Do you want to know if Affiliate Marketing is dead before getting into it? Can you STILL make money with Affiliate Marketing in 2020? The answers are NO, Affiliate Marketing is not dead and YES, you can still make money with it.
Statistics show that affiliate marketing is a booming industry with no end in sight. Brands and costumers are migrating to e-commerce and the trend will only benefit affiliates. Not only that, but technology makes it easier to create and measure affiliate sales, making it a no-brainer for companies.
What is dying are brick & mortar stores, coupon websites, and black hat SEO techniques. Channels are getting more sophisticated every day.
While this represents a huge opportunity for affiliates, it is also aimed to filter out those who provide no value or content for the audiences.
Affiliate marketing is certainly evolving and will continue to do so at the pace of technology (fast).
If someone tells you affiliate marketing is dead, they are probably doing it wrong or they are making millions and want less competition.
15 facts to prove Affiliate Marketing is not dead:
1. More Affiliate Programs
Companies like Amazon and eBay have open the path of Affiliate Marketing for other businesses.
Nowadays, you can find affiliate programs for almost anything. You have more options to pick from, improved analytics, and better results.
Furthermore, affiliate programs will offer better marketing freebies and payment methods to stay competitive.
2. Increased Number of Buyers
It is no secret that more and more people are coming online and companies need to adapt or suffer.
People are more willing to purchase most things online now and share payment information because of the increased security measures. Online shopping and purchasing of items have become a regular practice now and will continue to expand.
3. 15% of the total digital media advertising revenue is attributed to affiliate marketing.
While publishers are still generating the majority of their revenue from advertising, affiliate marketing is growing fast. Today it accounts for 15% of the digital media industry’s revenue. (Source: Business insider)
4. Affiliate marketing spending increases annually by 10.1%
According to eMarketer, in 2016 U.S. retailers spent $4.7 billion on affiliate marketing. That represents 7.5 percent of all retailer’s total digital spending. Furthermore, Inc.com magazine predicted that by 2020, the spending would rise to $6.8 billion.
Similarly, another study by Forester Consulting, total affiliate marketing spend is predicted to grow by 10.1 percent annually through to 2020. (Source: Digital Global)
5. 81% of marketers and 84% of publishers use the power of affiliate marketing.
Read that? 81% of brands and 84% of publishers have already adopted this tactic as part of their marketing strategy. This only emphasizes the undeniable growth of affiliate marketing.
(Source: Web Market Support)
6. In less than a year, the search queries for “affiliate marketing” grew by 44%.
The interest in affiliate marketing keeps growing. In the short period between December 2017 and June 2018, searches for the term “affiliate marketing” saw this massive increase. (Source: Google Trends)
7. Affiliate programs generate 15%–30% of all sales
With affiliate marketing representing an average of 23% of sales, it is now on par with SEO and PPC marketing, none of which are either dead. (Source: Authority Hacker)
8. Awin affiliates earned over $700 million last year.
IN 2018 Awin, the global affiliate network that acquired ShareASale – one of the biggest affiliate networks – distributed $734 million among more than 100,000 contributors. (Source: Awin)
7. Groupon, from failure to success
Until late 2009, Groupon was considered a failure. Then a magic turnaround happened. The e-commerce marketplace leveraged the power of affiliates. Groupon went from being broke to becoming a powerhouse with the largest IPO by a web company since Google. (Source: Quick Sprout)
8. 35% of affiliates earn over $20,000.
How much do affiliates make is one of the most common questions we get. While the majority of affiliates earn up to $20,000 on a yearly basis, there is an important portion of them that go beyond this mark.
There is 35% of affiliates who earn more than $20,000 per year and 12% over $75,000. Not bad right? (Source: Ink Well Editorial)
9. Affiliate marketing is a global industry worth over $12 billion.
Not only Affiliate Marketing is growing fast, but it is already a massive global industry. In 2017 it was worth over $12 billion, with the US and the EU leading the way.
10. Affiliate marketing represents more sales than email marketing
Marketers love saying “the money is on the list” and they were certainly right about that.
Email campaigns were the undisputed king of digital marketing for a long time by representing 15% of online sales.
However, by 2020 affiliate sales will represent 23% of total online sales becoming the king of marketing efforts.
11. PeerFly boasts over a quarter of a million publisher accounts.
With 75,000 active publisher accounts around the globe and over 250,000 accounts, PeerFly is the largest affiliate marketing network in the world.
Its affiliates are in total responsible for more than 1 billion clicks and 8 million transactions. They don’t seem to be struggling if you ask me. (Source: PeerFly)
12. The top affiliate marketers making six figures from the business.
Pat Flynn, John Chow, Rae Hoffman, Mark Ling, Kristy Mccubbin, and Shawn Collins are some of the affiliates who have invested a lot of time and effort to get to the point where they make a living – a very good one – out of affiliate marketing.
While this is just a few of them, it shows affiliate marketing is still a profitable industry. (Source: Bloggers Ideas)
13. $7 million for the champion!
In less than two years, Jason Stone generated over $7 million in affiliate sales, harnessing the marketing potential of Instagram.
His experience in visual media certainly gave him an advantage over your average affiliate. However, it should also encourage affiliates to use their own strengths and explore new ways to promote their offers.
14. Over 5 billion clicks and more than 170 million transactions
In 2017, users around the world clicked more than 5 billion times and generated over 170 million transactions worldwide. These are the numbers of a business that is not going anywhere.
15. Ad blockers don’t affect affiliate marketers
With the amount of time people spend online, they are getting less tolerant of intrusive advertisements. This could affect formats like in-stream and banner ads which interrupt the user experience.
However, if you provide quality content and help your audience solve a problem through a recommendation, you can continue to promote said products with nothing to worry about.
16. Affiliates contribute to a brand’s Domain Authority (DA)
Companies know the importance of DA to be able to appear on google searches for their desired keywords and, in consequence, be seen by their potential customers.
Affiliate marketing can be a great contributor to the DA of a brand’s website by creating numerous backlinks via affiliate blogs, social pages, and websites.
This is particularly effective if working with higher-ranked partners whose audience then share and tweet details about your product or brand.
17. Cost-effective campaigns
Compared to Pay per Click campaigns where advertisers could potentially receive low quality visitors and have no guarantee of results, affiliate marketing means they don’t have to spends any of their budget unless a sale is made.
For companies, the benefit of creating an affiliate program is way bigger than the risk. They even get to pick what affiliates they want to work or veto those who don’t follow their rules so it is practically a risk-free strategy.
Final thoughts
- As these statistics show, affiliate marketing is on a growth trajectory with no signs of stopping or slowing down.
- We can attribute a big part of this trend to the growing interest and demand for user-generated content and the changes in consumer behaviors triggered by social media and online retail.
- When it comes to Affiliate Marketing, content is king. Readers are hungry for unbranded content, and creators are happy to satisfy that demand.
Blogging, tweeting and creating YouTube videos have proven to be some of the best (and mostly free) strategies for affiliates.
- The ‘good old days’ of throwing links in social media and making money overnight are dead. (Although I am not sure they ever happen). Search engines and social media will continue to favor content and value.
- Building a brand or platform is always the safest in the long term. Although it might require more effort up-front, once your brand is established and traffic is coming, that’s when passive income can happen.
- Affiliate marketing is only dead if you are looking for a quick-rich scheme. Let those who believe that to keep doing it, while you work on building your business. You can tell them about it later.
- Affiliate marketing is still powerful and possible in 2020. It is also definitely (wait for it)…not dead so go get your piece of that money pie!
If you want to learn more about making money with Affiliate Marketing make sure to check out this FREE MASTERCLASS
What are your thoughts? We are happy to hear from you, let us know in the comments!
