bigmouthmedia's 2011 affiliate survey

8/3/2019 Bigmouthmedia's 2011 Affiliate Survey

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An LBi/bigmouthmedia Insight

Autumn 2011

Exploring Online AliateMarketing Trends

AfliateSurvey 2011


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LBi/bigmouthmedia

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Bigmouthmedias annual aliate survey is now complete.

Weve taken in the views o hundreds o aliate marketers and

analysed the responses revealing some interesting insights and

trends in to how this market h as shaped up over th e last year.

The survey o UK based aliates shows that 71.5% o respondents,

in comparison to 56% in 2010, believe that Google has designs on

becoming the largest aliate. This increase is likely to be based

on the high prole projects launched this year by the search

engine giant including the credit card price comparison and the

ight search engine tool.

Googles Panda algorithm has also had an efect on the aliate

industry with 31.4% o respondents seeing an impact on their

business (both negative and positive) particularly around lost

ranks, trac and revenue. There is however some consensusthat Panda has impacted duplicate and thin pages and that

ranking drops can be overcome by the introduction o good

quality content.

Digital Window remains the most popular network with

57.97% picking itas their rst choice in 2011. Aliates cited

its straightorward interace, simple tracking, transparent

reporting, speedy payment and responsive staf amongst the

reasons or selecting it as their network partner o choice.

Digital Window was ollowed by Tradedoubler and Commission

Junction.

Analysing the value o each aliate that has contributed to

a sale is not a simple task. Commission attribution modellingseems some way of as a air and accurate solution with 50.8%

o respondents agreeing that modelling threatens the aliate

industry - this is up rom 34% in 2010.

Executive

Summary

AFFILIATE SURVEY 2011

Exploring Online Aliate Marketing Trends

The report also reveals the extent to which aliates are

embracing other channels to drive business. Thanks to the

major growth on smart phones, tablets and the mobile internet,

32.6% o respondents see opportunities in mobile marketing.

Elsewhere, video advertising is still seen as an opportunity by

13.3% o respondents (down rom 15.2% in 2010). But, by ar the

biggest growth is in location-based marketing which has leapt

up 12.4% to 40.7% since 2010.

Finally, although hal o aliates surveyed believe that it is

better to specialise in a single sector, there is a rise in the number

o aliates that work across multiple sectors. Retail remains

the most popular at 42%.

The mix o methods (SEO and content marketing, pricecomparison and social networks) that are used to drive revenue

also shows some interesting movement with SEO and content

marketing remaining the most popular at 63.2% but a marked

increase in social networking rom zero on 2010 to 27.2% in

2011. Moreover, aliates are increasingly adopting a blended

approach with 40% opting or combining two or three diferent

methods and 28% using our or more.


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Aliates

and agencies:improvingsupport



Just li ke in 2010, this years su rvey sh ows that the most useul

tools a merchant can provide to best support the aliate

channel are, in order, merchant sites that convert better, higher

commissions and better perorming creative executions.

When asked about the potential areas o improvement,

aliates are quick to point out the importance or merchants

to provide up-to-date, better quality eeds which include images

and good category descriptions. Respondents also believe

that the content provided by merchants has a lot o room or

improvement, not only in terms o quality and regular updates,

but also with regards to the voucher codes used by aliates. This

is possibly a reaction to the impact o Googles Panda update as

explained below.

The good news is that agencies are getting better at providing

enough creative tools or aliate campaigns, whereas in 2010

68% o aliates highlighted the act that most digital agencies

ailed to provide enough efective creative material to aliate

partners and called or improved communications, in 2011 this

has allen by ten points to 57.8%.

CONVERSIONS...........

HIGHER COMMISSIONS...

BETTER CREATIVES.............

BETTER COMMUNICATIONS....

MORE INCENTIVES.....................

VALIDATE SALES MORE OFTEN.....


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Aliates

and theimpacto Google



Aliates who responded to this years survey are increasingly

aware o Googles inuence in the aliate space. 71.5% o

respondents say that they believe that Google has designs on

becoming the worlds largest aliate, whereas in 2010 this

gure was only 56%.

This year Google has tested a number o projects which

overlap the traditionally aliate space. These range rom price

comparison o credit cards through to a ully-edged ight

search engine.

Over the last year Google has had a remarkable impact over

the industry with the introduction o its Panda algorithm back

in February 2011. As a direct result 31.4% o aliates have seena change since, although there are mixed views as to whether

this impact has been positive or negative, some sites report

lost ranks, trac and revenue but others claim exactly the

opposite.

However, respondents agree Panda had a huge impact on

duplicate and thin pages, and any drops in ranking can usually

be counteracted with the introduction o good quality content.

One direct consequence o the Panda update is that more

high street names are gaining page 1 positions, which in turn

has meant that some aliates have seen a drop in trac rom

generic keywords, other respondents report an increase in

trac rom specic long-tailed keywords and phrases, which

is consistent with the improved results reported by aliate

partners that have ocused on quality content.

Another area where opinions difer is data eeds. W hilst some

aliates are condent that accurate and timely data eeds

have become more important since the Panda update, otherssee them as a hindrance.

Typical anecdotal eedback that we uncovered as part o the

survey demonstrates this disparity:

eed driven sites are now ranking lower in SERPs, but

with added content still perorm.

Working with data eeds helps to keep the sites genuine

and unique, generating a lot o trac and sales.

This indicates that there is still an importance or good quality

product eeds with relevant and appropriate inormation,

however on its own it is not enough or an aliate site to standout and be recognised as being useul to a user. A product

eed shouldnt be used in isolation but surrounded with

other content that is unique to that site, adding value to the

customer journey.


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Aliate

networksstill reign



In 2011 Digital Window (which includes Aliate Window, Buy.

at and Zanox) remains the avourite network o UK aliates

and the number one choice or 57.9% o respondents, up rom

50% in 2010. Aliates like its straightorward interace,

simple tracking, transparent reporting, speedy payment and

responsive staf. Al so mentioned are Digital Windows mixture

o programs, the adaptability o its customisable content and

the wide range o aliate tools, resources and creatives that

it ofers.

Tradedoubler is the second most popular, praised or its good

communication, response time, reliability, product eeds and

user-riendly tracking. Third most popular was Commission

Junction with a wide choice o merchants and clients, global

opportunities, quick reporting and excellent customer service.It is also seen as very reliable, which some aliates value

particularly highly.

Other networks mentioned by respondents are Alinet,

perceived as approachable, down to earth, honest, proactive

and ethical; Aliate Future, which is seen as having a wide

range o clients; OMG, particularly relevant or niche aliates

and praised or its versatility and supportive team; and

Webgains, commended or its support, honesty, response

times, exibility and eed quality. Aliates also mention

Tradetracker, oneNetworkDirect, Cupid PLC, Silvertap, and

ClixGalore as aliate networks they enjoy working with.

Aliates clearly value the role o networks within the industry,with 83% o them believing that brands should not discard

traditional aliate networks in avour o tracking-only

solutions. Whilst this suggests aliate networks absolutely

still have a place in the mix, the question relates very specically

to stand alone tracking solutions, demonstrating that other

services that networks ofer besides tracking are still regarded

as highly important by aliates.

It will be interesting to see how other technology solutions

are received by the community i they do ofer more than just

tracking alone, or example communication, payment methods

and a stable management.


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The uture,

threats andopportunities



We asked our respondents what they viewed as the main

threats and opportunities or the aliate industry going

orward. 50.8% o respondents indicated that they perceived

commission attribution modelling as a threat. This is up rom

just 34 % in 2010, hi ghlight ing the act th at a air a nd accu rate

solution via the attribution model seems some way of.

With regards to opportunities or aliates in the coming years,

32.6% o survey respondents believe in the potential o mobile

marketing thanks to the rising popularity o smart phones,

tablets and other mobile devices. This gure was identical in

the 2010 survey.

Interestingly enough, a minority o aliates see mobile more as

a threat than an opportunity, which probably reects the wide

range o existing aliates and the disparity o their opinions.

Video advertising also shows promise or 13.3% o aliates,

slightly down rom 15.2% in 2010. The most striking diference

however is or location-based marketing, which soars rom only

28.3% in 2010 to the top spot in 2011, with 40.7% o respondents

agreeing that it holds the most potential or the sector in the

coming years.

Other areas which respondents see as ull o potential or

aliates include unique content, producing niche ocused

content and cross platorm content, social media marketing,

behavioural targeting and email marketing.

Last but not least, the number o aliates that believe that adexchanges are beyond their reach is increasing this year, with

65.9% agreeing in 2011 compared to only 46% in 2010.


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Survey

audience:blendingto deliverresults



The LBi/bigmouthmedia survey was conducted during

August and September 2011 and it was open to all UK

ailiates. 54.4% o those who responded to the survey are

ull time ailiates, with 41.8% making up to 500 a month,

38.9% making between 500 and 5,000 a month, 12.7%

making between 5,000 and 50,000 a month and 6.7%

making more than 50,000 a month.

In 2011 63.2% o respondents to the survey said that their

main method o generating revenue was through SEO and

content marketing, up rom 61.2% in 2010. This is ollowed

by price comparison, chosen by 30.9% o ailiates - a

substantial increase rom last years 8.2%. It is also worth

highlighting the rise in the number o ailiates that generate

revenue through social networks, which reaches 27.2% in2011 up rom no presence at all in 2010.

The survey respondents work in dierent sectors as per the

graphic below:

Although hal o ailiates believe that it is better to ocus on

a single sector, compared to last year we detect a rise in the

number o ailiates that work in multiple sectors. This trend

is particularly evident when it comes to the most popular

methods o generating revenue: whereas 32% o ailiates

rely on one method only (true content/SEO being chosen by

a third o respondents), 40% opt or combining two or three

dierent ones and 28% use our or more.

Aliate survey respondents by sector Number o methods used by respondents to generate revenue


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LBi/bigmouthmedia

0845 130 0022 ino@bigmout hmedia.com @bigmouthmedia

0207 063 6465 [email protected] @LBiLondon



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bigmouthmedia's 2011 affiliate survey

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