Marketing Pilgrim

By Janet Meiners.

According to a report by E-consultancy retailers in the UK are seeing positive results from affiliate marketing. The research group surveyed 239 merchants this year and most of them have both online an offline presence.

A full 95% of brands said that affiliate marketing is ‘very cost-effective’ or ‘quite cost effective.’ The next most effective ways to acquire a new customer is paid search and then email marketing. On average the retailers spend 18% of their online marketing budget on affiliate marketing.

Retailers like affiliate marketing (also called CPA or cost-per-acquisition) because they only pay an affiliate when a sale is made.

Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at explains, ‘Affiliate marketing has proven itself as the most cost effective online channel to drive incremental volume. It works for marketers because they only pay for activity that generates genuine sales?” He even went so far as to say that affiliate marketing “is a guaranteed positive ROI if managed correctly.” You can’t get much more glowing than that.

The research was sponsored by buy.at, the UK’s largest independent affiliate network. They are like CJ in the US, with brands like T-Mobile and Capital One. Business is good - with 250% growth in turnover year-on-year since 2004.

The industries most benefiting are telecom, financial services, and travel retailers.

Another interesting fact is that most retailers work through an affiliate network. It’s almost all - 90% and they’re seeing the best returns. They are choosing networks based on how they interact with networks.

Affiliate marketing is growing fast, here are some facts from the report:

• 78% of brands set to increase their investment in affiliate marketing over the next 2 years.
• 78% have already increased their spend over the past two years—many times drastic increases.
• 23% of UK marketers have more than doubled their investment since 2005.

Research report by E-consultancy.com to be released on 26th September

The numbers are incredible. Affiliate marketing is still emerging in the UK but growing at a very fast pace. What does that mean for affiliates? Opportunity.

About Janet Meiners

Janet Meiners always wanted to be a reporter but prefers the immediacy of blogging. Known as Newspapergrl, she has freelanced for newspapers, City Search, and business magazines. She reports on internet marketing and online trends.