45+ Important Affiliate Marketing Statistics for 2025

Looking for insights for your affiliate marketing program? Let the numbers tell you some of them. In this article, we’ve manually curated fresh findings from multiple studies to help you in your partnership building efforts.

But don’t let your research be restricted to just ‘affiliate marketing stats’. The ideas and insights you seek often come down to brand awareness, investment ideas, digital marketing strategies, and even basic accounting, and research papers should include all those angles.

For example, by learning from how Amazon implements ads (and how much they earn), you can consider what types of ads can work for your affiliates. By digging into the investment calculations behind your programs, you can come up with a better commission structure and learn the long-term sales impact of media investment. And by knowing the percentage of people who buy through social media, you can decide what types of affiliates to target (perhaps those advertising on social media?). 

Note: Although we tried to find and credit only original sources, some of the statistics may come from secondary sources that cite other references. We include direct citations from various types of research, without edits.

General Stats About the Affiliate Marketing State

Before getting down to very specific publications and platforms, let’s start with the general stats we’ve found.

• “In the U.S., affiliate marketing spending is expected to top $12 billion in 2025, with steady growth projected through 2028.” E-marketer

• “Top companies control 47% share, with 32% rise in partnerships and 29% increase in performance-based marketing campaigns.” Business Research Insights

• “According to eCommerce association analyses, advertiser adoption of performance-based programs increased by 25% year-over-year in recent rollout cycles.” Business Research Insights

• “Rising fraud concerns hinder growth, as 42% marketers face fraudulent traffic and 34% encounter misreported conversions.” Business Research Insights

• “Cost per sale (CPS) is the leading revenue model, with marketers preferring commission-based earnings over pay-per-click or pay-per-lead models.” Hostinger

• “While 75.6% of respondents plan to dedicate a budget to influencer marketing in 2025, this marks a 10.2% decrease from the prior year, reflecting a recalibration driven by economic uncertainties and heightened scrutiny on ROI.” Influencer Marketing Hub

• “Affiliate marketing is emerging as a top strategy among brands and creators, with creators on Aspire driving 71% more affiliate revenue year-over-year.” The State of Influencer Marketing 2025

• “Projections indicate that the influencer marketing industry will expand at a 55% growth rate, ultimately reaching $47.8 billion by 2027.” The State of Influencer Marketing 2025

• “In fact, a growing 40% of creators surveyed participated in multiple affiliate campaigns over the past year, signaling creators’ openness to commission-based partnerships.” The State of Influencer Marketing 2025

• “Creators drove an impressive $48 million in revenue on Aspire in 2024, a stunning 71% year-over-year growth. This revenue is directly attributed to their affiliate links and codes.” The State of Influencer Marketing 2025

• Merchants recognize affiliate marketers’ (publisher) efforts in promoting the products and their records regarding accumulated commissions, which were considered to be 5% to 10% of the original price of the product being promoted.” Researchgate.net

Stats from Top Affiliate Marketing Networks & Platforms 

Top names in this sphere, such as Impact, Rakuten, or CJ Affiliate, usually publish annual reports on the affiliate marketing trends.

Report From CJ Affiliate:

CJ Affiliate, an affiliate marketing platform that drives $16B in annual sales, shared insights on data-driven attribution and sustainable creator partnerships. Let’s review their insights for the remainder of 2025 and their outlook for 2026.

• “Affiliate marketing has become an essential component of the digital marketing ecosystem, now contributing to 10% of all UK e-commerce sales and generating over £20 billion in revenue.”

• “The APMA (The Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association) findings reveal that 78% of affiliates feel tracking underrepresents their contributions, a significant challenge as the industry adapts to the new tracking environment. Brands must thoroughly understand how their tracking works.”

• “APMA data indicates 57% of brands plan to increase affiliate spend in 2025, yet 85% of publishers cite higher commissions as essential to continued success.”

• “In the UK, ad spending on influencer marketing is projected to surge by £444.6 million (+48.51%) between 2024 and 2029. This marks the eleventh consecutive year of growth, with spending estimated to reach a peak of £1.4 billion in 2029.”

Check the full report from CJ Affiliate: View trend report 2025

Report From Awin:

Awin, another well-known affiliate marketing platform, has surveyed almost 700 senior marketers to gauge their thoughts on affiliate marketing. Here are some of the interesting affiliate marketing stats findings:

• “Email/newsletter partners enjoyed a resurgence (+19%) as the marketers went back to basics with an old favorite. The majority (59%) of the group had these partners in their program, far exceeding both growth and uptake for trending partner types like Buy Now Pay Later (BNPL) (-1%).”

• “Over half of the group (52%) cited ‘personalizing marketing communications’ as a top-five digital marketing objective that could be supported by affiliates.”

• “Brand partnerships (+8%) are also now on the majority of affiliate programs (54%).”

Check the full report from Awin & Forrester: View Blog Recap

Report From Partnerize:

The Partnerize, affiliate automation platform, also analyzed performance in 10 retail categories comprising ~700 retail brands as tracked in the platform. What were their key findings?

• “Variable commission rates in May 2025 were at 7.3%, a 5% increase from May of 2024.”

• “The May 2025 percentage of revenue from new customers by partner category: Content-Influencer: 45.96%, Other: 55.62%, Content: 51.10%, Coupon: 45.26%, Loyalty: 37.10%, BNPL: 33.93%”

• “Percentage of revenue from mobile was 45% in May 2025, an 8% increase over the last year.”

Check the full report from Parnerize Sales Index: View Report

Bonus Report:

2025 E-commerce influencer marketing in Southeast Asia by Impact.com.

One of the latest research studies from Impact, an all-in-one partnership management platform, includes data on how brands, creators, and platforms are evolving affiliate marketing to drive performance and sales. You can fully unlock it only after providing your details (don’t hesitate).

Check the full report from Impact.com: Get Report

2025 Stats from Digital Marketing & Ad Tech Companies

Report From HubSpot:

In the HubSpot’s State of Marketing Report for 2025, we found a lot of insightful stats and ideas to boost your affiliate marketing.

• “Some long term creator partnerships cut our cost per lead by 30-40% compared to ads on Meta and Google.”

• “96% of marketers reported that personalized experiences have increased sales”.

• “Emerging channels include Reddit, Discord, and Threads, used by around 10% of marketing teams.”

• “Marketers report seeing the highest ROI from influencers on 1) Facebook (28%), 2) Instagram (22%), and 3) YouTube (12%), and brands most commonly spend 50-74% of their marketing budget on influencers or content creators.”

• “92% of respondents report that AI has impacted their role already, and more than a third say ‘very significantly.”

Check the full report from HubSpot: Digital Marketing Report

Report From Think with Google:

Think with Google is a top resource to find first-hand business experiences, case studies, and insights across the world, as well as get tons of data-driven marketing stats. Many of its recent findings point to the following things.

• “9% of global companies consider their AI capabilities to be ‘leading’ when it comes to measurement.” Source

• “Analysis shows that regaining lost market share typically requires a disproportionate reinvestment – approximately $1.85 for every $1 initially saved through cuts.” Source 

• “Invented brands with tailored messaging and features can win share from first-choice brands”. Source 

• “First-party data’s value lies in its ability to make generic marketing messages hyper-relevant to consumers that opt to share their data.” Source 

• “Pricing power is a consumer metric that makes shoppers willing to pay up to 2 times more”. Source 

• “Analysis across categories reveals that a 1% increase in brand awareness typically drives a 0.6% lift in long-term sales, while also boosting short-term sales by 0.4%.” Source 

• “The long-term sales impact of media investment during months 5-24 typically equals that of the first four months.” Source 

• “Econometrics is a powerful discipline with applications far beyond marketing, and it has become hyper-relevant again in 2025 because it allows us to understand the impact of various factors on business outcomes”. Think with Google

AI & Modern Technologies in Affiliate Marketing (By Various Studies)

We couldn’t make this list without AI, which is now a weapon of every marketer and a huge part of multiple marketing software like AffiliatePress.

• “2x more likely to realize value from GenAI than other top-performing companies highlight the benefits of making AI intrinsic to your business.” PWC.com

• “The PwC CEO Survey 2024 reveals 75% of CEOs whose companies have already adopted GenAI believe this technology will enhance their ability to build trust with stakeholders over the next 12 months.” PWC

• “Among Gen Zers, 66% were interested in AI that would help them through a product or website, 63% liked the idea of personalized deals, and 56% wanted tailored product recommendations.” SurveyMonkey

• “30% of affiliate marketers use AI tools to optimize campaigns.” WiFiTalents

• “When asked how important AI is to the success of their marketing in the next 12 months, 74% of respondents said either “critically important” (35%) or “very important” (39%).” State of Marketing AI Report

• “The top struggle (23% of responses) fell into the category “lack of knowledge/training,” with respondents indicating they need more help using AI.” State of Marketing AI Report 

• “Positive feelings about AI are actually increasing year over year. In 2023, 64% reported feeling positively about it. In 2024, that number rose to 68%. In 2025, it jumped another 2 percentage points.” State of Marketing AI Report

• “Artificial Intelligence (AI) has proven to be an invaluable tool in the battle against fraud across various sectors.” Researchgate.net

Purchase Psychology Stats for Affiliate Marketing

After all, it’s all about the purchase psychology, and the insights that can help you choose and recruit better affiliates.

• “Meanwhile, 29% of surveyed consumers in Germany, United Kingdom, and United States say that they have purchased a brand that they learned about through social media.”. McKinsey

• “In the travel category, 38 percent of US survey respondents rank influencers who they follow among their top three trusted sources.” McKinsey

• “In China, Germany, UK, and USA, 34 percent of surveyed Gen Zers report a willingness to buy on credit, which is about 13 percentage points higher than other generations.” McKinsey

• “Customer reviews are super important when people decide to buy something, with 9 out of 10 shoppers trusting them.” OptinMonster

What Are Our Takeaways from the Affiliate Marketing Stats?

What short conclusions can we make from the research of some of the world’s largest affiliate marketing solutions?

Stats aren’t a revenue-generating magic wand for your affiliate platform, but they can help you think of new ideas and widen your understanding of marketing as a whole.

While those above are a ton of information, here is a summary of what they are talking about:

• The creator/influencer value is of top importance and is more important than one time promotions.
• Brands want to establish authentic brand advocacy through long term partnerships.
• The problem of accurate tracking is of the highest priority for affiliates.
• Cutting down costs on building your brand (no consistent investment in marketing) can lead potential affiliates to competitors.
• The privacy of customers who purchase through affiliate links is important.
• Accounting and measurement help you create a better understanding of various factors on business outcomes.
• AI can reduce resources spent on fighting affiliate fraud.
• Learn the fundamentals of the pricing power to set effective affiliate commissions.

Related articles:

• How to Reach Target Audience Using Affiliate Marketing
• Digital Marketing vs. Affiliate Marketing: Which is Better?
• 11 Affiliate Marketing Tips to Boost Affiliate Sales