MarketingSherpa releases 2007 Affiliate Marketing Report
MarketingSherpa has released its 2007 Affiliate Marketing special report based on a survey of 329 merchant-side representatives and 296 affiliates. The report is available for download here.
A higher percentage of respondents seem to indicate a marginal growth in both the revenues from the affiliate channel as well as the number of affiliates. While there’s a lot of talk about relationships being an important criteria [and I strongly advocate that, based on our own experiences], the numbers from the survey show a different picture—- looks like the commission structure [the money on the table] is the biggest factor in affiliates deciding what merchants to promote.
For merchants participating in the survey, affiliate revenues contribute to about 10% (average) of total sales, while for some, it has contributed to about 20%. Interestingly enough, average revenues from this channel seem higher for B2B merchants than B2C merchants– which is contrary to what we generally perceive the situation to be. B2B merchants are probably beginning to give affiliate marketing a more serious try.
Restrictions related to use of trademarks by affiliates, for search engine marketing or otherwise, are apparently being loosened, with merchants being more liberal with trusted affiliates instead of imposing blanket bans. This is in-line with what we expect: as affiliate marketing matures, merchants will rely on a small group of quality affiliates who will get privileges that the other amateur affiliates don’t.
As always, the issue of lack of communication [in terms of frequency and usefulness] figured as one of the major issues. To be honest, I doubt if merchants will will ever be able to satisfactorily address this complaint. May be offering “private websites with info/ tools” is one step, as indicated in the survey.
