New York, Dec. 21, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Martech Record, the first and only independent authority on the partnership marketing space, today released the first ever affiliate marketing buyer’s guide to help marketing professionals have increased transparency into affiliate marketing platforms. The Buyer’s Guide reveals reviews and data directly on the top platforms, all based on survey results from Martech Record’s industry insider panel of experts.

Affiliate marketing spend has grown to become a nearly $7 billion industry and is a tactic leveraged by 80% of U.S. brands with more than $200 million in revenue, according to a 2020 Forrester report. The industry is set to continue to grow but marketers lack transparency into the technologies that are intended to help achieve their affiliate marketing objectives. With industry information historically being controlled by the platforms, The Buyer’s Guide relies on data from industry insiders to help decision-makers achieve an expanded awareness and deeper understanding of the products available in today’s marketplace.

“Everyone is doing it and for good reason: affiliate marketing works. That said, there are countless ways to work with thousands of publishers and dozens of platforms and networks but little transparency into best practices,” said Michael McNerney, Founder and CEO of Martech Record. "By publishing unbiased data through reports, surveys, and buyer’s guides as well as hosting events with industry insiders, we hope to bring more transparency to marketers, share best practices, and help them make more informed decisions.”

Martech Record’s industry insider panel is a group of more than 75 affiliate industry experts who actively manage programs with experience supporting retail, travel, direct-to-consumer (DTC), healthcare, telecom, and finance brands. The majority of the panel (60%) currently manages programs with over $25 million in affiliate revenue and share a collective experience of buying and selling marketing technologies. The Buyer’s Guide is based on data and responses to a 22 question survey on platforms’ tech, usability, customer services, pricing, and publisher networks.

By applying a consistent set of evaluation criteria, the Buyer’s Guide helps marketers simplify the decision making process through category rankings and a new benchmark: The Martech Record Market Presence Index, a weighted benchmark that measures buyers’ consideration, awareness, and preference. Additionally, the Guide includes Buyer’s Cheat Sheets, which reflect helpful qualitative feedback, such as: 

• “This data, can I trust it? The [customer services] reps even tell us they are not 100% confident in the attribution tracking.” 
• “[Their] support is fantastic — and it needs to be because you’ll ask a million questions."
• “Great for programs without budget. Low barrier, low risk and implementation is pretty simple.”
• “Pricing is like an old cell phone plan where you get blocks of data … it does not scale.” 

“Brands of all sizes look to affiliate marketing platforms to help drive lead-gen but it is simply bad business to make six figure decisions based on biased or incomplete information,” McNerney continues.

Martech Record intends to publish an updated Buyer’s Guide each quarter as well as host virtual events with industry experts on a variety of topics. Martech Record’s second event, “The Intersection of Commerce and Content” will occur in early 2021. To receive updates about upcoming events, sign up via https://www.martechrecord.com/our-events.

Martech Record is an independent authority that brings transparency to the affiliate industry. By publishing unbiased data through reports, surveys, and buyer’s guides as well as hosting valuable events, Martech Record helps empower marketing executives responsible for tech and data purchases to make better, well-informed decisions. 

To learn more about Martech Record and The Buyer’s Guide, visit: https://www.martechrecord.com/get-the-guide. 

About Martech Record
Martech Record is an independent source of information on affiliate marketing platforms, partnership marketing networks, and industry best practices. Through professional, unbiased content, valuable in-person events, and detailed buyer’s guides, Martech Record brings transparency to the partnership marketing industry that has historically only been shared via word of mouth, and often with commercial bias. Setting a new standard for industry information, Martech Record helps marketers make good decisions and achieve their marketing goals. For more information, visit https://www.martechrecord.com/. 

Martech Record’s research reflects the survey results of its industry insider panel and Martech Record does not endorse any vendor, product, or service reviewed on its site and in its materials.