Martech Record Releases 2023 Affiliate Marketing Platform Buyer’s Guide

Today Martech Record released its annual Affiliate Marketers Buyer’s Guide. The Guide is the result of 278 completed surveys of affiliate marketing advertisers, publishers and agencies between March and April 2023. The guide comprises three parts: 

• Media spending trends 
• Technology spending trends 
• Affiliate marketing platform evaluations

Some highlights from the results of the survey: 

• 60% of brands and 43% of agencies said they are increasing the amount they are spending on affiliate commissions in 2023 
• The majority of respondents said their organizations plan on increasing their spend on technology to facilitate affiliate marketing. But, most of that spend will be directed in house. 

Interviews with brands, agencies & publishers indicates that while ecommerce growth is slowing, affiliate spend is relatively stable. For publishers, stable commerce revenue is helping offset other digital advertising declines and becoming a bigger percentage of overall revenue. For advertisers, discounts and deals often act as a buffer in an uncertain economy and, with more types of publishers pushing commerce products the opportunities for affiliate & performance PR teams is growing. 

However, with this growth, the technology has not necessarily kept up. Most respondents indicated that the majority of their tech investment will be directed in house. The details where they indicate the biggest gaps in technology solutions are. 

With the economy in a holding pattern it is difficult to make predictions. But, a few things seem clear: 

• The affiliate model is well on its way to becoming a core revenue generator for content publication, helping balance the volatility of advertising revenue.
• Publishers will continue to build technology in house for two reasons. First, they often view audience data as core to their business and current external solutions are not meeting their needs.
• The market for affiliate marketing platforms & networks will continue to be highly competitive. It’s clear that there is no one size fits all solution. This is in part because new content & partner types consistently emerge, driving demand for new features, new partners and new services.  

The Guide details where this planned investment will be aimed and gives insight into why these trends are happening. 

Also in The Guide: 

• Media & Technology spend report
• Affiliate Marketing platform usage report. Who uses which platforms? Download the guide to find out. 
• An affiliate marketing platform cheat sheet with quick summaries of each platform. 
• One pagers detailing how our panel rated each platform/network on over a dozen categories. 
• Our annual platform awards for best technology, best network best service and more. 
• The Martech Matrix: affiliate platform edition. Which platform is best based on your needs: check out our useful matrix. 
• A breakdown of our expert panel. 

Review The Guide Here: