Affiliate Marketing Statistics (How Big Is The Affiliate Marketing Industry?)
Are you interested in the latest affiliate marketing statistics to stay up to date and better understand the current landscape?
By partnering with affiliates, brands can expand their reach and tap into new audiences to grow their revenues. Through mutual trust, both parties + the consumer, can win and create strong bonds.
We will cover various topics, from the affiliate industry’s market size, revenue and earnings to trends, to help businesses decide whether they are already involved in the industry or considering entering it.
Read on to learn some interesting stats and facts. Whether you’re a company or an affiliate marketer, we curated information for everyone.
This post covers:
Affiliate Marketing Statistics (Our Top Picks)
- The global affiliate marketing market size reached $17+ billion in 2020
- Nearly 50% of the companies use Amazon Associates software
- Approx. 113,000+ companies participate in affiliate marketing globally
- Affiliates drive brands on average 23% of total revenue
- Fashion is the most popular affiliate niche
- 49% of affiliate marketers prefer direct deposits
- Almost 50% of affiliate-generated traffic is mobile
- 42%+ of marketers prefer promoting 1-10 affiliate products
- A campaign needs to generate 29 clicks for every sale
Affiliate Marketing Industry Market Size
1. The global affiliate marketing market size reached $17+ billion in 2020
In 2016, the international affiliate marketing market size was $13, but it hit over $17 billion four years later in 2020.
Global affiliate market size year-by-year
Source: Mhojhos Research
2. The US affiliate marketing spending was estimated at $8.2 billion
Statista reported that affiliate marketing spending in the United States was expected to reach $8.2 billion in the United States alone. That’s a nearly $3 billion jump from a recording they did in 2017.
Source: Statista
3. $986 million was invested in affiliate marketing in the UK in 2021
The United Kingdom affiliate marketers spent $986 (793£) million in 2021, around $60 million more than the previous year. This shows and confirms the annual affiliate marketing growth rate of approximately 8%.
The stats also show that 28.6% percent of European affiliate marketers are situated in the United Kingdom.
By device/platform, it was reported that less was spent on affiliate marketing via smartphone ($320+ million) than non-smartphone ($460 million) devices (in the year 2020).
Source: Statista #1, Statista #2, Statista #3
4. Affiliate marketing in Japan is snowballing, expected to hit $3.8 billion by 2025
Statista’s research department reported an estimated $2.6 billion in affiliate marketing spending in 2021, which has continued growth since 2020.
Moreover, Japan’s affiliate marketing industry is expected to grow significantly, jumping to around $3.8 billion by 2025. One of the main reasons for the expansion is the adoption of the ever-growing eCommerce industry.
Source: Statista
5. Nearly 50% of the companies use Amazon Associates software
Among 98,400+ companies using affiliate marketing solutions, Amazon’s market share is 47.8%. The closest competitor is CJ Affiliate at a 7.3% market share, Rakuten (7.1%) in third, ShareASale (6.7%) in fourth and Awin (5.6%) in fifth position.
Yup, Amazon absolutely dominates the affiliate marketing scene.
Source: Datanyze
6. Approx. 113,000+ companies participate in affiliate marketing globally
There are approximately 113,500+ companies around the world that use affiliate marketing technologies.
55 companies produce affiliate network technologies. In addition to the five largest ones, other popular solutions are SkimLinks, VigLink, rewardStyle, TradeTracker, and Travelpayouts.
If we take the estimated number of total companies in the world (333 million) from Statista, that means that only 0.03% of all companies benefit from affiliate marketing.
Source: Datanyze
7. Interest in affiliate marketing is on the rise, according to Google Trends
According to Google Trends, the search query “affiliate marketing” is steadily rising year after year.
The graph above shows a considerable spike around late 2020 and early 2021, indicating popularity during the COVID-19 pandemic. More businesses went online, finding new ways of earning money (as affiliate marketers) and scaling (as businesses added affiliate programs to their strategies).
Source: Google Trends
8. Amazon Associates & ShareASale are the largest networks by the number of affiliates
With more than 900,000 affiliates under the roof, Amazon Associates is the largest and leading affiliate network by the number of affiliates. But ShareASale isn’t that far behind with 700,000+ affiliates.
Source: Statista
9. The retail industry had the highest share (44%) of affiliate revenue globally
In 2021, the global retail industry had the highest share of affiliate marketing revenue, which is 44%. Second were telecom and media at 25% and third, travel and leisure at 16%.
Source: Statista
General Affiliate Marketing Stats & Facts
10. Affiliates drive brands on average 23% of total revenue
A lot of brands worldwide are aware of the benefit of adding an affiliate program to their marketing strategy. Why? Because it generates them anywhere between 15-30% of all sales.
But many brands still don’t take advantage of affiliate marketing, 1) because they are doing extremely well without it, 2) because they’re unaware of it and 3) because they don’t have time and resources to implement it.
Source: Uniqodo
11. Affiliate marketing drives 10%+ of the global eCommerce
The importance of affiliate marketing shows when we look at the global eCommerce revenue – 10%+ of it is because of affiliate marketing. And the percentage is even higher (16%) if we look at the United State’s eCommerce industry.
According to Business Insider, affiliate marketing and email drive the same amount of eCommerce orders in the US. Affiliate marketing is one of the fourth largest sources of eCommerce orders, bigger than social commerce (also check our mobile commerce statistics) and display advertising.
Discover more interesting advertising statistics and find how many ads do we see daily.
Source: SocialMediaToday, Business Insider
12. 74% of US shoppers visit 2-3 non-retail sites before making a purchase
Nearly 75% of US shoppers first visit non-retail sites (this could be review articles, product roundups, etc.) before throwing the product or service in their cart and completing the purchase. In addition to that, 16% of consumers say they visit more than four websites (that’s me!).
Remember, all the non-retail websites will use affiliate links that take the shopper to the final product page.
Source: Business Insider
13. Fashion is the most popular affiliate niche
The fashion industry (23.3%), including apparel, accessories, and footwear, is the most popular niche in affiliate marketing. Sports and outdoors (18.2%), healthy and beauty (13.8%), and travel (10.7%) are the second, third, and fourth most popular niches.
Source: AM Navigator
14. 81% of publishers and 84% of brands adopted affiliate marketing
More and more proof is coming your way that affiliate marketing works, and if you haven’t looked into it yet, I hope these affiliate marketing statistics will hype you up to do it.
Its ever-growing popularity has already convinced 81% of publishers and even more (84%) brands to benefit from the affiliate marketing industry, either by earning commissions or enjoying a cost-effective marketing strategy.
Source: Awin
Affiliate Marketing Revenue & Earnings Statistics
15. Almost 60% of affiliates earn less than $10,000
“If it were easy, everyone would do it.”
A worldwide survey in 2021 asked affiliates how much money they make. 57.5% earned less than $10,000, while only 3.8% earned more than $150,000. Surprisingly, more affiliates are earning between $100-$150K than between $50-$100K.
Source: Statista
16. 20% annual revenue increase thanks to affiliate networks
84% of publishers said they increased their annual revenues by 20% with the help of pushing their products and services through affiliate networks. Boosting sales through affiliate marketing is a reliable strategy to transform your business’s growth.
Source: Rakuten
17. The average affiliate marketer’s salary in the US is $80K
If you’ve ever wondered how much an affiliate marketer earns, it’s somewhere between $55,000 for an entry-level position and up to $115,000 for the most experienced marketers.
The affiliate marketer makes $38.4 per hour based on the average salary.
How much do affiliate marketers make?
Source: Talent, Glassdoor
18. 9% of publishers say affiliate marketing is their top revenue source
31% of publishers reported that affiliate marketing is one of their top three sources of revenue (note: eCommerce is the number one revenue source). Moreover, 9% said that affiliate marketing IS their biggest source of income.
Source: Insider Intelligence
19. Social media marketing can generate $7 million in affiliate commissions
Jason Stone, who runs a 10+ million large Millionaire Mentor Instagram account, generated a whopping $7 million in just one year using his smart and strategy social media strategy.
When using social media to promote affiliate offers, ensure they align with your (personal) brand and audience. If not, you’ll barely make a dime, even with a large account.
Feel free to check these social media statistics to find more insights on social media.
Source: Entrepreneur
20. Affiliate marketers prefer direct deposits
When it comes to withdrawing their commissions, 48.69% of affiliate marketers choose direct deposits or wire transfers directly to their bank accounts. 19.16% prefer PayPal, and 2.69% will opt for Bitcoin (or another cryptocurrency).
Source: SocialMediaToday
Affiliate Marketing Trends
21. Yearly affiliate marketing spending is increasing by 10%
According to Awin and the stats we have already published, affiliate marketing spending grows by around 10% annually. This indicates that businesses and advertisers are increasingly confident in investing their budgets into this marketing strategy.
Source: Awin
22. Almost 50% of affiliate-generated traffic is mobile
Awin reported that nearly 50% of their affiliate-driven website traffic comes from mobile devices. Unfortunately, they haven’t released an updated report, but because mobile is rising daily, that percentage must be much higher today.
But check these mobile marketing statistics to dive further into this industry.
Source: Awin
23. 59% of businesses use influencers to promote their affiliate offers
Just like influencers are growing in popularity, so do businesses worldwide take the opportunity and introduce them into their affiliate campaigns.
59% of the firms know the power of influencer affiliate marketing and how to bring their products and services to the right people through the right exposure.
Moreover, 88% of consumers are likely to purchase a product or service just because their (favorite) influencer “uses” it. In addition, women (89%) are more inspired by influencers than men (84%), but the gap isn’t significant.
Source: Influencer Marketing Hub, Rakuten
24. 40% of US merchants use affiliate marketing as their top customer acquisition channel
According to a survey, 40% of US merchants used affiliate marketing as their favorite and top customer acquisition channel.
Plus, online retailers say that affiliate marketing is the fastest-growing source of revenue.
Source: Inc.
25. Price comparison websites are the most common affiliate sites in the UK
The most popular and fastest-growing affiliate websites in the United Kingdom are price comparison sites. Second are voucher sites, third are loyalty sites and fourth are independent blogs.
Speaking of websites, do you know how many there are? These extensive website statistics reveal it all.
Source: SocialMediaToday
Other Interesting Affiliate Marketing Stats
26. Most popular affiliate model in the gaming industry is revenue share
55% of the affiliate marketing model in the gaming industry is dedicated to revenue share. Instead of getting a commission based on the action (CPA), the affiliate marketer and the business split (share the revenue) the (lifetime) user spend.
Followed are CPA (cost per action) + revenue share (30%+) and CPA (19%).
Furthermore, three of the most popular gaming affiliate markets are the UK (43%), the US (33%) and Asia (23%).
But generally, CPA is the most commonly used affiliate model.
Source: SocialMediaToday
27. Marketers mainly choose affiliate marketing for product/service relevancy
18.5% of marketers jump on the affiliate market wagon because of product or service relevancy. Other key factors in choosing this model are affiliate marketing reputation (15.97%), tracking platform (11.58%), merchant reputation (10.14%) and brand awareness (10.11%), to name a few.
Source: SocialMediaToday
28. 42%+ of marketers prefer promoting 1-10 affiliate products
Affiliate marketers don’t like to spread themselves too thin; thus, 42.17% of them prefer promoting anywhere between one to ten products. This gives them much more control over the products and campaigns, which comes in handy when optimizing for the highest conversions.
Interestingly, 23.18% aim for 11-20 products, 14.19% for 21-50 and only 7.53% for 300+ products.
Source: SocialMediaToday
29. Nearly 0.7% of YouTube videos have at least one affiliate link
I know that’s a tiny percentage, but at the volume of approximately 800,000,000+ videos YT has, that’s not that tiny anymore.
Source: ThriveMyWay
30. Nearly all publishers use multiple affiliate networks
While going with a single affiliate network at the beginning is a wise decision to make, 94% of publishers soon scale to two or more affiliate networks. Why?
Because this allows them to scale more quickly and reach more potential affiliates interested in promoting their products and services.
Source: Affise
31. 0.5-1% is an average affiliate conversion rate
You need to know that every affiliate network, every product and every offer has a different conversion rate. However, conversion rates between 0.5% and 1% are generally average across all industries (but even each industry has different rates).
Source: Awin
32. Digital advertisers will lose $100 billion in fraud
One or another type of fraud has been part of advertising since the beginning. And even though affiliate networks and marketers are trying all they can to avoid it, fraud continues to grow and is estimated to reach $100 billion in 2023. As a reference, digital ad fraud was at $35 billion in 2018.
You may also be interested in these hacking statistics to see how many sites get hacked.
Source: Statista
33. 29 clicks for every sale
According to Awin’s 2020 Report, their affiliates generated 171 million sales, 5 billion clicks and 60 billion impressions. This means it takes either 29 clicks or 352 impressions for every sale.
Note that these statistics may vary (significantly) from affiliate network to affiliate network.
Source: Awin
34. 30%+ affiliate marketers are aged between 35 and 44
Most of the affiliate marketers (31.86%) are agreed between 35 and 44, while the second most common age group is 25-34 (27.55%).
- Age 18-24: 5.08%
- Age 25-34: 27.55%
- Age 35-44: 31.86%
- Age 45-54: 22.41%
- Age 55-64: 8.67%
- Age 65 or above: 2.75%
Source: Statista
Conclusion
“Is affiliate marketing dead?”
That’s a question that many beginners ask – usually because they read it somewhere else.
These affiliate marketing statistics show that it’s far from hot. It’s a powerful marketing strategy that many brands and businesses use to expand their reach and increase sales.
But like any other marketing, reaping the affiliate benefit requires careful planning and execution as a business or marketer.
Luckily, you just gathered the latest trends, insights and expectations through these stats to make better decisions and maximize ROI.
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