So what is Affiliate Marketing you might ask? It is basically a multitude of different websites directing traffic to your site for free and any sales/applications made will earn these sites an agreed commission, a model commonly known as cost per action (CPA) or performance marketing.
- Online Shopper visits Affiliate website
- Affiliate website directs traffic to merchant website and drops a ‘cookie’
- Online shopper makes a purchase and reaches your confirmation page
- Confirmation page tracking code reads affiliate cookie and reports back to Affiliate network.
The Affiliate Market Channel
If you don’t have an affiliate marketing strategy then you are missing out on an opportunity to grow your online business by as much as 20%.
The UK affiliate marketing sector will be worth more than £4 billion in online sales in 2009. Recent research showed that the market grew by 22% in 2008 to £3.82 billion in 2007 the market had grown by 45%. The same report found that UK merchants involved in affiliate marketing drive up to 16% of their online sales via this channel.
Affiliate marketing is now seen as an ideal partner to online retailers as it works like a virtual sales team, paid only on commission. For online retailers and service providers, the use of affiliate marketing has allowed the acquisition of new customers and helped consolidate brands positioning in existing markets.
With the economic climate today more and more businesses are looking to performance marketing as an accountable, measureable and effective form of online marketing.