Today, on October 19 2011, at 3:00 pm UK time — or right after finishing their It’s All in the Data panel discussion which finished literally 40 minutes ago at a4uexpo London (nice timing!) — Econsultancy has released its UK Affiliate Census 2011. They haven’t had one out since 2009; so this one has certainly been long-awaited-for.
I was honored to be invited to contribute my thoughts to this important annual report. And in my today’s post I’d like to share them with you, highlighting the three things I chose to comment on, and giving you a snapshot of the things the report addresses:
Most Important Promotional Methods
Regardless of the growing popularity of mobile, social, and retargeting, it is good to see that content is still king; and the two most popular promotional methods are content-related (both self-made and user-generated content). As an affiliate program management agency we see much of the same — most loyal and targeted customers come through content affiliates.
Main Reasons Why Affiliates Drop Merchants
I’d like to thank affiliates for pointing out one of the major problems of this relationship. Somehow many merchants believe that they can drop commission or change their payout structures as they please; often without notifying affiliates at all.
The two most widely-spread reasons for dropping a merchant are ‘found a better merchant’ (34%) and ‘Commission structure changes’ (17%). Often these are closely interconnected. Merchants must understand that when hundreds of affiliate programs are competing for the attention of one affiliate, it is the affiliate who will win; unless the merchant stays truly competitive and attractive.
Popular Sources of Information on Affiliate Marketing
It is still imperative for affiliate networks to spend more time on putting together quality, educational materials (comprehensive knowledge bases, webinars, how-to blog posts and videos, etc) to help affiliates succeed.
The full 61-pages report is available for purchase via Econsultancy’s website here.
For further insight into the present-day UK affiliate market, make sure you also check out the results of Bigmouthmedia‘a Affiliate Survey 2011 (released earlier this week): infographic/overview here & full 6-pages report here.