UK Affiliate Marketing Spend Up 15%

A study by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB) and PwC has revealed that affiliate marketing spend in the UK grew 15.1% from £482 in 2016 to £554 million in 2017.

This has led to £8.9 billion in sales, increasing from £8.1 billion 12 months prior.

According to Helen Southgate, IAB UK's Performance Marketing Advisory Group's chair and Acceleration Partners' MD, the report demonstrates that the industry is "in great health."

She added that the industry was enjoying the impact of greater transparency and the application of a "pure performance" model to affiliate marketing activity.

Southgate explained: "As the market matures, we are seeing more innovation, transparency, broader reach and brands increasing their spend in the sector whilst maintaining ROI."

The study also revealed that affiliate spend on smartphone grew 49% year-on-year. Meanwhile, retail held the greatest share of revenue (43%), followed by telecoms and media (24%), travel and leisure (16%) and finance (9%).

The affiliate channel offers ecommerce retailers in particular great opportunity for growth, with many so-called fast fashion brands keen to use blog and social content to align with target audiences.

This year's Affiliate Marketing Study took a different approach from previous years, taking into account total spend of sales, technology spend, consultancy fees and data cleansing.

PwC's strategy director Dan Bunyan explained it had focused on areas of marketing with "greater visibility and availability of accurate data." According to Bunyan, the focus was on "pure CPA" activity and capturing total spend (not just media space ad spend).

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