Affiliate marketing current landscape

Affiliate marketing current landscape According to E-consultancy “companies across all industries spend, on average, 18% of their online marketing budget on affiliate marketing”.
 62% of retailers say that they are spending more on the channel than they were two years ago.
 significant rise in the usage of affiliate marketing is evidence not only to the exceptional return on investment offered by the channel, but also to the efforts of networks and affiliates to recognize and adapt to the needs of advertisers and agencies.
 The market is not only growing, but becoming more sophisticated, both in terms of the rise of "super affiliates", and with the development of new technologies. Affiliates are now a trusted and innovative sales force - an essential part of the marketing mix.
 E-Consultancy's report showing that affiliate marketing is now seen as the most cost-effective channel for customer acquisition, beating both paid search and email marketing. With affiliate marketing showing 60% yearly growth, its superiority is only set to increase further.
 Web 2.0 have impacted the affiliate marketing. The new media allowed merchants to get closer to their affiliates and improved communication between each other. New developments have made it harder for unscrupulous affiliates to make money.

So where is the future

Developing technologies such as mobile and behavioral targeting will are likely to see a thickening of the long tail with niche products representing a larger share of the sales, more evenly distributed weight among best performing publishers, for example 50 to 100 sites instead of ten generating 90% of the volume. There is likely to be consolidation across the affiliate networks, and networks will be repositioning to cater for the ever changing landscape. There will be a rise in different players providing affiliate services such as specialist agencies. Contextual technology will enable greater segmentation and targeting of the internet audience as it serves advertising and products based on relevancy and improving click and conversion rates.