Marketing has a profitability problem. Costs are climbing, returns are falling and digital ad giants take an ever-increasing share of budgets. It’s time to take a different approach and explore the full potential of an oft-overlooked growth engine.
Affiliate marketing drives billions in sales every year. It contributed 13% of all UK online retail revenue during Cyber Weekend 2024. This impact extends globally; last year it generated £84m in US ecommerce sales, representing 9.4% of total ecommerce revenue.
Yet affiliate marketing still doesn’t get the attention it deserves. It rarely comes up in boardroom discussions, and when it does, the preconceptions are instant: discounts, vouchers and last-click sales.
Affiliate marketing has moved far beyond those clichés. What began more than two decades ago as a niche performance tactic has become a global growth tool powered by thousands of diverse and innovative partners.
And the curveball? It is uniquely positioned to future-proof returns against the shifts in consumer behaviour that AI systems are accelerating. As consumer behaviour shifts, affiliate connects brands to trusted human voices and measurable outcomes.
The state of play
Ad costs keep climbing, but conversions aren’t keeping pace.
Analysis of thousands of campaigns shows costs per click rising across Google and Meta, while conversion rates continue to decline. Brands are paying more than ever to reach audiences who are tuning them out.
With consumers looking beyond traditional channels, affiliate marketing is quietly outperforming and evolving to solve numerous business challenges. It is transparent and scalable, with partners rewarded for the sales they drive. Retail, finance and travel brands are seeing double-digit gains and reliable returns – with a potential £14:1 ROI that speaks for itself.
No longer a fringe tactic, affiliate marketing delivers transparent, measurable results. So why is it still under-recognised at board level? In part, because the myths that once defined it continue to hold it back.
Myth 1: It’s just a last-click tactic
Today, affiliate marketing influences every stage of the customer journey, not just the final conversion.
Content creators and influencers drive brand discovery and trust through real recommendations and expert reviews. Comparison sites help brands turn browsers into buyers with tailored recommendations. Then on-site technology partners and incentive publishers help seal the deal and keep customers coming back.
These relationships form a connected ecosystem that can reach consumers with the right message at the right time to deliver measurable results at every step of a customer’s journey.
Myth 2: It’s a small channel for small wins
Preconceptions that affiliate marketing can only deliver modest gains potentially need a rethink with brands that increase investment – rather than using the remains of leftover budget – capable of seeing strong results.
Affiliate is now a core growth driver for major retailers. From Currys unlocking a new revenue stream through retail media, to Boots creating performance-based influencer partnerships, enterprise brands are using the affiliate channel to outperform competitors and sustain strong ROI in challenging market conditions.
Across the Awin network, more than 30,000 advertisers and hundreds of thousands of partners generated more than £15bn in tracked revenue in 2024. During Cyber Weekend alone, the affiliate channel as a whole drove 360 million attributed sales and more than £2.2m in tracked revenue every hour.
Awin is also a gateway for global growth. Awin’s network connects brands and consumers across borders, helping advertisers test and scale in new markets with lower upfront costs. Sports retailer Padel Market set up an affiliate programme to reach new audiences in Spain, the UK, Italy and Sweden and found that 94% of the customers it converted were new to the brand. Sustainable beauty brand Wild launched a second programme in Germany to aid its European expansion following positive results in the UK.
Affiliate marketing’s reach, flexibility and low-risk model allow it to drive marketing effectiveness as well as real business priorities.
Myth 3: It’s dusty and outdated
Marketers use affiliate marketing to access emerging technology and partners, and the infrastructure has kept pace.
AI has transformed how people discover products and who they trust when it comes to making a purchase. According to Forbes, 77% of active AI users say they trust AI-generated content. While 60% percent of Google searches now end without a click, according to Search Engine Land. Brands need to be present at the moments and the places that shape consumer decisions.
Awin’s publisher network is built for this shift. The company’s partners have been shaping online discovery since the dawn of the blog. Partners create the expert reviews, in-depth comparisons and authentic first-hand experiences that AI systems now prioritise. They are active across the spaces AI pulls from, including social platforms, short-form video and podcasts, and these partners have loyal audiences that keep their influence strong even as algorithms evolve.
Awin’s infrastructure is also built for what comes next. Multi-touch tracking and API-ready integrations help connect influence to outcomes. Awin’s partner ecosystem keeps brands and publishers aligned as AI reframes discovery, attribution and decision-making.
Affiliate marketing is not a legacy channel. It is built for the future of product discovery.
The partnership economy: a performance-driven path to profitable growth
The myths that once defined affiliate marketing no longer hold true. Today it is a transparent, data-driven growth engine powering some of the world’s biggest brands.
In a climate of rising costs and tighter returns, affiliate and partner marketing offer a smart path forward. Whatever the goal, there’s an affiliate for that.
Marketing has a profitability problem. Costs are climbing, returns are falling and digital ad giants take an ever-increasing share of budgets. It’s time to take a different approach and explore the full potential of an oft-overlooked growth engine.
Affiliate marketing drives billions in sales every year. It contributed 13% of all UK online retail revenue during Cyber Weekend 2024. This impact extends globally; last year it generated £84m in US ecommerce sales, representing 9.4% of total ecommerce revenue.
Yet affiliate marketing still doesn’t get the attention it deserves. It rarely comes up in boardroom discussions, and when it does, the preconceptions are instant: discounts, vouchers and last-click sales.
