Affiliate Vs Search Marketing Review

Affiliate Marketing is one of the most cost efficient and successful forms of online marketing.

Last week we posted a blog discussing the key elements require for a productive affiliate marketing campaign. This week I felt it would be beneficial to highlight what differentiates affiliate marketing to search marketing.

Search Marketing Review:

Advantages

- Position bidding allows flexibility.

- Ability to increase and decrease CPC, Budgets etc.

- CPM biding allows good coverage for branding.

- Greater insight into Impressions, Clicks, CTR, CVR etc.

- Variety of research and development tools available.

Disadvantages

- High risk as ROI cannot be guaranteed.

- Optimisation required in achieving and maintaining performance.

- Competitors activity always effecting CPC costs and positions.

- Marketing budget can be wasted on poor campaigns.

Affiliate Marketing Review:

Advantages

- Low risk for Merchants.

- Prearranged commission structure with affiliates which guarantees ROI and COS%.

- Little optimisation required by the merchant.

- No wastage on marketing budget.

- An abundance of affiliate sites in operation.

Disadvantages

- No capability of position biding.

- No capability in increasing spend, traffic or visibility.

- No visibility on campaign metrics provided by affiliates (Impression, CTR etc.).

-Generally a lower sale revenue generated.

We hope this provides you with a better understanding into the differences between the two forms of marketing. For more information on affiliate marketing please visit our Affiliate services section here.