eThesis - School of Business electronic theses

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OBJECTIVES

The main objective of this study was to examine how traditional advertising campaigns affect the online affiliate channel’s performance. Even though there have been studies conducted on cross-channel marketing and how different advertising channels influence each other, little research has focused specifically on how advertising in multiple media channels influences the sales performance of other channels. The second objective of this study was to provide a better understanding of affiliate marketing, a specific form of digital advertising, as it remains a largely untouched area of academic research.

METHODOLOGY

The data consisted of two parts; an affiliate channel sales performance report and an offline advertising campaign calendar of the case company from January to September 2011. Using multivariate regression analysis, the effect of offline advertising campaigns on four different performance metrics was investigated. The data analysis was conducted in two stages. The first stage investigated how offline advertising campaigns affect the sales revenue generated by the affiliate channel. The second stage examined how advertising campaigns affect the total number of sales, the conversion rate and the average order value.

KEY FINDINGS

Based on the analysis it was found that overall traditional advertising campaigns have a significant positive effect on the affiliate channel when measured by sales revenue and the number of sales. Sale promotion advertising has an especially positive effect on the affiliate channel. In terms of the conversion rate and average order value, however, traditional advertising campaigns were not found to have a significant effect. The results suggest that as offline advertising and affiliate marketing create a significant positive synergy effect, the affiliate channel should be regarded as an important part of the overall marketing mix.