100 Affiliate Marketing Statistics for Data-Driven Marketers (2020)
Affiliate marketing requires you to make calculated
decisions — from choosing an affiliate product to knowing how to promote blog
content.
Admittedly, it may take some trial and error before you
come up with a repeatable formula that works for you.
The good news is, you
don’t always need to start brainstorming from scratch.
In this post, I’ll show you 100 eye-opening statistics
about affiliate marketing to help direct your strategy.
The key takeaways
Always remember that like any other field of digital marketing, affiliate marketing is the game of numbers.
Especially with the abundance
of information floating around the web, you should never have room for
guesswork and half-baked ideas.
Hopefully, the statistics I've
gathered above will answer some of your questions about affiliate marketing.
Even better, they can help you create a Fulfilled Action Plan that will create
your affiliate marketing game.
To summarize, here are some key
reading paths you should keep in mind when entering the affiliate marketing
world:
Affiliate marketing grows more
saturated every year - If you ever want to do money blogging, jump in now.
Affiliate marketing is proving
to be more affordable than advertising when it comes to generating leads and
sales.
Affiliate is the biggest niche
in marketing, fashion, sports and outdoor. The trend is on platforms like
Instagram where every influencer's marketing is big.
Amazon Associates is the
largest affiliate network affiliate with still-active sites
You don't need an affiliate
network to get approved If your favorite online service offers affiliate
programs, from online courses to web hosting, do your homework and research.
You can effectively do most of
your affiliate marketing activities at home.
To optimize your approved
marketing conversion rate, start looking at your desktop and mobile sales.
If you want to generate more
affiliate sales, don't overlook the mobile-friendliness of your website.
Use push notifications and
mobile pop-ups to drive more traffic to your affiliate site.
If you want to increase your
conversion rate, focus on generating more organic traffic.
Of course, there is much more to
be learned from the compilation of statistics above.
I will leave it to you to piece
together useful data to refine your affiliate marketing strategies
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| 100 Affiliate Marketing Statistics for Data-Driven Marketers (2020) |
Affiliate Marketing Industry Statistics and Trends
When it comes to monetization,
affiliate marketing has been a blogger’s bread and butter for as long as I can
remember.
The practice is as
simple as it gets: promote another company’s product and get paid in
commissions for sales closed.
If you’re still not sure about
affiliate marketing, perhaps the data below will help make up your mind:
1. The affiliate marketing spends in the US is observed to
grow by 10.1 percent each year. (Source: Mediakix)
2. By 2020, the affiliate marketing spends in the US is
forecasted to reach $6.82 billion. (Source: Statista)
3. The annual affiliate marketing spends overall is
approximated at $12 billion. (Source: SoftwareFindr)
4. The interest in the search term “affiliate marketing” has
been steadily on an incline for the past 5 years. (Source: Google Trends)
5. 81 percent of all businesses used affiliate marketing to
drive sales in 2016. (Source: Mediakix)
6. Affiliate marketing accounts for 15 percent of the entire
digital media industry’s revenue. (Source: Business Insider)
7. According to 38 percent of all marketers, affiliate
marketing is among the top customer acquisition methods. (Source: National Retail Federation)
8. Affiliate marketing generates 16 percent of all e-commerce
sales in the US and Canada. (Source: Business Insider)
9. In 2017, affiliate marketing generated 5 billion clicks
and 170 transactions worldwide. (Source: IncomeSiteBuilder)
10.
Affiliate marketing is responsible
for 15 percent of the total digital advertising revenue. (Source: SoftwareFindr)
11.
Affiliate marketing worldwide spend
is increasing at a 27 percent Compound Annual Growth Rate or CAGR. (Source: SoftwareFindr)
12.
40 percent of all online marketers
believe that affiliate marketing is a crucial skill to have. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)
13.
It’s possible to make well over
$1,000 in a single sale. Some top-paying affiliate programs even reward
marketers with $8,000 in one conversion. (Source: Bengu Online)
14.
A survey revealed that 9 percent of
affiliate marketers make over $50,000 annually. (Source: VigLink)
15.
High-income affiliate marketers,
including million-dollar-earners, have pulled the average salary of affiliate
marketing up to $50,617. (Source: PayScale)
16.
65 percent of merchants that use via
affiliate marketing said that it produced 5-20 percent of their annual revenue.
(Source: VigLink)
17.
Affiliate marketing spending in The UK soared by 15.1 percent between 2016 and 2017. (Source: IAB UK)
18.
In the UK, affiliate marketing has an
average ROI of 1:15. That means that, for every £1 spent on affiliate
marketing, brands make £15. (Source: IAB UK)
19.
In 2017, affiliate marketing-generated £8.9 billion in sales. (Source: IAB UK)
20.
More than 80 percent of advertisers
and 84 percent of publishers leverage an affiliate marketing program. (Source: Rakuten Marketing)
21.
Roughly 90 percent of advertisers
believe that affiliate marketing is important to their digital marketing
strategy. (Source: Rakuten Marketing)
22.
Over 80 percent of advertisers
allocate 10 percent of their budget to affiliate marketing. (Source: Rakuten Marketing)
23.
60 percent of large merchants that
make over $5 million have used affiliate marketing for over 5 years. (Source: VigLink)
24.
On Google, the query “affiliate
marketing” got 30 percent more searches from 2016 to 2017. (Source: Awin)
25.
85 percent of all merchants stated
that their affiliate marketing budget either stayed the same or increased in
2015-2016. (Source: VigLink)
26.
Lastly, 91 percent of all merchants
shared their plans to maintain their current affiliate marketing budgets.
(Source: VigLink)
27.
In the UK, creating a price
comparison website is the most popular way to start an affiliate marketing
business. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)
28.
73 percent of merchants say that
their affiliate revenue met their needs and expectations. (Source: VigLink)
29.
62 percent of merchants, however, are
worried about the quality of publisher content where affiliate products are
promoted. (Source: VigLink)
30.
From 2015 to 2016, 77 percent of
publishers saw an increase in their affiliate marketing revenue. (Source: VigLink)
31.
76 percent of publishers said that
affiliate marketing made website monetization easy for them. (Source: VigLink)
32.
Affiliate marketer Jason Stone proved
that you don’t necessarily need your own product or service to make millions
online. In one year, he managed to earn $7 million through affiliate marketing
sales alone. (Source: Medium)
33.
From 2012 to 2017, merchants and
publishers who use affiliate marketing increased by 49 percent and 40 percent,
respectively. (Source: Social Media Today)
34.
In 2020, US affiliate marketing will
contribute to $70 billion in sales. (Source: Forrester)
Affiliate Marketing Networks
Looking for the right
network is pivotal to affiliate marketing success.
To help you make the best decision for your blog, let’s look
at what the numbers have to say:
35.
Next to Amazon
Associates, the six biggest affiliate networks are VigLink, CJ Affiliate,
SkimLinks, Rakuten, ShareASale, and Awin. These affiliate networks are listed
in order. (Source: Datanyze)
36.
By 2008, Amazon
Associates already had over 2,000,000 affiliates on board. (Source: North American Job Bank)
37.
The three pioneers in
the affiliate marketing industry are Amazon Associates, Be Free, and LinkShare
or Rakuten. These companies made their mark in the industry way back in 1996.
(Source: Hosting Tribunal)
38.
Amazon Associates
remain dominant in the affiliate marketing landscape with a market share of
39.30 percent. (Source: Datanyze)
39.
79 percent of
advertisers attend events to look for affiliate partners. In the same study, 83
percent use affiliate networks. (Source: Rakuten Marketing)
40.
The commission rates
for Amazon Associates programs range between 1 percent and 10 percent.
(Source: Ryan Robinson)
41.
CreativeLive rewards
affiliates with a 20 percent commission rate for new customers. This is reduced
to 10 percent for returning customers with a $1 payout for new registrations.
(Source: Ryan Robinson)
42.
In Udemy, the commission rate for new customer purchases is 15 percent. (Source: Ryan Robinson)
43.
BigCommerce pays
affiliates a 200 percent commission fee for the customer’s first monthly
payment. Affiliates also receive up to $1,500 for every enterprise customer.
(Source: Ryan Robinson)
44.
ConvertKit pays a
recurring 30 percent commission each month for every customer. (Source: Ryan Robinson)
Understanding your
competition is the key to getting ahead. In some cases, looking at how you fit
in the industry gives a dose of motivation.
Fortunately, the internet has tons of data about the affiliate
marketers of the information age:
45.
The affiliate marketing
population is estimated to be 54.23 percent male and 42.97 percent female. The
remaining 2.80 percent chose not to disclose their gender. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
46.
In 2016, a little
over 5 percent of all affiliate marketers are between 18 and 24 years of age.
(Source: Statista)
47.
The bulk of affiliate
marketers or 31.86 percent, to be exact, are between 35 and 44 years of age.
(Source: Statista)
48.
57.44 percent of
affiliate marketers in 2016 were based in the US Only 1.85 percent were based
in India while 9.71 percent were based in Canada. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
49.
55.32 percent of
affiliate marketers are married while 33.67 percent are single. The remaining
11.01 percent are either divorced or widowed. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
50.
62.35 percent of
affiliate marketers have children. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing Benchmark Report)
51.
The US is the primary
traffic target of 63.83 percent of affiliate marketers. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)
Affiliate Marketing Strategies and Practices
Getting to know
competitors is useless if you don’t make an effort to understand their
strategies.
The statistics below can give you a
clear idea of how affiliate marketers run their business:
52.
83 percent of
marketers who utilize affiliate marketing target customers in the discovery and
awareness stages of their sales funnel. (Source: Rakuten Marketing)
53.
The average conversion rate of affiliate marketers sits between 1 and 5 percent.
(Source: CoSpot Affiliate Marketer Blog)
54.
In recent years, the
content pool generated by affiliate marketers has grown by 175 percent.
(Source: Awin)
55.
At the same time,
publishers who focus on content marketing increased their profits by 240
percent. (Source: Awin)
56.
While content
marketing costs 62 percent less than ads, it’s known to generate as much as 3
times more leads. (Source: Awin)
57.
Although “pay per
call” affiliate marketing is more intensive, it’s enjoying a high conversion
rate of 10-15 percent. (Source: Awin)
58.
80 percent of
affiliate marketers track their mobile and desktop sales. (Source: Rakuten Marketing)
59.
The overwhelming
majority of affiliate marketers prefer email to be their primary means of
communication between affiliate managers. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
60.
In Q3 of 2016, 42.1
percent of sales were made by mobile phone users. (Source: Awin Quarterly Mobile Update 2016)
61.
In 2018, the impact
of “Black Friday” on consumer activity diminished since it’s easier to find
special deals online. (Source: Awin Report 2019)
62.
Digital affiliate
products commonly reward 50 percent commissions since they can be replicated at
zero cost. (Source: Neil Patel)
63.
67.32 percent of
affiliate marketers use social media to connect with customers. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
64.
69.22 percent of
affiliate marketers leverage SEO to generate site traffic. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing Benchmark
Report)
65.
If you plan to use
push notifications, know that they have an average click-through rate of 2.09
percent. (Source: Mobidea Academy)
66.
In the US, pop-up traffic
is at least 100 times less expensive than push notifications. (Source: Mobidea Academy)
67.
Cross-promotion
between desktop and mobile device users is one of the trends in affiliate
marketing in 2019. (Source: Mobidea Academy)
68.
Instagram influencer
marketing, which overlaps with affiliate marketing, grew from approximately
$700 million to $1.7 billion in two years. (Source: Influencer Marketing Hub)
69.
With an optimized
keyword targeting, SEO can yield as much as 7 times more conversions for
affiliate sites. (Source: Mobidea Academy)
70.
Only 34.28 percent of
affiliate marketers are willing to invest in PPC methods to generate traffic.
(Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate
Marketing Benchmark Report)
71.
42.17 percent of
affiliate marketers like to promote 1-10 products on their site at the same
time. (Source: OnlineMLMCommunity)
72.
23.18 percent of
affiliate marketers aim bigger by promoting 11-20 products. (Source: OnlineMLMCommunity)
73.
It may sound crazy,
but 7.53 of affiliate marketers prefer promoting over 300 products.
(Source: OnlineMLMCommunity)
74.
64.48 percent of
affiliate marketers use blogging to generate traffic. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
75.
62.32 percent of
affiliate marketers allow advertisers to post listings on their site for a fee.
(Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate
Marketing Benchmark Report)
76.
When it comes to
their partner’s attribution model, 55.69 percent of affiliate marketers have
zero clues. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate
Marketing Benchmark Report)
77.
61 percent of
Australian affiliate marketers use the “last click” attribution model.
(Source: Hosting Tribunal)
78.
45 percent of
publishers trust affiliate marketing because it doesn’t affect the user
experience on their website. (Source: VigLink)
79.
54.28 percent of affiliate
marketers run their operations at home while 19.21 percent work at an office.
26.51 percent do both depending on the workday. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
80.
In the majority of
affiliate marketing programs, only 10 percent of affiliates contribute 90
percent of sales. (Source: AM Navigator)
81.
43 percent of US
affiliate marketing sales in 2018 were done by loyalty and cashback partners.
(Source: Statista)
82.
Vouchers, on the
other hand, make up 30 percent of US affiliate marketing sales in 2018.
(Source: Statista)
83.
Search ads, display
ads, email, and tech partners are responsible for only 1 percent of affiliate
marketing sales each. (Source: Statista)
84.
On Awin, around 50
percent of affiliate traffic came from mobile devices. (Source: Awin)
85.
Direct deposits are
preferred by 48.69 percent of affiliate marketers when it comes to receiving
payments. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)
86.
19.16 percent of
affiliate marketers prefer using PayPal as a mode of payment. This is followed
by 2.69 percent of affiliate marketers who are willing to use Bitcoin.
(Source: Hosting Tribunal)
87.
You can boost your
affiliate marketing sales by improving your website’s loading speed. In fact,
47 percent of online consumers expect websites to load in 2 seconds tops.
(Source: Neil Patel)
88.
40 percent of
potential customers will abandon your website if it takes over 3 seconds to
finish loading. (Source: Neil Patel)
89.
A 1-second delay in
your website’s loading time can result in 7 percent fewer conversions. It’s
also observed to cause 11 percent fewer page views. (Source: BigCommerce)
Affiliate Marketing Niches Statistics
Just getting started
with affiliate marketing?
Here’s a piece of advice: pick your niche and affiliate programs extremely
carefully.
Here are a few interesting facts about affiliate marketing
niches and programs:
90.
Fashion is the biggest niche in affiliate marketing — accounting for 23.27 percent of all
affiliate programs on the web. (Source: AM Navigator)
91.
For the year 2019,
optimizing for voice search is one of the most prominent trends in affiliate
marketing. (Source: Entrepreneur)
92.
The “sports and
outdoors” is the second-biggest niche. It makes up 18.16 percent of all
affiliate programs online. (Source: AM Navigator)
93.
Travel, gardening,
electronics, health, business, education, and finance belong to the top 9
niches. (Source: AM Navigator)
94.
Despite its
importance, affiliate marketing is the least mastered area of digital marketing
by Chief Marketing Officers or CMOS. (Source: AM Navigator)
95.
41.04 percent of
affiliate marketers prefer to promote products under the computers and
electronics category. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)
96.
Only 29.88 of
affiliate marketers prefer to promote online
services. (Source: Hosting Tribunal)
97.
As for the clothing
and apparel category, 39.84 percent of affiliate marketers prefer the niche.
(Source: Hosting Tribunal)
98.
For travel sites,
comparisons drive 20 percent of sales. It comes next to coupons at 21 percent
and cashback at 24 percent. (Source: Awin Report 2019)
99.
Despite being less
popular than fashion, health is regarded by many affiliate marketers as the
most profitable niche. (Source: Authority Hacker)
100.
81.16 percent of
affiliate marketers make their own decision when choosing affiliate programs.
Interestingly, 0.47 percent let their spouse make the decision. (Source: Affstat 2016 Affiliate Marketing
Benchmark Report)
Welcome to our blog “CYBER SUGGEST“. Debmalya Datta is a professional Blogger, Developer, Social Media Influencer, Digital Marketer and Entrepreneur. He loves doing work which makes him happy, that’s why he choose Blogging and Educate people. You will love exploring educational stuff on our blog. Live your dreams as much as you can. Be a SHAMELESS SELF-PROMOTER
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