Affiliate Marketing Report 2008
By Colin Telford, Affiliate Director, R.O.EYE
This years R.O.EYE sponsored Affiliate Marketing Report 2008 shows that we, as a community, must act together to drive the industry forward and move away from the quick wins that have arguably been evident for the last few years. This affects us all as agencies, affiliates, merchants and networks as we must ensure that we collectively pull together to ensure the long term development of the channel.
The decline of ppc affiliates for example shouldn’t really come as a surprise to those actively working in the industry, but the figures are certainly a wake up call. The changes from Google and the smartening of merchants either doing their own search management or strengthening their strategies has certainly removed the fruit hanging on the low branches. I’m not totally sure that the statistics for the growth of SEO / Content sites are truly reflective of the entire industry (as this is a sample) because Incentive and Cash back sites are certainly dominating in most areas. Just look at the levels of debate on blogs and forums across the web following the Quidco’s decision to drop Affiliate Window. However it does stand true that there has already been a move towards content which in turn will favour SEO listings.
A split in the question regarding merchant’s resource would have been a useful one to inject following the increase in the percentage of merchants where affiliate marketing is part of their online role. My concern here is that it is only a part, and in some cases very little of their job. Admin, validations, promotions and then a bit of strategy all takes considerable time and its not surprising that the easiest option in terms of sales becomes the only option; lack of communication, over dependence on ppc affiliates, less than 5 super-affiliates and a high percentage of duplications are all the makings of a time bomb. More dedicated resource in these areas would generate significant results.
So it is true to be said that we must work together to increase the portion of budget that affiliate marketing is allocated and increase the portion of sales as a result. It is still a very cost effective channel and a higher percentage responded to say that it is more cost effective than last year. The investment will have to be on resource and content tools, as opposed to straight increases in the affiliate’s cost per acquisition.
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