Marketing is a crucial element in the success of any business. Without effective marketing strategies, reaching your target audience and spreading the word about your products or services can be nearly impossible. As the business landscape continues to evolve and new technologies emerge, innovative marketing methods such as affiliate marketing have gained significant traction.
With the digitalization of business operations, more companies are turning to online marketing strategies, and one of the most popular is affiliate marketing. While some companies prefer to communicate directly with affiliate marketers, a large percentage choose to streamline this process by working through an affiliate network.
What is an Affiliate Network?
An affiliate network is a platform that connects advertisers (businesses looking to promote their products or services) with affiliate marketers (individuals or companies who promote these offerings). These networks act as intermediaries, simplifying the process for both parties.
Advertisers use affiliate networks to find marketers who can drive traffic and increase sales, while affiliate marketers benefit from having access to a wide range of products and services to promote. The more an advertiser is willing to pay, the more potential reach and results they can achieve. However, even on a budget, it’s possible to find effective deals through affiliate networks.
By using affiliate marketers, brands reduce their workload and increase their visibility. Affiliates drive traffic to the business’s website, ultimately boosting sales. Moreover, affiliate networks streamline the entire process for brands, handling payments and performance tracking, saving advertisers from setting up complicated systems themselves.
Why Are Affiliate Networks Beneficial for Marketers?
Affiliate networks offer a significant advantage to affiliate marketers as well. Instead of working with multiple individual brands across different platforms, affiliate marketers can promote several brands simultaneously from one central network. This makes it easier to manage campaigns and grow income streams.
Why Choose an Affiliate Network Over Direct Promotion?
If you’re still unsure why you should opt for an affiliate network instead of directly promoting your products or services, consider the following benefits:
- Time and Cost Efficiency: Finding the right marketers individually takes time, effort, and money. With affiliate networks, you can find marketers suited to your budget and goals, saving you both time and resources.
- Access to Budget-Friendly Options: While some marketers may charge high fees, affiliate networks often offer a range of options, allowing you to experiment and find what works best within your budget.
- Performance Assurance: When working directly with individual marketers, it can be hard to gauge their effectiveness. Affiliate networks, on the other hand, allow you to research and review the performance history of their affiliates, giving you peace of mind.
Affiliate networks simplify the entire marketing process. You only need to partner with the network, communicate your campaign requirements, and the network will handle the rest—saving you from the headache of micromanaging the process.
Best Affiliate Networks For Advertisers In 2024:
After knowing about Affiliate Networks and how they can benefit a brand or business, you must be thinking, how should I choose the best one?!
Well, there is no definite answer to that because there are a lot of options available out there each one with its own unique features and benefits. We have narrowed down the choices for you so you can easily choose the right network.
Some of the Best Affiliate Networks in 2024 and 2025 include the following names:
- ShareASale
- Refersion
- Amazon Associates
- ClickBank
- eBay Partner Network (EPN)
- Awin
- CJ Affiliate
- Rakuten Marketing
- FlexOffers
- JVZoo
1. ShareASale:
The most popular affiliate networks out there. As evident from their performance and immense success, this is definitely a network you should go for.
ShareASale is welcoming to a large variety of brands with programs of over 4500 businesses that include both small and big. It is simply required to sign up on the networks where you can access all of the features through the dashboard, sign up to any of the advertisers and generate links for the campaigns.
For advertisers, there is a variety of options to choose from marketers as working with such a large network you can definitely expect some of the best marketers.
When you partner up with ShareASale you will have control over which marketer to choose. The marketer will first approach you and must be approved by you in order to start working on the promotion campaigns. Therefore, this is a great feature for you to choose the one that meets your requirements.
ShareASale is great for both digital and physical products so you can promote any type of product here. For example, for digital product promotions, you will find many WordPress theme and plugin shops, hosting providers, etc.
Whereas for the Physical products any business whether small or big can promote their products through this network. For example, you will find Sun Basket, Reebok, Wayfair, NFL Shops, and thousands of small businesses promoting through this network.
Their minimum payment threshold is $50 and the commission rate depends upon the advertiser.
2. Refersion:
Refersion is an affiliate network that is most popular in the e-commerce world and is also known as an effective influencer marketing network. The first thing you must do is integrate the network with your e-commerce solution as it provides you with ready-made apps to integrate with such as BigCommerce, Shopify, Magneto, Stripe, Chargebee, etc.
If you want integration with other e-commerce platforms then that will be customized through the Refersion API. These apps will help you work faster with reversion and you can always choose from the Readily available options however if you want something customized it may take longer.
After you are done with the integration procedure, you need to enter some affiliate marketers into the app. However, if you want influencers then you can use the influencer integration platforms such as Upfluence which is paid, and Cohley if you need help finding the right affiliates.
With the help of the Refersion marketplace, you can create specific offers that may include certain requirements and things like Coupons, codes, links, and email addresses. You will also get much more flexibility in terms of setting up your rates when you are working with Refersion. They will allow you to set up a specific performance-based structure for the commission and state your requirements clearly.
These requirements usually determine the criteria for affiliate acceptance. If the sales do not match said requirements, then they will be clarified as unqualified. The payments are usually made through various methods such as PayPal or through digital gift cards.
3. Amazon Associates:
Amazon Associates is different compared to any other affiliate network as it will only involve one retailer. However, there is such a huge variety of products available that it makes up an affiliate network. They have a great collection of some of the best products in the market.
The acceptance criteria of amazon might be a bit strict for a lot of affiliates, especially for beginners but it is still a widespread and popular network to experiment with. The application of affiliates is always reviewed before letting them into the program.
According to Amazon, if a certain stylist, content creator, reviewer, etc. wants to work with Amazon and promote the products to their audience then they must be suitable to do so. They require you to make a minimum of three sales in your initial 180 days.
They will also check the websites or networks you are posting the links to products as they are required to be updated regularly with original content. You can also use your mobile apps and social media pages to promote the products and generate sales.
Amazon sells a huge variety of products and you will get great benefits when you generate a sale through your promotion campaigns. They will offer you a commission when a sale is generated even when it is not specific to the link.
For example, if a person visits the page through your link but ends up buying a different product you will still receive a commission as the sale was generated through your link.
One drawback of Amazon is that their commission fee is low compared to other networks. The commission amount can vary according to the products some are even as low as 4 and 5%.
4. ClickBank:
ClickBank is another affiliate network with a vast variety of products to promote. They have about 6 million products on their network and are aiming to reach an audience of 200 million people. With such targets, your business will surely benefit from this network.
A differentiating factor of ClickBank compared to other networks are their high commission rates which are as high as 75%. You can even promote digital products on this platform by adding them to their catalog so that the publishers can choose. They even provide upsell options to their customers as those are more valuable.
Many of the customers on ClickBank always re-purchase the products on a subscription basis. So as long as the customers are subscribed the affiliates will earn money and you will get more sales.
5. eBay Partner Network (EPN):
You must have heard the name eBay as it is one of the largest e-commerce platforms. Almost 80% of the products sold on the platform are all new. eBay works of reference basis.
It requires its partners to bring in more people to shop at eBay and they will receive a share of what the customers buy. Their partners are provided with all sorts of essential tools, reports, and resources that they need to proceed on this network.
Their commission rate may differ depending upon the products and are usually lower compared to the premium products. They offer a premium program for those that are able to drive in high traffic.
This program is based on an invite-only concept where you will be rewarded for as many purchasers as you send their way. This helps to increase revenue, access advanced tools, and some other benefits.
6. Awin:
Awin is another popular affiliate network that was established in Germany and has made its way to the top and is now among the best marketing networks. This network gives you the opportunity to work with over 13k different advertisers and for the advertisers a variety of publishers to help with the promotions.
Awin bought ShareASale in 2017 however both of them are operating separately as separate entities and have different advertisers. With such a large number of businesses, you will surely have many options of products for both physical and digital products.
Some of the big advertisers that this network works with include Etsy, Ali Express, Under Armor, HP, etc. You will find many other smaller businesses across a range of niches.
7. CJ Affiliate:
previously known by the lengthier name of Commission junction this is another partner network that unites a great many various traders under one rooftop (a ton like ShareASale).
Alongside ShareASale, CJ is one of the greatest associate organizations out there, and that implies that you’ll have the option to interface with a large number of both of all shapes and sizes traders.
At present, the specific number is 2,696 unique dealers. Some of the most famous companies using CJ affiliates include overstock, lowes, Office Depot, GoPro, IHG, Priceline, and Grammarly.
Their dashboard is easy to use and informative. You will get timely reports and insights and the dashboard offers a higher learning curve.
8. Rakuten Marketing:
Rakuten is on the list of the best affiliate networks because it works with some of the notable advertisers in the industry such as Best Buy, Walmart, Macy’s, and Papa John’s.
They even allow smaller advertisers on their network so if you are a beginner do not worry you can always begin with Rakuten Marketing.
You will not find a huge number of Advertisers so if you want a network with a lot of advertisers then this might not be the one for you as it consists of only 1000 advertisers. Their minimum payment threshold is $50 and the duration may depend on the advertiser that you are working with.
9. FlexOffers:
FlexOffers is one of the newest affiliate networks that has made its way to the top through their amazing performance and determination. This is a network that features the newest products along with promotions and some premium offers from top global brands of the world which is an exciting thing.
Their partner marketing content can likewise effectively be incorporated into any site as pennant advertisements or text joins, or as remarkable limited time duplicates made by their article staff.
FlexOffers illuminates marketers about alluring sponsor campaigns that they can advance on their site, through email campaigns, through virtual entertainment, and by numerous different means.
Marketers get a commission each time the traffic they ship off a source finishes a commissionable activity, like making a buy, finishing up a structure, or finishing some other activity for which the sponsor will pay.
Over 12k offers are available on this network so you have many options to choose from.
10. JVZoo:
JVZoo is an amazing all-in-one platform that is a popular digital commerce network. They have a huge variety of products on their platform to promote. At present they have over 9.5 million products to sell in 22 different categories.
This network is especially very convenient for beginners as its interface is user-friendly and they offer various tools that help you run a successful business. Along with selling physical products they also specialize in digital products of different niches.
Signing up with JVZoo is very easy. All you need to do is signup and you will have access to their marketplace with multiple products to promote.
A differentiating factor of this network is that they only have one link for all products that are being sold. This may include a lot of things like upsells, downsells, etc.
When the links are provided the marketers will benefit from it with every single lead. JVZoo sometimes offers a bonus product along with the product that the customer purchased.
Conclusion
Affiliate networks are a powerful tool for both businesses and marketers. They offer efficiency, cost-effectiveness, and a streamlined approach to marketing. Whether you are a business looking to promote your offerings or an affiliate marketer looking to increase your income, affiliate networks provide a win-win solution. By partnering with a reputable network, you can scale your marketing efforts with ease while maximizing results.
Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)
What is an affiliate network?
An affiliate network is a platform that connects businesses (advertisers) with affiliate marketers who promote their products or services in exchange for a commission.
How does affiliate marketing work?
Businesses pay affiliate marketers a commission for driving traffic or sales to their websites through promotional efforts such as blogs, social media, or paid ads.
Why should I use an affiliate network instead of direct promotion?
Affiliate networks save time, money, and effort by connecting you with experienced marketers. They also provide performance tracking, ensuring your marketing budget is used efficiently.
Can I promote multiple products through an affiliate network?
Yes, affiliate networks allow marketers to promote various brands and products simultaneously, increasing their earning potential.
How do I choose the right affiliate network?
Research the network’s reputation, the quality of its affiliates, and its success rate. Look for networks with a track record of working with well-known brands and delivering high-quality results.
