Affiliates: Commission, Product & Brand Most Important

November 19, 2008

The three most important things affiliates look at when deciding whether to join an affiliate program are the commission they will receive, the product being sold and the brand being promoted, according to a report from AffiliateBenchmarks, the affiliate research division of NETexponent.

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In addition to these three factors, the report also finds that more than two-thirds (68%) of affiliate respondents say the affiliate technology also plays a role in helping them decide whether to join a particular program.

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The top three technologies cited in the survey by affiliates are Commission Junction, LinkShare and Google Affilliate Network. Custom landing pages and a product feed via the affiliate technology are among the most valuable technology offerings for affiliates when promoting an affiliate program.

The report, which is free until Dec. 12, 2008, details findings from a first-of-its-kind survey that collected information about affiliates’ experiences in the affiliate marketing space, and was designed to help develop and evaluate marketing best practices for affiliates.

Additional survey findings:

  • Nearly half (44%) of affiliates have joined between 1 and 25 affiliate programs.
  • Most affiliates say that a low percentage of programs generated orders in the month prior to the survey.
  • An overwhelming majority of affiliates want to be reached by email at their personal email address, especially with regard to commission changes.
  • Search engine optimization (SEO) is among the most popular ways affiliates drive traffic to their sites.
  • Electronics and Books and Magazines are two of the top advertiser types that generate strong revenue to affiliate websites, though one-third of affiliates do not know their conversion rates for specific advertiser types.

“We were hoping to uncover practical information about affiliates and their experiences by conducting this survey, and we were not disappointed,” said Chris Kramer, media director and co-founder at NETexponent. “We definitely feel like members of the affiliate community will be able to use this information to their benefit and that we’ve been able to give back to the industry by coordinating this survey and contributing to the effort to continually learn more about affiliate marketing, as well as develop and reinforce marketing best practices.”

About the survey: The survey, which included 450 responses, was conducted earlier this year. It included 23 questions about topics such as experiences with different types of ad performance, site visitor demographics, technology and communication preferences, reasons for joining an affiliate program, experiences with emerging technology, and more. AffiliateBenchmarks and NETexponent publicized the survey by directly contacting known affiliates, publishing a press release, and promoting the survey on websites and blogs.

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