New research from European affiliate network, affilinet, shows the digital industry’s understanding of affiliate marketing and how it compares to other forms of advertising.

The benefits of affiliate marketing are widely accepted by the industry (78%), yet only 42 per cent of those surveyed plan to increase their affiliate marketing budgets in the next 12 months. This is in contrast to figures which indicate that 52 per cent will be raising their overall marketing budgets over the same period.

An overwhelming majority (86%) see affiliate marketing as being either more or as effective as other forms of advertising – such as search, display and email. Moreover, the key benefits are singled out as increased sales (55%), lead generation (50%) and measurable ROI (44%) – a positive sign for networks looking to increase their portfolios.

Jargon impacting understanding
There is still a degree of uncertainty when it comes to demystifying the acronyms and phrases that dominate the sector and, while understanding of Pay Per Click (PPC) and Cost Per Action (CPA) are both high at 72 per cent and 70 per cent respectively, knowledge of the more specific terms is low. Post Impression tracking (PI), for example, is understood by only 20 per cent of delegates, Effective Cost Per Thousand by 20 per cent and Earnings Per Click (EPC) by 22 per cent.

Peter Rowe, head of affilinet UK, said: “We wanted to get under the skin of the sector to understand what digital marketers really think about affiliate networks. It’s encouraging to see that uptake and acceptance of affiliate marketing is growing, but clearly there is still work that needs to be done and our sector is notoriously rife with jargon and confusing acronyms. 

“There’s an obvious educational role networks can play here and we’ll be taking steps to ensure we’re separating the fact from fiction, which may in turn lead to greater spend and investment.”