It was a week of celebration and joy for members of the performance marketing industry as the ninth annual Performance Marketing Awards rolled into London’s Grosvenor House Hotel on Tuesday (April 28).

Gongs to award success within the space were handed out to Affiliate Window, Somo, 8 Million Stories and Squawka among others, capping off what has been a truly groundbreaking year for innovation and industry development.

For those that were unable to attend, you can head to various pages on this very site to view photos, videos, round-ups and a full list of winners from the night.

Contribution revealed 

Away from the awards, the IAB and PwC’s annual review of the performance marketing industry broadcasted a flattering statistic about its worth to the UK economy.

Representing 1% of Britain’s GDP, online performance marketing firms contributed £16.5 billion in consumer spend during 2014. What’s even more impressive is the fact this came from £1.1 billion in advertiser spend, leading to £15 being returned for every £1 committed. 

This marks a noticeable increase on the £14 that was returned for every £1 spent by advertisers in 2013. 

Weekly INsight

Affiliates played a huge role in driving consumer spend last year and, as ever, our tip-based features looked out for publishers wanting help with certain areas of their sites.

WeClick Media’s Becki Woods guided us through the best ways of creating content on a low budget, while a case was lodged for publisher involvement in the battle for ad fraud.

On the advertiser side of things, affilinet’s Vicky Bruce went through the arduous process of re-activating a dormant affiliate programme. Brands could also do worse than to take a look through the best methods of utilising private marketplaces, which was the subject of our masterclass for the week.

Looking ahead

Our INside the Boardroom feature saw us gain insight from House of Kaizen’s Matt Cronin, a founding partner of the performance agency whose tips on data analysis and cross-channel marketing provided a sneak peak into the inner-workings of a company at the top of its game.

Another individual that graced our guest contributor’s pedestal, PHG’s Malcolm Cowley talked us through the future of performance marketing and some of the opportunities within.

The group’s CEO also delved into the brand’s preference for measurability, which could go some way to helping performance marketing soar above the £16.5 million mark in 2015.

Here’s to another 12 months of success.