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Affiliate Marketing Statistics 2025: 81+ Stats & Insights [Expert Analysis]
- October 18, 2025
- 4:12 pm
Affiliate marketing continues to dominate the performance marketing landscape. With billions in sales driven annually by affiliates, influencers, and content creators, understanding the latest affiliate marketing statistics is crucial for brands, marketers, and entrepreneurs in 2025.
In this report, we’ve compiled the most up-to-date, research-backed affiliate marketing stats to help you plan smarter campaigns, identify industry trends, and maximize your ROI.
Table of Contents
Market Size & Growth
The global affiliate marketing industry is estimated to reach US $37.3 billion in 2025.
The industry has been growing at about 14.7% year-over-year in 2024-2025.
In the U.S., affiliate marketing spend is projected to reach around US $11.2 billion in 2025 (up from about $9.1 billion in 2023).
The global affiliate marketing industry was valued at about US $32.3 billion in 2024, up from ~$27.8 billion in 2023.
In 2022 the value was about ~$23.6 billion.
North America holds about 40% of the global affiliate market share (2024).
Europe accounts for about 30% of the global affiliate market share.
Asia-Pacific had ~ 23% share and is the fastest-growing region.
Global click-volume in affiliate marketing has risen by more than 50% since 2020.
Cross-border affiliate sales (i.e., international affiliate transactions) account for about 25% of transactions.
Over 40% of marketers plan to increase their affiliate budgets in 2025.
Affiliate programs account for about 16% of online orders in the U.S. and Canada.
Brand / Advertiser & Publisher Adoption
Around 81% of advertisers (brands) use affiliate marketing programs.
Around 84% of publishers (affiliates) engage in affiliate marketing.
Over 80% of brands now treat affiliate marketing as a regular revenue channel.
In Europe, ~82% of brands use affiliate marketing.
In 2025, the average brand’s affiliate marketing adoption among digital marketing channels is high—signifying it’s part of the core toolkit.
ROI, Revenue, Earnings & Performance Metrics
Many businesses report an average ROI (return on ad spend) of about $12 in revenue for every $1 spent on affiliate marketing.
Another source reports ROI as high as $15 revenue per $1 spent in affiliate marketing.
The average conversion rate for content affiliates is about 3%–5% (2024).
The average click-through rate (CTR) for affiliate links is about 0.7%–1.2% (2024).
The average site visitor count for affiliates: overall ~ 56,673 monthly visitors; affiliates with 6-10 years experience had ~108,000 visitors monthly, and those 10+ years had ~216,000.
In 2023, the average order value (AOV) for high-performing affiliates was US $100-$150, and they sold on average ~2.5 items per order.
Affiliates using email marketing earned 66.4% more than those who did not.
In retail, affiliate revenue in the U.S. was down 13% from 2023 to July 2024 (clicks down 12%, conversions down 3%).
Traffic Sources & Channels
About 78% of affiliates use organic SEO as a primary traffic source (2024).
Organic social media is used by ~40% of affiliates as a primary traffic source (2024).
Email marketing is used by ~23% of affiliates as a primary traffic source (2024).
Paid social media ads used by ~12% of affiliates; paid search (SEM) ~8%; influencer marketing ~5%.
Among affiliates with 3-10 years’ experience, ~90% use SEO as a primary traffic source; those with over 10 years ~84%.
For mobile: as of July 2024, ~41% of affiliate marketing revenue came from mobile.
Mobile now accounts for ~50% of affiliate-referred traffic.
Blogging/content marketing is used by ~65% of affiliates to drive traffic/commissions.
Affiliates (Publishers) – Demographics, Earnings & Behavior
Over 77% of affiliates are solopreneurs (no team members) as of 2024.
Around 17% of affiliates have 2-5 team members; average team size ~2.3 people.
~95% of affiliate marketers operate in teams of 5 or fewer people.
Only ~11.72% of affiliate marketers earn more than USD $100,000/year.
~57.55% of affiliate marketers earn less than USD $10,000/year.
In 2024, affiliates generated ~US $1.1 billion (creator-affiliate revenue). That was up ~93% from US $530 million in 2021.
On Instagram: ~14% of affiliate influencers operated in the lifestyle niche in 2021, ~9% in beauty, ~8% music, ~7% photography, ~5% humour/happiness.
Affiliates with 50,000-100,000 followers on Instagram had a 42% higher reach than those with over 500,000 followers.
On TikTok, nano/micro affiliates had engagement rates up to 8× higher than creators with >500,000 followers.
Affiliates with follower counts of 50k-100k had the highest conversion rate from clicks to orders (~0.9%). Those with 100k-200k followers drove ~5.6× more sales than those with 200k+.
Networks, Niches & Publisher Types
Among affiliate networks in 2024: Amazon Associates was used by ~58% of affiliates; Clickbank by 25%; ShareASale by 22%; CJ Affiliate by 21%.
In 2023, Amazon Associates had ~900,000 affiliates; ShareASale ~700,000; Awin ~225,000; Rakuten ~150,000; ClickBank ~100,000.
Amazon had a 22% global market share in 2023 among affiliate networks.
The largest number of sites: Amazon Associates > 215,129; AB.net ~129,409; CJ ~80,063; Awin ~59,335; Hotmart ~53,154; GoAffPro ~45,882; Rakuten ~34,116; Affiliate Window ~32,324.
In terms of earnings by niche: The technology niche had average monthly traffic ~109,818 visitors; beauty & skincare ~92,179; food & nutrition ~77,321.
Channels, Trends & Technology
79% of affiliates in 2024 reported using AI-driven content creation tools.
Other top trends adopted by affiliates in 2024: email/newsletters (50%), social media marketing (39%), video/streaming (21%), chatbot integrations (16%).
38% of affiliates still rely on affiliate-network measurement methods.
59% of brands reported difficulty measuring how affiliate campaigns affected other marketing channels; also 59% said measuring cross-device customer journeys is a challenge.
The average affiliate conversion rate across all niches stands at ~2.1% in 2025.
Influencer-driven affiliate campaigns grew ~26% year-over-year.
Mobile devices account for ~57% of all affiliate-driven purchases in 2025.
B2B affiliate programs experienced a ~17% growth in participation in 2025 (driven by SaaS/enterprise tech).
Challenges & Issues
~45% of affiliates cite traffic generation as their biggest challenge.
Other major challenges include algorithm updates and affiliate fraud concerns.
~65% of retailers say affiliate marketing contributes up to 20% of their annual revenue.
An estimated fraud rate in affiliate spend is ~5%–15% of total affiliate spend.
~59% of brands found cross-device attribution challenging when evaluating affiliate campaigns.
In July 2024, revenue from content-partner affiliates fell ~24% between July 2023 and July 2024.
Revenue by Sector & Customer Behavior
As of July 2024, in the U.S., revenue growth by vertical: Accessories & Jewelry +56%; Clothing & Apparel +26%; Health & Beauty +15%; Computers & Electronics –40%; Food & Drink –25%; Gifts & Flowers –14%.
~50% of affiliate revenue came from new customers in 2024 (a 2% increase from 2023).
~66% of revenue from Buy-Now-Pay-Later (BNPL) affiliate partners; followed by content partners (58%) and coupon partners (48%).
In 2023, the retail niche had the highest affiliate revenue share (~44%); Telecom & Media ~25%; Travel & Leisure ~15%; Others ~15%.
Income & Affiliate Earnings (by Tier/Niche)
In 2024, the average monthly affiliate earnings (for mature affiliates) ranged between ~US $8,000-10,000.
In e-learning niche, affiliates averaged ~US $15,551/month; in travel ~US $13,847/month.
~81.2% of affiliate marketers make over US $20,000 per year.
~15% of affiliate marketers reported annual incomes between US $80,000 and US $1 million.
Miscellaneous / Interesting Insights
In 2024, affiliate creators (influencers) generated ~US $1.1 billion in revenue from affiliate marketing.
Among affiliates with under one year’s experience, organic search usage was ~69% (vs ~90% for those with 3-10 years).
For affiliates with less than one year experience, average monthly visitors ~13,700; 1–2 years ~27,200; 3–5 years ~67,800; 6–10 years ~108,000; 10+ years ~216,000.
Subscription-box affiliate models alone accounted for over US $4.2 billion in affiliate-driven sales in 2024.
The niche-average uplift in average order value (AOV) from affiliate traffic is ~+15% over site average in 2024.
On Instagram in 2021: Lifestyle niche ~14%; Beauty ~9%; Music ~8%; Photography ~7%; Humor/Happiness ~5%.
Among affiliates with 50k-100k Instagram followers, conversion rate (clicks→orders) ~0.9%. Those with 100k-200k followers drove ~5.6× as many sales as those with 200k+.
Influencers and affiliate marketers drove ~20% of U.S. e-commerce revenue on Cyber Monday 2024; products promoted via an affiliate link were ~6× more likely to result in a purchase.
In 2024, across global affiliate networks: ~9,600 affiliate-based service providers; 47% (~4,500) based in North America; ~24% in APAC; ~20% in Europe; ~9% in Africa.
Between 2020 and 2022, searches for “affiliate marketing” surged by ~264%.
For high-earning affiliates, the common average order size in 2023 was about US $100-150 and ~2.5 items per order.
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About the author, Bill Nash
Bill Nash is the CMO of Marketing LTB with over a decade of experience, he has driven growth for Fortune 500 companies and startups through data-driven campaigns and advanced marketing technologies. He has written over 400 pieces of content about marketing, covering topics like marketing tips, guides, AI in advertising, advanced PPC strategies, conversion optimization, and others.