Affiliate Marketing is one of the most cost efficient and successful forms of online marketing.
Last week we posted a blog discussing the key elements require for a productive affiliate marketing campaign. This week I felt it would be beneficial to highlight what differentiates affiliate marketing to search marketing.
Search Marketing Review:
Advantages
- Position bidding allows flexibility.
- Ability to increase and decrease CPC, Budgets etc.
- CPM biding allows good coverage for branding.
- Greater insight into Impressions, Clicks, CTR, CVR etc.
- Variety of research and development tools available.
Disadvantages
- High risk as ROI cannot be guaranteed.
- Optimisation required in achieving and maintaining performance.
- Competitors activity always effecting CPC costs and positions.
- Marketing budget can be wasted on poor campaigns.
Affiliate Marketing Review:
Advantages
- Low risk for Merchants.
- Prearranged commission structure with affiliates which guarantees ROI and COS%.
- Little optimisation required by the merchant.
- No wastage on marketing budget.
- An abundance of affiliate sites in operation.
Disadvantages
- No capability of position biding.
- No capability in increasing spend, traffic or visibility.
- No visibility on campaign metrics provided by affiliates (Impression, CTR etc.).
-Generally a lower sale revenue generated.
We hope this provides you with a better understanding into the differences between the two forms of marketing. For more information on affiliate marketing please visit our Affiliate services section here.
