Affiliate marketing
statistics 2026

• US affiliate spend grew at a compound annual rate of 14.42% between 2021 and 2024, twice the pace of the broader e-commerce market (Performance Marketing Association, 2025)
• Affiliate generated $113 billion in US e-commerce sales, 9.4% of all US e-commerce (Performance Marketing Association, 2025)
• For companies that use affiliate, the PMA estimates the channel accounts for 15-20% of sales (Performance Marketing Association, 2025)
• In the UK, the £1.78 billion affiliate investment generated £20.7 billion in revenue in 2025. The channel grew 7.3%, against 1.4% growth for the UK economy (APMA via Hello Partner, 2026)
• In 2024, UK brands spent £1.7 billion on affiliate, driving over £19 billion in e-commerce revenue: about £1 in every £10 spent online (+9% year on year) (APMA submission to the CMA, 2026)
• In Germany, affiliate generated €18.7 billion in revenue in 2025 (+12.0%), while German online retail grew 3.2% and the German advertising market 3.2% (BVDW / APMC, 2026)
• Share of US affiliate spend by sector, 2021 to 2024: retail fell from 76% to 63%, financial services rose from 12% to 15%, travel from 5% to 9% and telecom from 3% to 7% (Performance Marketing Association, 2025)
• Germany by sector (2025): retail 60% of investment, telecom 10%, travel 8%, financial services and insurance 7%, services 4%, gaming and utilities 1% and other 10% (BVDW / APMC, 2026)
• These market figures are based on network data: 8 networks in the US, 11 in the UK and 13 in Germany. There is no verified worldwide market figure, and the country figures use different currencies and definitions, so they cannot be added up (PMA via Affiliate Summit, 2025; APMA via InPublishing, 2026; BVDW / APMC, 2026)

Why is affiliate growing faster than the wider market? Advertisers are shifting budget toward channels where they pay for results: 74% of the 818 marketers surveyed by impact.com increased their affiliate investment because other channels became more expensive (impact.com, 2025). In all three measured markets the channel grew faster than e-commerce or advertising as a whole. For Dutch online stores, how these figures feed into marketing: read more about our ecommerce marketing agency (in Dutch).

The publisher mix is changing as well. In the US, independent bloggers’ share of content affiliate spend rose from 34% to 42%, while major media companies fell from 46% to 35% (PMA via Affiliate Summit, 2025). Creators and niche experts bring a new type of publisher to the table, one that maintains a closer relationship with its audience, and that pairs well with content marketing programs.

Global network statistics

• Awin connects brands with over a million partners worldwide and has operated since 2000 (Awin, 2026)
• On its Dutch site, Awin reports €17 billion in revenue for advertisers and €1.3 billion for publishers in the last financial year (the same figures as £18 billion and £1.2 billion on the UK site) (Awin, 2026)
• Daisycon reports a network of more than 40,000 partners and links publishers to more than 3,000 brands across Europe (Daisycon, 2026)
• TradeTracker operates in 27 countries on 4 continents from 23 offices (TradeTracker, 2026)
• The US market figures of the PMA come from 8 networks: Ascend by Partnerize, Awin, CJ, Everflow, LinkConnector, Partnerize, Rakuten Advertising and ShareASale (PMA via Affiliate Summit, 2025)
• The UK figures come from 11 networks including impact.com; the German figures from 13 networks and platforms (APMA via InPublishing, 2026; BVDW / APMC, 2026)

Networks publish their own size figures, not market shares, and they define “publisher” and “partner” differently (registered versus active accounts). We found no independent source for network market shares, worldwide or in the Netherlands, so the market-share figures that used to be on this page have been removed. What the surveys do show is breadth: brands work with many partner types at once, from loyalty and coupon sites to influencers, content publishers and technology partners.

• US spend by publisher type (2021 to 2024): cashback, loyalty and rewards sites hold 35% of all spend; coupon and voucher sites fell from 16% to 10%; comparison sites rose from 2% to 6%; social, influencer and creator content from 8% to 9%; technology solutions from 5% to 7% (PMA via Affiliate Summit, 2025)
• Within technology partners, buy now pay later grew from 37% to 45% of spend, and card-linked offers account for 5% (PMA via Affiliate Summit, 2025)
• Within content, bloggers rose from 34% to 42% of spend, while major media companies and publishing houses fell from 46% to 35% (PMA via Affiliate Summit, 2025)
• In the UK finance sector, content publishers took 31% of affiliate spend; in telecoms, price comparison sites took 43% and content 23% (APMA via InPublishing, 2026)
• 72% of Australian publishers grew the number of advertisers they work with (IAB Australia via Commission Factory, 2026)
• 52% of US publishers plan to test new promotion formats in the coming months (Performance Marketing Association, 2025)
• 99% of creators run a diversified business model. Affiliate ranks fourth (29%) as an income strategy, behind ads (45%), selling directly on social media (32%) and subscriptions (31%) (impact.com, 2025)

We found no reliable public figure for the income distribution of individual affiliates, so the income tables that used to be on this page have been removed. What is measured is where the money goes: in both Germany and the US, cashback and loyalty partners take the largest share, followed by content publishers and price comparison sites.

A notable trend is the shift from pure SEO affiliates to multichannel publishers. Successful publishers are diversifying into YouTube, podcasts, newsletters and social media. This approach provides more income stability (less dependence on Google algorithm changes) and generates traffic with higher purchase intent through the trust built via personal content.

The Netherlands in a European context

• There is no public, verifiable measurement of the Dutch affiliate market. The Digital Ad Spend Study 2025 of VIA Nederland and Deloitte puts the Dutch digital ad market at more than €4.4 billion but does not report affiliate as a separate category (VIA Nederland / Deloitte, 2025)
• Dutch consumers spent €35.7 billion online in 2025 (-1%) across 347 million purchases (Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, 2025)
• 41% of Dutch online purchases in 2025 were made on a smartphone (+5 percentage points), and 13% of spending went to foreign webshops (Thuiswinkel Markt Monitor, 2025)
• Daisycon, based in Almere and part of Linehub, works with more than 3,000 active advertisers and has more than 25 years of experience (Daisycon, 2026)
• TradeTracker is active in 27 countries with 23 offices (TradeTracker, 2026)
• Awin reports €17 billion in revenue for advertisers and €1.3 billion for publishers worldwide in its last financial year (Awin, 2026)
• Neighbouring benchmark: German advertisers invested €932 million in affiliate in 2025, generating €18.7 billion in revenue (BVDW / APMC, 2026)
• UK benchmark: brands invested £1.78 billion in 2025, a record (APMA via Hello Partner, 2026)

Figures that used to be on this page about the Dutch market (market size, growth, number of publishers, sector split, network market shares, commissions and order values) could not be traced to a published source and have been removed. If a Dutch industry body publishes a market measurement, we will add it here.

AI applications in affiliate marketing

• 97% of brands, 96% of creators and 87% of publishers have integrated AI into their work (impact.com, 2025)
• Top AI uses among brands: chatbots for customer support (35%), predictive analytics and optimization (33%), partner performance analysis (32%), personalized website and app offers (31%) and personalized email (31%) (impact.com, 2025)
• 63% of respondents in Australia want more information and training on the impact of AI on affiliate (IAB Australia via Commission Factory, 2026)
• When a Google search shows an AI summary, users click a traditional result in 8% of visits, against 15% without one; they click a link inside the summary in 1% of visits (Pew Research Center, 2025)
• The UK affiliate association APMA warned the competition authority that AI Overviews and Google’s own products erode the visibility of independent publishers (APMA submission to the CMA, 2026)

Emerging trends for 2026-2028

• Expected net growth in brand collaboration over the next year: social media influencers +14 percentage points, commerce solutions +12 and content and reviews +11 (impact.com, 2025)
• Measurement is moving on from last-click: 36% of brands plan to experiment with mixed media modeling and 32% with position-based attribution (impact.com, 2025)
• In Germany, influencer and social content and comparison shopping services are growing fastest, while cashback and loyalty remain the largest segment at 20.9% of spend (BVDW / APMC, 2026)
• Google treats “thin affiliation”, pages with affiliate links and copied product descriptions without added value, as spam; affiliate sites that add original content are not affected (Google Search Central, 2026)
• In the US, the FTC expects affiliates to disclose the relationship clearly and close to the recommendation; “paid link” next to the link is adequate, “affiliate link” may not be (FTC Endorsement Guides, 2023)