As part of our annual digital trends, we have collected thoughts on 2015 digital marketing trends from expert leaders and practitioners in their field.
Below are 5 Performance Marketing Trends for 2015.
| Kevin Edwards, Strategy Director, Affiliate Window | |
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As a network that captures millions of rows of data daily we need to recognise we only use a fraction of it to unlock insights. Being wedded to a fixed user interface provides a limited view and 2015 will be focused on how we empower team members to interrogate bigger datasets.
Data shouldn’t be the preserve of analysts or business intelligence teams, it’s owned by everyone and it underpins our role as more than just a tracking, reporting and payments platform. If we want to provide greater consultancy and tie ourselves closer to our clients then this will be a critical focus over the next 12 months. This data will also provide greater visibility on how affiliate marketing impacts and is impacted by other channels and also we believe 2015 will be the year we start to provide tentative first steps away from last click CPA payment models. |
| Mark Russell, CEO of Optimus | |
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Here at Optimus Perfomance Marketing, we predict the continued rise of the affiliate super brand in 2015, as witnessed by TV advertising from Quidco / Top Cash Back and also Money.co.uk (a finance specialist). This will obviously drives much greater sales volumes but also makes the case for commanding media spend much stronger (through paid newsletter and site placements).
We also foresee further increases in third party technology companies offering their services on a cost per action (CPA) basis, which offers smaller merchants the ability to utilise technologies to improve sales and conversion on pay per sale rather than a licence fee, such as cart abandonment/retargeting etc. There is sure to be an ever more tactical use of voucher codes in 2015, allied to a much closer relationship between Voucher code sites and merchants to ensure much greater control of margins and offers. This drives a much better user experience as well as ensuring that brand and tactical objectives are met for the merchant.Finally, there will be continued focus on engaging with bloggers to drive both sales and awareness, looking at ways to drive improved conversion from content traffic as well as rewarding engagement. |
| Dan Cohen, regional director at Tradedoubler | |
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We believe mobile payments will grow significantly in 2015. Affiliates will continue to find new ways to obtain and convert mobile traffic, and technology such as mobile wallets will ensure consumers become even more comfortable buying on their phones.
Data will no longer be scary in 2015. Companies will drive intelligent decisions through better use of data and complexity will become less of an issue. Marketers must have a clearer picture of where their consumers are coming from, how to optimise their touchpoints and what they need to do to convert them into purchasers. Another trend in the performance marketing industry will be consolidation. This year we saw vouchercodes.co.uk buy vouchercodes.com and we think more mergers are on the way. Marketers will continue to improve personalised communications with customers. Consumers will be targeted with individual coupons based on their spending habits and digital interactions will be segmented and personal to each customer. Marketers will increasingly understand the need for a single approach across all touchpoints. |
| Mark Kuhillow, Founder, R.O.EYE | |
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Online advertising’s old friend – attribution – will continue to be a hot topic in 2015. Who assisted with each sale, helped consumers to navigate the plethora of online outlets and incentivised them to make a purchase? With huge budgets now flowing towards display advertising with a focus on performance trading, the attribution argument is sure to rage well into the New Year.
The question will be this: whose job is it to solve the problem? Technology of course exists to identify every aspect of the customer journey, so brands, media owners and agencies have the opportunity to get better at attributing sales. We’re in a bit of a bubble at the moment and there will be a correction at some point. |
| Kathy Schneider, CMO, Criteo | |
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Throughout 2014 large organisations researched, educated and adopted performance marketing. In 2015, performance marketing will represent an even larger share of companies’ marketing spend as they further understand the clear and demonstrable impact it can have on sales.
In parallel companies will also continue to grow and embrace programmatic marketing techniques as more inventory and advertising intelligence becomes available.Within performance marketing there will be a shift in focus to mobile devices. Today 30% of all ecommerce transactions are on mobile devices. This will grow exponentially as device manufacturers and advertisers make the consumer experience even richer. If organisations don’t have a clear strategy for mobile they will be missing out on sales. |
