Awin, the fastest-growing affiliate marketing platform in North America, today released the findings of its state of the industry research on affiliate and partner marketing in collaboration with Digiday. The research outlines how affiliate and partner marketing is now used by ecommerce merchants at each stage of the purchasing process, as well as how it will be used in marketing plans in 2023. As a result of increasing budget allocation to the channel in 2023, nearly half (46%) of marketers (80%) believe affiliate marketing will become an even more significant source of income.
Respondents reported dealing with a range of affiliate partners as the affiliate industry undergoes a multifaceted transformation. 40% of the collaborations are with influencers and artists, while media companies (39%), price comparison websites (36%), bloggers (35%) and technological partners (34%) were not far behind. This displays how affiliate marketing has been incorporated into various promotional models and customer interaction points. Only 18% of respondents reported engaging in brand-to-brand partnerships, in which a brand cross-promotes a complementing retailer to its own customer base. However, as more companies come to see the benefits of such collaborations, this number is anticipated to rise.
The survey also emphasises the difficulties that merchants and agencies have when trying to increase their spending for affiliate marketing, with almost half (48%) stating that there are still misconceptions about the channel as a one-dimensional strategy. The majority of marketers (57%) that use the affiliate channel also claim that affiliate relationships assist optimise and convert website visitors, which is supported by 60% of marketers.
“This state of the industry report shines an important light on how marketers engage with the affiliate channel, and how we can help brands understand where it is headed and how exactly it can be leveraged across the full customer purchasing journey – from pre to post”, “With the support of Digiday, Awin could hone in on what is most important to brands and agencies when working with affiliate partners and how they help enhance their advertising and marketing strategies. It also provided valuable insight into the challenges they struggle with around implementation, attribution and success measurement.”
Alexandra Forsch, President, Awin U.S.
In both the B2B and B2C sectors, Awin collaborates with more than 21,200 brands and agencies worldwide. For the study, over 100 companies and agencies—of which 62% were brands and 38% were agencies—were surveyed to see how affiliate partnerships presently and in the future fit into marketing strategy.
