Views on what 2017 will surely become a topic for us all. All these predictions are made by experts from different areas – but from the area of Affiliate Marketing you have not really heard anything. We also have to do with trends, developments and their effects directly, and in part, a completely different view of things. In the German blog Affiliateblog, however, this gap has now been filled in cooperation with xpose360 and the topics and expectations in our area are shown.

More than 1800 affiliates, merchants, agencies and networks have expressed their opinion on the new year and not just talked about trends, but also about where there are still problems and what is going well. Thus an interesting all-round view has emerged, which here and there causes a nodding and in other places also provokes the thought.

Basically, the mood on the affiliate market is quite good. Suppliers are predominantly (88 per cent) of the opinion that 2017 again a turnoverplus is in it and that also see more than half (60 per cent) of the affiliates so. Only agencies are not quite as enthusiastic as the profit outlook. A total of 52 percent do not believe that in 2017 more sales are possible than last year.

It is also interesting to note that the trends that are emerging for 2017 are seen by Afilliates quite differently from agencies and program providers. For example, agencies consider cross-device tracking to be very far ahead and it seems as if they are also more concerned with the Customer Journey. Program providers, on the other hand, regard Influencer Marketing as the greatest trend, but they can also become familiar with the trackings. Mobile marketing is a little bit off and SmartData is not such a big issue.

The affiliates are different. You see the trends for this year clearly in the field of mobile marketing and traffic acquisition via social media, but also concede that the cross-device tracking for providers has to be a big topic this year. Conversionrates are another problem that you have to deal with in the industry and generally, many people do not consider it ideal for mobile tracking. There is still air up.

Although this survey was only made in the German speaking affiliate market and Adult was probably less a topic, it shows where the journey can go.