Broken down to regional level, the research provides a fresh perspective on the affiliates' PPC costs in the UK, affording bigmouthmedia's analysts a detailed overview of the complex national marketplace and its local fluctuations. Compiled using data from the comprehensive range of networks our in-house team works across, it has also enabled us generate a wide range of spending ratios for specific verticals such as travel, finance and fashion.
The figures below illustrate the percentage distribution of affiliate based PPC spend across the United Kingdom. Our survey suggests that, for example, 9% of all the money spent on paid search is invested by networks based in the North West of England.
| London, England | 16.5% |
| South West, England | 10% |
| Midlands, England | 13% |
| North West, England | 9% |
| Wales | 3% |
| South East, England | 22% |
| West, England | 3.5% |
| North East, England | 8.5% |
| Scotland | 10% |
| Northern Ireland | 2% |
| Channel Islands | 2.5% |
Bigmouthmedia conducted the survey in the first quarter of 2008.
Analysis
Although there is a gap between areas like Northern Ireland - where affiliates spend the least on PPC - and high spending areas like London, the research shows that affiliate spend is fairly evenly spread across the UK.
London's disproportionally high percentage share of PPC spending reflects the fact that many of the affiliate networks are based in the UK capital. As a result, much of the events and services designed to support affiliate marketing are also based in the city.
The breakdown of affiliate spending broadly reflects the population and economic size of many regions. Welsh affiliates have a smaller percentage of the overall PPC spend than those in South East England for example, but this is proportionate to the number of affiliates operating in the respective areas.
A low percentage of the overall spend does not necessarily equate to a lack of regional affiliate activity however. Instead of investing largely in PPC, many networks are now promoting their sites through search engine optimisation, email marketing or social media.
Methodology
For each region, bigmouthmedia created a number of 'vertical buckets' for a range of verticals including hotels, flights, credit cards, insurance, property, furnishings, white goods and consumer electronics, assigning an average cost-per-click to each.
Taking each region in turn we started with the largest affiliate accounts and worked towards the smallest. We matched landing pages to each 'vertical bucket' and recorded the traffic volumes generated.
With the data collected, the cost and volume of clicks assigned to each bucket were used to estimate the total affiliates had spent on PPC in each region.
Affiliates were assigned to regions based on the results of surveys, WHOIS records for registered domains or through direct contact.
Comments and Quotes
Ed Wilkinson, Director ClickAngel;
"It is notable that more than two thirds of all UK affiliate spend identified in the bigmouthmedia survey was from outside London and the South East. We see this as a reflection of the fact that whilst there is still a general London centricity in terms of the affiliate networks themselves, most of the investment and enterprise that is actually driving the process comes pretty well evenly distributed from all corners of the UK."
Fraser Edwards, www.affiliateblog.co.uk;
"It's very encouraging to see that Scottish affiliates drive 10% of the PPC spend when the 2007 Affiliate Census showed that just 6% of affiliates were based in Scotland. With so many of the affiliate networks based in London you could be fooled into thinking that this is a London based industry but the spread throughout the UK shows that Affiliate Marketing is an industry where geography doesn't matter. Networks & merchants would do well to take note of the results of this survey and ensure they offer the same events and support to affiliates in Scotland as they do in London."
