Affiliate marketing in the UK has been growing - and will continue to grow - in the next few years, per a survey from E-consultancy sponsored by buy.at, a UK-based affiliate network, writes MarketingCharts.

Some 78 percent of respondents (239 merchants "working in the UK for a company which sells online through the affiliate channel" were surveyed) reported increasing their spend on affiliate marketing since '05. 78 percent said they plan to increase spend in the next two years.

(Note: Those responding "don't know" not included in chart.)

Additional growth-related findings from the study:

• Nearly a quarter of those who are spending more in the channel said they have doubled their spend in the channel in the past two years, and a further one in 12 said they had increased spending 200 percent.
• Two-thirds of respondents said the number of sales generated by affiliate marketing has increased over the past two years.
• Some 40 percent of respondents have more people employed to manage their affiliate marketing activity compared with two years ago, and half of those surveyed expect this team to grow over the next two years.

• Half of responding organizations expect to have more people managing this channel in 2009; only 4 percent who expect to have fewer people.

"As broadcast advertising has started to decline, performance marketing has emerged as the silver bullet of the marketing industry. Within that, search marketing has reached its peak, but affiliate marketing is still in a high-growth phase," said Kevin Cornils, CEO of buy.at. "This represents a huge opportunity for both affiliates and marketers that understand the channel and appreciate the benefits of true pay-for-performance advertising."

MarketingCharts offers a host of additional findings from the study.