Advertiser feedback suggests future growth in affiliate marketing spend over the next 12 months

Advertiser feedback suggests future growth in affiliate marketing spend over the next 12 months

The Affiliate Marketing Council of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) yesterday released research into advertiser’s opinions of the affiliate marketing sector.

The survey, which canvassed opinion from 140 brands, delved into areas such as, how much the discipline is valued and used, the size and growth of the channel, and how easy it is to integrate into the wider online marketing mix.

The results of the survey highlighted a need for further education among more senior level marketers, with 50% of respondents citing a knowledge gap in affiliate marketing at a chief executive level, with this knowledge gap increasing among those businesses over a certain size.

The survey, which was carried out to further understand how advertisers are using the marketing channel, also revealed the amount spent within affiliate marketing – with one quarter of respondents spending more than 20% of their budget on the channel, as well as the strong affinity towards the discipline, with 93% of respondents stating they would recommend it as an effective marketing channel.

Marketing channel growth forecast

Other key findings from the survey included 77% of respondents, who said that marketing spend for affiliates had grown. A further 71% expected it to grow again in the coming year, while 19% of respondents were paying out over £100,000 each month in affiliate commissions. Over half (59%) of respondents worked with just one affiliate network to manage their programmes.

Helen Southgate, IAB Affiliate Marketing Council chair, commented: “At a time when the economy is suffering it was really positive to see that 77% of advertisers had seen growth in the channel year-on-year and over 70% were expecting the channel to grow again in 2012.

“Affiliate Marketing is one of the few channels that is based on a performance-only model so it makes real sense for clients to invest their marketing budget here as there is less risk. It was really interesting to see that nearly 20% of respondents said they spent over £100,000 in affiliate commissions a month and over one quarter said that affiliates account for more than 20% of online budgets. This indicates affiliates are a significant channel in these brands marketing mix.”

Southgate added that the council was looking to run these surveys at least twice yearly. “So it will be interesting to compare results in 2012,” she added.