Merchants struggling to recruit affiliates - study

Research group AffStat has released the results of a new survey of around 200 affiliate managers in the US.

One of the most striking things is the scale of many companies’ affiliate marketing programmes on the other side of the Atlantic.

The study found that one in five (22%) managers of pay per sale-based programmes had more than 10,000 affiliates promoting their products, while a further 15% had more than 5,000.

Moreover, 13% were generating more than 500,000 click-throughs a month through affiliates and 21% said their biggest challenge was managing the number they had signed up.

The earnings of the largest affiliates are also on a grand scale. A third (32%) of pay per sale managers and more than half (52%) of pay per lead managers had shelled out more than $20,000 to an individual affiliate in commissions in one month.

Although the results are US-focused, there are some clear similarities with affiliate-related trends over here in the UK.

Affiliate recruitment, for example, was cited by many respondents as their main challenge – an issue highlighted in our Affiliate Marketing Merchants Report last year.

In that, 20% of respondents said that attracting affiliates was a major barrier to the success of their programmes.

If you're finding affiliate recruitment problematic, there are some highly useful tips from expert Shawn Collins in AffStat’s report, including details of software programmes that allow you to identify super-affiliates and Shawn’s thoughts on recruitment tools like blogs, directories and email.

Related research:
Affiliate Marketing Networks Buyer's Guide
Affiliate Marketing Agencies Report
UK Affiliate Census

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