Affiliate marketing is a strategy in which a publisher or online retailer — an affiliate — earns a commission for marketing products. You may have seen affiliate links on social media posts, blog posts, and other online content, such as a link to buy the author’s favorite cookware in one of the home recipes posted to their blog.
Affiliate marketing can bring lots of benefits for both affiliate marketers and the brands they work with. It can drive sales and generate revenue, and in a digital, social-first environment, it’s a modern way to market to existing audiences and discover new ones. Affiliate marketing also takes advantage of the strength of word-of-mouth communications and trusted referrals to encourage purchases. All in all, affiliate marketing is a great way to engage niche audiences where they already are to connect and sell more efficiently.
Why Do You Need an Affiliate Marketing Strategy?
Traditional marketing tactics have their place, but savvy consumers often click past ads. Organic reach on social platforms has declined, too — on Instagram, a popular place to market and sell products, there was an 18% decline in reach year-over-year in 2024. Both growing and established brands should consider affiliate marketing as part of their broader marketing strategy to capture better ROI, increase customer loyalty, and discover new markets and audiences.
Affiliate marketing has already claimed significant spending and will likely only continue to grow. Statista found that affiliate marketing spending hit $9.56 billion in the U.S. in 2023, with projections of $12 billion spend in 2025. Likewise, the Performance Marketing Association reported that affiliate marketing generates an average return on ad spend (ROAS) of 12:1.
How Do Affiliate Marketers Get Paid?
Pay per Sale
In this typical affiliate pay structure, the company or vendor pays the affiliate a percentage of the sale price of the product. This happens after the sale, incentivizing an affiliate marketer to encourage as many sales as possible.
Pay per Lead
In this model, an affiliate marketer gets paid based on lead conversion. That conversion can include whatever action the merchant chooses, such as filling out a contact form, signing up for a free trial, completing a download, or subscribing to emails.
Pay per Click
In the pay-per-click (PPC) affiliate marketing model, affiliates focus on redirecting consumers from their platform to the business’ website. They then receive payment based on the increase in web traffic. PPC affiliate marketing can also be CPA-based (cost per acquisition), where an affiliate gets paid when the retailer acquires a new lead from their site. Relatedly, the EPC (earnings per click) model indicates the average earnings per 100 clicks for all affiliates in the affiliate program.
Pay per Install
With pay per install, an affiliate marketer gets paid whenever they direct a user to the company’s site and the user downloads or installs an app. Each install results in a payment based on the retailer’s bid.
Pros and Cons of Affiliate Marketing
| Pros | Cons |
| Builds audience credibility and trust. | Widely variable results. |
| Helps develop long-term partnerships with seasoned affiliates. | Lack of control over how your products are promoted or described. |
| Taps into new or hard-to-target audiences. | High competition, depending on the industry. |
| Offers easy testing of various affiliate publishers and their particular audiences. | Reputation damage possible if every affiliate link isn’t disclosed. |
| Gets you a competitive edge in the digital market. | Lots of initial effort required to build an affiliate network. |
| There are multiple options depending on your market and budget, such as native advertising, SEO, and programmatic advertising. | Potential affiliate fraud with fake clicks or leads. |
Benefits of Becoming an Affiliate Marketer
Passive Income
While establishing the content and strategy takes time up front, affiliate marketers can earn money without a lot of effort once the program is up and running. The initial campaign investment can bring continuous returns once consumers are buying the promoted product, so payment comes in for weeks or months afterward. Affiliate marketers also have flexibility of when, where, and how much they work.
No Direct Customer Responsibility
Unlike the company or merchant, an affiliate marketer doesn’t have to provide support to or follow up with a customer that uses the affiliate link. The seller sends the affiliate the commission, but any complaints are the seller’s to deal with.
Low Startup Costs
Affiliate marketing requires some time and effort up front, but it doesn’t require a big cash influx to get started. You won’t encounter hidden fees and don’t have to build a product.
Considerations to Take with Marketing Affiliation
As you’re considering affiliate marketing as part of your company’s overall digital marketing strategy, get to know your online audience deeply. Identify the relevant influencers in your space and see what type of budget you may need to engage them. Influencers often have huge followings on social media platforms, blogs, or websites, so working with them can be invaluable.
In addition, get creative with the affiliate marketing options in your industry. Consider how you might work with an influencer in a unique way, or see if you can tie affiliate links or posts to a larger trend or cultural event.
Remember, too, to keep your brand’s personality and promise in whatever affiliate marketing you do, with regular communication to let your affiliates know what to keep in mind in their promotions.
Types of Affiliate Marketing
Unattached
This is just what it sounds like — the affiliate marketer isn’t a particular expert on the product they’re promoting and likely has no specific connection. In an unattached scenario, the affiliate likely runs PPC campaigns with affiliate links to generate income.
Related
Related affiliate marketing is less hands-off than the unattached model, and the affiliate probably has some connection to the audience involved. They might have a solid following, with some type of expertise or influence in the product area.
Involved
These affiliate marketers have some sort of interest or affinity for the product they’re promoting — they’ve likely tried it and trust it, and their followers listen to their personal recommendations. While this method can require more time to get going, it often leads to more success.
Common Types of Affiliate Marketing Channels
Blogs
Blogs remain an essential part of digital marketing, with bloggers often doubling as affiliate marketers. A blogger tries a product and writes a detailed review that sends traffic back to the merchant’s site. Its regular readers consume this content, and some blogs rank well in organic search traffic, too, so there’s a steady stream of readers to click on the links.
Microsites
Brands may develop microsites to then advertise on partner sites, or as part of paid search listings. Microsites are targeted to just one audience or product offering, so that users see just one simple call to action, without a lot of navigating, and often convert faster.
Email Lists
Email continues to play a role in marketing generally, and in affiliate marketing income. Affiliate marketers may send out regular email newsletters with affiliate links, or build their own email list over time to send targeted product promotion emails.
Social Media
Social media platforms have provided a huge opportunity for affiliate marketers. Both organic and paid social options help to build user communities around a particular brand or product, and platforms like Instagram offer in-app store options, too.
Videos
Online video consumption happens on social platforms, on websites, in blog post embeds, and more. Affiliate marketers use video to their advantage for product reviews, unboxing moments, live demos, and other interactive experiences. Depending on the industry, affiliate marketers might livestream events or play a new game live with their followers, for example.
Coupons
Coupons, now in digital format instead of paper, are a tried-and-true way to attract customers: 60% of U.S. shoppers used digital coupons in 2023. Affiliates can use coupon sites to add discounts, or ask their retailer partner to provide exclusive coupon codes for their audience.
Reviews
Recommendations from friends or colleagues carry a lot of weight for today’s consumers. Affiliate marketers can use Yelp or Google, among many others, to write reviews and include custom links, as well as regularly scanning user reviews for audience insights.
Tips for Becoming a Successful Affiliate Marketer
Be Ready Beforehand
Don’t make any promises or firm commitments to business partners before establishing some relevant content. Aim to have 10-15 articles, blog posts, or social posts ready to go before launching an affiliate marketing program, so that potential partners can see what’s on offer — and have options for where to place their links.
Diversify
For an independent entity like an affiliate marketer, it’s key to have a broad customer or partner base. Aim to make sure no one business makes up more than 50% of your revenue. In a volatile online world, it’s essential to have financial backup in case of sudden changes.
Know Your Audience — and Listen to Them
Today’s consumers are savvy, and they’re quickly aware if they’re too overtly being sold to. An engaged, loyal audience will be essential for affiliate marketing success. Get to know what they want and how they shop and see which products they recommend. Always disclose affiliate links to maintain authenticity and trustworthiness.
Know the Ins and Outs of the Products You’re Recommending
It may be easy to add a product link to content, but demonstrating deep familiarity with the product is a better way to get responses, as trusted recommendations are always better. Affiliate marketers should also consider doing keyword research and following trends to stay ahead of anything new or emerging, especially when creating new content.
Tools to Enhance Your Affiliate Marketing Strategies
There are plenty of tools available to assist affiliate marketers in their work. To get started, consider using affiliate marketing programs like Amazon Associates, which has a huge share of affiliate networks. Other programs to explore include AvantLink, Affiliate Future, and ClickBank. You can also take a look at Trip Advisor, eBay, or Coursera.
SEO and search tools like Semrush or Ahrefs are essential for building an audience and finding the right search terms. Website tools like Google AdSense make it easy to set up a site with room for partner ads. To make sure the site loads quickly for your users, try a tool like Imagify for compression.
Affiliate marketers should measure all their efforts, taking time to regularly review metrics. Google Analytics can track click volume, conversion rates, earned income, and other data. Alternatively, the dashboards provided by your affiliate network or partner can help gather details.
Key Takeaways
Affiliate marketing is as broad and varied as digital marketing itself. It offers both brands and affiliates many options for success without a lot of overhead or risk needed. Businesses should find affiliates that align with their goals and audiences, while affiliates can use their audience and product knowledge to earn commission on what they recommend. Keep authenticity and trust front and center for best results.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is the best marketing strategy for affiliate marketing?
To succeed with affiliate marketing, narrow in on a niche area to reach the targeted audience. Create high-quality content, build an audience with consistency across channels, and always disclose affiliate links. Track performance regularly to find areas of improvement.
What is the 80/20 rule in affiliate marketing?
The 80/20 rule of affiliate marketing (sometimes referred to as the Pareto Principle) means that about 20% of an affiliate’s partnerships will generate 80% of sales. Focus on those top-performing affiliates for best results in the long term.
Can you make $10,000 a month with affiliate marketing?
An affiliate marketer can earn $10,000 a month, especially with lots of skill and product/audience knowledge. An average affiliate marketer may earn $1,000 to $10,000 per month, while the top affiliates may earn more than $100,000 per month. It may take some time to build these earnings — anywhere from six months to two years.
Can beginners succeed in affiliate marketing with these strategies?
Affiliate marketing has a low barrier to entry, as affiliates don’t necessarily need a lot of experience to start earning commissions. The most important skills are willingness to learn, being able to build an audience, and the capacity to create regular content for your particular niche.
