15 Powerful Affiliate Marketing Statistics You Should Pay Attention To

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The Business Strategy team at Awin.com recently collected several important statistics about affiliate marketing that show just how much the industry is growing. There’s something for everyone in the list of 15. The complete post is available here.

Here are some of the most important points for WA members:

1. Total affiliate marketing spend is growing rapidly.

In 2016 US retailers spent $4.7 billion on affiliate marketing. By 2020, that’s expected to rise to $6.8 billion.

2. 81% of brands have adopted affiliate marketing

Due to the performance-based nature and cost effectiveness of affiliate marketing, its popularity continues to grow with leading advertisers. This is also why increased transparency is required in the process, including developments like GDPR, ITP, and the California Consumer Privacy Act.

3. “Affiliate marketing” search interest grew by 30% in one year

Searches for the term “affiliate marketing” rose by 30% between September 2016 – September 2017. People are searching for what WA teaches!

4. 16% of all online orders come through affiliate marketing

This is the same volume as email marketing delivers, just a little less than organic search or paid search.

5. Jason Stone, aka Millionaire Mentor, generated $7MM in one year

Stone has 2.5 million Instagram followers, and posts affiliate links to offers he believes appeal to his followers. The $7 million came without having to incur any cost or inconvenience selling his own brand of products or services.

6. Nearly 50% of affiliate referred traffic came from mobile devices

Mobile device usage exceeded desktop usage for the first time in 2016 and now nearly 50% of affiliate-driven website traffic comes from mobile. Making sure your site is mobile-friendly now can affect your entire affiliate success.

7. Content is still king

Over the last few years, content produced by affiliates has grown 175%, and the revenue created through content publishers has exploded by 240%. Content marketing generates three times more leads than ads. Focus on text links, worry less about the banner ads on your site.

More Awin market insights are available to you as well. Enjoy!

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Recent Comments

89

Very informative article and interesting. What exactly is Awin.com I always see you mention them but, I still to this day cannot figure out what exactly do they do? Are they affiliate network?

I love reading your articles, they are always on point and very educational. You are the reason, why I know exactly what to do with my affiliate links and disclosures. Thank you very much because, now I can clearly see that a lot of people do not follow the rules. Do you happen to have an article on GDPR? I am still confused on what to do there.

Thanks for sharing this post once again.

How kind of you to say that! I'm so pleased I can help you learn about the industry I love.

Yes, Awin.com is an affiliate network, the largest in the world in fact. We work with over 13,000 merchants in virtually every vertical. Some of our merchants are HP, Etsy, StubHub, Missguided, Hyatt Hotels and UnderArmour.

We do have information on GDPR - here's an article on Publisher Guidance about what you are required to do - https://www.awin.com/us/news-and-events/gdpr/publisher-guidance-on-the-gdpr-and-consent

Here's a link to a whitepaper we produced on the topic as well: https://www.awin.com/us/news-and-events/gdpr/whitepaper-gdpr-eprivacy-and-awin

Well didn't we all make a very good decision the day we decided to dip our toes into the affiliate marketing pond?

From the stats that you have shared Jeannie, the affiliate marketing juggernaut shows no signs of slowing down anytime soon.

The thing is that mobile is king and folks read reviews before making that purchase or signing up.

The outlook is very healthy.

All the best and compliments of the season.
Alex



I love affiliate marketing, and I love knowing our industry just continues to grow. This is a world full of opportunity for sure!

good summary! I just received an email from Awin, having just subscribed to their newsletter.

But I think you better watch out posting these external links as it may be perceived you are trying to market to the peeps here at WA. Personally I don't get that impression, but others might...

Frankly I am no expert on what is allowed or not when it comes to these kind of links so take my comments worth the grain of salt that they are :)

cheers and Happy Holidays! Marc

Hi Marc... NO self-serving links, however, any external links that are helpful to the community are allowed.

In this case, Jeannine is not posting any affiliate links for her benefit so this is allowed.

Wish everyone a VERY HAPPY CHRISTMAS and a PROSPEROUS NEW YEAR!

thanks for the clarification on this matter and I'll give you a follow for replying to me in this blog! :) Yes, I agree it doesn't look like any affiliate linking is going on here!

I think you'll enjoy the newsletter. Our strategy team is amazing when it comes to analyzing data.

Thanks for clarifying that! Merry Christmas to you too!

Very encouraging, thanks Jeannine.
Colette and Philip

Glad you enjoyed it. Yes, it shows the tremendous possibilities in this little industry of ours.

Wow, those are some numbers!! And I like them. Thanks for sharing with us, Jean. =) Laura

They are impressive, Laura, aren't they? I loved that part.

Yes very impressive. Vey promising as well!

Thank you very much, Jean, for this eye opener. Affiliate marketing will not be declared redundant in the near future. These are wonderful statistics. Thank you for sharing.

So very true! This industry is not only here to stay, but continues to grow steadily. Our future is bright!

What an interesting collection of statistics! If anything can inspire us, your post should be helpful.

I thought they were interesting too. So glad my team collected them for us all to enjoy.

Jeannine, Thanks for spelling the facts out, they can not be denied In the back of our mind, we all know affiliate marketing is growing, We have to apply ourselves. Be persistent and focus and as you stated content is King! Great post
Thanks, Sandy

That's one of the best things about WA - that the focus is on content which is proven to be critical to success. We're quite lucky. Glad you liked the post.

Jeannine....Thank you for the list of statistical information. I appreciate all the facts and figures from your post. Have a great day!

Hope you got a chance to check out the other stats - some fascinating stuff in there too. Wishing you a great day as well.

Hi Jeanine,
Thanks for posting those statistics on affiliate marketing
They confirm that affiliate marketing is a legitimate business proposition when you have the right training that we are so lucky to have at Wealthy Affiliate
Fintan

I've actually had people ask me if affiliate marketing was legal - heck yeah!

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