Majority of marketers want to diversify adspend away from big tech

Diversifying adspend away from big tech is a high priority for more than three-quarters (77%) of senior marketers, with nearly a third (30%) saying it is their top priority.

According to a survey by global marketing technology platform Awin, in partnership with Forrester Consulting, affiliate marketing can help businesses achieve objectives, diversify adspend and develop a more balanced, ROI-driven marketing programme.

The study, which polled 650 senior marketers and directors, found that nearly half (46%) stated their key objective is investing in emerging technology, which is driven by a desire to stay ahead in a rapidly evolving landscape and advancements in AI.

Equally, 46% are also focussed on improving measurement capabilities, with 45% moving towards first-party data strategies for customer retention due to changing privacy regulations.

To meet these marketing objectives, when it comes to budget allocation, the top priority was diversifying adspend and reducing the business’ reliance upon big tech such as Meta and Google, with two-thirds (68%) citing a lack of personalised strategic guidance and insufficient reporting as key frustrations.

A further 67% also highlighted the ability to forecast results is hindered by a lack of detailed insights; which is compounded by unresponsive customer support affecting 64% of respondents and an inflexible commercial model.

The report stated that these responses “illustrate the major drawbacks of ad platforms built primarily for scale and reach rather than designed with individual customer needs in mind”.

Affiliate marketing is undervalued

The survey found marketers are also prioritising investing in the integration of data across various digital channels (27%) and improving customer experiences across their online platforms (27%).

Affiliate and partner marketing was identified as one of the top three channels for effectiveness by 92% of respondents, alongside content marketing and blog leads (96%) and paid search (93%).

Respondents also said that one of the benefits of affiliate marketing is that it aligns with key objectives, especially in leveraging emerging technologies (22%) and improving customer retention (22%).

Despite the focus on diversifying adspend away from big tech, less than a fifth (18%) of respondents said they view affiliate marketing as an avenue to achieving this goal; and just 7% said it was a top priority in budget allocation.

According to the report, this stark contrast could be because “affiliate marketing’s very diversity as a channel, incorporating elements of many others, means it is not easily understood”.

Affiliate marketing relies on one-to-one relationships instead of automated bidding, which is usually seen with the big tech platforms. While this direct partnership model offers increased transparency, 68% of those polled said relationship management was their organisation’s biggest challenge, especially if there are multiple partners.

Adam Ross, CEO At Awin, said: “Marketers must get the most out of adspend while continuing to drive growth and empower the customer journey. This becomes increasingly challenging to achieve especially in the rapidly evolving digital landscape. Affiliate marketing offers brands adaptability and multifaceted advantages to demonstrate strong ROI across their channels.”

This article first appeared on Performance Marketing World.