Only 12% of marketers believe companies can engage consumers without cookies
Research by affiliate marketing company affilinet has found that only 12% of 111 marketers surveyed at ad:tech 2011 believe that businesses will be able to engage consumers as successfully without the use of cookies – down 11% from last year.
The research showed that 32% of respondents believe affiliate marketing is more effective at generating sales than other forms of marketing while 19% are still not utilising the benefits of affiliate marketing as part of their multi-channel strategy. However, it was found that 54% of respondents said their marketing budget was set to grow over the next year, with 35% also reporting that their affiliate marketing budget was to increase.
Gary Bicker, operations director at affilinet UK, said: “There is clearly a need for further communication and education around the enforcement of the new legislation around use of cookies, an issue that is increasingly of concern to many marketers. It’s good to see that affiliate marketing and the overall marketing budgets in many businesses are on the rise, but disappointing to find that one in five people are still not fully utilising the benefits of affiliate marketing.
“It is clear to see that affiliate networks must continue to show how affiliate marketing can be used as an umbrella discipline, to generate sales or new customers through a range of channels. Whether it is through display, search, social, mobile or email, affiliate marketing offers businesses the unique opportunity to engage through all these channels on a strictly cost per action basis.”
affilinet also discovered that only 11% of businesses reported all marketing activities truly integrated across all online and offline channels.
81% of businesses said they used the marketing data gathered to help with wider business decisions: optimising marketing activity (93%), understanding consumers (70%) or generating more profit (67%).