Affiliate casts its web on Europe’s ad land

I read with interest the article on Europe online (MW March 2) and I was surprised by the lack of reference to affiliate marketing. The article was supported by commentary from two search marketing companies, and while search continues to dominate the online advertising industry, this reflects only part of the picture.

The huge growth of affiliate marketing over recent years has had a considerable impact on the wider growth of online advertising. Recent figures estimate that sales generated through this channel in the UK alone exceeded &£1bn in 2005 (a year-on-year increase of more than 100%).

Through TradeDoubler’s unique ability to track and generate sales for more than a thousand advertisers across 16 European markets, we know that growth figures across Europe are also enormously encouraging.

This hugely cost-effective channel is an integral part of the online marketing mix for our advertisers, which include Dell, Sony, Apple Store and John Lewis, and its significance continues to increase. It is now common for affiliate marketing to drive in excess of 25% of an advertiser’s total online sales and it plays an important part in complementing other online marketing activity, such as search.

I strongly believe that because of the attractive performance-based nature of affiliate marketing, whereby an advertiser only pays for the sales or leads produced by a publisher, its importance in driving wider online advertising growth across Europe will continue to increase throughout 2006.

Will Cooper

Chief marketing officer

TradeDoubler

London SW1