Investment in the affiliate channel strengthens

The Internet Advertising Bureau’s (IAB) Annual Affiliate Advertiser Survey, supported by A4u, and released today reveals that brands are investing a larger proportion of their digital marketing budgets in the affiliate marketing channel.   The survey shows a 45% uplift in affiliate programmes investing more than 31% of their digital marketing budgets in 2012. Further, 61% of all advertisers surveyed said they would be increasing their marketing spend in the channel during 2013.

See the full research here

According to IAB Affiliate Marketing Council member and Managing Director of Rakuten Linkshare, Mark Haviland, this is a vote of confidence in the channel by advertisers: “It’s clear that as the affiliate sector matures, marketers are keen to invest more in the CPA performance model. These findings in our survey expose a positive trend towards marketing spend being targeted towards the performance ROI that’s delivered by the affiliate channel.”

Another validation of the channel’s increasing attractiveness to advertisers is the sharp growth in new affiliate programmes. Almost a quarter of advertisers (23%) surveyed reported their affiliate programmes were established during the previous 12 months. 

The research revealed that the 21% of advertisers reported a rise in commission payments of over £31K – including a 16% rise in advertisers paying monthly commissions of over £100K. 72% said they expect monthly commission payments to rise again in the next 12 months. The majority of these (81%) cited the reason for their prediction was a planned increase in spending next year, reflecting the channel’s reliability and growing advertiser confidence.

Equally encouraging was that more than half (52%) of advertisers who responded to the IAB survey, reported online sales revenues in the last year of more than £10 million, a clear indication that the channel is attracting larger brands.

Clare O’Brien, IAB Industry Programmes Consultant and head of the Affiliate Marketing Council, said: “Overall, the affiliate industry should be very encouraged by these findings: higher spending, stronger sales results and growing numbers of advertisers mounting affiliate programmes, all underline the growing confidence in the affiliate channel as a reliable part of the marketing mix. It’s also really exciting to see the growth of affiliates as brands in their own right, with consumer loyalty to aggregator sites such as vouchercodes.co.uk, Savoo, Quidco, and U-Switch establishing a strong position in the minds of UK consumers.”