16 Best Affiliate Marketing Examples & What Makes Them Successful?

According to Influencer MarketingHub, Affiliate Marketing Industry is set to grow to approximately $14.3 billion in 2023 globally and $15.7 billion by 2024. This growth is being driven by several factors, including the rise of social media, the growth of e-commerce, and the increasing acceptance of affiliate marketing. So, what are the best examples of affiliate marketing platforms, what made them outstanding, and how can affiliates make money through them?

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Effective and trending marketing tool to promote stores via a network of affiliate partners

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Affiliate Marketing Overview

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing model in which a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought by the affiliate’s marketing efforts.

Affiliates are typically individuals who promote other companies’ products or services in exchange for a commission. They can promote these products or services through a variety of channels, including their websites, social media, email marketing, and paid advertising. When a customer clicks on an affiliate’s link and makes a purchase, the affiliate earns a commission.

Top 16 Best Affiliate Marketing Examples and Their Operation

1. Amazon’s Affiliate Marketing Program

Amazon’s Affiliate Marketing Program, also known as Amazon Associates, is one of the most successful and well-established affiliate programs in the world. Launched in 1996, the program has attracted millions of affiliates and generated billions of dollars in revenue for both Amazon and its affiliates.

Currently, the program boasts a market share of 44.68 % and is used by more than 90,777 companies.

What makes this program attractive?

• Vast Product Selection: Amazon offers a wide selection of products, ranging from electronics and apparel to books and home goods. This wide range makes it easy for affiliates to find products relevant to their audience.
• Collaboration with influencers: Amazon invites online content creators like bloggers, influencers, and YouTubers to earn commissions by recommending products from Amazon’s vast selection.
• Regular Updates and Improvements: Amazon continuously updates and improves the Associates program, adding new features, tools (SiteStripe), and resources to help affiliates succeed.
• Bonus benefits: In addition to earning commissions, affiliates enjoy various benefits from Amazon, such as the ability for influencers to create and manage their personalized influencer page on Amazon’s platform.

Main features of Amazon’s Affiliate Marketing Program:

• It is a free and easy program to join.
• Affiliates can earn commissions on a wide variety of products.
• There is no minimum referral requirement or quota.

Components of Amazon associates program:

• Commission rate:

  • Commission rates change depending on what you’re selling. Most are between 1% and 5%, but games can be as high as 20%.
  • Small businesses usually need to offer higher rates (10% to 20%) to attract affiliates.
  • Big companies like Amazon can get away with lower rates because people already trust them and are more likely to buy after clicking an affiliate link.
• Cookie life: 24 hours
• Payment release cycle: 60 days after the end of the month

2. Shopify Affiliate Marketing Program

Shopify is an e-commerce platform used by over 3.8 million merchants worldwide. One way that merchants discover Shopify is through its affiliate program.

Shopify invites relevant store developers, course creators, website owners, community admins, and social media influencers to join its affiliate program. These affiliates promote Shopify to their audiences, and when a referral signs up for a Shopify account, the affiliate earns a commission.

What makes this program attractive?

• Big influence: As one of the world’s biggest e-commerce platforms, it’s the number one port of call for many e-commerce first-timers, making it an affiliate program with tons of earning potential.
• Strong Support System: Shopify provides excellent support to its affiliates, offering a comprehensive FAQ section, email support, and a dedicated forum where affiliates can interact and share best practices.
• Global Reach: Shopify is a global company with customers in over 175 countries. Affiliates can promote Shopify to a global audience.
• High Commission Rate: Shopify offers a generous commission rate of $58 for each new merchant referral, which is significantly higher than many other affiliate programs.
• The program is well-designed and easy to use.
• A variety of affiliate linking tools: helps cater to the specific needs of large websites, individual bloggers, and social media influencers, ensuring that each group has access to tools tailored to their unique promotional strategies and audience reach.

Main features of the Shopify Affiliate Marketing Program:

• Any merchant affiliates referred will earn a commission of $2,000.
• Shopify affiliates can earn a commission of 100% of the first and second monthly subscription fees for any merchant.
• Affiliate cookie has a lifespan of 30 days, which means that if a visitor clicks on an affiliate link and signs up for a Shopify account within 30 days, affiliates will still earn a commission.
• Shopify releases affiliate payments 5 business days after the 15th and last working day of each month.
• An unlimited number of merchants affiliates can refer to.

Components of Shopify Affiliate Marketing Program:

• Commission Rate: 100% of the merchant’s monthly subscription fees for their initial and subsequent payments for the standard plan, and a flat fee of $2000 for the Shopify Plus subscription.
• Cookie life: 30 days.
• Payment release cycle: 5 business days after the 15th and the final working day of each month.

3. Skillshare Affiliate

Skillshare, a US-based online learning platform that offers courses in management, photography, and visual arts, has seen its affiliate program gain popularity as creators use it to promote the brand on social media.

What makes this program attractive?

• Diverse Course Catalog: Skillshare offers 27,000+ Online Classes covering a wide range of topics, from creative skills like design and photography to business and personal development. This diverse course selection appeals to a broad audience and increases the likelihood of successful referrals.
• Appealing Niche: Online education is a growing market with increasing demand for self-paced learning opportunities. This makes Skillshare a relevant and attractive niche for affiliates to promote.
• High Commission Rate: Skillshare offers a generous commission rate of 40% of the revenue generated from each new customer referral. This means affiliates can earn up to $67 for each new paid membership.

Key benefits of Skillshare Affiliates

• Both free trial signups and paid subscriptions are available.
• Flexible promotion methods: Affiliates can promote Skillshare memberships on their website, social media, or other online platforms.
• A customized and real-time dashboard for tracking traffic, referrals, and commissions.
• Reliable monthly payouts.
• Affiliates can share exclusive monthly rotating offers.
• Affiliate links have a 30-day cookie life.

Components of Skillshare Affiliates:

• Commission rate: 40% commission
• Cookie life: 30 days.
• Payment release cycle: 30 days after the month they referred to a sale.

4. Moosend Affiliate Program

Moosend is a popular email marketing platform with a variety of features, including email marketing, automation, and a user-friendly interface. It is used by businesses of all sizes, from small startups to Fortune 500 companies.

One of the reasons why Moosend is so popular is its affiliate program. Moosend has paid out over $250,000 in commissions to its affiliates, which means that affiliates have generated nearly $1 million in revenue for Moosend.

What makes this program attractive?

• High Commission Rate: Moosend offers a generous 30% recurring commission on all sales generated through affiliate referrals.
• Ease of Use: The Moosend Affiliate Program is straightforward to join and navigate. The sign-up process is simple, and the affiliate dashboard is user-friendly.
• Recurring Revenue Model: The recurring revenue model ensures that affiliates continue to earn commissions as long as their referrals remain Moosend customers. This provides a consistent stream of income and incentivizes long-term promotion.

Key features of the Moosend Affiliate Program:

• High commissions: Offers affiliates the opportunity to earn from 30% to 40% commission on each sale they generate.
• Cookie Life: 90 Days
• Payment release cycle: $25 threshold to claim the commissions.
• They display exciting stats such as a 13%-15% trial to paid conversion rate and $2+ earnings per click on the landing page to convert potential affiliates.
• Moosend offers dedicated account support where affiliates can clear their queries through live chat.
• Dedicated resource library with banners, short video demos, screen captures, social posts, guides, pre-written emails, etc.

Components of Moosend Affiliate Program:

• Commission Rate: 30% lifetime recurring
• Cookie life: 90 Days
• Payment release cycle: You need to reach a $25 minimum to claim commissions, and payments will be credited within 20 days of the following month.

5. Aweber Affiliate Program

AWeber is an email marketing platform that helps businesses of all sizes connect with their customers and grow their businesses. It offers a variety of features, including Email marketing, Email automation, Landing pages, and E-commerce integration.

The AWeber Affiliate program allows individuals and businesses to earn commissions by promoting AWeber’s email marketing services. Using their product, you can create lists, send emails, and connect with your audience.

What makes this program attractive?

• Quality Products and Services: AWeber provides a suite of email marketing tools that are valuable for businesses of all sizes. This includes features like email automation, segmentation, and campaign analytics, making it a product that affiliates can confidently promote.
• Positive Brand Reputation: AWeber has a reputation for providing reliable, user-friendly email marketing solutions. This positive brand perception makes it easier for affiliates to endorse AWeber and encourage their audience to try the platform.

Key Features of AWeber Affiliate program:

• 30% commission on all sales.
• Easy tracking of clicks and sales for specific periods.
• Impressive “call to action” to attract customers.
• Provides a playbook for new advocates starting their partnership with AWeber.
• There is no cost to sign up.
• Payments are sent digitally via PayPal.
• AWeber offers tons of valuable training and resources to help affiliates earn more revenue.

Components of Aweber Affiliate Program:

• Commission Rate: 30% commission on all sales
• Cookie life: A generous cookie life of one year (365 days)

6. ConvertKit Affiliate Program

ConvertKit is an email marketing platform designed primarily for content creators, bloggers, online entrepreneurs, and small businesses. It offers a range of features and tools to help users build and maintain effective email marketing campaigns and grow their audiences.

What makes this program attractive?

• Well-known brand: ConvertKit is an established brand, which means that many marketers, influencers, or entrepreneurs may have heard of it before. That makes the task of recommending these services a lot easier than if you were to convince people to invest in something relatively unknown.
• Diverse Support resources: there are more than enough resources regarding their own affiliate program and how to generally make money using affiliate marketing on their website.

Key features of ConvertKit Affiliate Program:

• Comprehensive eligibility criteria.
• Emphasizes the value proposition over financial rewards in the call to action.
• Furnishes affiliates with a dashboard to monitor conversions through unique affiliate links.
• Offers affiliate training program.

Components of ConvertKit Affiliate Program:

• Commission rate: 30% recurring commission
• Cookie life: 24 months

7. Spocket Affiliate Program

Spocket enables entrepreneurs to buy and dropship items from numerous wholesalers in the US and Europe. The Spocket affiliate program gives store owners a chance to increase their earnings through passive income by promoting Spocket to fellow entrepreneurs through their websites.

What makes this program attractive?

• Good benefits: Commissions last forever, as long as the referral continues as a subscriber. Spocket also offers monthly challenges for extra cash and marketing assets to promote the dropshipping app to your audience.
• Qualified Products and Services: Spocket provides access to a curated catalog of high-quality dropshipping products from US and EU suppliers. This focus on quality products makes it a platform that affiliates can confidently promote to their audience.

Main Features of Spocket Affiliate Program:

• Lifetime commissions: affiliates continue to earn money on subscriptions. renewals, even after their referral has initially signed up for Spocket.
• Monthly challenges with extra commission bonuses make affiliate marketing more engaging.
• Fast affiliate payouts through PayPal and Stripe.
• Custom dashboards make it easy to track affiliates’ sales.

Components of Spocket Affiliate Program:

• Commission rate: Tiered commissions of up to 30%
• Cookie life: 90 days

8. ActiveCampaign Affiliate Program

ActiveCampaign, an all-in-one automation platform, provides CRM, email marketing, and marketing automation tools. Its affiliate program is notable for its recurring commissions, long cookie life, and extensive resource library.

What makes this program attractive?

• Long-Lasting Commissions: Affiliates earn commissions for the lifetime of each referred customer, providing a long-term stream of income from their promotional efforts.
• High Commission Rate: ActiveCampaign offers a generous commission structure, with a 20-30% recurring commission on all sales generated through affiliate referrals. This means affiliates earn a consistent stream of income for as long as their referrals remain - ActiveCampaign customers.

Key benefits of ActiveCampaign:

• High software ratings.
• 20-30% tiered commissions or more.
• Recurring commissions on all sales.
• Affiliates can track sales easily with a robust affiliate portal.
• Graphics, videos, whitepapers, and webinars are available.
• Affiliates can earn commissions on sales generated up to 90 days after a visitor clicks on their affiliate link.

Components of ActiveCampaign Affiliate Program

• Commission Rate: If they pay $100 this month, you earn $20 dollars. If they pay $1000 a month, you get $200. The more customers you refer, and the longer they stick around, the more you can earn, up to a 30% commission.
• Cookie life: 90 days

9. WIX Affiliate Program

Wix is a cloud-based website builder that allows users to create and manage their own websites without any coding knowledge. When individuals become Wix affiliates and promote the platform, the product frequently promotes itself. The user-friendly dashboard provides all the essential information and promotional materials needed to generate sales.

What makes this program attractive?

• Variety of Promotional Options: Affiliates have the freedom to promote Wix in various ways, including through blog posts, social media, email marketing, and website banners. This flexibility allows affiliates to tailor their promotional efforts to their specific audience and channels.
• Recurring Revenue Potential: In addition to the one-time bounty payment, affiliates can earn recurring 10% commissions by promoting Wix Ascend’s marketing and business management tools.

Key benefits of Wix Affiliate Program:

• Easy-to-access Affiliate terms and conditions.
• Comprehensive affiliate knowledge base.
• User-friendly dashboard.
• Multilingual landing pages and banners.

Components of Wix Affiliate Program:

• Commission Rate: up to $100 plus potential bonuses
• Cookie Life: 30 days

10. Unbounce Affiliate Program

The Unbounce Partner Program is a revenue-sharing affiliate example that allows affiliates to earn commissions by promoting Unbounce’s landing page platform to their audience.

What makes this program attractive?

• Easy to use: Creating an affiliate link for Unbounce is very easy, too, and your custom dashboard gives you all the information you need in terms of your performance and earnings.
• Co-marketing Opportunities: Unbounce offers co-marketing opportunities for partners, such as joint webinars, case studies, and guest blog posts. These opportunities help partners gain exposure and establish themselves as experts in the landing page optimization field.

Main features of Unbounce Partner Program:

• Successful affiliates receive guidance from a dedicated partner coach.
• Access to a personalized dashboard for monitoring clicks, purchases, revenue, and tactics.
• Access to promotional materials and training resources.
• Multiple payment options with flexibility.
• Customers who make purchases through an affiliate link receive additional support and exclusive benefits.

Components of Unbounce Partner Program:

• Commission rate: provides a permanent 20% commission for life
• Cookie Life: around 60 days.

11. Leadpages Affiliate Program

Leadpages is a landing page builder that helps to create high-converting landing pages, websites, and other marketing assets and then track how well they work. Leadpages offers a variety of features and templates that make it easy to create professional-looking landing pages without any coding experience.

What makes this program attractive?

• The Leadpages affiliate program has excellent drop-and-drag designs which makes work more uncomplicated and convenient.
• The multimedia programs can be easily planted with simple insert code. HTML knowledge is not much needed for the process of bringing videos, and audio to the internet site.
• Leadpages affiliate program provides affiliates a good knowledge about marketing, sales, and funnels.
• With the assistance of various domains, lead page programs can make it less difficult to combine with destination pages.

Main Features of Leadpage Affiliates:

• Provides recurring commissions ranging from 10% to 50%.
• A commission structure with different tiers.
• Backed by a well-established product that is simple to market.
• Access to an affiliate dashboard.
• Special Leadpages offers and bundles are reserved for high-achieving affiliates.
• Affiliate links come with a 30-day cookie lifespan.

Components of Leadpages Affiliate Program

• Commission rate:

Minimum Lifetime Commission: 10%

Performance-Based Bonuses: They have a program with tiers based on your total new customer sales in the past 30 days:

- Bronze Tier (Less than $49): 10% commission (base rate)
- Silver Tier ($50 or more): 40% commission
- Gold Tier (High Performance): 50% commission (exact criteria for Gold tier not publicly available)

• Cookie Life: 30 days

12. Fiverr Affiliate Program

Fiverr is a popular marketplace for hiring freelancers that offers a wide range of affiliate opportunities, including individual freelancer service purchases, business accounts, workspace plans, and online courses.

There are 4 products affiliates can promote: Fiverr Business, Fiverr Affiliates, Fiverr Workspace, and Fiverr Learn.

What makes this program attractive?

• Per Google Trends, Fiverr has more search interest than any of the other big freelancer marketplaces, which makes it a comparatively easy sell.
• Commissions are pretty high, especially for Fiverr Business services
• Affiliates get paid as long as their referral creates an account within 30 days of clicking their Fiverr affiliate links — even if users don’t actually buying anything until months down the line.

Key Features of Fivver Affiliate:

• Larger fixed payouts based on service type or smaller fixed payout + percentage of buyer spending.
• Affiliates earn lifetime commissions on Fiverr subscription renewals.
• Seasonal bonus offers for extra income.
• Creatives, banners, GIFs, and videos help affiliates promote Fiverr.
• Dynamic widgets showcase individual Fiverr services on websites
• Affiliate managers, tutorials, and support resources
• Intuitive dashboards track sales easily.

Components of Fiverr Affiliate Program

• Commission rate:

  • 10% of the referred customer’s lifetime earnings on Fiverr
  • 30% commission on every course order purchased by a referred customer

• Cookie Life: offer a lifetime cookie

13. HostGator Affiliate Program

HostGator is a web hosting company that provides shared, reseller, VPS, and dedicated hosting services. It is one of the largest web hosting companies in the world, with over 10 million customers. Its affiliate program is one of the most well-known in the WordPress hosting industry. You have likely seen several affiliates recommending HostGator.

What makes this program attractive?

• Good benefits: HostGator pays affiliates up to $125 for qualified signups. It also offers extremely affordable hosting plans – so it becomes easier to convince people to sign up for their hosting products.
• Effective Tracking Tools and Analytics: HostGator provides easy-to-use tracking tools and analytics, allowing affiliates to monitor their performance, measure campaign effectiveness, and optimize their strategies.
• Regular Contests and Incentives: HostGator’s regular contests and incentives keep affiliates motivated and engaged, rewarding top performers and fostering a sense of community within the affiliate network.

Main features of the HostGator Affiliate Program:

• Generous commission rates: HostGator offers a generous commission structure, with a tiered commission system that starts at $65 per signup and can go up to $125 per signup, depending on the number of referrals generated.
• A wide range of web hosting products and services, including shared hosting, VPS hosting, dedicated hosting, and domain registration.
• Provides its affiliates with a variety of resources such as marketing materials, banners, and tracking tools.
• Terms and conditions are easy to access.

Components of HostGator Affiliate Program

• Commission rates:

• Cookie Life: 60 days

• Payment release cycle: 2 months + 10 days after the month-end.

14. Acorns Affiliate Program

Acorns is a micro-investing app that helps users save and invest for the future. It allows users to invest spare change from their purchases, as well as round up their purchases to the nearest dollar and invest the difference. Out of all these instances of affiliate marketing programs, Acorns distinguishes itself by featuring some of the visuals offered to its affiliates.

What makes this program attractive?

• Diverse Affiliate Network: Acorns attracts a diverse range of affiliates, including bloggers, influencers, personal finance experts, and content creators. This diversity ensures that Acorns’ services are promoted across various channels and reach a broad audience.
• Dedicated Support: Acorn has a dedicated affiliate support team that is always available round the clock to offer their clients amazing services.

Key features of the Acorns Affiliate Program:

• High commission rates: Acorns affiliates earn a $24 commission for every new customer they refer who signs up for a paid Acorns account
• Low minimum payout: Acorns affiliates have a low minimum payout of just $10. Even if you only refer a few customers, you can still earn money from the program.
• Provide a variety of promotional tools such as banners, widgets, and social media templates.
• Credible brand: Acorns is a well-known and trusted brand in the financial services industry. Promoting Acorns to your audience can help you build credibility and trust with your followers.

Components of Acorns Affiliate Program:

• Commission rates: Acorns pays a $10 commission for every qualified lead you send its way
• Cookie Life: 30 days

15. Kajabi Affiliate Program

Kajabi is an online course-sharing and business-building platform that helps businesses and individuals share their knowledge with the world. The company offers an affiliate program with unique and valuable rewards, and it has a proven track record of success.

Kajabi started the affiliate program because its customers were already sharing the platform with others, and the company wanted to recognize these advocates for helping them build their brand.

What makes this program attractive?

• Long-Lasting Commissions: Affiliates earn commissions for the lifetime of each referred customer, providing a long-term stream of income from their promotional efforts.
• Regular Contests and Incentives: Kajabi’s regular contests and incentives keep affiliates motivated and engaged, rewarding top performers and fostering a sense of community within the affiliate network. These initiatives encourage affiliates to put in extra effort and maintain their engagement with the program.

Key features of the Kajabi Affiliate Program:

• 30% lifetime commission
• Increasing commissions and exclusive bonuses: As affiliates move up through different tiers, they earn more money.
• Newly revamped dashboard: The new dashboard gives affiliates access to Kajabi’s best-performing marketing campaigns.
• Exclusive partner community.
• Launch campaigns and contests coming soon: Kajabi is launching campaigns and contests soon to create even more affiliate engagement.

Components of Kajabi Affiliate Program

• Commission rates: 30% of lifetime revenue
• Cookie life: 30 Days
• Payment release cycle: 25th of every month and yearly if the customer is on the yearly plan

What is the best extension for an online store to implement Affiliate marketing programs?

Affiliate marketing programs not only help individuals earn affiliate commissions, but they also bring many benefits to businesses, including increasing sales, expanding their reach, and driving cost-effective marketing campaigns.

To effectively implement an Affiliate Program, the Magento 2 Affiliate extension is a great solution.

Here are the main features of this extension:

• Create multiple affiliate programs and introduce your products all over the internet, across multiple sales channels.
• Unlimited affiliate campaigns generated with smart referral links.
• Enable affiliates to withdraw their commissions via popular payment methods: PayPal, Bank Transfer, Offline payment, and Skrill.
• Store owners can have a report of all the data related to affiliate actions to know all information periodically, including Best Sellers, Affiliate Accounts, and Sales.

Affiliate Extension for Magento 2

Effective and trending marketing tool to promote stores via a network of affiliate partners

Check it out!

Conclusion

We hope the above affiliate marketing examples help give you a more comprehensive view of the affiliate marketing platforms. If you are considering starting an affiliate marketing business, you should weigh the potential benefits and risks carefully. You also need to do your research and choose affiliate programs that are reputable and offer good commission rates.