Marketers to spend over $2 billion on affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing continues to play a big role in e-commerce and in the U.S. marketers are expected to spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing fees in 2008.

by Helen Leggatt

Growth in online affiliate marketing spending is increasing at about the same rate as other online marketing spending, according to JupiterResearch. Their latest report on the topic found that online marketers will spend $2.1 billion on affiliate marketing this year, 15% over 2007.

Affiliate marketing continues to be a popular online tool for marketers, particularly due to its sales-generating performance and minimal initial investment.

By 2012, online affiliate marketing spending will reach $3.3 billion, fuelled in part by the increasing use, by affiliates, of blogs and social networks to drive traffic. “Affiliates are starting to embrace YouTube, for example, to get a revenue share by tying videos via links on YouTube back to affiliate links on their blogs or social network pages,” explained Shawn Collins, CEO of affiliate marketing consulting firm Shawn Collins Consulting Inc.