If you are an advertiser or publisher, ad network or exchange, “super affiliate” or small blogger, you can’t deny that affiliate marketing has changed dramatically since its earliest days. The industry is certainly not “new” anymore, but compared to other traditional advertising platforms, is probably in its adolescence.
This is why I think the industry is at a crucial inflection point now more than any other time in its history. Why now, you ask?
As 2009 progressed, the overall visibility of the industry increased. We see this on a daily basis from large advertisers who had not previously even considered the affiliate channel to be a major part of their strategy now considering it – and even staffing and budgeting for it.
This makes sense when considering the overall recession and economy, and the negative impact it has on ad budgets, but also is a major reason why performance-based, affiliate marketing has been somewhat recession-resistant (since nothing is truly “recession-proof”).
Before you know it, the calendar will turn to 2010. What, now, to expect from our adolescent phase next year and beyond? How does our collective industry enter “responsible adulthood” stage? Ready to blossom further as a major platform underneath the broader online marketing umbrella?
We must first realize that we still collectively account for a small percentage of online advertising spending at large. Amazing, right? There are major advertisers who just started thinking about performance marketing in 2009, but who will be doing more in 2010.
It’s this reason that we really need to have a hard look at what we can collectively do together to ensure affiliate marketing rises even higher to keep up with potential demand.
Think of some of the major trends that have occurred recently: a huge influx of ad networks (all types), more and more active affiliates than ever before worldwide, and more money being spent on performance-based marketing than ever before.
These facts have all been publicly documented and validate what we do. The demand isn’t waning and what energizes so many of us that work in online performance marketing is that we see light bulbs going off for some, or companies coming out with a great new tool or application, or a single affiliate registering success that they hadn’t yet seen.
It’s really how we collectively react to the demand – and adjust to new challenges that a broadened universe of advertisers brings – that will chart our future.
I’ve often said that we work in the most innovative of industries and it’s that innovation that will help sustain us in the months ahead ushering in our next phase of growth.
Michael Sprouse is the Chief Marketing Officer for Epic Advertising, and is based at the company’s headquarters in New York, NY.
Download the entire FeedFront issue 8 here – http://www.scribd.com/doc/20220412/FeedFront-Magazine-Issue-8
FeedFront issue 8 articles can be found here as well: http://feedfront.com/archives/article00date/2009/10
