Operator to Architect: How Jonathan Moisan Is Redesigning Affiliate Marketing

Welcome to another edition of our Employee Spotlight series—where we shine a light on the people who make Advertise Purple one of the most respected performance marketing agencies in the game.  This time, we’re turning the spotlight on someone who needs no introduction internally—but whose impact deserves to be shared more widely.

Some people talk a big game. Others just quietly build.

When Jonathan Moisan became CEO of Advertise Purple, he didn’t show up with fireworks or a LinkedIn post announcing “New Chapter, Same Mission.” He showed up the way he always has—head down, sleeves rolled, spreadsheets open.

But don’t let the calm demeanor fool you. Since taking the reins, Jon has been steadily redesigning what a high-performance affiliate agency looks like. Less chaos, more systems. Less noise, more signal. And while the founder stepping aside might feel like a dramatic shift for most companies, for AP it felt like a natural evolution. That’s what happens when your CEO already knows how every department runs—because he helped build them.

---

From Finance to the Front Office

For those unfamiliar, Jon didn’t parachute into AP from the outside. He started in 2016 managing HR and accounting. Sexy? No. But foundational? Absolutely.

Over the years, he quietly expanded his reach—building forecasting models, structuring operations, stabilizing hiring practices, and helping to scale AP during its most aggressive growth years. By the time he became CEO in 2023, there wasn’t a single system he didn’t understand.

That’s the thing about operators: they may not chase headlines, but they know exactly where the wheels could come off—and how to reinforce them before they do.

---

Scaling Smarter (and Sharper)

Under Jon’s leadership, the agency hasn’t just gotten bigger—it’s gotten better.

He’s emphasized margin clarity, elevated client experience frameworks, and brought a high-finance level of precision to how we track performance. That rigor shows up in the little things: better forecasting, smarter client segmentation, and clearer paths to ROI. But it also shows up in the big ones—like how we evaluate vertical expansion, when we greenlight tech investments, and how we scale new departments (like our social commerce unit).

---

The Social Commerce Shift

One of Jon’s most significant pushes has been doubling down on what’s next. Affiliate isn’t just coupon codes anymore. It’s TikTok creators, native shopping tools, dynamic attribution, and influencer-led discovery.

While others hesitated on TikTok Shop or waited for the ecosystem to “mature,” Jon fast-tracked our move into creator commerce. Today, AP manages some of the largest TikTok affiliate programs in the space—and we’ve done it while retaining our performance DNA.

It’s not about chasing trends. It’s about seeing the intersection of creator behavior, consumer habits, and platform evolution—and building the right systems to win there. Jon recently unpacked this shift on the Euka Podcast, diving into where social commerce is headed and how performance agencies can stay ahead by rethinking what leadership really means in this space.

---

Founder Legacy, Operator Precision

Let’s be honest: founder-led agencies often have personality baked in. That’s part of what makes them special. But when the founder steps back, many companies lose their edge—or worse, their identity.

That didn’t happen here. Why? Because Jon didn’t come in to “replace” anything. He came in to refine it.

He respected the culture, preserved the hustle, and then added structure where it was needed most. The result? A smarter, stronger, more scalable agency with the same soul—but a much tighter operating model.

As Jon puts it:

“Leadership isn’t about having all the answers — it’s about surrounding yourself with a team that’s committed, capable, and aligned on a greater purpose. In affiliate marketing, resilience means doubling down on relationships, staying agile, and ensuring that every move we make is in service of our clients’ success. As CEO, my role is to keep us focused on what we can control: integrity, innovation, and showing up every day with our clients’ growth at the heart of everything we do.”

---

What’s Next

We could say “the future is bright,” but that feels like a cop-out. So instead, here’s what’s real: Advertise Purple is evolving. Fast. We’re more tech-forward, more data-driven, and more focused than ever on what drives revenue for our clients.

And a big reason why? We’ve got a CEO who doesn’t need the spotlight to lead—he just builds the architecture for everyone else to win.