a4u european landscape report 2011

2011

[EUROPEAN AFFILIATE MARKETING LANDSCAPE REPORT] Created by Affiliates4u.com and in association with Webgains; The inaugural European Affiliate Landscape Survey includes input from 18 European countries.

European Affiliate Marketing Landscape Report 2011 In Association with Webgains

All rights reserved. Existem Ltd grants you to store and print from this material for your own personal and commercial use. No part of this publication may be reproduced without prior permission from the publisher. Copyright © Existem Ltd 2011

Contents Foreword ............................................................................................................................................... 3

Affiliates4u Survey Highlights ................................................................................................................ 4

European Demographic Data, Geographies and Affiliate Information .................................................. 5

Working with Advertisers / Merchants ............................................................................................... 14

Affiliate Networks ................................................................................................................................ 15

Communication with Advertisers / Agencies / Networks .................................................................... 16

Future activity within Performance Marketing ................................................................................... 17

Country Comparisons .......................................................................................................................... 19

Demographic Data ............................................................................................................................... 19

Affiliate Commissions .......................................................................................................................... 21

Country Expansion & Current Topics of Discussion ............................................................................. 36

The Future & Performance Marketing Channel Implementation ........................................................ 41



Foreword The affiliate marketing industry has grown substantially over the past few years from its romantic beginning as students in garrets and has now assumed its rightful place as an important channel in advertisers’ online marketing strategies.

As a result of the increased importance of our industry, it is imperative that we understand the key business drivers, both as an international industry and in individual local markets.

The a4u Survey is the first of its kind. The driving force behind this survey was a need to understand key affiliate issues, geographic differences, promotional techniques and affiliate preferences in order for us to begin to paint a picture of our industry.

Having insight into each market in isolation and comparing the results against the whole has led to some unexpected and exciting results. We’ve always been aware that, in order to effectively market products and services internationally, the subtle idiosyncrasies of each local market and culture need to be catered for. This survey paints a picture of these local trends and helps us understand the metrics important to affiliates across Europe.

Aside from the insight into local markets, the survey also provides us with valuable data relating to the health of our industry. It is encouraging to see from the mix of respondents, that our industry continues to attract new entrants optimistic about their futures. These new entrants, along with the continued dedication of established affiliates, ensure that our industry thrives. They add valuable content and promotional opportunities to the already substantial inventory pool and continue to spur on technological and promotional advancements at a rate far outpacing any other online channel.

Further insights can be derived from the preferences stated by affiliates in terms of payment models and communication methods, allowing merchants, networks and other affiliates a base from which to model current and future activities.

This initial survey also presents a snapshot of current affiliate marketing against which future research can be compared. Affiliate marketing evolves so rapidly that there are very few constants, making comparisons exceptionally important. We are now in a position to build a factbase over the next few years to document these changes.

I would like to take this opportunity to thank all of the affiliates who took the time to complete the survey as it is their contributions which have led to this project being such a resounding success. I would also like to thank the team at a4u who have undertaken the painstaking task of compiling the survey and collating the data into this comprehensive report.

It is dedication such as this which has catapulted our industry into the limelight and long may it continue.



Robert Glasgow, Managing Director, Webgains Ltd

Affiliates4u Survey Highlights

Spanning over 30 global countries, the European Affiliate Survey attracted more than 1,000 affiliates to enter the inaugural survey.

We ran 3 simultaneously translated surveys to encourage wider input from different countries, with English, French and Spanish as the chosen languages.

26% of Affiliates who are expanding their activity cross-‐country are looking to expand into Germany, with 20% looking to target the economic crisis by expanding into the Republic of Ireland.

The preferred payment model for Affiliates still remains CPA by a comfortable margin of 52%, and 20% of Affiliates earn between €1,000 and €5,000 per month, showing a considerable jump in sustainable Affiliate Marketing.

The Retail and Travel Verticals remain the most competitive for affiliate activity, with 60% of Affiliates working within the retail vertical and 46% within the Travel vertical.

Video linking is used the least by Affiliates when adding affiliate links to their web properties. Something that has recently gained momentum thanks to the interactive video networks that are launching, this still has low exposure throughout Europe.

Astonishingly, nearly 40% of Affiliates are concerned about de-‐duplication policies. Within those concerned, over 35% believe that between 10-‐25% of revenue is lost due to the Advertiser’s de-‐duplication policies.

45% of Affiliates only read between 1-‐24% of their email communications sent to them by Advertisers / Agencies and Networks.



European Demographic Data, Geographies and Affiliate Information Figure 1: Gender Figure 2: Age

Figure 3: When Did you Start Working in Affiliate Marketing?

Figure 4: Your Affiliate Status?

83.91%

16.09%

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

Male Female

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

Under 18

18-‐24 25-‐34 35-‐54 55-‐64 65 on

1994 1995 1996 1997 1998 1999 2000 2001 2002 2003 2004 2005 2006 2007 2008 2009 2010 2011

51.72% 27.37%

20.26% I own a registered affiliate company

I work for an Affiliate Copmany

I am Self-‐Employed



Figure 5: Including yourself, how many employees work within your Affiliate Business?

Figure 6: Have You Been Financially Funded in Any Way?

Figure 7: Where is your Company Based?

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00%

1-‐4 5-‐9 10-‐19 20-‐49 50-‐99 100-‐499 500-‐999 1000+

11.61%

88.17%

Yes

No



Others – India, Pakistan, Cyprus, Israel, Australia, Malaysia, Estonia, Guatemala, Jamaica, Uruguay, Czech Republic, Indonesia, Morocco, Cyprus, Estonia, Costa Rica, Tunisia, Brunei, Chile

Figure 8: Which countries do you currently operate in (red) and which countries are you planning to expand to (blue) in 2011?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

50.00%

In Which Territories Do You / Your Company CURRENTLY operate in?

Which Countries are you planning to expand into?



Figure 9: Which Verticals do you work in with your Affiliate activity?

Figure 10: How would you rate these discussions in order of importance within your main country? Most Important: 1. Google (Updates / Impact) 2. Voucher Codes 3. Datafeed Importance 4. Data Privacy ( Cookie Legislation) 5. Mulit-‐Channel Attribution 6. Post-‐View Tracking 7. Cashback / Incentive 8. Growth in Mobile Affiliate Marketing 9. Retargeting 10. Brand Bidding

36.46%

24.52%

28.14%

29.42%

19.40%

61.62%

46.06%

22.60%

Broadband & Internet Services

Casino, Bingo & Gaming

Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail

Travel & Leisure

Other



Figure 11: Which Affiliate Models do you work with?

Others: Webinars, Social Media, Co-‐Reg, Offline.

Figure 12: Which methods do you use the most when adding Affiliate Links to your web properties? Most Used

1. Generic Text Links 2. Banners 3. Product Feeds / Data Feeds 4. 3rd Party Applications 5. Voucher Code Feeds 6. Wordpress Plugins 7. Videos

7.15% 12.01%

21.04%

12.22% 10.56%

4.17%

11.53%

7.50%

3.06% 9.65%

1.11% Cashback / Incenlve

Comparison

Content / Portal

Datafeed

E-‐mail

Mobile / App Development

Niche / Micro-‐Niche

Paid Search

Remarkelng

Voucher

Other



Figure 13: What is your preferred payment model?

Other: CPO, CPL, RECURRING PAYMENTS

Figure 14: On average, how much commission do you earn per month in total across all your Affiliate activity?

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

CPA (Cost Per Acquisilon)

CPC (Cost Per Click)

CPM (Cost Per Mille)

Hybrid / Tenancy

Other Revenue Share

11.36%

19.38%

13.59%

19.60%

10.47%

9.35%

5.35% 4.45%

2.67% 3.79% Up to 50E

50-‐500

500-‐1,000

1,000-‐5,000

5,000-‐10.000

10,000-‐25,000

25,000-‐50,000

50,000-‐100,000

100,000-‐250,000

250,000+



Figure 15: What % of your overall company turnover can be affiliated to Performance Marketing?

Figure 16: How important to your earnings is contextual advertising? (i.e Adsense)

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

0% 1-‐9% 10-‐19% 20-‐29% 30-‐39% 40-‐49% 50-‐59% 60-‐69% 70-‐79% 80-‐89% 90-‐100%

12.15%

16.92%

23.64%

29.07%

18.22%

Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important

Don't Use Contextual Adverlsing



Figure 17: How do you generate the majority of traffic to your website?

Other: Direct, Display, E-‐mail, Article Marketing

Figure 18: Are you concerned about Advertiser / Merchant De-‐Duplication Policies?

37.15%

27.65%

35.21%

Yes

No

Don't Know



Figure 19: What % of your revenue do you believe is lost due to de-‐duplication?

Figure 20: Have You Used Pay Per Call? Figure 21: Are You Considering Using Pay Per Call?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

More than 50%

25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% 0% Not Sure

9.94%

90.06%

Yes

No

19.18%

80.82%

Yes

No



Working with Advertisers / Merchants

Figure 21: Which 5 of these are most important to you when working with an Advertiser / Merchant?

1. Commission Level 2. Commission Tier Levels 3. Cookie Period 4. Quality of Datafeeds 5. Affiliate Incentives & Competitions

Figure 22: If you were to give an Advertiser / Merchant more exposure, which 5 attributes would be most important to consider in your decision?

1. Conversion Rate 2. Commission Tier Levels 3. Cookie Period 4. Quality of Datafeeds 5. Affiliate Incentives & Competitions

How Can a Network Improve their relationship with Affiliates?

“Improving response times”

“Connecting Affiliates with suitable Merchants, and vice-‐versa.”

“Fast, direct and personalised attention. Being a real intermediary between

Merchants and Affiliates.”

“More Statistics Regarding Affiliate Programmes”

“Training Days for Affiliates, help me improve”

“Automatically assign Advertisers to my Niches”

“By being more Transparent.”

“Work with us to understand what works for us and how we can grow that –

help us secure non CPA model deals.”



Affiliate Networks Figure 23: Who are your preferred Affiliate Networks that you currently work with? (EU Wide Result)

Figure 24: Which 5 Features makes the above networks your preferred choices to work with?

1. Tracking Reliability 2. Quality of Merchants / Advertisers 3. Payment Reliability 4. Payment Frequency 5. Range of Advertisers

Others: Transparency, Reputation, Exclusivity of Programmes

24.22%

19.25%

16.27%

12.67%

6.71%

6.46% 6.21%

2.86% 2.73% 2.61%

TradeDoubler Webgains Zanox Affiliate Window

NetAffilialon Commission Junclon Affilinet Daisycon

PublicIdees LinkShare



Communication with Advertisers / Agencies / Networks

Figure 25: How many marketing emails from Agencies, Advertisers & Networks do you receive per day, and how many do you read?

Figure 26: What Percentage of these e-‐mails do you read?

Figure 27: What are your primary sources for keeping in touch within Affiliate Marketing?

Email Communications, Affiliate Forums, Affiliate Blogs, Networking Events, Networking Blogs

Others: Twitter, Instant Messenger, Phone Calls with Account Managers

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

0 1-‐49 50-‐99 100-‐199 200+

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

40.00%

45.00%

50.00%

0% 1-‐24% 25-‐49% 50-‐74% 75-‐99% 100%



Future activity within Performance Marketing Figure 28: Which Performance Marketing related channels are you considering implementing within your Affiliate activity this year?

Figure 29: Will your commissions earned in 2011 be more or less than in 2010?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%



Figure 30: What do you expect to be the biggest threat to your earnings this year?

Others: Recession / Economy, De Duplication, Facebook Figure 31: How positive are you regarding the future of Performance related activity within your business?

Behavioural Retargelng,

7.59%

Culling' of Affiliates on Programmes,

12.30%

Cookie Legislalon / Privacy, 21.03%

Exclusive Voucher Codes / Voucher

Codes, 8.62%

Google Updates / Slaps, 27.24%

Group Buying Websites, 4.02%

Internalonal Affiliates Expanding into your Territory,

6.21%

Mobile / Localon Based

Applicalons, 3.45%

Post-‐View Tracking, 3.68%

VC / Angel / External Funding, 1.49%

Other, 4.37%

19.12%

41.77%

35.75%

2.65% 0.71%

Very Posilve

Posilve

Neutral

Negalve

Very Negalve



Country Comparisons

Demographic Data

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

100.00%

UK DE NL FR ESP DK SWE

Male

Female


65 on

55-‐64

35-‐54

25-‐34

18-‐24

Under 18



Question: Including yourself, how many employees work within your Affiliate business?


I own a registered affiliate company I work for an Affiliate Copmany I am Self-‐Employed

1-‐4 5-‐9 10-‐19 20-‐49 50-‐99 100-‐499 500-‐999 1000+




Question: Have You Been Financially Funded in Any Way?

Affiliate Commissions

Question: On average, how much commission do you earn per month in total across all your Affiliate activity?


No

Yes

UK

NL

ESP

SWE

UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE



0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

UK

0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00% 12.00% 14.00% 16.00% 18.00%

DE

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

NL



0.00% 2.00% 4.00% 6.00% 8.00% 10.00% 12.00% 14.00% 16.00% 18.00% 20.00%

FR

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00%

ESP

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00%

DK



Question: What is your preferred payment model?

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00%

SWE


UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE



UK

DE

NL

FR




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other

Revenue Share




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other

Revenue Share




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other

Revenue Share



ESP

DK

SWE

-‐ It is unsurprising that all countries when drilled down mark CPA as the preferred payment model, even in the Nordic countries where Paid Search is by far the biggest traffic generator.

-‐ Whilst a popular payment model within the Casino and Gaming verticals, all country respondents show a strong preference for a Revenue Share model.

-‐ French respondents showed the most openness to different payment models, with CPC and CPM following close behind.




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other

Revenue Share




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other

Revenue Share




Hybrid / Tenancy

Other

Revenue Share



Question: How do you generate the majority of traffic to your website?

UK

DE


UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE

Co-‐Registralon

CPL (Cost Per Lead)

Lead Generalon

Paid Search Adverlsing

SEO

Social Media

Other

Co-‐Registralon CPL (Cost Per Lead) Lead Generalon Paid Search Adverlsing SEO Social Media Other



NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE



Co-‐Registralon

CPL (Cost Per Lead)

Lead Generalon


SEO

Social Media

Other

Co-‐Registralon

CPL (Cost Per Lead)

Lead Generalon


SEO

Social Media

Other

Co-‐Registralon

CPL (Cost Per Lead)

Lead Generalon


SEO

Social Media



Question: Which Verticals do you work in with your Affiliate activity?

UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%

80.00%

100.00% Broadband & Internet Services


Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail

Travel & Leisure

Other

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%



Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail

Travel & Leisure

Other

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%



Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%



Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%



Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail



DK

SWE

-‐ Retail and Travel continue their dominance in the vertical areas of Affiliate Marketing with over 40% of all Affiliates operating Retail & Travel related activities.

-‐ Only in Denmark and Spain are these verticals beaten by Broadband & Internet Services, with more than 50% of Affiliates focussing on this vertical in Spain and just under 50% in Denmark.

-‐ Online Dating remains the least utilised vertical, with all countries except for France and the Netherlands operating under 20% of affiliates.

Others Include:

-‐ Mobile Marketing -‐ Automotive -‐ Real Estate -‐ Adult Entertainment -‐ B2B -‐ Food & Groceries

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%



Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%



Finance

Mobile

Online Dalng

Retail



Question: How important to your earnings is contextual advertising? (i.e Adsense)

UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important


Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important


Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important


Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important


Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important




DK

SWE

Question: Are You Concerned about Advertiser / Merchant De-‐Duplication Policies?

Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important


Very Important

Important

Semi-‐Important

Not Important


UK

DE

NL FR

ESP DK SWE

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

Yes No

Don't Know




Are You Concerned about Advertiser De-‐Duplication?

If Yes, What % of your revenue do you believe is lost due to De-‐Duplication?

UK

DE

NL

FR

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

Yes No Don't Know More than 50%

25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%


25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%


25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure

0.00%

20.00%

40.00%

60.00%


25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure



-‐ Country data shows that more respondants either do not know enough about Advertiser De-‐Duplication policies or are more concerned about it, when comparing to those who aren’t concerned.

-‐ Over 50% of respondents in France, 40% in the UK, 30% in Spain and the Netherlands and 20% in Germany, Denmark & Sweden are concerned about Advertiser de-‐duplication policies.

-‐ Of those who are concerned, the general amount of lost revenue is thought to be up to 25%, with France and the Netherlands showing higher levels of 25-‐50%

ESP

DK

SWE

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%


25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%


25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%


25-‐50% 10-‐25% 1-‐10% Not Sure



Question: Have You Used Pay Per Call?

Have you used Pay Per Call? If No, are you considering using Pay Per Call?

UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No

Yes

No



Country Expansion & Current Topics of Discussion Question: Which Countries are you planning to expand into?

UK

DE

NL



FR

ESP

DK



SWE

-‐ Respondents from the UK, Germany, France, Spain and Sweden are significantly looking

to expand into the US market during 2011. -‐ France and UK respondents are the only countries to show strong results for expansion

into Italy -‐ Results suggest the respondents of each market are looking to expand primarily into other

‘mature’ markets, before a second wave of upcoming Affiliate countries. -‐ Close-‐border expansion is obvious amongst each Country’s respondents.

Question: Which methods do you use the most when adding Affiliate Links to your web properties?

MOST

USED

Generic Text Links

Generic Text Links

Generic Text Links

Banners Banners Generic Text Links

Generic Text Links

Banners Product Feeds

Product Feeds

Generic Text Links

Generic Text Links

Product Feeds

Banners

Product Feeds

Voucher Feeds

Voucher Feeds

Product Feeds

Voucher Feeds

Wordpress Plugins

Product Feeds

3rd Party Applications

Banners Banners 3rd Party Applications

Product Feeds

Banners 3rd Party Applications

Wordpress Plugins

Wordpress Plugins

3rd Party Applications

Videos 3rd Party Applications

Voucher Feeds

Voucher Feeds


Wordpress Plugins

Wordpress Plugins


Wordpress Plugins

LEAS

T USED

Voucher Feeds

Videos Videos Voucher Feeds

Wordpress Videos Videos



Question: Which 5 of these are most important to you when working with an Advertiser / Merchant?

Question: If you were to give an Advertiser / Merchant more exposure, which 5 attributes would be most important to consider in your decision?

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%

Commission Level

Conversion Rate

Transparency Datafeeds Cookie Period Adverlser Reponse to Support

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%

35.00%



Question: How many marketing e-‐mails from Agencies, Advertisers and Networks do you receive per day?

Question: What Percentage of these e-‐mails do you read?

Over 20% of all our respondent countries only read up to 25% of their e-‐mails from Advertiser’s / Agencies / Networks per day. Over 40% of respondents from France, UK, Germany, Netherlands and Denmark only read up to 25% of e-‐mail communications per day.

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%

90.00%

0 1-‐49 50-‐99 100-‐199 200+

UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

0% 1-‐24% 25-‐49% 50-‐74% 75-‐99% 100%

UK

DE

NL

FR

ESP

DK

SWE



The Future & Performance Marketing Channel Implementation

Question: Which Performance Marketing related channels are you considering implementing within your Affiliate activity this year?

UK

DE

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00% 45.00% 50.00%

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00% 45.00%



NL

FR

ESP

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00%

0.00% 5.00% 10.00% 15.00% 20.00% 25.00% 30.00% 35.00% 40.00% 45.00% 50.00%



DK

SWE

-‐ Social Media is by far and away the most important area of Affiliate implementation this year, with around 40% from every country looking to increase their Social activities.

-‐ Mobile Versions of websites are just ahead of Mobile Applications in every country apart from the Netherlands, where it is reversed.

-‐ Display remains a steady 20-‐25% on average per country, while Retargeting and Mobile Advertising are high on the implementation list for Germany.

-‐ From the results of our respondents, France, Germany and the UK have the highest percentage of ambitious Affiliates looking to add Performance Channels to their Affiliate websites.

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%



Question: Will your commissions earned in 2011 be more or less than in 2010?

-‐ From using the above results, we can suggest that the European Affiliate Landscape will increase at an average rate of 30% for 2011.

UK

NL

ESP SWE 0.00%

5.00%

10.00%

15.00%

20.00%

25.00%

30.00%




Question: What do you expect to be the biggest threat to your earnings this year?

-‐ The results above enforce the main discussion topics of today in Affiliate Marketing. Google updates, most recently the Panda update, plus the launch of Google’s +1 button, remains the constant threat to Affiliate earnings across all territories, with the majority housing over 40% of concerned Affiliates.

-‐ A recent hot topic in the UK, ‘Culling’ of Affiliates on Programmes was far higher than any other country, with nearly 40% of UK Affiliates concerned about this Advertiser tactic.

-‐ Unsurprisingly, Cookie Legislation and ePrivacy Directives are the second most concerning areas for Affiliates, especially in Spain where over 60% of Affiliates deemed it the biggest threat to their earnings.

0.00%

10.00%

20.00%

30.00%

40.00%

50.00%

60.00%

70.00%

80.00%




-‐ Behavioural Retargeting remains a low threat across the board.

Question: How positive are you regarding the future of Performance related activity within your business?

Why So Serious?

Very Negative, UK – “In recent months, my turnover appears to have been propped up by gaming merchants, rather than the retail. With reduced commissions and culls and more competition on the retail side, ever y sale counts.”

Negative, UK -‐ “Earnings from affiliate networks aren’t improving. We are earning more working via independents or specialist networks.”

Negative, NL – “I made a fortune by starting one of the first coupon sites back in 1999, but these days there is simply too much competition. I used to have GREAT google rankings, but that is all over now too.”

Negative, DE – “It’s not sustainable. A lot of us are relying on Google for the majority of our traffic. All it would take is for the ‘Big G’ to flick a switch (the ‘we want to be the only affiliate’ switch) and we’d be goosed!”


Very Posilve

Posilve

Neutral

Negalve

Very Negalve



Neutral, FR – “Evolution of Affiliation (closure or programs restrictions) and competitions (sometimes unfair) – has meant that my business model has had to change and frozen my PPC budget for this year.”

Neutral, UK – “Online business is volatile and the introduction of new legislation such as privacy law and online sales tax could kill off Affiliates overnight.”

Positive, FR – “The economic model of Affiliate is the most credible and coherent for the Advertisers.”

Positive, DE – “The market is still moving, to succeed requires good work and knowledge. Not every newbie can enter the market successfully.”

Positive, ES – “It’s a young business in Spain and we have a big market to discover.”

Positive, UK – “There is always room to expand into new niches, the Internet is still a big place and hasn’t reached the level of saturation that some people seem to think.”

Very Positive, UK –“Recession makes all forms of marketing accountable, performance led marketing shows greater, more accountable ROI, with Marketers and budgets being increasingly curbed and stretched to show ever greater returns. Affiliate will lead the way and account for an increasing slice of the marketing pie.”

Very Positive, DK – “With Affiliate Marketing, I am sure the future will be very positive because of the Merchants, Features, Feeds, Links and the Tracking. Every aspect is improving very frequently. ”

Very Positive, NL – “CPM is not applicable for all Advertisers, CPC is not really goal-‐related, CPA is the only way to go and it will grow even more in the coming periods.”

a4u european landscape report 2011

Documents

hybrid tenancy

advertiser

advertiser

preferred

internet services

adding affiliate

performance

important