Mobile sites and affiliate tracking: the stats
With consumer behaviour and shopping habits continually evolving, coupled with the increase in smartphone penetration, more and more consumers are accessing the internet through mobile devices.
This is something that we have been monitoring closely at Affiliate Window for the past 18 months. Back in December 2010 we saw traffic through mobile devices account for 2.4% of all network traffic and 1.7% of all sales.
Fast forward to March 2012 and these figures have grown considerably with 10% of traffic and 6.6% of sales coming through mobile devices.
Christmas 2011 stats: the affiliate perspective
As the dust settles from the frantic Christmas and New Year sales trading season I’m now able to provide a definitive account of how our advertisers’ affiliate campaigns performed throughout December.
Having previously looked at the impact of Cyber and Manic Monday on the affiliate channel we can trace December’s performance, compare it with 2010’s and also split out mobile data to see how it compared with traditional desktop transactions.
Stats from Hitwise indicated that Boxing Day was the biggest online shopping day in terms of traffic so it is also possible to see if that was reflected across the affiliate channel.
Affiliate categorisation is outdated
As the affiliate channel continues to become more sophisticated, it is becoming increasingly difficult to categorise affiliates based on their promotional type.
With boundaries becoming blurred, affiliates should be assessed on their individual merits rather than grouped by their traditional category.
Finding the value of your top 10 affiliates
Advertisers will have a set of key metrics which they measure the success of their campaign against. Typical metrics include but are not exclusive to: new vs. existing customer %, average basket values and lifetime value of customers.
These metrics will vary from advertiser to advertiser to be in line with their core strategic objectives.
How to reward affiliates based on value
In her recent post on Econsultancy, Helen Southgate, the chair of the IAB Affiliate Marketing Council discussed the myths associated with attribution within the affiliate channel.
She rightly pointed out that the affiliate market is not looking for an alternative to the last click model.
The rise of mobile in affiliate marketing
With 51% of mobile users in the UK having already interacted with m-commerce, there is significant opportunity for advertisers who embrace the channel.
Previously, I investigated the development of mobile commerce through the affiliate channel, analysing the data for the first quarter of 2011.
As we enter the third quarter, it provides an opportunity to study the growth trends demonstrated throughout the second quarter.
The change in affiliate promotional types by sector
Previously I investigated the change in affiliate promotional type across the network. This post examines how this varies across three sectors and highlights the reasons behind this.
Mobile commerce through the affiliate channel
2011 is anticipated to be the year of mobile commerce and a strong performance over the Christmas period intimated that mobile commerce was really taking off.
This post firstly examines the rise in affiliate sales that have been seen through mobile devices across the Affiliate Window platform. It then investigates the impact that has been seen across two advertisers on the network that have fully optimised mobile sites and uncovers some interesting findings.
The importance of a strong conversion rate in the affiliate channel
As competition in the affiliate marketplace intensifies so advertisers should be optimising their campaigns wherever they can.
An obvious, yet often overlooked, place to start is click to sale conversion rate.
Affiliate marketing: how promotional methods are changing
Throughout the past six years, there has been a significant shift in the promotional methods used by affiliates to drive sales to merchants.
It is important to understand how and why this shift has occurred and ways advertisers can implement strategies to engage with all affiliate types.
