Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where a business rewards one or more affiliates for each visitor or customer brought about by the affiliate’s own marketing efforts. Typically, it involves four key players: the merchant (also known as ‘retailer’ or ‘brand’), the network (which contains offers for the affiliate to choose from and also takes care of the payments), the publisher (also known as ‘the affiliate’), and the customer. The market has grown in complexity, resulting in the emergence of a secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies, super-affiliates, and specialized third-party vendors. Affiliate marketing works by spreading the responsibilities of product marketing and creation across parties, leveraging the abilities of a variety of individuals for a more effective marketing strategy while providing contributors with a share of the profit. To make this work, three different parties must be involved: the seller and product creators, the affiliate or advertiser, and the consumer. Affiliates can often be bloggers or content creators who have a niche audience that they can attract using their online presence, and they promote the merchant’s products to their followers. When their promotional efforts result in a sale, they receive a commission from the merchant. The commission rate can vary widely depending on the company and the offer. On the consumer side, once the affiliate shares the product with them, the consumers benefit from the product and the affiliate benefits from the sale. The entire process is tracked through affiliate links from one website to another.
