Market for UK affiliate marketing to grow to £2.16 billion: e-consultancy
According to the Affiliate Marketing Networks Buyer’s Guide from e-Consultancy, the UK market for this niche marketing segment will record a growth of 60% this year to about £2.16 billion, compared to the £1.35 bilion in 2005. The market size figure here refers to the total sales generated for merchants through affiliate networks and affiliate publishers in the UK. It also reports that “commissions and fees paid out to affiliate networks (covering payments for both networks and affiliates) amounted to an esimated £83 million in 2005, and it is forecast that this figure will have risen to £133m million by the end of this year.”
I do have some doubts on the commission figure — because it is said to be the total commissions paid to both networks and affiliate publishers. Doesn’t 6% paid out in total commissions seem a bit on the lower side? My perception is that the percentage of commissions paid is higher than that. Of course, the vast chunk of commissions will likely be generated by a small bunch of super affiliates which could skew the numbers a bit.
Another important aspect to remember is that a number of UK affiliates may be generating revenues through networks & advertisers outside of the UK, which I think is beyond the scope of this report. So, the commissions earned by UK affiliates will likely be much higher than the figure mentioned above.
Interestingly, the paid search market in the UK was forecast by e-Consultancy to reach £1.26 billion this year. A portion of this comes from the affiliate marketing industry for sure– how much exactly, I don’t think we know. But it’s certainly one heck of a vicious circle..
