Letters: Affiliate networks are facing up to 'grey areas'
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From Kevin Edwards, head of affiliate channel, Affiliate Window
The grey areas in affiliate marketing mentioned in last week's Leader are well documented and widely recognised by UK affiliate networks. Monitoring of affiliates engaging in paid-search activity is one area often cited by critics as networks failing to police satisfactorily. Perhaps we should be asking why networks turn a blind eye to this criticism?
For the industry to move forward, networks need to be forward thinking, listening and responding to the concerns of agencies and advertisers. Those that emerge as super-networks will develop technologies that tackle issues head-on.
With increased maturity, the need for self-regulation has never been more important. The IAB set up the Affiliate Council, a group of forward-thinking agencies, affiliates and networks, to help develop its understanding of affiliate marketing. It's really good news that the council has appointed a chair and the members are clearly more committed than ever to developing an industry code of conduct. This will only strengthen the position of forward-thinking networks with an unwavering belief in affiliate marketing's pure ROI model.