50+ Affiliate Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2023 and 2024
by m.a.sohail
Nov 30, 2023
50+ Affiliate Marketing Statistics You Need to Know in 2023 and 2024
Want to learn more about the interesting world of affiliate marketing statistics?
The affiliate marketing industry is where many content creators make their living. It is also an effective way for businesses to expand their reach and skyrocket their profits.
affiliate marketing statistics |
Understanding affiliate marketing statistics and their impact on businesses, marketers, and social media can give you an edge whether you're running a company or a marketer.
In this article, we have collected a lot of affiliate marketing statistics that will help you learn more about the industry.
List of sources
WPBeginner, AffiliateWP, OptinMonster, TrustPulse, MemberPress, Smash Balloon, RafflePress, WPForms, Blogging Wizard, Finance Online, Influencer Marketing Hub, Forbes, Authority Hacker, Demandsage, Business2Community, LinkedIn
We hope this list of affiliate marketing statistics, trends and facts will help you improve your strategy as a business owner or increase your sales as an affiliate marketer. You can also check out our guide on how to add an affiliate partner for each blog post or our expert tips on the best affiliate marketing tools and plugins for WordPress.
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List of affiliate marketing statistics
We want to make sure you find the exact affiliate marketing statistics you're looking for, so here are the categories we'll explore today.
All you have to do is click on a link that interests you and the page will automatically jump down to the correct section:
- • General affiliate marketing statistics
- • Affiliate income statistics
- • Affiliate marketing statistics for marketers
- • Affiliate Marketing Statistics
- • Social media statistics
- • SEO statistics
- • Engagement statistics
- • Amazon Affiliate Statistics
- • Affiliate specific statistics
1-General Affiliate Marketing Statistics
- • The affiliate marketing industry is worth over $17 billion.
- • It is expected to be worth USD 27.78 billion by 2027.
- • Over 80% of digital brands claim to run affiliate programs.
- • 40% of marketers are trying to find affiliate partners and influencers.
- • Experts predict that affiliate marketing will grow by 7.7% annually between 2023 and 2030.
There is no doubt that affiliate marketing is growing in popularity and shows no signs of slowing down. The rapid growth of this marketing approach proves that it is here to stay.
Businesses and marketers will continue to use affiliate marketing to grow their audience and increase profits for years to come, and for good reason.
Brand leaders who choose to invest in this strategy find that it helps them drive sales, improve traffic and generate new leads for their business.
Meanwhile, influencers and solopreneurs have begun to rely on affiliate marketing to gain multiple sources of income. These people start blogs and grow their social media audience to build their careers and become well-known and well-paid affiliates.
2-Affiliate earnings statistics
- • Affiliate marketing can increase your income by 30%.
- • About 10% of affiliate marketers earn $73,000 a year or more.
- • However, 57.5% earn $10,000 or less.
- • The average annual affiliate marketing income is $54,251.
- • Almost 49% of merchants pay a flat rate per sale, while the rest pay merchants a percentage based on how much customers spend.
- • 80% of businesses say affiliate marketing has improved their revenue.
- • 16% of all online orders come from affiliate links.
Content creators and marketers have a good reason to use affiliate marketing – it makes them a lot of money!
Brands can see a 30% increase in sales if they start an affiliate program. This can make them a lot of money as it offers a way to consistently increase profits while increasing brand awareness.
Marketers are also able to make a decent living from affiliate sales. 10% of marketers earn up to $75,000 per year, while nearly 60% earn less than $10,000. This statistic is not as bad as it seems because most people in this position have multiple sources of income and use affiliate marketing as another way to make money blogging.
Plus, there are plenty of ways to earn more money from your affiliate links. For example, you can use OptinMonster to display affiliate offers in popups, plugins, and other campaigns. This makes users more likely to see and click on your referral links.
3-Affiliate Marketing Statistics for Marketers
- • Affiliate marketing accounts for 15-30% of all eCommerce sales.
- • Businesses report an average return on investment of $15 for every dollar spent.
- • On average, businesses spend 9% of their marketing budget on affiliate marketing partnerships.
- • 40% of US marketers say their primary acquisition channel is affiliate marketing.
- • 81% of businesses say affiliate marketing helps with brand awareness.
- • After Google AdSense, affiliate marketing is one of the best ways to increase profits.
- • 73% of marketers say they are satisfied with the income earned from affiliate marketing.
- • 49% of brands have affiliate ambassadors to help affiliates maximize sales.
- • 63% of businesses are concerned about fraud in their programs, such as unethical merchants using chargebacks and cookie stuffing to artificially inflate sales.
- • Businesses lost $1.4 billion in revenue to affiliate fraud in 2020.
Statistics show that affiliate marketing is a great way for companies to expand their reach and dramatically increase sales. With an average return on investment (ROI) of 1,500%, it's no wonder this strategy is rapidly growing in popularity.
This number also explains why most marketers are satisfied with the income they receive from affiliate partnerships.
It is worth noting that companies that work closely with affiliates achieve better results. This is because brand ambassadors can point new partners in the right direction, increasing their chances of success.
Despite the benefits, many marketers fear fraud in the affiliate marketing space. This concern is valid as nearly 30% of brands report experiencing fraud in the form of chargebacks and other types of false or misleading sales.
If you are considering starting an affiliate marketing program, it is important to have an affiliate management system that suits your needs.
AffiliateWP is an excellent solution that can help you easily track affiliate links, manage partners from an easy-to-use dashboard, as well as set commission rates and payment methods. The best part is that you get to keep all your earnings, which means you can grow without paying additional fees.
4-Affiliate Marketing Statistics
- • Nearly 15% of affiliate marketers say finding branded deals is their biggest pain.
- • On average, affiliate marketing has a conversion rate of 0.5% to 1%.
- • Experienced marketers (3+ years) report earning 9.45% more than newer ones.
- • 41.9% of marketers with more than 10 years of experience say email is their main source of traffic.
- • Meanwhile, US affiliates claim that their blog helps them generate 40% of their revenue.
- • 28% of affiliate marketers create blog posts to promote affiliate links.
- • 73% of marketers said they would rather join an in-house affiliate program than an affiliate network.
- • 83% of shoppers say discounts influence whether they use affiliate links.
- • The average affiliate marketer promotes 1-10 products at a time.
- • 77% of affiliates report that they work independently.
- • 83% of marketers are optimistic about the future of affiliate marketing.
Affiliate partners can also earn money and build reputation through affiliate marketing.
Content creators combine blogging, email and social media marketing to create unique experiences for their audiences. They usually work with brands that offer products that their audience might like.
You can see common examples of this in action on recipe blogs. The author usually includes the tools used in the recipe throughout the post. For example, you can link to a pasta strainer, a blender, or a set of bowls offered by one of their partners.
When someone lands on your website to read a recipe, there's a chance they'll click on the equipment suggestions and place an order. You would then earn a commission on what was sold.
If you're thinking about trying this strategy but are worried about going through old posts and adding links, you'll need a tool like Tasty Links. This plugin allows marketers to automatically add links to specific keywords.
So in this case, you could type in "pasta strainer" and turn all mentions of that phrase on your blog into clickable affiliate links.
5-Social media statistics
- • Social media is the second best traffic source for affiliate marketers (67.9%).
- • 4.62 billion people use social media sites every month.
- • The average content creator uses 3 or more social channels to promote affiliate products.
- • 67.3% of affiliate marketers use social media to connect with shoppers.
- • 74% of social media influencers use affiliate marketing to increase their earnings.
- • This strategy is clearly paying off as users tap 130 million Instagram sponsored posts each month.
- • The top three social media channels for affiliate marketing are Facebook (75.8%), Instagram (61.4%) and Pinterest (42.4%).
- • 19.3% of affiliates report that shareable social media videos help them promote products and services.
- • 88% of online shoppers were persuaded to buy by an influencer.
- • This is consistent with the fact that 9 out of 10 shoppers report that reviews directly influence their purchasing habits.
- • Brands pay Instagram influencers between $100-$2,085 per post. This number is calculated based on the type of promotion and number of followers.
It's almost impossible to talk about affiliate marketing without bringing social media into the conversation. Social media sites like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube and Pinterest are great places to increase engagement and build trust for businesses and affiliates.
affiliate marketing statistics |
This is one of the main reasons why social sites are the second best traffic sources for affiliate marketers.
From a marketer's perspective, social media reviews and engaging content creators are excellent ways to build social proof. Most people want to see reviews, unboxings, and other types of user-generated content before placing an order.
You can easily leverage the power of social proof from Instagram and Facebook on your website by adding a social media feed with Smash Balloon. This handy social media tool allows you to show your users what's happening on social media in real time as they browse your website.
Whether you're a business owner or marketer, it's important to keep your affiliate links short and sweet. Long links can overwhelm and confuse people, causing them to leave your site. Using Pretty Links is an ideal way to make social links more attractive, which means more clicks and engagement.
6-SEO statistics
- • 78% of affiliate marketers say SEO helps them get more organic traffic.
- • About 70% of all affiliate marketing traffic comes from SEO.
- • This makes sense when you consider that over 53% of people use search engines when they want to shop online but don't know where to start.
- • Google searches for “affiliate marketing” have quadrupled since 2020.
Search engine optimization (SEO) and affiliate marketing are two completely different strategies, but they complement each other in interesting and valuable ways.
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A business with a strong affiliate program is more likely to build backlinks. Google sees backlinks from reputable sites as a seal of approval. If major influencers and content creators are linking to your website, then there is a good chance that your website will move up in the search rankings.
This strategy can be very useful for businesses trying to get in the top ten for their chosen keywords. Over 66% of sites on the internet do not have a single backlink, which is why many sites struggle to rank.
Affiliate marketers can increase their search rankings and organic traffic through these partnerships. You can even use a tool like All in One SEO (AIOSEO) to generate affiliate link reports.
These reports help creators determine which products are getting the most clicks. This, in turn, can help you streamline your affiliate strategy and make smart decisions when choosing your next partners.
7-Engagement statistics
- • 38% of marketers say affiliate marketing is the best way to increase leads and generate sales.
- • 79% of marketers say affiliate marketing increases engagement by helping them connect with existing customers.
- • 60% of business leaders say affiliate marketing has helped them convert prospects into customers.
- • Affiliate links get over 5 billion clicks every year.
- • Using email marketing to promote affiliate products can help you earn 66.4% more than people who don't build an interested email list.
Engagement is the main benefit of affiliate marketing for both brands and content creators.
Businesses can build stronger relationships with existing customers, generate new leads and increase sales by working with affiliates.
At the same time, affiliate marketers can expand their leads and better understand their target audience by tracking engagement and taking actions based on what they learn.
For example, if one part of your WordPress site gets more engagement than others, you can use that information to shape your strategy. You can even work with relevant personalities in the industry that is most popular with your visitors.
We recommend using an analytics tool like MonsterInsights to track user engagement on your website. This way, you will be better equipped to understand your affiliate marketing data and improve your strategy.
8-Amazon Affiliate Statistics
• The largest affiliate marketing program is Amazon Associates, which holds 47.3% of the market share.
• Amazon Associates is a great way to earn some extra cash by promoting products and services that you use every day. Their commissions are generally low, but building a valuable blog with many links can help you generate consistent passive income.
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- • In Q1 2023, Amazon earned a staggering $1.28 billion in affiliate sales.
- • The Amazon Affiliates program has over 900,000 members.
- • Amazon is responsible for 10.4% of all US retail sales.
- • Amazon is estimated to overtake Walmart in sales by the end of 2024.
We can't do an article about affiliate marketing statistics without mentioning Amazon. Currently, Amazon Associates owns almost 50% of the market.
When you consider that in the first three months of 2023 they made over $1.25 billion in affiliate sales, it's clear why they're dominating the industry. For this reason, some creators only focus on creating an Amazon affiliate site
9-Specialized affiliate statistics
- • eLearning, travel and beauty are the three most popular affiliate marketing niches.
- • Retail accounts for 76% of all affiliate spending in the United States.
- • Affiliate marketing sales in the home and garden industry will grow by more than 209% between 2022 and 2023.
- • The SaaS industry offers the highest commission rate. You expect to earn 20-70% on each sale.
- • The affiliate marketing software industry will generate more than $216 million between 2020 and 2022.
Understanding unique niches will help you make informed decisions when choosing your affiliate partners. As you can see above, the SaaS industry has quickly become one of the best affiliate places to get involved in because of its unusually high commissions.
However, if you're not promoting software, there are several options for offering physical goods to your audience. For example, people are more interested in eLearning, gardening and cooking than ever before.
If you choose products and niches that you are generally interested in, your passion will show in your work and your readers will trust your content.