Latest Affiliate Marketing content from Econsultancy

Internet Statistics Compendium

2012-02-03T17:00:00+00:00

Econsultancy’s Internet Statistics Compendium is a collection of the most recent statistics and market data publicly available on online marketing, e-commerce, the internet and related digital media.

The compendium is available as eight main reports, split across different geographical regions:

Updated monthly, each document is a comprehensive compilation of internet, statistics and online market research with data, facts, charts and figures.The reports have been collated from information available to the public, which we have aggregated together in one place to help you quickly find the internet statistics you need, to help make your pitch or internal report up to date.

There are all sorts of internet statistics which you can slot into your next presentation, report or client pitch.

Those looking for B2B-specific data should consult our B2B Internet Statistics Compendium.

Areas covered in the main compendium include:

Making the affiliate Long Tail wag : part two

2012-02-01T15:57:57+00:00

Long Tail optimisation

Much about Long Tail optimisation is based on assumptions. One of the most widely-held is that it is just not possible because of the small sales volumes.

But this would be to hold the Long Tail to the same volume standards as the top performers, which is clearly unrealistic.

Long Tail engagement is a lot like SEO. One of the characteristics of the Long Tail is its lack of short-term influence. These affiliates are slower burners and therefore require longer-term commitment.

While the performance of top affiliates will be characterised by peaks and troughs (marking the point where their newsletters are sent, for instance) the Long Tail will not show as pronounced a trend.

How then can advertisers devise a strategy to engage the Long Tail?

They might start by questioning what kind of Long Tail they want. An advertiser may consider some existing affiliates unsuitable and therefore want to effectively recruit a Long Tail of better quality partners.

Most brands will find that recruitment is not an issue but relevance is. To find the best, some advertisers use their PR teams, who monitor what is said about their brand online while others ask potential resellers to start as affiliates.

Similarly, advertisers whose market is seasonal may recruit for peak periods rather than expecting Long Tail affiliates to be active all year round.

More generally with affiliate recruitment, it is worth remembering that the Long Tail of an affiliate programme will be the Long Tail of Google.

The amount of traffic a site generates is susceptible to its rankings on Google, so advertisers can start their recruitment efforts by looking at what sites rank for their product terms.

Secondly, many advertisers I have spoken to agree that re-categorising or segmenting the Long Tail is critical to the success of any engagement strategy.

Different advertisers do this in different ways.

One breaks the Long Tail into mid and lower tier affiliates, another separates them according to whether they are on or off brand in how they are represented. A third is more granular, considering whether an affiliate performs above or below the programme average for key metrics like new customers, churn and AOVs.

Each of these are indicators of quality beyond simple volume of sales.

If sales volume provides a poor comparison to the top performers, how could an advertiser measure the success of the Long Tail?

Their aspirations need to be realistic:

One advertiser wanted Long Tail affiliates to reach an average of half the programme’s conversion rates.

Another focused not on sales but CTRs and the relevance of the placement they received onsite against their competitors.

A third looked at month-on-month sales growth from the Long Tail, rather than the proportion of overall sales it accounted for. Time is a more neutral benchmark than the proportion of sales.
Top performers are more campaign-responsive and so produce more pronounced peaks, obscuring Long Tail performance if looked at from the perspective of the total sales they contribute.

So a key success factor with Long Tail engagement is to treat the Long Tail differently to the top performers. But what quick wins do they respond best to?

When asked in the 2011 Econsultancy Census why they did not promote programmes they had joined, affiliates’ most common answer was poor quality linking methods.
Copy and creative is a particular need of Long Tail sites, so flexibility on this – perhaps with co-branded banners or landing pages– is greatly appreciated.

Sending content-based sites products to review (and not asking for them back!) encourages them to write about this, whilst at the same time giving them a stake in promoting the brand.

Prizes need not cost much, and gift vouchers on an advertiser’s products further solidify a personal connection. One advertiser runs a ‘Publisher of the Month’ award offering a £50 voucher to the best submission of a URL showing how they are promoted.

Cash incentives are sometimes ineffective, but one advertiser offers a £10 cash bonus on an affiliate’s first sale. All newly-joined or inactive affiliates receive an email offering £10 against their ‘next’ (rather than ‘first’) sale, signed by the Affiliate Manager to give a personal touch.

Customer-facing incentives combat the problem of good quality traffic not converting. One advertiser targets affiliates with high CTRs but low conversions with an exclusive code directing to a co-branded landing page. Conversely, it is better to avoid offering commission increases to Long Tail affiliates. These tend only to work for those more experienced in producing sales; those not presently producing volume are unlikely to be motivated by one.

The final quick win is to add a recruitment page to the site to explain how the relationship works for good-quality sites looking for ways to monetise their traffic, and direct to the network where they can apply to join.

More ideas on the topic of Long Tail engagement can be found in my presentation at last year’s a4u Expo here.

Companies boosting digital marketing budgets - new report

2012-02-01T12:09:00+00:00

Econsultancy's Marketing Budgets 2012 Report, published by Econsultancy in association with Experian Marketing Services, shows increasing levels of investment across a range of digital channels and disciplines.

According to the research, based on a survey of more than 500 companies and agencies, more than two-thirds (68%) are increasing their digital budgets for 2012, compared to 45% of companies increasing overall marketing budgets but only 16% saying the same for 'traditional' marketing budgets.

Three-quarters (74%) of companies are investing more in digital marketing technology this year, up from 67% who expressed similar intent a year ago.

The research also shows an encouraging commitment to address the skills gap within many companies, which we have previously described as 'a ticking digital time bomb'. More than half (56%) of companies say they will recruit more people into their digital teams this year, up from 52% a year ago.

Despite this progress, 'lack of staff' is still cited as one of the most significant barriers preventing further investment in digital marketing.

The chart below shows the proportion of companies planning increased investment for specific areas of digital, with more than half of organisations planning to boost budgets in almost every area. (Groupon investors should look away now.)

What best describes your budget plans for the following digital marketing channels or disciplines in 2012?

Commenting on the findings, Mark Zablan, Managing Director, Experian Marketing Services, UK & Ireland, said:

While spend is increasing, it is little surprise that much of the dynamic growth has been in companies trying to understand, interpret and measure customer behaviour within this increasingly complex marketing ecosystem.

The key to success is turning huge quantities of data into insights which show behaviour not only across channels, devices and platforms, but which also span both the online and offline worlds and drive customer engagement.

Marketers are therefore investing in the tools, technology and people to allow them to deliver greater returns on their campaigns and present insight and results back to the business in a meaningful and incisive way.

The report also looks at levels of investment in offline channels such as printed media and direct mail. Television is the only 'traditional' marketing channel where investment is holding steady rather than declining.

The research shows significant investment in mobile, as businesses seek to engage with the vast numbers of people now consuming information on devices such as smartphones and tablets.

Zablan added:

While social networks may dominate media headlines, and are gaining ever-increasing shares of marketing budgets, strong performances by channels such as mobile and TV highlight the vital importance of a multichannel strategy.

Marketing Budgets 2012

2012-02-01T10:10:00+00:00

The Marketing Budgets 2012 Report, published by Econsultancy in association with Experian Marketing Services, looks in detail at how companies are allocating their online and offline marketing budgets in 2012.

The report compares spending trends - and ability to measure ROI - across different 'traditional' and digital channels.

More than 500 companies, mainly from the UK, participated in this research, which took the form of an online survey between December 2011 and January 2012.

The report includes the following sections:

Marketing budgets
Investment in technology and resources
Marketing effectiveness and ROI
Barriers to further investment

We have identified six key trends:

Digital continues to be a key priority for marketers in 2012
Companies are recruiting more staff, but shortage of talent is still preventing them from fully harnessing digital marketing
More companies embrace digital marketing technology, with a focus on measuring and optimising business performance
The big paradox: social media marketing is the fastest-growing channel in terms of investment, but remains the hardest to measure
Television remains one of the most enduring media for brand advertising
Mobile penetration and engagement have reached a tipping point, but ad spend still lag behind

Executive Summary and Highlights
Foreword by Experian Marketing Services
About Econsultancy
About Experian Marketing Services
Methodology and Sample
1. Methodology
2. Respondent profiles
Findings
1. Marketing budgets
  1. Proportion of budget spent on digital
  2. Proportion of revenue derived from digital marketing spend
  3. Plans for overall marketing budget
  4. Increase in overall marketing budget
  5. Plans for digital marketing budget
  6. Increase in digital marketing budget
  7. Plans for traditional (offline) marketing budget
  8. Increase in traditional (offline) marketing budget
  9. Change in budgets for digital marketing channels
  10. Change in budgets for offline marketing channels
2. Investment in technology and resources
  1. Investment in digital marketing team
  2. Plans for digital marketing technology spend
  3. Investment in digital marketing technologies
  4. Investment in mobile channels or technologies
3. Marketing effectiveness and ROI
  1. Understanding of ROI from digital channels
  2. Understanding of ROI from traditional marketing channels
  3. Ability to measure ROI from digital channels
4. Barriers to further investment
Appendix 1: Respondent Profiles
1. Geographic location
2. Job roles
3. Type of companies – supply-side respondents
4. Industry sector
5. B2B / B2C focus
6. Annual company revenue
7. Annual marketing budget
Appendix 2: Marketing Budgets by Region

Q&A: Ben Edelman of Harvard on adware & affiliate commission fraud

2012-01-31T14:42:00+00:00

Ben, what, in your opinion, are the top areas in which merchants fall victim of affiliate commission fraud?

I’ve been tracking a variety of problems. Spyware and adware can invoke a merchant’s affiliate links when a user is already at the merchant’s site, claiming commission on traffic the merchant would otherwise get for free.

Cookie-stuffers can drop cookies when a user is merely browsing the web, again, claiming commission the merchant shouldn’t have to pay.

Typosquatters wait for a user to mistype a merchant’s domain, then send the user where the user wanted to go, but charge the merchant for the referral (even though the typosquatting domain registration was illegal to begin with).

The techniques vary, but the key tactic is the same i.e. finding a way to get between the user and the merchant, in order to claim commission that wasn’t actually earned.

I know you believe adware to be one of the worst types of affiliate marketing abuses. Why? And can you quickly explain how things work here?

Spyware and adware are particularly pernicious because they offer such effective targeting. If you want to find a thousand customers about to buy new Dell laptops, where are you going to find them? To a rogue affiliate, spyware and adware offer an answer: just wait for the user to browse to the Dell web site, or even through to the checkout page, and then pop open the affiliate link then.

To a merchant that’s not thinking about this problem, the traffic can look just great. Conversion rates can be high. Average order size also good. Click-through rate can be superb. But it’s all a ruse since it's traffic the merchant would have gotten for free.

You've been researching and writing on affiliate adware and spyware for nearly a decade. How have things changed in the course of the past few years?

One major change over the last few years is the rise of complacency. Folks think "the adware mess is over," and in some respects that’s right, certainly there are no more mega-adware vendors collecting millions and planning IPOs.

Yet plenty of users are still infected. And keeping a program clean requires ongoing diligence. Indeed, as fraudsters have gotten trickier, (recognizing known IPs, using history sniffing to detect folks who might be trying to flesh them out, and so on) the risks have actually grown.

Prohibiting adware, BHOs and other parasites in the affiliate program's Terms & Conditions agreement is only the first step. What can merchants do to effectively police affiliate compliance with such a clause?

One crucial first step is to combine tough T&C’s with genuine enforcement. T&C’s alone won’t do the job as rogue affiliates are inclined to try their luck and see what happens. So then the question is where enforcement comes from. Some affiliate program managers can do this, and some networks offer the service too. Savvy affiliate managers can even do it themselves, especially if they examine traffic stats and referer headers to try to get a sense of who may be up to no good. But complacency isn’t a sensible choice.

It’s also important to discuss this problem with affiliate networks. The standard contracts between merchants and networks disavow a network’s responsibility for these shenanigans. I understand a network’s hesitance to promise good behavior by its affiliates, but suppose a network is on actual notice that a given affiliate is a cheating. Perhaps the network has received impeccable proof of that cheating.

Can the network continue to send that affiliate’s traffic to other merchants? Continue to tell the other merchants that that affiliate is active and in good standing?

Savvy merchants should demand better, and should insist that networks use best efforts to block bad affiliates, and that networks act on information in their possession.

Give us a good reason why etailers and affiliate managers should attend your keynote at Affiliate Management Days.

There’s real money at stake here. For example, the 2010 indictment of Shawn Hogan alleges that he was the single largest affiliate in eBay's affiliate program in 2006-2007, collecting more than $15m over 18 months. (eBay and the US Attorney’s Office now allege he was cookie-stuffing all along.) Of course, most affiliate programs are far smaller than eBay's, yielding a correspondingly lower opportunity for fraud.

But for mid-sized merchants, there are typically large savings in catching and ejecting rule-breakers. That means more commission available for legitimate affiliates who do their best and follow the rules. Merchants and good affiliates should both be pushing to put an end to this kind of fraud.

State of Digital Marketing in Australia

2012-01-29T00:00:00+00:00

The State of Digital Marketing in Australia report, published by Econsultancy in association with Marketing Magazine, looks in detail at the current level of spending across different traditional and online marketing channels across Australia.

More than 500 companies participated in this research, which also looks at how companies are measuring marketing effectiveness, examines the barriers to digital marketing and e-commerce in the region, as well as assessing the existing levels of industry skills and knowledge.

The 50-page report includes sections on:

Marketing budgets
Use of marketing channels
Use of marketing technology
Barriers to digital marketing
Barriers to e-commerce
Measuring marketing effectiveness
Industry skills, knowledge and support benchmarking

There are six key findings apparent from this research:

Marketers are shifting their focus towards digital
Established disciplines are being complemented by emerging channels
Barriers to increasing digital activity go beyond the financial
There is a digital skills knowledge gap
Senior managers are failing to lead from the top
Consumer online behaviour is widely underestimated and misinterpreted

Executive summary and highlights
Introduction by Marketing Magazine
About
1. Econsultancy
2. Marketing Magazine
Methodology and sample
1. Methodology
2. Respondent profiles
Findings
1. Budgets
2. Use of marketing channels
3. Outsourcing digital activity
4. Use of technology
5. Measuring marketing effectiveness
6. Return on investment
7. Barriers to digital marketing
  1. Issues affecting digital marketing and e-commerce
  2. Local barriers to increasing digital revenue streams
8. Knowledge, skills and support
Appendix

Download a copy of the report to learn more.

A free sample is available for those who want more detail about what is in the report.

Groupon acquires social commerce company Mertado

2012-01-23T11:35:00+00:00

According to reports, Groupon was primarily interested in Mertado’s expertise in the social commerce space, including the launch of Mertado TV, which combined video content with products.

The concept is similar to French Connection’s YouTique ‘store’, which uses YouTube’s annotation feature alongside clips of a stylist showing viewers how to wear the brand’s latest collection.

Mertado wrote on its site that the company was no longer accepting new registrations and will officially shut down on Feb 28, while customers are currently being redirected to Groupon Goods. This is the company’s answer to Amazon, acting as an online retail site for physical products.

Today, we're pleased to announce that we are continuing this journey by becoming a part of the Groupon family. Groupon has been a pioneer in social commerce in many ways, and when we started talking with them, it became extremely clear that they shared the same set of values as us."

Groupon’s shaky financial footing continues to fluctuate. Its shares fell below the company’s initial public offering price at the beginning of this month, and public confidence in the deals industry is dropping as people turn to trusted brands for ‘daily deals’ direct from the horse’s mouth. O2's Priority Moments is a great example of this.

This talent land grab feels like the slow and steady rise of panic; an attempt to bring smart people in that might be able to change the path of a sinking ship before its too late. We’ve said before that 2012 will be the year the deals industry either matures or dies, and for now, the jury is still out on which side Groupon will fall.

Making the affiliate Long Tail wag : part one

2012-01-20T12:59:00+00:00

The Long Tail

In his words a ‘Long Tail’ utilises “the efficient economics of online retail to aggregate a large inventory of relatively low sellers.”.

For offline bricks-and-mortar stores it is not feasible to stock low-selling items due to shelf space; they instead stock the big-sellers, and unsurprisingly that is what people buy because that is what is available.

However, things are different online. Without the problem of shelf space, Amazon for instance, can sell everything.

Anderson notes that this creates the effect of inexhaustible demand even at the end of the Long Tail: even the 500,000th best selling product still sells in the thousands, and the Long Tail never reaches zero.

Thus there is a market for almost everything.

So how does this apply to affiliate marketing?

The ‘Long Tail’ of an affiliate programme is collective name for the sites that share the same distribution curve Anderson noted with Amazon, but of affiliates rather than products.

It is the affiliates themselves that form the Long Tail, the multitude of sites outside the top performers that sell in small volumes individually but large volumes collectively.

Every affiliate programme has a Long Tail if defined solely as those outside the top 10 or 20, but as the concept implies that endless choice available online creates unlimited demand, affiliates can help advertisers to cater for this demand.

It is through this natural affinity that affiliate networks are able to target relevant partners for advertisers’ programmes.

In the affiliate world, the Long Tail should be able to cater to all audiences.

Just as a retailer captures more of the market by selling more products, so an affiliate programme can capture more potential customers with more affiliates.

Search, for example, is the predominant way to find products online, but advertisers are unlikely to cover Long Tail keywords that are as niche as their Long Tail of affiliates: they are simply unable to bid on as many products as they sell.

However, their affiliates may rank naturally for these terms. Advertisers can thus use their affiliate Long Tails to effectively expand their search budgets.

Volumes from the Long Tail are potentially huge. One telecoms advertiser saw its Long Tail grow over the last four years to generate collectively as many sales as a top 10 affiliate. However, Long Tail optimisation is a long-term strategy requiring investments of time, money and resource.

Moving from theory to practice, we find advertisers constantly asking questions about their affiliate programmes which indicate that, practically, engaging this Long Tail is tricky.

Indeed, their questions are symptomatic of problems with Long Tail engagement: ‘Why are there not more affiliates referring sales?’; ‘Why are we so reliant on a few top players?’; ‘Why can I not just cull non-performers and bring my top affiliates in-house?’

What is the extent of this problem?

Studying the growth in commissions paid to affiliates by Affiliate Window over the last four years shows that the top 200 (on a network of 75,000+) account for the vast majority of all commissions paid.

At the same time, commissions to those outside the top 200 are decreasing rather than following the same growth trajectory of total network pay-outs, with the gap between commissions to the top 200 affiliates and those from the Long Tail having grown in 2011 compared to 2010.

So is there an affiliate divide?

Amongst Affiliate Window’s top 20 advertisers, the average programme has 2,716 affiliates, with 16% driving at least one sale, and 47% at least one click.

In the period September 2010-2011, the top 10 revenue-drivers contribute an average of 76% of total sales. The gap between sale and click-drivers therefore suggests that the problem is one of conversion rather than engagement.

Many affiliates are engaging enough to get a click, justifying their value to advertisers, but cannot convert. Perhaps the issue is one of context over content: whether or not users are in the right frame of mind to buy when they are browsing such sites.

Of course, each advertiser may define their Long Tail differently, but it's useful to make a three-way distinction not just between the top 10 and the Long Tail, but between the Long Tail and the potentially larger number of inactive affiliates.

The Long Tail in this sense would still drive sales or click-throughs, just in smaller numbers. What is important is the extent to which there is a divide between the top 10 and everyone else.

Distinguishing between the Long Tail and inactive affiliates helps address this by aiming to raise the game not just of the Long Tail but also raising inactive affiliates into the Long Tail.

Having got a measure of the extent of the issue, in the next part we will look practically at how Long Tail engagement and optimisation can be achieved.

Monkeybars wants to reward fans for buying content online

2012-01-18T21:40:43+00:00

One of the latest entrants hoping to be a panacea for indie musicians: Monkeybars. Targeting music, as well as films, books and art, Monkeybars thinks it has found the magic formula for using social networks to sell content.

Its concept: give indie artists the ability to sell their wares directly, and reward their fans when they recommend that content to friends. As Monkeybars' CEO Tom Thimot sees it, "Right now, friends are constantly recommending content through social networks, but they are not getting anything for it, while the artists—from the popular to the undiscovered—continue to hand over large percentages of their worth to third parties in order to have their voices heard."

Monkeybars biggest differentiator is that its reward is cash, not points that can later be used to redeem a physical or digital reward. Monkeybars calls those types of rewards "antiquated and meaningless."

The big question, of course, is could something like this work? To be sure, although Monkeybars is billing itself as "the first e- and m-commerce platform that enables artists to monetize and distribute content directly while rewarding their fans for sharing and recommending it" the general concept isn't exactly new.

There are numerous challenges. A big one: getting consumers to pony up for content. It isn't always easy, and someone who has just discovered your music may not become a fan or customer immediately. There's also the challenge of making sure that recommendations don't lose their appeal because they're effectively paid for. After all, there's a huge difference between introducing a friend to a great musician and introducing a friend to a great musician through what amounts to an affiliate link.

From this perspective, it's worth considering that new models for content distribution are warranted in the age of social networking, and there may be room for an affiliate-like model, but there will be a lot of artists and fans to whom the model doesn't appeal.

Christmas 2011 stats: the affiliate perspective

2012-01-16T12:50:00+00:00

Sales revenue

Firstly, it is interesting to take a look at the sales revenue. In my previous article, the largest day for our advertisers in terms of sales revenue was Tuesday December 6th.

This fell the day after ‘Manic Monday’. Having looked at the remainder of December, the 6th turned out to be the biggest day of the whole month with £7m of revenue delivered for our advertisers.

If we look at the remainder of December, the lowest day in terms of sales revenue was Christmas Day with just over £2m in sales revenue generated. The biggest day in terms of revenue post Christmas was 29th December with sales topping £5m.

Despite Boxing Day being stated as the largest online shopping day by Hitwise, this was actually one of the lowest for Affiliate Window when it came to revenue. However, it was double that recorded on Christmas Day.

If we look at how this compared to Christmas 2010 there were very similar trends (please note, we have compared the beginning and end of the month):

The peak that was seen on the 6th December was also apparent in 2010 (where the 6th actually did fall on ‘Manic Monday’).

Again, Christmas Day was the lowest in terms of sales revenue in 2010 and 2011. The main differences that we see are in the post Christmas period where there are different peaks and troughs for each year.

We can now look at the actual number of transactions. The 6th December was again the largest – not surprising considering that most revenue was generated on this date too. Amazon predicted, and later confirmed, that December 5th was their largest day, primarily driven by sales of the Kindle.

Mobile sales

As with sales revenue, Christmas Day was the lowest in terms of number of transactions (second lowest for mobile). Again, the 29th was the largest day for post-Christmas sales (also through mobile devices).

Pre-Christmas sales via mobile peaked later than desktop, hitting their stride on Sunday 11th December, possibly reflecting how consumers interact differently to desktop but also showing how mobile peaks at the weekends, (also reflected in the growing ‘Mobile Sunday’ phenomenon and Sunday 4th was also a strong trading day for the network); an interesting future trend to monitor.

Also intriguing is the resilience of mobile sales post-Christmas. A combination of significant new handset activations, tablets given as presents and less deskbound consumers surely helped mitigate the post-Christmas dip.

(Mobile sales plotted on a second axis)

If we compare the number of transactions across the whole network to 2010, including all mobile devices and desktop sales, the trends are also very similar with 2011 sales mirroring those of twelve months earlier. 2011 had an additional peak on the 2nd December which was not seen in 2010.

Traffic

Looking at traffic (clicks), the key trading Mondays received the most amount of traffic alongside Tuesday 6th December. However, if we look at mobile traffic, the peaks came a lot later in the month. Each of the peak days for traffic through mobile came after Christmas.

Incidentally, Boxing Day was the highest through mobile. In conjunction with our earlier data on transactions the trend browsing rather than transacting trend is clear as conversion rates fall away.

Also worth considering is whether the heightened awareness of specific brand sales resulted in consumers transacting directly with those retailers, cutting out the affiliate middleman.

This could also account for the similar trends we saw with cashback and voucher code sites, with consumers assuming that due to sale period they were receiving the best deal by transacting directly.

Traffic through desktop for Boxing Day was again low (only the 19th highest day in terms of traffic). Hitwise data is based on traffic rather than transactions; however our data still shows traffic through the affiliate channel to be low on Boxing Day.

Finally, we are able to look at the average order value per transaction during this period. More has been spent on average through the affiliate channel after Christmas than prior to it. The top seven days for the highest AOV all came after Christmas Day and were all over £70.

Prior to Christmas, most of the AOVs were under £60. This indicates that post-Christmas sales encouraged visitors to spend more.

If we compare this to Christmas Day 2010, again, a relatively similar pattern is followed. However, AOVs were a fair bit higher in 2010 on each of the days.

There was also a major peak in AOV before VAT was increased in January 2011 with customers taking advantage of offers before this increase. This was especially the case across the electronics sector, a trend that was never likely to be repeated.

So what conclusions can we draw from all this data?

In essence it’s a confusing picture and one that is difficult to generalise about.

Having spoken to some of our key affiliate partners we know their traffic and trends broadly followed ours but with significant discrepancies on a specific advertiser level.

We also looked at half a dozen of our big, blue chip retail clients and picked peak sales and traffic days for them. Not one of them matched with another, all producing wildly differing results, ultimately proving the influence an advertiser can still have on shaping consumer behaviour.

One of the most fascinating and clear cut patterns was the spike in post-Christmas average order values. An equally interesting task would be to look at which products over or under indexed before and after Christmas.

Finally December saw a significant spike in mobile traffic, setting 2012 up to be the year when affiliate traffic through mobile devices could hit double figures for the first time.

It’s impossible to say at present when that is likely to be but there’s no doubt the affiliate channel continues to throw up fascinating retail trends for data geeks everywhere.