Last year over £800 million was spent promoting the UK affiliate marketing industry and around and around £50 million of that was spent on gambling affiliates.
These figures are the centerpiece of a new study from Price Waterhouse Cooper (PWC) conducted on behalf of the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB).
Among the findings of this first-of-its-kind study was that all that investment in advertising and marketing pays off. Last year businesses spend around £814 on advertising that generated around £9 billion in sales.
The bulk of that spending came from insurance, credit card and other financial services. These companies accounted for nearly 45% of that £814 billion. A big chunk of the profits in this sector came from credit card comparison sites.
According to summaries of the report, around 6% of the money spent promoting affiliate marketing went to the gambling sector.
Despite it’s massive size, affiliate marketing in the UK is still something of an unknown according to Tim Elkington, Director of Research & Strategy at the IAB. Though he described the industry as one of the UK’s, “best kept secrets he also said:
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
PWC’s report also predicted continued growth in the UK affiliate marketing sector.
Have you been seeing the kind of returns the report describes? Share you experiences in the comment section below.