An affiliate program is a form of digital marketing campaign that began in the Philippines in the mid-2000s, when internet penetration was at its peak in the country. According to internetlivestats.com, in 2002, there were approximately 3.5 million Internet users in the Philippines, which represented 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 was internet advertising. Companies partner with websites that can attract audiences that exactly fit 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 plugin exposure arrangements, and ad rotation system.
affiliate marketing
With the introduction of Google AdSense and AdWords to the worldwide audience, freelance web publishers and bloggers in the country had better opportunities to earn income online. The launch of these web-based products also marked the introduction of a new advertising model: the affiliate program.
The first companies to introduce affiliate programs to millions of Filipino digital merchants 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, an individual or group that writes blogs and publishes them on a website, can have a blog site for little or nothing, since registering an account on Blogger.com is totally free. In just a few steps, Google AdSense affiliate banner ads can appear on the blog site. At this point, the blogger can start generating income from blogging.
Amazon established its affiliate programs in the Philippine internet marketplace 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 , the Sales Trainer Program and the Sales Assistant Program. The same year, WordPress, another popular blogging platform, became an alternative to Blogger.com for many Filipino bloggers and web publishers.
Digital Marketing Boom
The digital marketing boom in the Philippines was observed between 2008 and 2012, a period in which Internet access grew by more than 500%. New players emerged in the affiliate marketing industry. Some of the well-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% of each product sold. Lazada has a category-based commission structure: 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 networks and the mobile web
The high-level engagement of Filipinos on social media somehow created a shift in advertising interest from many buying and selling companies. According to Comscore, the Philippines was the number one country in the world for Facebook penetration in 2011. Additionally, a 2013 report published by the 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.
As of 2014, the Philippines is 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 a lot of 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 keeping with this trend, more businesses will engage in e-commerce using smarter affiliate marketing methods that feature 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 have been made easier by relevant advertising. Reports say that 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 independent bloggers and internet marketers participating 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 at the next years. This early growth is largely attributed to the country’s rapid internet penetration, increased digital engagement and strong economic growth – state analysts are calling it the “perfect digital storm.”
