SAN FRANCISCO--(BUSINESS WIRE)--According to new research by Performance Horizon, the global leader in digital partner marketing, and WBR Digital, the confidence that travel brands place in performance-based programs - reflected by their returns on high levels of investment - suggests an increase in expertise and familiarity with performance-marketing models and understanding of the value they can drive.
Performance Horizon and WBR Digital’s report benchmarks the digital travel industry, including the adoption and management of performance marketing programs such as digital partner marketing alongside other marketing tactics. The results analyzed in the report were gathered from responses to a survey delivered in May 2016 to a large range of executives representing leading global travel brands.
Key findings include an increase in performance-based partner marketing programs to drive both customer acquisition and retention, a trend towards the application of these performance-based methodologies to increasingly popular channels such as mobile, and a growing need for data and insights around transparency, fraud, contribution, and attribution to support business decision-making.
“The travel industry is highly competitive, with complex customer journeys and more touch points, channels and devices than ever before,” said Erik Mikisch, VP Marketing for Performance Horizon. “Increasingly, partner marketing has risen in popularity due to its substantial return on investment, which essentially provides brands an opportunity to further focus budgets on revenue-generating activities they can easily measure.”
Highlights include:
- Partner and affiliate marketing plays a role in customer retention. A surprising 20% of respondents use their performance-marketing channel for customer retention, which is a nontraditional use of affiliate programs.
- Independent verification of performance-based partner marketing efforts is a growing trend. 61% of respondents evaluate marketing performance with help from a third-party organization or technology, while 39% only benchmark performance internally.
- Mobile is an increasingly important sales channel for travel brands. Travel brands almost universally expect mobile conversions to increase with 87% expecting mobile app sales to increase and 97% expecting mobile web sales to increase this year.
- Data from marketing partners is enabling better business decisions. Respondents reported that data they gained from their marketing partners empowered them to make better business decisions almost unanimously, with 93% reporting it was important to them.
- Performance marketing drives significant shares of revenues for travel brands. 59% of respondents drive at least 20% of overall revenues through performance-based marketing partners, with 17% generating above 60% of their overall revenue.
The full report is available as a free download here.
About Performance Horizon
Performance Horizon is the leading provider of SaaS solutions for digital partner marketing, enabling large enterprises to drive significant sales through their online marketing partners and affiliates. The world’s top digital content, retail, travel and financial services companies rely on Performance Horizon’s highly scalable platform to generate over $3 billion in sales across 165,000 marketing partners. The benefits include highly flexible partner management capabilities; real-time measurement and tracking of performance; optimization through deep analytics; and settlement in over 50 currencies in 183 countries around the world. With offices in the U.S., UK, Japan and Australia, Performance Horizon is backed by top-tier investors, including Mithril, Greycroft Partners and DN Capital. For more information, visit http://www.performancehorizon.com or follow @tweetphg.
About WBR Digital
WBR Digital connects solution providers to their target audiences with year-round online branding and engagement lead generation campaigns. We are a team of content specialists, marketers, and advisors with a passion for powerful marketing. We believe in demand generation with a creative twist. We believe in the power of content to engage audiences. And we believe in campaigns that deliver results. To learn more, visit www.digital.wbresearch.com.