Black Friday Sales 2012

E-consultancy is an online publisher of best practice internet marketing reports, research and how-to guides. E-consultancy, named Publisher of the Year at the 2006 AOP Awards, also publishes buyer’s guides and has a directory of 100,000+ third party internet marketing white papers. More than 700 E-consultancy users responded to the research email.

The merchants that responded to the email came from a wide variety of industries, including financial, retail, and travel. The findings of this survey address Affiliate Marketing conditions in the UK, and while there may be some differences between Affiliate Marketing in the U.S. and the UK, but this report does give a picture of the Affiliate Marketing industry in the US and the UK. But do keep in mind these numbers portrayed are in respect to the UK.

• 67% of responding merchants have increased sales from 2 years ago.
• 78% of responding merchants are spending more money on their Affiliate Marketing campaigns then they were 2 years ago.
• 78% of responding merchants also said they will spend more money on Affiliate Marketing in the future.
• 50% of responding merchants will add to their Affiliate management team
• 95% of Merchants say that Affiliate Marketing is the most cost-effective way to attract new customers … Email marketing and Paid Search Marketing trailed in this respect.
• Only PPC drives more customer volume than Affiliate Marketing.
• Merchants claim these are the largest barriers to growing their Affiliate Marketing programs:
  • • Lack of internal resource 33%*
    • Difficulty in attracting affiliates 20%
    • Problems with tracking 20%
    • Poorly converting website 19%
    • Restricted budget 18%
• 37% of merchant’s Affiliate programs are managed in house.
• 23% outsource their Affiliate Marketing programs.
• Only 29% of merchants have good communication with their Affiliates.
• 40% of Affiliate Programs are registered with one network and 33% with two networks.
• Merchants choose Affiliate networks based on the following issues:
  • • Network’s relationship with affiliates 47%
    • Technology (tracking and analytics) 40%
    • Level of account management 34%
    • Sector expertise 33%
    • Consultancy / Strategic advice 23%

Overall the Affiliate Marketing industry in the UK is very strong. Not only is it growing, but it is becoming more professional and more respected. Affiliate Marketing is here to stay and its future looks incredibly bright.