31 Latest Affiliate Marketing Statistics for 2023 – The Ultimate List

Are you curious about the latest affiliate marketing statistics?

Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective sources of income that influencers, creators, and bloggers can use to diversify their income streams.

However, the affiliate marketing statistics in this post show that it is also an effective marketing strategy that brands can use to increase sales and spread brand awareness across multiple marketing channels.

In this post, we list the most important affiliate marketing statistics that brands and publishers can use to optimize their marketing strategies.

General Affiliate Marketing Statistics

1. The global affiliate marketing industry is expected to grow to a market size of USD 27.78 billion by 2027

A report published by Proficient Market Insights predicts that the global affiliate marketing industry will grow to a market size of USD 27.78 billion by 2027 with a CAGR of 9.89%.

The market size was valued at USD 15.77 billion in 2021.

The report also lists some of the major players in the affiliate marketing industry, including Shopify, Avangate Affiliate Network, Amazon, ShareASale, Taobao, Clickbank, AWIN, Bluehost, Convertkit, Rakuten Marketing, and others.

Fountain: Competent market intelligence

2. 49% of brands work with affiliate marketers.

Aspire’s State of Influencer Marketing 2022 Report revealed that, in addition to social media influencers, nearly 50% of brands are working with marketing affiliates to increase sales and broaden brand awareness online. social networks.

60% work with advertising and 43% work with brand ambassadors.

Fountain: Aspire

3. 17% of brands spend 80-100% of their marketing budgets on affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing budgets are growing.

According to AWIN’s survey of 100 brands, 17% of brands say they spend 80-100% of their marketing budgets on affiliate marketing alone.

This was an 8% increase from the previous year’s survey.

The majority of brands, 34% to be exact, say affiliate marketing spend is between 21% and 40% of their marketing budgets.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

4. Amazon Associates is the largest affiliate program with over 900,000 members

According to Statista data, Amazon Associates is the most popular affiliate program in the world.

More than 900,000 merchants have joined this program, which puts ShareASale in second place with more than 700,000 members.

Fountain: statistically¹

5. Interest in affiliate marketing has increased since mid-2020

Data from Google Trends shows that searches for the term «affiliate marketing» began to increase in 2016, before rising sharply a few months after the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.

Interest in this term has grown steadily ever since.

Interest is greatest in Nigeria, Bangladesh, Kenya, Jamaica and Ghana.

Fountain: Google trends

6. 13.8% of all Instagram affiliate marketers operate in the lifestyle niche

Influencer Marketing Hub’s surveys on influencer marketing revealed that of the Instagram influencers earning affiliate income, 13.8% are in the lifestyle niche.

This is one of the most consistent affiliate marketing trends, as the lifestyle niche also accounted for the largest Instagram affiliate market share (11.59%) in the previous year’s survey.

Other top affiliate niches on Instagram include beauty, music, photography, family, and entertainment.

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

7. 73% of affiliate marketers prefer to join internal affiliate programs.

Influencer Marketing Hub asked influencers about the types of affiliate programs they prefer to join and gave respondents two options: SaaS and network.

Only 27% of influencers prefer to join affiliate networks, which are affiliate platforms that have dozens, hundreds, or even thousands of affiliate programs that you can apply to and manage from a single affiliate account.

73% prefer to join in-house programs that brands operate themselves, usually with a SaaS application.

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

Affiliate Marketing Income Statistics

8. 31% of the top 3 publishers in the United States list affiliate marketing as their most important source of income.

eMarketer asked the top publishers in the United States about their biggest sources of revenue.

31% of the top three publishers said affiliate marketing is a top source of income, while only 9% of the top publishers said the same.

Affiliate marketing was outperformed by e-commerce (voted on by 62% of the top three publishers), subscriptions and subscriptions (58%), and raw data monetization in a third-party marketplace (38%).

Fountain: electronic marketer

9. The average salary of an affiliate marketer is $54,251/year

According to data collected by PayScale, the average salary for an affiliate marketer working in the United States is $54,251 per year.

This data is based on more than 7,600 salary profiles listed on the site.

The pay range for this profile is $40,000 to $75,000/year.

Fountain: pay scale

10. 57.55% of marketers globally make less than $10,000 from affiliate marketing

A 2021 survey found that 57.55% of affiliate marketers or hills affiliate marketers make less than $10,000 from affiliate marketing efforts.

The survey also revealed that one in six earn up to $50,000, while only 4% earn more than $150,000 from affiliate marketing.

Fountain: statistically²

11. 44% of affiliate income is accrued by the retail industry alone

Research from the Influencer Marketing Hub revealed that 44% of all affiliate revenue is generated by the retail sector.

25% is generated by the telecommunications and media sector, while 16% is generated by the travel and leisure industry.

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

12. The home and garden industry has an affiliate revenue growth rate of 209.72% year over year

The Influencer Marketing Hub research included data from Refersion.

They found that the home and garden industry had the highest growth rate in terms of increased membership income.

The industry experienced a growth rate of 209.72% year-on-year between 2021 and 2022.

Other industries that saw higher growth rates were fashion (63.87%), food (59.57%) and children’s (35.06%).

The beauty industry experienced the lowest growth rate at 17.24%.

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

13. 63% of marketers worry about affiliate marketing fraud

When Influencer Marketing Hub surveyed marketers, they were asked a yes or no question about whether or not they were concerned about affiliate marketing fraud.

63% of those surveyed said yes, and 30.9% admitted to having experienced affiliate marketing scams in previous campaigns.

This means that most marketers are concerned that affiliate partners will use refund fraud, fake lead fraud, and cookie stuffing to inflate their commissions.

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

14. Marketers lost $1.4 billion in revenue in 2020 due to affiliate marketing fraud

Affiliate marketers’ concerns about affiliate marketing fraud are not unfounded.

In fact, CHEQ data found that marketers lost $1.4 billion in revenue in 2020 alone due to affiliate marketing fraud.

This was part of a total of $23 billion in lost revenue due to ad fraud.

One of the biggest affiliate marketing fraud cases cited in the report was perpetrated by eBay super affiliate Shawn Hogan, who owns an online marketing company called Digital. Specific solutions.

Hogan used cookie stuffing to artificially inflate the amount of commissions he was referring to on the eBay marketplace.

When he was caught, he had defrauded eBay of more than $28 million in affiliate commissions.

Fountain: CHECK

15. Mountain Rose Herbs used their affiliate marketing program to increase revenue by $330,000

Aspire did a case study with Mountain Rose Herbs, which had an affiliate marketing program offering a 10% commission rate at the time.

After a successful affiliate marketing campaign, the brand saw an increase of $330,000 in revenue.

The campaign also generated more than 95,000 clicks and 900 conversions.

Fountain: Aspire

16. It’s a Lovely Life generated $103,720.49 in affiliate revenue in August 2019

In our post, What is Affiliate Marketing?, we listed a small collection of facts detailing how affiliate marketing generates considerable revenue for blogs small and large.

The main source came from the It’s a Lovely Life blog, which earned a total income of $222,857 from their blog in August 2019 alone.

Of this revenue, $103,720.49 came from affiliate marketing alone.

The blogger in question claims that this income was generated by participating in affiliate programs from Tailwind, Picmonkey, Fiverr, Amazon, Bluehost, Warfare Plugins, Grammarly, Constant Contact, Semrush, and «numerous travel-related affiliate programs.»

This shows the importance of diversifying your affiliate profile, as well as using affiliate programs that make sense for your target audience.

If you check out the list in that post, you’ll see how affiliate marketing plays a huge role in a blog’s ability to generate income.

It reveals how affiliate marketing accounts for 25-50% of a blog’s revenue stream.

Fountain: Blogging Expert

17. Affiliate Marketing Firms Have Received $1.5 Billion In Investor Funding

Crunchbase data shows that affiliate marketing companies have received more than $1.5 billion in funding from more than 230 funding rounds.

This data comes from more than 1,070 organization profiles on Crunchbase.

99% are for-profit companies.

Fountain: crunchbase

18. 80% of brands say affiliate marketing is a major source of income

When Digiday partnered with AWIN to publish a report on the state of affiliate and partner marketing in 2023, they surveyed 100 brands and agencies.

They asked respondents to rate the importance of affiliate marketing as a source of income on a scale of «will be significantly less important» to «will be significantly more important.»

34% of respondents said affiliate marketing will become significant more important as a source of income, while 46% simply said «it will become more important.»

Only 4% said it would lose importance as a source of income.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

Affiliate Marketing Strategy Statistics

19. 29% of brands believe affiliate marketing is an effective influencer marketing strategy

As more brands increase their affiliate marketing spend, 29% cite affiliate marketing as an effective marketing strategy when working with influencers.

It was outperformed by paid advertising at 57% and user-generated content at 47%.

Fountain: creatorIQ

20. 30% of consumers say they buy products promoted by influencers

Data from the Pew Research Center showed that, on average, 30% of consumers reported purchasing a product after seeing an influencer’s post about it on social media.

Women between the ages of 18 and 29 are probably buy products promoted by influencers, as an average of 50% of women in this age group claim to do so.

Men over the age of 50 are least likely to buy products promoted by influencers, as only 15% reported doing so.

However, this data reveals how influencer marketing implemented in the form of affiliate marketing can be an effective marketing strategy for brands.

Fountain: Pew Research Center

21. 28% of affiliate marketers use blogs to promote affiliate links.

Although this survey excluded social media, this made reveals that 28% of affiliate marketers use blogs as their primary channel for promoting affiliate links.

18.7% use review sites, while 14.8% use coupon sites.

Fountain: statistically³

22. The SaaS industry delivers the highest commission rates at 70%

Data from the Influencer Marketing Hub found that while commission rates for the SaaS industry top 20%, they top 70%.

This is the highest commission rate of any industry.

The financial industry issues commissions between 35 and 40%, while the commissions for the e-learning industry are between 15 and 30%.

The lowest commission rates are found in the fitness industry (10-20%) and the arts industry (12%).

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

23. 48.9% of affiliate marketing companies pay a flat fee

The Influencer Marketing Hub survey found that 48.9% of companies pay affiliates a flat fee, while 42.4% pay a percentage of sales.

4.3% of companies use product-level payments, while another 4.3% use tiered incentives.

Fountain: influencer marketing hub

24. 44% of brands use the first interaction attribution model for partner marketing campaigns.

In the Digiday and AWIN survey, 100 brands were asked to choose the attribution models they use for their partner marketing campaigns.

44% chose to attribute the first interaction.

Other options included last-click attribution (36%), indirect last-click attribution (28%), linear attribution (28%), and multi-touch attribution (25%).

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

25. 57% of brands implement technology partners as affiliate partners

The AWIN survey, published by Digiday, found that 64 percent of brands use technology partners to achieve higher sales volumes, new customer acquisitions, and increased brand recognition and customer loyalty.

They also found that of the brands that use technology partners, 57% implement them as affiliate partners.

Technology partners are special partnerships that brands establish when they need to integrate certain technologies into their business workflow, product, or website.

These types of partnerships drive growth for both companies and give non-tech partners access to advanced technology support without having to hire in-house technical staff.

By also implementing them as affiliate partners, brands encourage technology partners to promote them to other brands they can partner with.

Of the 26% of brands that do not use technology partners as affiliate partners, 31% say they see no need for this type of partnership, and another 31% see no need to implement any technology partnership.

22% didn’t know they could recruit affiliates this way.

12% do not believe that affiliates should be responsible for the customer experience on a company’s website.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

26. 74% of influencers receive compensation from brands through discount codes or affiliate links.

CreatorIQ asked influencers about the ways brands compensate them for branded content.

74% said that brands compensate them by giving them their own discount codes or affiliate links, which they can use to generate commissions.

91% of influencers are giveaways, while brands repost their content at 59%, exposing their content to a larger audience.

The same survey reported that 87% of influencers posted paid content for brands, while 70% posted non-paid content.

Fountain: creatorIQ

27. 40% of brands seek influencers and creators for affiliate partnerships.

In AWIN’s survey, the company asked respondents about the types of affiliate partnerships they entered into in 2022.

40% said they mostly collaborated with influencers and creators, but the other options were used the same.

For example, 39% said they work with media houses, 36% said price comparisons, 35% said bloggers, 34% said technology partners, and 33% said discounts and coupons.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

Based on statistical affiliate marketing goals

28. 28% of brands want to see an increase in sales from their marketing efforts

When AWIN asked brands to choose the most significant marketing objectives from a list of given options, 28% chose «sales volume.»

Other objectives included in the survey were new customer acquisition (voted on by 24% of respondents), brand awareness (21%), brand loyalty (16%), profitable sales (10%) , the improvement of the customer experience on the site (1%). ) and diversification of marketing expenses (0%).

While it’s important to note that this question is about marketing as a whole, as opposed to affiliate marketing, it shows how affiliate marketing is a key component of a brand’s marketing strategy because its whole purpose is to help brands to increase their sales and spread the brand. . awareness by gaining the support of influential personalities and their audiences.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

29. 58% of brands say affiliate marketing helps build brand awareness the most

AWIN’s survey found that while brands use affiliate marketing to increase their sales volume, the marketing strategy primarily helps increase brand awareness, according to 58% of brands.

50% of brands say affiliate marketing helps with sales volume, while another 50% say it helps acquire new customers.

Interestingly, while few brands use affiliate marketing to improve customer experience and none use it specifically to diversify their marketing spend, 13% of brands say affiliate marketing helps improve customer experience on site , while 17% affirm it. Do it diversify marketing expenses.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

30. 60% of brands say affiliate marketing helps convert leads

When Digiday and AWIN partnered to publish a report on affiliate marketing, they found that 60% of brands believe affiliate marketing is an effective way to increase conversions from landing pages.

59% even said that affiliate marketers drive traffic and drive to those pages.

35% said it increases customer loyalty.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

31. 59% of brands have a hard time understanding how affiliate marketing helps other marketing channels.

In AWIN’s survey, 100 brands were asked about the challenges they face when it comes to measuring the success of affiliate marketing campaigns and applying attribution.

59% of brands say they have a hard time understanding how affiliate marketing affects other marketing channels they use.

43% say they can’t measure cross-device journeys and 38% say they can’t measure activity beyond last click data.

19% have no accurate attribution data at all.

Fountain: Digiday x AWIN

Sources of Affiliate Marketing Statistics

final thoughts

That concludes our list of the best affiliate marketing statistics. Let’s go over some key points.

Most obvious is how effective affiliate marketing is as a marketing strategy for brands, especially when brands work with TikTok and Instagram influencers.

Brands can use this marketing strategy as a way to increase sales and brand awareness without relying on a one-time up-front payment as required by traditional advertising channels.

Due to the way affiliate marketing works, brands only have to pay for advertising. after affiliates generate sales for them.

These statistics also revealed that the vast majority of creators are not optimizing their own affiliate marketing strategies, with more than half earning less than $10,000 from their efforts.

This means two things: there is still a lot to learn and teach about affiliate marketing, and there is very little competition at the top.

Finally, if you are one of the 58% of brands struggling to identify how affiliate marketing affects other marketing channels, consider using a social listening tool like Awario or Brand24.

This will help you monitor how many brand mentions you receive and how often you receive them, as influencers are increasingly promoting your brand on numerous social media channels.

To read more:

• The best affiliate platforms and networks.
• What’s affiliates marketing?
• The best affiliate marketing plugins for wordpress
• Best Affiliate Manager Plugins for WordPress
• How to become an Amazon affiliate