Digital Academy: How can affiliate be used as a direct response channel?

Many of our advertisers count affiliate activity as a price of sale rather than an advertising cost, as they can attribute any spend directly to a purchase.

Typically, direct response channels tend to be more cost-effective than traditional advertising and affiliate ticks that box too as you can see where spend goes and optimise it.

We did a recent survey of UK advertisers in association with eConsultancy to see how effective they thought affiliate was and 95 per cent of brands ranked it as very or quite cost-effective. This was the best result of all media channels, including search, which came second with 90 per cent."

THE CLIENT - USHMA AGRAWAL, E-COMMERCE MARKETING MANAGER, MARRIOTT INTERNATIONAL

"The main element of a direct response ad is knowing who your target customer is, giving them a relevant offer and offering a means of response so that they can buy your product.

Affiliate marketing fits that definition - you know which affiliates send you the most valuable customers. If you use analytics, as we do, you can ensure that you send them a relevant offer or, at the very least, relevant content, for example in the form of an affiliate link.

There is also an element of branding involved, and we can ensure that our brand guidelines are used in the affiliate programme, making it an even more effective channel for Marriott.

Web users can click on an affiliate link as a call to response, and because of the way affiliate marketing is structured, we pay commissions for the desired action, which in our case is someone booking and then staying in the hotel as a result of that initial click. We can guarantee a positive ROI from affiliate marketing as we know exactly how much it costs to run, so we can tailor our programme around that."

THE DIGITAL EXPERT - MARK CREIGHTON, MANAGING DIRECTOR, I-LEVEL

"Affiliate marketing is the ultimate pay-on-performance response channel. The client can decide the amount they are willing to pay for a sale or registration and pay only for the customers they get. Many in the industry, however, position affiliate as a 'no-risk' channel, which is misleading. It may be inexpensive, but clients need to invest a lot of time to make their campaigns successful.

Clients need to communicate to resellers (affiliates that advertise and sell your products on their sites) the benefits of their products over the competition. They also need to make sure they are offering what is right for the market: if you are Lloyds TSB and you're offering a certain payment per current account opened, it won't work if Barclays is offering resellers a higher rate.

In many digital channels, clients pay per thousand views or clicks: as a direct response marketer, affiliate marketing eliminates the risk associated with this media trading model."

Do you agree with the views of our expert panel? To add your comments go to: www.brandrepublic.com/MarketingDirect/Opinion.