Affiliate Program Growth in the Philippines
An affiliate program is a form of digital marketing campaign that began in the Philippines in the mid-2000s when Internet penetration is at its peak in the country. According to internetlivestats.com, in 2002, there were approximately 3.5 million Internet users in the Philippines thanks to a user growth of 75% over the previous year. Significantly, in 2010, there were already 23.3 million Internet users in the country when the Internet penetration rate is 25%.
Internet publicity
Before affiliate marketing there was internet advertising. Businesses partner with websites that can attract audiences that exactly match their target market. With a fixed fee ranging from 2,000 to 20,000 pesos, a business can advertise its products and services on a website through banner ads, text ad display arrangements, and an ad rotation system.
Affiliate marketing
With the introduction of AdSense and AdWords by Google to the global audience, web publishers and independent bloggers in the country had better opportunities to earn income online. The launch of these web-based products also marked the introduction of a newer advertising model: the affiliate program.
The first companies to introduce affiliate programs to millions of Filipino digital marketers were Google, Amazon, and eBay. Google AdSense became a popular Internet advertising program in 2006, the same year that Google also launched its Blogger.com platform to the world. A blogger, a person or a group who writes blogs and publishes them on a website, can own a blog site for little or nothing, since registering an account with Blogger.com is completely free. In just a few steps, Google AdSense affiliate banner ads can be made to appear on the blog site. At this point, the blogger can begin to generate income from blogging.
Amazon established its affiliate programs in the Philippine Internet market between 2004 and 2006. eBay, one of the largest auction sites today, made its entrance in the latter part of the decade when it introduced the eBay Partner Network, Selling Instructor Program and Trading Assistant Program. The same year, WordPress, another popular blogging platform, became an alternative to Blogger.com for many Filipino bloggers and web publishers.
The rise of digital marketing
The digital marketing boom in the Philippines was observed between 2008 and 2012, the period when Internet access grew by more than 500%. New players emerged in the affiliate marketing industry. Some of the best known companies that offered their affiliate programs at the time were Lazada, ClickBank, and Zalora. The Zalora affiliate program pays its affiliates with commissions ranging from 6% to 16% on each product sold. Lazada has a commission structure based on categories: 5% for electronic products, 8% for non-electronic products and 10% for fashion products. ClickBank, a US-based online retailer and one of the leaders in digital e-commerce, began introducing its affiliate program in the Philippines in 2009.
Impact of social media and the mobile web
The high-level participation of Filipinos on social media somehow created a shift in the advertising interest of many buying and selling companies. According to Comscore, the Philippines was the world’s number one country for Facebook penetration in 2011. Additionally, a 2013 report published by Global Web Index revealed that the Philippines has some of the highest levels of brand openness and engagement in the world. with 25.6% of the total Internet users in the country.
In 2014, the Philippines ranked 10th in the world for the percentage of the online population accessing the Internet from their mobile phones. This only means that there is also great potential in the mobile advertising sector in the country.
Many economists predicted that the rise of social media and the growth of the mobile web ecosystem are about to create a “digital transformation” in the digital marketing industry in the country. In line with this trend, more businesses will engage in e-commerce using smarter affiliate marketing methods that are characterized by real-time ad statistics.
The future of affiliate programs
The Philippines is in a digital boom. A recent survey shows that 83% of Filipinos say their lives were made easier by relevant advertising. Reports say there is an 84.7% chance that business owners will achieve their sales and marketing goals if they effectively use social media and other digital marketing channels.
In general, advertisers, web publishers, and even freelance bloggers and Internet marketers who participate in affiliate programs in the country will continue to find more growth opportunities in online advertising, e-commerce, social media marketing and search engine marketing in the coming years. . This anticipated growth is largely attributed to rapid Internet penetration, increased digital participation, and strong economic growth in the country; state analysts call it the “perfect digital storm.”
