With the controversial EU online privacy law coming into full effect next year, marketers lack confidence in their ability to engage users online without tracking their behaviour via cookies.
Under the new EU directive, visitors will have to agree upfront to a website uploading cookies to their device – rather than the consent being hidden in terms and conditions as it has previously.
According to research conducted by affilinet at ad:tech 2011 show, only one in ten (12%) of those surveyed at ad:tech 2011 believe that businesses will be able to engage consumers as successfully without the use of cookies.
This represents a reduction from the 23 per cent that responded to the same question asked at the 2010 show, which highlights the lack of confidence in the new laws, due to come into full effect next year.
The research showed that 32 per cent of respondents believe affiliate marketing is more effective at generating sales than other forms of marketing, almost one in five businesses (19%) are still not utilising the benefits of affiliate marketing as part of their multi-channel strategy.
Furthermore, only 11 per cent of businesses reported all marketing activities truly integrated across all online and offline channels.
Data is increasingly important to many businesses, whether this is insight on customers, sales conversion statistics or figures on lead generation.
This is highlighted by the 81 per cent of businesses that reported utilising marketing data to make wider business decisions, such as:
• Optimising marketing activity = 93%
• Understanding consumers = 70%
• Generating more profit = 67%
The research, which was taken from a poll of 111 marketers at this year’s ad:tech event, also revealed that 54 per cent of respondents reported that marketing budgets are set to increase in the next year, with over a third (35%) also reporting that affiliate marketing budgets are set to grow too.
Gary Bicker, operations director at affilinet UK, comments: “There is clearly a need for further communication and education around the enforcement of the new legislation around use of cookies, an issue that is increasingly of concern to many marketers. It’s good to see that affiliate marketing and the overall marketing budgets in many businesses are on the rise, but disappointing to find that one in five people are still not fully utilising the benefits of affiliate marketing.
“It is clear to see that affiliate networks must continue to show how affiliate marketing can be used as an umbrella discipline, to generate sales or new customers through a range of channels. Whether it is through display, search, social, mobile or email, affiliate marketing offers businesses the unique opportunity to engage through all these channels on a strictly cost per action basis.”
Methodology
Research conducted by polling 111 marketing delegates attending the ad:tech 2011 event
www.affilinet.com