How affiliate marketing drives growth not cannibalisation
There are seven cornerstone fundamentals marketers should look out for in any successful affiliate campaign, argues Callum Wingrave, head of performance partnerships at Mindshare.
Forgive me in case I’m stating the obvious at this point, but the rise in ‘guilt-free’ shopping during the pandemic funded by the discretionary spending saved through the absence of social spending has accelerated growth in ecommerce demand. Recalibrating the priorities from pints to Pilates matts and lunches to loungewear during the pandemic has seen trends shift and habits permanently adapt to a way of purchasing brought about through restriction. What we’re now seeing is while consumers are now able to shop in store, the online marketplace has had an irreversible light shone on it, which highlights the ease of a frictionless shopping experience that most of us can’t give up. This was highlighted by December 2022 setting a record for ecommerce shopping in Australia.
As a result of these landscape changes, the tandem workings of ecommerce and media performance have further built on already huge demand levels for lower-funnel focused marketing activity. The performance partnerships space has not only seen a 26% rise in affiliate marketing related services in comparison to 2021 (Influencer Marketing Hub), but it’s now reached an approximated value of $13bn globally (Influencer Marketing Hub). Domestically, affiliate/performance partnerships budgets increased by 69% YoY (IAB) with retail and fashion leading the way in industry adopters.
