UK online advertising spend sizzles; time for a strategy rethink for affiliate publishers?
eMarketer reports that a recent study by the UK Interactive Advertising Bureau (UK IAB) (conducted in association with PriceWaterhouseCoopers and the WorldAdvertising Research Center) shows that the online advertising spend in the UK reached £1.4 billion in 2005, registering a 65% growth over 2004 figures. What’s more, this figure could cross the £2 billion mark this year , according to a PwC Director.
Interestingly, the IAB seems to believe that online advertising could overtake press advertising within this year, even though the former currently accounts for only about 8% of total advertising spend. There’s so much market share for online advertising to gain that it augurs extremely well for publishers.
While the above numbers seem to take into account search advertising figures, it is not clear whether advertising with the affiliate networks is included in this spend. Pity….
Nevertheless, if advertisers are shelling out more money on online advertising, I wonder if affiliates who swear by the pay-for-performance mantra should take advantage of the pay-for-display approach that most traditional publishers thrive on. Affiliate publishers who have built great content and community with reasonable traffic could certainly offer greater value for the advertisers, particularly if they were to offer advertising rates that are lower than what the traditional CPM-model publishers charge.
No doubt, there are a few issues with moving towards this approach– one could question the shift in focus, the infrastructure related matters, and what not. All I’m saying is, if a slight change in strategy helps one take advantage of the opportunities presented by the macro environment with no negative impact in the value provided to advertisers, then why not?
