Today, the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council have released research into advertisers’ opinions of the affiliate marketing sector and it’s good news for the affiliate channel with results showing that the market is set to enjoy significant growth in 2012.
The IAB talked to 140 brands to evaluate the affiliate marketing channel and any issues that the new year may bring.  The stats are great: 77% said that marketing spend for affiliates had grown and 71% expected it to continue to grow in 2012.

However, the news does come with a shocking statistic as well. Half of respondents said that knowledge of affiliate marketing at CEO level was ‘little’ or ‘none at all’.  With affiliate programmes now accounting for around 15-20% of over-all sales for some of our key clients, it is worrying to hear that affiliates may not be getting the recognition they deserve at board level.  True, our channel moves at break-neck speed and the sheer volume of promotional methods that come under our umbrella can be baffling to the outsider, but the industry has evolved dramatically over the past five years and it is a shame that the professionalism and influence of our channel is not on the radar for key decision makers.  My hope is that Digital Britain and Race online 2012 will make some CEOs, who currently have their head stuck in the sand when it comes to the complex online world, stand up and listen.  One of our objectives for 2012 is to encourage brands to push for affiliate marketing to become fully integrated with more traditional marketing channels, especially as the industry continues to grow in the face of an increasingly gloomy economic outlook.

Last week saw the release of the updated Ethical Merchant Charter by the IAB’s Affiliate Marketing Council.  This makes advertisers aware of some of the pitfalls in the affiliate channel and ensures all networks, publishers and agencies adhere to the same set of ethical guidelines and are entirely transparent within their business.

These guidelines were first published in 2009, but as we all know, the online world is constantly developing new technology on a daily basis.  The advent of mobile, development of behavioural retargeting technology and the exponential growth of social media has spurred the industry to update the charter.

We’re wholly on board with these guidelines and have already made our advertisers and publishers fully aware of the regulations.  It’s great to see the industry headed in the right direction and it’s important for all networks to support the charter.

If you want to find out more about the regulations surrounding the new affiliate marketing guide, you can download a copy here: http://www.iabuk.net/en/1/ethicalmarketingcharter.html

The gathering together of affiliates, agencies, networks and merchants is old hand for the AMC. Although the faces around the table have changed over the years, the organisations represented have remained consistent. Through these collaborative efforts, excellent work such as the IAB Affiliate Marketing handbook has been delivered to a wider marketplace that does not always understand affiliates and their place in the online mix. The AMC has also allowed all its members and guests a voice in discussing issues. Such an open door policy allows discussed topics to flow freely back to the marketplace.

As any stakeholder in affiliate marketing knows well, the landscape is a quickly evolving one and requires not only nimble technology, but also nimble best practices. As a network we well know how working at the forefront of a fast-moving sector can provide challenges to match opportunities. Although there is a great overlap in network policy towards certain traffic models, there has rarely been a consensus on how to approach challlenges facing the industry – there can be winners and losers from any changes so agreement is difficult.

Against this backdrop, it became clear by  the middle of 2008 to the AMC that the proliferation of voucher sites and the myriad of ways in which these sites promoted merchants presented a tough question for the networks in the council. These sites drive revenue but are they completely right for the customer? Are they right for other affiliates? And are the merchants being displayed in the best light?

So we get to today, three months since the rollout of the AMC’s voucher code best practise guidelines which has been largely successful.  Across the participating networks, 24 out of 25 publishers who were warned are now compliant. The code, crafted by all parties in an open forum is a step forward for the industry. It represents a commitment from the member networks to put short-term revenue gains aside and think on behalf of the industry.

Whilst it was not a seamless process-the first time out with this sort of corroperation rarely comes off without a hitch-the AMC has a developed policy for the marketplace should be the first step in a consensus-building process.  The goal is have a more mainstream affiliate channel that is respected by its participants and coveted by media buyers. Having Matt Bailey as chairman will give us an objective viewpoint and help in concensus building. 

For all these reasons we feel that we are almost duty-bound to invest both time and money in the IAB and the AMC. If anyone wants any more information please drop me a line at admin@cjblog.co.uk.