Publishers are most interested in promoting advertisers from the travel industry, with 73 per cent citing this as one of the most important sectors for their online advertising, according to a new study.
The report, from affilinet, looked into the preferences of UK online publishers, analysing the way they monetise their sites through online advertising.
Travel was followed by retail brands, which were favoured by 60 per cent of publishers and then finance brands, which 44 per cent of publishers were interested in featuring.
affilinet’s findings also show that the UK online publisher base was optimistic about growth in social media marketing, with 85 per cent planning to expand these activities this year .The results reveal that 38 per cent of publishers plan to expand their social media engagement by up to 20 per cent. Similar growth is expected for the mobile channel in the next twelve months, with 37 per cent of publishers expecting site views on mobile devices to grow by up to 20 per cent.
Content sites remain the most effective way for publishers to monetise their presence, with more than two thirds (67 per cent) of publishers citing them as major contributors to the revenues generated from affiliate marketing. This was followed by search engine marketing (32 per cent) and voucher code sites (18 per cent).
The research also reveals what the biggest concerns are for publishers when working with advertisers. The findings reveal that the most important factor is ensuring creatives are kept up to date, an issue cited by 53 per cent of publishers. The next biggest concern is around ‘earnings per click’, a payment model which demonstrates how well an advertiser is performing by measuring the average amount of commission earned per click generated for the brand. 45 per cent of publishers cited this as one of the key considerations when working with advertisers.
Peter Rowe, managing director, affilinet UK, explains, “The growth of the mobile and social media world is clearly set to continue and will require online advertisers to carefully consider the mix of campaigns they develop for their publishers. It will also be critical that challenges regarding updating creatives can be quickly eliminated and earnings per click optimised if a brand is to build positive relationships with publishers. Building tailored campaigns for different publishers that accurately reflect their audiences should prove a key way to generate the most traction between brands and consumers.”
The research was conducted by polling 141 publishers.