The UK affiliate marketing and lead generation sector is claiming the discipline achieved an ROI of more than 10:1 during 2012, with the £814m spent generating sales worth £9bn.
According to the first ever study conducted on the UK Online Performance Marketing industry, and carried out by Price Waterhouse Cooper for IAB, 100 million direct transactions are said to have taken place last year through affiliate marketing.
It claims that 70 million enquiries were made, which resulted in lead-generated sales worth £1bn. Price comparison sites, loyalty websites and voucher sites drove between 5% and 6% of all e-commerce sales made in the UK, says the study.
IAB director of research and strategy Tim Elkington described the sector as a “best-kept secret”, even though 3,500 advertisers and 10,000 publishers use the discipline.
“This is particularly surprising, considering each year it drives more than two online purchases for every UK adult and causes the equivalent of every UK person to fill out a form showing interest in a product – generating £11 of revenue for every £1 spent,” he added.
The finance sector led the way in adopting OPM, with insurance and credit card advertisers accounting for nearly half (45%) of all expenditure last year, with price comparison websites also big spenders. Second was the retail sector, accounting for 20% of spend, followed by telecoms and media (10%), travel and leisure (9%) and gaming (6%).
PwC senior manager Anna Bartz said: “We expect that the attractiveness of paying for advertising based on an extremely measurable and specific consumer action will see more advertisers using Online Performance Marketing as a key channel for driving sales.”
Her view is backed by the research which predicts the market will grow in value by 25% this year.
