Affiliate survey reveals future growth in the discipline expected over the next 12 months

2011 IAB Affiliate Advertiser Survey reveals that 77% of respondents feel that marketing spend for affiliates had grown, with 71% expecting it to grow further in 2012

The IAB’s affiliate marketing council has released research into advertiser’s opinions of the affiliate marketing sector. The survey answered by 140 brands delves into areas such as, how much the discipline is valued and used, the size and growth of the channel as well as how easy it is to integrate into the wider online marketing mix. The results of the survey also highlighted a need for further education amongst the more senior level marketers with 50% of respondent stating a knowledge gap in affiliate marketing at a CEO level with this knowledge gap increasing amongst those businesses over a certain size. The survey which was carried out to further understand how advertisers are using the marketing channel also shone a light into the amount spent within affiliate marketing -1/4 of respondents spending more than 20% of their budget on the channel as well as the strong affinity towards the discipline with 93% of respondents stating they would recommend it as an effective marketing channel. Overview of the research:

• 77% of respondents said that marketing spend for affiliates had grown and 71% expected it to grow again in the coming year
• 19% of respondents are paying out over £100k month in affiliate commissions
• 59% of respondents worked with just one affiliate network to manage their programmes
• Over ¼ of respondents spend more than 20% of online marketing budgets on the affiliate channel
• Half of all respondents said that knowledge of affiliate marketing at CEO level was little or none at all

Chairperson of the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council, Helen Southgate commented: “At a time when the economy is suffering it was really positive to see that 77% of advertisers had seen growth in the channel year on year and over 70% were expecting the channel to grow again in 2012. Affiliate Marketing is one of the few channels that is a performance only model so it makes real sense for clients to invest their marketing budget here as there is less risk. It was really interesting to see that nearly 20% of respondents said they spent over £100k in affiliate commissions a month and over one quarter said that affiliates account for more than 20% of online budgets. This indicates affiliates are a significant channel in these brands marketing mix. The council is looking to run these surveys at least twice yearly so will be interesting to compare results in 2012.”