Affiliate Marketing Trends

Affiliate marketing continues to grow massively. But what’s been happening on the front line?


* SEO and cash-back sites gain ground while paid search affiliates decline.
– According to merchants, the most valuable affiliates – as a group - are SEO / content publishers, deemed to be driving a major contribution by 42%.2
– This compares to 36% for paid search affiliates, 26% for loyalty / cash-back sites, 20% for price comparison sites / aggregators, 17% for email affiliates and 10% for affinity sites.


* Continued rise of the super-affiliate 
A third of merchants (34%) say that five or fewer affiliates are driving 80% of their affiliate sales or sign-ups. A further 23% say that between six and 10 affiliates account for 80% of sales.


* Has ‘last-click’ seen its best days?
For attributing the credit for sales, 41% of merchants are using the last-click method. A quarter of respondents say that they are using a combination of methods while 10% are now sophisticated enough to split the CPA across different channels.


* Affiliate Marketing Seen As More Strategic
The consensus is that affiliate marketing has become more strategic with more buy-in and input from senior client-side employees. Increased press coverage, new technologies and larger, more innovative affiliates have all helped the progression of the industry.


* Forget the 80:20 rule – behold the ‘super’ affiliates
It’s more like 1% of affiliates drive 99% of sales. So when you stumble upon a high performing affiliate you need to make sure they stay on your team. The long tail is very long in affiliate
marketing. The move towards fewer, more professional, affiliates is partly due to increased professionalism of the industry generally (which comes with greater demand for accountability).


* Merchants get better at working with PPC affiliates
Merchants and affiliates have become better at working together to exploit paid search marketing in a way that is beneficial to all parties. For example, those merchants who are doing some of their own PPC marketing in-house can focus on key areas while using affiliates to help generate incremental business in non-key areas (or vice versa).


* Multiple networks work for merchants and affiliates
From an administration perspective, dealing with one or several networks is far easier than dealing with a multitude of different affiliates. Similarly, it is easier for affiliates to deal with a
limited number of networks rather than a multitude of merchants. While some companies will prefer to have their own in-house affiliate program without using an intermediary, the network model will continue to suit a large proportion of businesses.


* Don’t put it in a silo
Many organisations treat affiliate marketing in isolation and fail to adopt an integrated approach to marketing which, for example, can tie in their online and offline activity. Aim for a joined up, multichannel strategy, for the best results.