Affiliate marketing to be 10 per cent of online advertising: dgm India

UK-based online marketing firm dgm (formerly Deal Group Media) launched its Indian subsidiary, dgm India, on Wednesday. The company specialises in affiliate marketing, a form of online advertising where a deal is established between an advertiser and a publisher through the agency. As part of the arrangement, the publisher (a website or portal) places text or display elements to promote the advertiser’s product or service. For every action or specified result, the publisher is paid by the advertiser through the agency.

dgm India will offer advertisers three services – dgm SearchLab for search marketing, dgm Performance for affiliate marketing and dgm eMail for email marketing. It will also offer analytical tools to advertisers to gauge the effectiveness of their online advertising.

“About 25 per cent of global online spends are on affiliate marketing. In India, we expect affiliate marketing to comprise 10 per cent of online advertising within 18 to 24 months,” added Gupta.

Gupta added that while most of dgm India’s clients are online companies, it will approach financial companies like ICICI and HDFC to offer its services. The company is also looking at working with media agencies. Gupta expects the company to have 2,000-3,000 publishers on board in the next three months.

Adrian Moss, founder and CEO of dgm Holdings, said, “The percentage spend on Internet advertising in India is much lower than its consumption. This is why we see great potential in the market.” The company also launched in Singapore on Tuesday, and will launch in China and Hong Kong by the end of the year.

dgm India is based in Gurgaon, and will add sales offices in Mumbai next month and in Bangalore in the last quarter of 2007.