with Mikhail at their booth – they are one of the bigger push and display networks in performance marketing and it is always good to see familiar faces from the traffic side. Especially after recently having my interview with Mikhail<\/a>, meeting him in person felt really good.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I also stopped at FabFunnel<\/strong> – an ad creative and funnel tool I had not seen at European events before. Interesting product for affiliates who need to move fast on creative testing. Will talk more about them in the future<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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I also managed to grab a few short interviews on the floor – those will be dropping on our YouTube channel<\/a> soon, so keep an eye out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

ConversionWise: The Landing Page Session Worth Catching<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of the highlights on the exhibition floor was running into Oliver Kenyon<\/strong>, co-founder of ConversionWise<\/a>. Radu had been in touch with Oliver online for a while, so it was good to finally meet in person – and I grabbed a quick interview with him while we were there (coming to YouTube soon).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Oliver also had a presentation at AGS, and if you work with landing pages at any level, it was worth attending. ConversionWise has been in the post-click optimization space since 2013, so his perspective on what actually moves conversion rates is based on a lot of real data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"ConversionWise\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The core message was simple but important: the lazy affiliate model sends ads directly to the merchant offer page. The super affiliate model puts a matched landing page in between – and that one step is what separates the margins. It is not a new idea, but seeing it framed clearly alongside data on what goes on that first screen (clear value proposition, benefit-driven bullets, social proof, trust signals, one CTA) is a good reminder of how many campaigns skip the basics.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We will cover the ConversionWise approach to landing pages in more depth in a separate article. For now – if you are not already following Oliver’s work, worth doing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Meta Ads Panels: Useful Sessions<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The Meta Ads content at AGS was good. The two sessions I caught on this topic were worth it. And I know some media buyers would say “hey, but I already knew most of that stuff”. But it is useful to hear it again and again until you get it right. Plus, some information was from their experiences, which is very valuable. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Maor “The Wolf” on Campaign Structure<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Maor Benaim (The Wolf of Meta Ads) presented a full session on campaign structures, manual bidding, and how to work with the Meta algorithm in 2026. The main thread was that aggressive cost cap strategies – set from the very beginning, not switched in later – are what separate profitable campaigns from ones that bleed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One slide that stuck with me: “You can’t switch from highest volume to cost cap later – and it doesn’t work with bid cap.” That is the kind of practical rule that saves you real money if you internalize it before you launch.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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He also walked through how to spot what the algorithm actually favors – high landing page CTR combined with a high conversion rate puts you in the 20% of ads Meta keeps pushing. The table he showed comparing CVR and CTR combinations was dense but very useful.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But the most important message from his presentation was this: send the right signals to Meta<\/strong> with CAPI<\/a>! If you want to optimize your campaign and get better traffic, those signals make the difference. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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“Using AI to Scale Meta Ads Across Different Verticals in 2026” Panel<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This panel included Emil Alexandru, Andrei Galtan, Robert Todella, and Ashish Gaba (Founder, Worify).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Emil and Robert are both media buyers I have had flash interviews with on our YouTube channel – you can watch the Robert interview here<\/a> if you want to go deeper on how he approaches sweepstakes on Meta.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The key points from this panel:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

AI for voice and creative production.<\/strong> Both Emil and Robert have moved toward using AI-generated voice in their ad creatives. The speed and cost savings are real, and the quality has crossed a threshold where it converts. This is not a future thing – it is what high-volume media buyers are running right now.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Aggressive scaling approach.<\/strong> The panel was not shy about it: in 2026, the Meta buyers who win are the ones who move fast, test aggressively, and are not afraid to spend into a campaign early to give the algorithm enough data. Cautious budgets produce cautious results.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

CAPI<\/a> is not optional anymore.<\/strong> This was probably the most repeated point across both sessions: Conversions API (CAPI) is essential. Not just useful – essential. The more signal you give Meta’s algorithm about what a real conversion looks like, the better it optimizes. If you are not running CAPI in 2026, you are running blind and paying for it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was also a very interesting presentation showing TrafficManager’s real usage data: 15% of their customer platforms already have an MCP (Model Context Protocol) connection, and among those, 80% are using Claude. The message was direct – make sure your tracking platform supports MCP if you want your AI assistant to actually work with your campaign data.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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For us at CPV Lab<\/a> and CPV One<\/a>, this is something we are actively working on. MCP integration is on the roadmap and this panel confirmed it is the right direction.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Side Events: My Take<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

The side events at AGS Rome were… a mixed bag, and I would rather be honest than just say “great networking.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The queue situations at some events were not great – waiting 45 minutes for a party that lasts 3 hours is not the best use of conference time. The rooftop events in November Rome evenings were cold and smaller than expected. That said, the people who made it to those smaller gatherings were usually the more serious operators – nutra, lead gen, ecommerce media buyers – and those conversations were worth having. If you made it at the event without the queue, definitely worth it and clearly good networking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also, Rome is a big city and sometimes the long distances between events made me miss a few because I had to spend too much time on the road.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

If you are comparing side events, Budapest (the Affiliate World Europe crowd<\/a>) did it better this year. The AGS Rome side events have room to grow, and I think they will improve as the conference scales.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Catching Up with Familiar Faces<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

One of my favorite things about going to conferences regularly is running into people you have not seen in a while or people you talked to online but never met them in person. AGS gave me that.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few of us in the room had crossed paths at Affiliate Meet Markt Berlin back in 2022 – which feels like a lifetime ago in affiliate marketing terms. That was one of the first conferences where I really connected with people from the European performance marketing scene, and catching up with some of those same people in Rome in 2026 was genuinely a good moment. The industry is smaller than it looks from the outside, and those long-term connections are what actually make events worth attending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My Overall Take on AGS Rome<\/strong><\/h2>\n\n\n\n

What worked:<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n