Traditionally, affiliate marketing has supported marketers with their acquisition efforts. However, the channel has evolved into so much more and is now supporting marketers in accessing emerging technologies that enhance their own marketing capabilities.
Marketers Drawn To The Affiliate Channel In Order To Access Emerging Tech, Survey Finds
Ask a senior marketer what value affiliate marketing can drive for them and five years ago the answer would probably have been a simple “helps us drive sales” or “supports our customer acquisition efforts.”
Marketers Drawn To The Affiliate Channel In Order To Access Emerging Tech, Survey Finds
All well and good, but for those of us more intimately acquainted with the channel we’ve long known it can deliver much more than that.
Marketers Drawn To The Affiliate Channel In Order To Access Emerging Tech, Survey Finds
Thankfully, that perception is changing. A Forrester survey recently commissioned by Awin of senior marketers across the US, UK, France and Germany revealed they see the primary role of affiliate being to support them in accessing emerging technologies that enhance their own marketing capabilities.
Marketers Drawn To The Affiliate Channel In Order To Access Emerging Tech, Survey Finds
How has this perception shift occurred and why?
Marketers Drawn To The Affiliate Channel In Order To Access Emerging Tech, Survey Finds
Well, I’d argue the introduction of a relatively new affiliate partner type is largely responsible.
Marketers Drawn To The Affiliate Channel In Order To Access Emerging Tech, Survey Finds
What are affiliate tech partners?
Historically, the affiliate channel was primarily an arbitrage one. Affiliates build audiences of their own which they then send over as traffic to relevant advertiser websites to transact, for which they then earn a commission. It’s an effective marketing model and one that continues to thrive today.
But the introduction of what we call ‘technology partners’ has transformed that model and the perceived value of the affiliate channel for marketers. These partners don’t build or own their own audiences. Instead, they provide cutting-edge ecommerce technologies which can be deployed on advertiser websites to improve the customer experience there.
Think of…
..