Common Affiliate Publisher Types

Since the early days of the internet, affiliates and the brands they collaborate with have made up the affiliate marketing space. Since then, affiliate marketing has grown astronomically in popularity and usage; according to a recent Pushground research, 80% of firms use it, and $9 billion in affiliate marketing spending is anticipated in the US alone in 2023.

According to the Abdalslam survey, affiliate marketing is becoming more and more popular globally, with 27% of marketers citing it as their primary strategy of acquiring new customers. 

Considering that 10% is thought to be a great growth rate for the majority of sales channels for small- to medium-sized firms, the 27% compound annual growth rate is astounding. These startling statistics about affiliate marketing highlight how important it is for companies to select the best partners to expand their expanding affiliate network.

When developing an affiliate marketing program, there is no one-size-fits-all affiliate partner strategy because there are numerous sorts of affiliate publishers, each with a distinct function. In order to succeed in the very competitive affiliate marketing business, brands need maintain a varied mix of affiliate publisher types in their partnerships. 

A notable study by Affise found that an astonishing 94% of marketers are using multiple affiliate marketing networks and affiliate publisher types. Brands should partner with multiple affiliate publisher types to not keep all of their eggs in one basket. Using a healthy mix of affiliate publisher types that uniquely contribute to your brand’s affiliate marketing program hedges against risk and provides you with a safety net should any of them start underperforming.  

This article will walk through all the different affiliate types and how brands can best utilize them to increase their affiliate marketing program’s ROI.

5 Most Common Affiliate Publisher Types

Bloggers and Content Publishers

Perhaps among the most common publishers are bloggers and content publishers. They focus on creating relevant and valuable content for the niche they specialize in to promote a brand’s product to their audience. As a result, their audience often perceives them as experts in their niche and as they provide valuable research that influences their audience’s purchase behavior. As a result, bloggers and content publishers create a lot of meaningful brand awareness and affiliate revenue for the brands they partner with.

Loyalty and Cashback Publishers

Loyalty and cashback publishers are very popular types of publishers in the affiliate marketing space. They generate their revenue through commissions they receive from affiliate links that users on their sites use to purchase from. Cashback publishers function on a cash reward principle, where they share a portion of their commission revenue with their users. Loyalty publishers operate on a similar principle, but instead of cash offer their users redeemable points that they can use to redeem for other products. As a result, these publishers can create a high volume of affiliate sales for the brands that they partner with.

Shopping Comparison Publishers

Shopping comparison publishers are another popular type of affiliate publisher that helps their users save time and find the best deals on products by comparing products by filtering for price, features, and other search criteria. Brands that partner with shopping comparison sites can significantly scale their affiliate revenue. This is because these sites are deemed trustworthy by their users, and the users often have a very high purchase intent when they use them.

Social Media Publishers

Social media publishers are a highly popular affiliate publisher type and are very similar to bloggers and content publishers in the way they operate. Like bloggers and content publishers, they are content creators but exclusively promote their content through their profiles on social media platforms. They are highly influential and are often perceived as experts by their highly engaged audiences, just like bloggers and content publishers. Brands that partner with social media publishers benefit from high brand awareness in front of highly engaged audiences. 

Email Marketing Publishers

Email marketing publishers are another popular affiliate publisher type that creates customized and highly influential emails that appear to come from the brand. They typically have a robust collection of email databases for different audience types, so they can benefit brands in virtually any industry and increase their brand awareness and drive affiliate conversions. 

Brands must first establish a goal for their affiliate program and specify their key performance indicators in order to identify the affiliate publisher kinds that will assist them in achieving their objectives before deciding which affiliate publisher type to work with. 

After that, companies must thoroughly examine their affiliate marketing strategy to determine which sales add the most value to the program. Refersion's extensive knowledge and experience in the affiliate marketing industry, together with its strong affiliate marketing platform, assist brands in selecting the affiliate publisher type that best fits their needs. Reach out to a Refersion specialist right now if your brand wants to work with the top affiliate publisher types in order to optimize the return on investment of your affiliate marketing program.