52 Affiliate Marketing Statistics for 2022

Ever bought a new pair of shoes after seeing an influencer promote them on Instagram? Or ever placed an order after seeing a make-up dupe review from a content creator on TikTok? Perhaps you’ve relied on independent review sites to recommend your latest electronic device?

These are all forms of affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing is more prominent and diverse than ever, in fact over 80% of brands use it.

Using data from Similarweb Digital Marketing Intelligence, we’ve rounded up the top affiliate marketing statistics you need to know.

General affiliate marketing stats

• 40% of marketers view affiliate marketing as an essential skill to have
• Affiliate marketing accounts for 16% of U.S. eCommerce orders. This makes affiliate marketing one of the four largest sources of eCommerce orders.
• 84% of publishers reported that affiliate networks increased their annual revenue by 20%
• 83% of marketers use affiliate marketing to increase their brand awareness
• 79% of marketers use affiliate marketing to engage their existing customers

• Affiliate marketing generates between 5% to 25% of online sales for some of the biggest brands in the world
• Amazon Associates, Amazon’s affiliate marketing network, was the world’s biggest network by affiliate number in 2021 with over 900,000 affiliates. However, Amazon Associates have recently lost popularity after making changes to their payout schedules, making room for their competitors.
• ShareASale is Amazon’s strongest affiliate marketing competitor with over 700,000 affiliates

Affiliate marketing market size

• The affiliate marketing industry has an estimated value of $12 billion globally
• The U.S. is the largest affiliate marketing country in the world
• The U.S. market holds 39% of the global affiliate market share. The U.S. is followed by the U.K. with 15% and Germany with 11%.
• Spending in the U.S. on affiliate marketing is projected to reach $8.2 billion this year, up from $5.4 billion in 2017
• The retail industry had the highest share of affiliate revenue worldwide in 2021:

Data collected from Statista

• In terms of affiliate marketing programs, the fashion industry also accounts for almost a quarter, with 23.3%
• The industry is followed by sports and outdoors, and health and beauty, with 18.2% and 13.8%, respectively

Affiliate marketing search growth statistics

Interest in affiliate marketing increased over 300% between 2017 and 2021 globally.

There were 836.9K total search visits (phrase match and related keywords) worldwide for affiliate marketing in the past year (May 2021 – April 2022).

Using Similarweb’s keyword research tool, this is the breakdown we found for the top ten total phrase match monthly searches:

1. affiliate marketing: 501.4K searches
2. what is affiliate marketing: 62.2K searches
3. affiliate marketing meaning: 41.1K searches
4. affiliate marketing websites: 19.5K searches
5. affiliate marketing amazon: 15.5K searches
6. how to start affiliate marketing: 12.4K searches
7. amazon affiliate marketing: 11.2K searches
8. high ticket affiliate marketing: 10.8K searches
9. affiliate marketing programs: 9.6K searches
10. affiliate marketing for beginners: 9.1K searches

In the U.S. there were a total of 412.6K search visits in the same time period.

Organic traffic for affiliate marketing peaked in July, worldwide and in the U.S., with 580K and 132.2K search visits, respectively.

Affiliate marketing channels

Mobile commerce is driving trends in affiliate marketing and the proof is on our devices.

More smartphone users buy products sold by affiliate marketers. In 2020, 167.8 million U.S. users made at least one purchase on their mobile devices, this is expected to rise to 187.5 million in 2024. By 2025, mobile sales are projected to reach $728.3 billion and account for 44% of total eCommerce sales in the U.S.

Not only are consumers buying on their mobile, but also on social media platforms. In 2022, social networks are estimated to reach 3.96 billion users.

Tailored advertising to these devices and channels are crucial in order to generate greater spend through affiliate links.

• 67% of affiliate marketers use social media as a tool to connect with their customers
• SEO accounts for the largest share of traffic sources to affiliate websites at 69%

Influencer affiliate marketing facts

• 74% of digital users say they trust social networks to make purchase decisions

• 75% of marketers have allocated money aside to influencer marketing
• 68% of affiliate influencers use social media platforms to promote products
• 65% of affiliate influencers use blogs to promote businesses
• 0.7% of YouTube videos have at least one affiliate marketing link
• 40% of Twitter users said they have purchased something based on a Tweet.

Data collected from Statista

Affiliate marketing jobs

• There are 2,200 affiliate marketing dedicated groups on LinkedIn
• 336,000 people have Affiliate Marketing as their job title on LinkedIn
• 100,000 people have Affiliate Manager as their job title on LinkedIn

Average earnings for an affiliate marketer per country:

• In the U.S. the average salary is $72.5K per year.
• In France the average salary is €57.6K per year, ($61.6K USD).
• In the U.K. the average salary is £41.8K per year, ($52.5K USD).
• In Canada the average salary is $59 USD per year, ($47.1K USD).
• In Italy the average salary is €36.5K per year, ($39K USD).

Affiliate marketing basics

How does affiliate marketing work?

To put it simply: affiliates promote a product or service and earn a portion of the profits they make for the respective company.

There are three types of affiliate marketing:

• Unattached affiliate marketing
• Involved affiliate marketing
• Related affiliate marketing

Want to keep up with affiliate marketing trends? Read our latest roundup and never fall behind.

Discover your affiliate opportunities

Whether you’re a brand looking for new affiliate partners (or wanting to see who your competitors partner with), or a blogger, influencer or publisher looking for new brands to represent, Similarweb can help.

Our referral and affiliate research tools allow you to analyze your keywords, industry, and competitor affiliates all in one place.

To learn more about using Similarweb to monitor your affiliate performance, schedule a demo of Digital Marketing Intelligence and Referral and Affiliate Research today.