Affiliate marketing has become one of the most popular tactics today to drive sales and generate revenue. afterward, it has been around since the early days of the internet and is only seeing a sudden splurge in interest recently.
To make sure you have the information you need to grow your business, we’ve compiled these statistics that define every sector of affiliate marketing.
What is Affiliate Marketing?
Affiliate marketing is a process where publishers earn a commission by promoting a product or service made by another retailer or advertiser using an affiliate link. The affiliate partner has rewarded a payout for providing a specific result to the retailer or advertiser.
Typically, the result is a sale. But some affiliate programs can reward you for leads, a free-trial user clicks to a website, or getting downloads of an app.
Five common ways affiliates get paid include:
- Pay per sale, where you earn a commission for each sale you make. It’s a common payout model for eCommerce offers.
- Pay per action, which earns you a commission for a specific action. Comparatively, many affiliate programs use this payout model because it’s broad and can be applied to different offers: newsletter signup, a click, contact request, form submission, etc.
- Pay per install, where you are paid for every install generated from your website traffic. The goal of your content would be to promote mobile apps and software so that people download or install them.
- Pay per lead, which pays you every time someone signs up for something. It’s a popular payout method because companies use it for sweepstakes, lead generation, and other types of offers. Cost-per-lead offers are common for beginners because it’s easier to generate leads than to sell products to an audience.
- Pay per click is a rare payout system where you earn a commission on every click on your affiliate link. Pay-per-click programs are used by big merchants with the goal to build brand awareness. Customers don’t need to sign up or buy anything, just to visit the merchant’s website.
Let’s now have a look at some Statistics.
Top Affiliate Marketing Statistics
- Over 80% of brands use affiliate programs
- Affiliate marketing is a $12 billion industry worldwide
- Affiliate marketing spending is growing over 10% year over year
- 15% of the digital media industry’s revenue comes from affiliates
- 16% of eCommerce sales in the US and Canada are generated through affiliates
- Over 69% of affiliate marketers claim SEO drives the most traffic to them
- Affiliate marketing is the top acquisition channel for 40% of US merchants
- 40% of online marketers consider affiliate as a critical skill
- 50% of all affiliate traffic comes from mobile devices
- 79% of marketers use affiliates to engage existing customers
General Affiliate Marketing Statistics
- Affiliate marketing spending is growing over 10% year over year (eMarketer)
- Affiliate marketing spend is increasing at a rate of 27% CAGR (BloggingX)
- The search volume for the keyword “affiliate marketing” grew by 100% (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- 31% of US brands listed affiliates within their top 3 revenue sources in 2021 (eMarketer)
- 15% of the digital media industry’s revenue comes from affiliates (Business Insider)
- The global digital advertising market is expected to be worth over $763B in 2025 (BusinessWire)
- 80% of or 8 out of 10 brands run an affiliate program (Rakuten’s Forrester Report)
- Affiliate marketing is considered a “crucial skill” by 40% of online marketers (BloggingX)
- 83% of affiliate marketers target consumers during the discovery and awareness phase (Rakuten’s Forrester Report)
- 79% of marketers use affiliates to engage existing customers (Rakuten’s Forrester Report)
- Almost 60% of brands used influencers for affiliate campaigns (The State of Influencer Marketing Report)
- Over 69% of affiliate marketers credit SEO as their top traffic source (BloggingX)
- 50% of affiliate traffic comes from mobile devices (BloggingX)
- Bloggers earn a 40% share of publisher commissions (Awin Report)
- 65% of affiliates use social media to engage with potential customers (Affstat Report)
- Over 82% of affiliates promote B2C products and services (Affstat Report)
- Over half of all affiliate marketers are male (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- Most affiliate marketers are between 35 and 44 years old (Affstat Report)
- Almost 55% of affiliate marketers work from home (Affstat Report)
Affiliate Marketing Industry Statistics
- Stats reveal affiliate is estimated to be worth $12 billion globally (BloggingX)
- ShareASale holds the largest share of the global affiliate market (55%) (Appsero)
- The affiliate industry is responsible for over 16% of online orders. (Uniquodo)
- Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of global eCommerce sales. (Fetch Profits)
- Trends reveal that Amazon offers between 1 and 10 percent commissions. (Investopedia)
Affiliate Marketing Revenue & Earnings Statistics
- Over 73% of merchants believe affiliate programs meet their revenue expectations. (Fetch Profits)
- Affiliate publishers earn an average of $51,000 each year (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- Just over 60% of merchants report an annual affiliate revenue of up to 20% (BloggingX)
- More than 80% of marketers expect their affiliate revenue to increase in the future. (Fetch Profits)
- About 9% of affiliate marketers today make more than $50,000 a year. (Investopedia)
- Affiliate marketing is a multi-billion dollar industry. (Statista)
- Commissions usually range from $3-$200, or 1% to 60% per sale (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- Affiliate marketing efforts have a conversion rate of around 1% (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- Bluehost, a web hosting platform, paid over $5M in commissions (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- Health and wellness is the most profitable niche in the affiliate marketing (Influencer Marketing Hub)
- 41% of affiliates promote computers and electronics (Affstat Report)
Success Rate Affiliate Marketing Statistics
- 33% of US directors think affiliate programs are “highly successful” (Forrester)
- Over 50% of publishers use network-provided reporting platforms to help manage their affiliate programs (Rakuten’s Forrester Report)
- 20% of marketing directors think affiliates are the most important channel for their organization’s customer acquisition (Forrester)
- 16% of all eCommerce sales in the US and Canada are generated by affiliates (Business Insider)
- Publishers claim that affiliate partnerships drive over 20% of their annual revenue (Inc.)
- Almost two-thirds of merchants think affiliates meet their revenue expectations (Fetch Profits)
Affiliate Marketing Network Trends Statistics
- Amazon has over 900,000 active affiliates within its network (Supermetrics)
- Amazon has a 46% market share of companies using their affiliate program (Datanyze)
- The global market size of the Affiliate Networks industry is over 100k companies (Datanyze)
- 83% of brands and publishers recruit new affiliates via network dashboards (Rakuten’s Forrester Report)
- 71% of publishers belong to 3 or more affiliate networks (Rakuten’s Forrester Report)
Wrapping Up
Affiliate marketing is a great way to earn some money by promoting other people’s services and products. Compared to other marketing methods, this process is far less time-consuming. The best part about it is that you can relax in the comfort of your own home and watch as your paycheck gets bigger.
If these help you, they’ll likely help someone else! Feel free to pass these along to a marketing team member who may need a little pick-me-up, or mention us on Twitter or Instagram with your favorite statistic.