Affiliate Marketing Statistics 2026: Spend, Sales, ROI and Benchmarks
US affiliate marketing spending reached $13.62 billion in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association. It drove $113 billion in e-commerce sales, 9.4% of the US total. In the UK, brands spent £1.8 billion in 2025, up 7.3%, and the channel generated £20.7 billion in revenue. In North American retail, affiliate clicks rose in 2025 but conversion rates and transactions fell, while order values went up.
Key statistics
- US affiliate marketing spending reached $13.62 billion in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
- Affiliate marketing drove 9.4% of all US e-commerce sales in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
- Each $1 of US affiliate marketing spend was linked to about $8.30 of e-commerce sales in 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Performance Marketing Association data.
- UK brands invested £1.8 billion in affiliate and partner marketing in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
- Consumer spend per affiliate click for North American retail brands fell about 3% in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from impact.com data.
Affiliate marketing spend statistics (US and UK)
Two trade bodies publish market totals built from affiliate network data. The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) covers the US. The Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association (APMA) covers the UK.
US affiliate spend grew from $9.1 billion in 2021 to $13.62 billion in 2024. That is $4.52 billion of new spend in three years, or 14.42% a year compounded. The PMA says this was twice the pace of the wider e-commerce market.
UK growth was slower but steady. The APMA puts 2025 spend at £1.8 billion, up 7.3%, and says revenue grew at the same rate. The channel tracked 357 million UK transactions in 2025.
The two totals are not directly comparable. They cover different years and currencies, and each body models the parts of the market its networks do not see.
Source: Performance Marketing Association Industry Study 2025.
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US affiliate marketing spending reached $13.62 billion in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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US affiliate marketing spending rose 49.8% from $9.1 billion in 2021 to $13.62 billion in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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US affiliate marketing spending grew at a compound annual rate of 14.42% from 2021 to 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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US affiliate marketing spend grew by $4.52 billion between 2021 and 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Performance Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: $13.62 billion (2024) - $9.1 billion (2021) = $4.52 billion (PMA Industry Study 2025).
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UK brands invested £1.8 billion in affiliate and partner marketing in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
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The UK affiliate and partner marketing industry grew 7.3% in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
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UK affiliate and partner marketing spend was about £1.68 billion in 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: £1.8 billion (2025) / 1.073 (7.3% growth) = £1.68 billion. Uses the rounded £1.8 billion headline, so treat as approximate.
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UK affiliate and partner marketing drove 357 million transactions in 2025, about 41,000 an hour, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
| Market | Earlier figure | Latest figure | Growth |
|---|---|---|---|
| United States (PMA) | $9.1bn (2021) | $13.62bn (2024) | +49.8% over 3 years |
| United Kingdom (APMA) | about £1.68bn (2024, implied) | £1.8bn (2025) | +7.3% in one year |
Affiliate marketing share of e-commerce sales
Spend is only half the picture. Both trade bodies also report the sales that affiliate links drove.
Affiliate links drove $113 billion of US e-commerce sales in 2024, 9.4% of the total. Dividing one by the other implies a US e-commerce market of about $1.2 trillion, which is a useful check on the PMA's base.
For brands that use the channel, the PMA estimates affiliate makes up 15% to 20% of sales. That is much higher than the 9.4% market-wide share, because the 9.4% is spread across all online sales, including sellers with no affiliate programme.
In the UK the channel matters most at peak. More than £1 in every £7 spent across Cyber Weekend 2025 was tracked through an affiliate link, up from £1 in £8 a year earlier. For the wider holiday picture, see our Black Friday statistics.
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Affiliate marketing generated $113 billion in US e-commerce sales in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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Each $1 of US affiliate marketing spend was linked to about $8.30 of e-commerce sales in 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Performance Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: $113 billion affiliate-driven e-commerce sales / $13.62 billion affiliate spend = $8.30 per $1 (PMA Industry Study 2025, 2024 data).
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The PMA figures imply total US e-commerce sales of about $1.2 trillion in 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Performance Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: $113 billion affiliate-driven sales / 9.4% share of all US e-commerce sales = about $1,202 billion. Implied from PMA figures, not an official e-commerce total.
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UK affiliate and partner marketing generated £20.7 billion in revenue in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
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Each UK affiliate transaction was worth about £58 on average in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: £20.7 billion revenue / 357 million transactions = £57.98.
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More than £1 in every £7 spent across UK Cyber Weekend 2025 was tracked through an affiliate link, up from £1 in £8, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
| Measure | United States (2024) | United Kingdom (2025) |
|---|---|---|
| Affiliate spend | $13.62bn | £1.8bn |
| Sales or revenue driven | $113bn | £20.7bn |
| Sales per unit of spend | $8.30 | £11.50 |
| Share of e-commerce | 9.4% of US e-commerce | more than 1 in 7 pounds at Cyber Weekend |
Affiliate marketing ROAS and ROI by industry
These figures compare sales or revenue with affiliate spend. They are not profit.
In the US, travel returned $19 for every $1 of affiliate spend and retail $11. Inside retail, department stores did best at $21, nearly twice the retail average.
The UK numbers carry a puzzle. The APMA reports a 15:1 return, but its own headline totals, £20.7 billion of revenue on £1.8 billion of spend, work out at about 11.5:1. The free summary does not say how the ROI figure is calculated, so we show both.
On a simple revenue-per-spend basis the UK figure is about 39% higher than the US one. Treat that as a rough guide only. The years, currencies and methods differ.
Source: Performance Marketing Association Industry Study 2025.
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US travel brands earned $19 for every $1 spent on affiliate marketing in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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US retail brands earned $11 for every $1 spent on affiliate marketing in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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US department stores earned $21 for every $1 spent on affiliate marketing in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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US department stores earned nearly twice the affiliate return of retail overall in 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Performance Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: $21 per $1 (department stores) / $11 per $1 (retail overall) = 1.9 times.
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UK affiliate and partner marketing had a 15:1 return on investment in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
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UK travel brands had a 19:1 return on affiliate and partner marketing in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
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UK affiliate revenue was about £11.50 for every £1 of spend in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association headline figures.
How we calculated it: £20.7 billion revenue / £1.8 billion spend = 11.5. The APMA reports an ROI of 15:1; the free article does not explain how its ROI is calculated.
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UK affiliate revenue per unit of spend in 2025 was about 39% higher than the US figure for 2024, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from APMA and Performance Marketing Association data.
How we calculated it: UK: £20.7bn / £1.8bn = 11.5 (2025). US: $113bn / $13.62bn = 8.30 (2024). 11.5 / 8.30 = 1.39. Different years, currencies and methods; a rough comparison only.
| Sector | Market | Return per 1 unit spent |
|---|---|---|
| Department stores | US (2024) | 21 |
| Office supplies | US (2024) | 20 |
| Travel | US (2024) | 19 |
| Automotive parts | US (2024) | 19 |
| Retail overall | US (2024) | 11 |
| All sectors (APMA reported ROI) | UK (2025) | 15 |
| Travel | UK (2025) | 19 |
Where affiliate spend goes by sector
Retail is still the biggest buyer of affiliate marketing in both markets, but its share is shrinking.
Retail's share of US affiliate spend fell from 76% to 63%. Financial services, travel and telecoms picked up the difference, rising from a combined 20% to 31%. Telecoms more than doubled its share.
The UK market was already more spread out. Retail took 48% in 2024 and 47% in 2025. Telecoms, utilities and services was second at 18% in 2024, and finance and insurance grew fastest between 2023 and 2024.
The way brands pay is changing too. Close to £1 in every £5 of UK affiliate spend now goes outside last-click cost-per-acquisition deals, into models such as tenancies and hybrid deals.
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Close to £1 in every £5 of UK affiliate spend went outside last-click cost-per-acquisition deals in 2025, according to the Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association.
| Sector | US earlier PMA figure | US 2024 | UK 2024 |
|---|---|---|---|
| Retail | 76% | 63% | 48% |
| Financial services / finance and insurance | 12% | 15% | 10% |
| Travel | 5% | 9% | 15% |
| Telecoms (UK includes utilities and services) | 3% | 7% | 18% |
Affiliate program performance benchmarks
impact.com publishes year-on-year benchmarks for North American retail brands on its platform. They show how shopper behaviour through affiliate links changed in 2025.
Shoppers clicked more but bought less often. Clicks rose 2% while transactions fell 5%. Bigger baskets almost made up the gap, with average order value up from $118 to $123 and consumer spending down just 1%.
The net effect is that each click was worth about 3% less to brands in 2025. Commission payments still rose 1%, so brands paid slightly more for slightly less.
Activity is bunching around the holidays. Q4 took 33% of annual clicks, up from 29%, and November clicks jumped 45%. Yet conversion rates hit their lowest point of the year in November.
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Affiliate clicks for North American retail brands rose 2% in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Affiliate conversion rates for North American retail brands fell 6% in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Affiliate transactions for North American retail brands fell 5% in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Average affiliate order value for North American retail brands rose 4% from $118 to $123 in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Items per affiliate order for North American retail brands rose from 2.3 to 2.5 in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Affiliate commission payments by North American retail brands rose 1% in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Consumer spend per affiliate click for North American retail brands fell about 3% in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from impact.com data.
How we calculated it: Consumer spending index 0.99 (-1% YoY) / clicks index 1.02 (+2% YoY) = 0.971, a fall of about 2.9%.
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The fourth quarter accounted for 33% of annual affiliate clicks for North American retail brands in 2025, according to impact.com.
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The fourth quarter's share of annual affiliate clicks for North American retail brands rose 4 percentage points in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from impact.com data.
How we calculated it: 33% (2025) - 29% (2024) = +4 points.
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Affiliate clicks for North American retail brands rose 45% year on year in November 2025, according to impact.com.
| Metric | Change in 2025 |
|---|---|
| Clicks | +2% |
| Conversion rate | -6% |
| Transactions | -5% |
| Consumer spending | -1% |
| Average order value | +4% ($118 to $123) |
| Items per order | +8% (2.3 to 2.5) |
| Commission payments | +1% |
| Consumer spend per click | about -3% (calculated) |
Creators, influencers and partner types in affiliate marketing
Not all affiliate partners do the same job. Some drive clicks and discovery. Others close the sale.
Loyalty and rewards partners drove half of all affiliate transactions on a third of brand spend. Network and content review partners were the opposite. They took 44% of spend and 63% of clicks but only 27% of transactions.
That does not mean content partners are poor value. They often reach shoppers earlier, and last-click tracking gives the sale to whoever touches the shopper last. This is why 94% of brands in impact.com's survey were testing or planning other attribution models.
Creators are the fastest-growing group. Influencer transactions rose 65% in 2025, and 59% of brands planned to give at least a quarter of affiliate budgets to creators. In Awin's survey with Forrester, email and newsletter partners were the most used partner type, in 59% of programmes.
Source: impact.com 2025 Industry Trend Benchmark Report.
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Loyalty and rewards partners drove 50% of affiliate transactions for North American retail brands in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Loyalty and rewards partners won 1.5 times more share of affiliate transactions than share of brand spend in North American retail in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from impact.com data.
How we calculated it: 50% share of transactions / 33% share of total brand spend = 1.52.
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Network partners drove 45% of affiliate clicks for North American retail brands in 2025, up from 41% in 2024, according to impact.com.
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Network and content review partners won 0.6 times as much share of affiliate transactions as share of brand spend in North American retail in 2025, calculated by StatisticsGlobal from impact.com data.
How we calculated it: 27% share of transactions / 44% share of total brand spend = 0.61.
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Affiliate transactions from influencers for North American retail brands grew 65% in 2025, according to impact.com.
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59% of brands planned to give at least 25% of their affiliate budgets to creator partnerships in 2025, according to impact.com.
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74% of brands generated 11% to 30% of their total revenue from affiliate marketing in 2025, according to impact.com.
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Personalisation was named a top objective supported by affiliate marketing by 52% of marketers in the end-2024 survey, according to Awin.
| Partner type | Clicks | Transactions | Brand spend |
|---|---|---|---|
| Network partners | 45% | 18% | 20% |
| Content review | 18% | 9% | 24% |
| Loyalty and rewards | 15% | 50% | 33% |
| Voucher and coupon | 6% | 9% | 6% |
| Influencers | 6% | 6% | 4% |
| Technology solutions | 6% | 5% | 5% |
| Media arbitrage | 3% | 3% | 7% |
Affiliate marketing and AI search
Many affiliate publishers rely on search traffic. AI answers in search results are changing that, and AI tools are changing how programmes run.
69% of US affiliate publishers told the PMA they were worried that Google changes, including AI Overviews, would cut their traffic and affiliate revenue. Even so, 54% were confident about the future of their business, and 52% planned to try new forms of promotion.
AI is already standard inside programmes. 97% of brands and 96% of creators in impact.com's 2025 survey used AI in their partnership work. For how much search traffic Google still controls, see our search engine market share statistics and AI chatbot market share.
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69% of US affiliate publishers were concerned in 2025 that Google changes, including AI Overviews, would cut their traffic and affiliate revenue, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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54% of US affiliate publishers were confident or very confident in the future of their affiliate business in 2025, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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52% of US affiliate publishers planned to try new forms of promotion in 2025, according to the Performance Marketing Association.
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97% of brands were using AI in their partnership programmes in 2025, according to impact.com.
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96% of creators were using AI in their partnership work in 2025, according to impact.com.
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94% of brands were testing or planning alternative attribution models for affiliate marketing in 2025, according to impact.com.
How these sources measure affiliate marketing
Every number on this page comes from an industry body or a vendor with a stake in the channel. Read them with that in mind.
The PMA and APMA totals are built from data shared by affiliate networks, eight in the US and eleven in the UK, plus modelling to estimate the rest of the market. Neither publishes a full method in its free summary. The PMA does not give the number of publishers in its survey or label the year of its earlier sector shares.
impact.com's benchmark uses its own platform data for 2,368 same-store North American retail brands. It is large but covers one platform and one sector. Its State of Affiliate Marketing survey covers 1,523 marketers, publishers and creators in eight countries, mid-2025.
Awin's survey with Forrester covers marketers in two waves, 2023 and end-2024. Awin does not give the repeat wave sample size or countries, so we use only its headline shares.
Return figures are revenue over affiliate spend. They do not net out product costs, discounts or sales that would have happened anyway. In the US, the Federal Trade Commission's Endorsement Guides require affiliates to disclose clearly that they are paid when they recommend a product.
Frequently asked questions
How big is the affiliate marketing industry in the US?
US affiliate marketing spending was $13.62 billion in 2024, according to the Performance Marketing Association. That is up 49.8% from $9.1 billion in 2021. It drove $113 billion in e-commerce sales, 9.4% of the US total.
How big is affiliate marketing in the UK?
UK brands spent £1.8 billion on affiliate and partner marketing in 2025, up 7.3%, according to the APMA. The channel generated £20.7 billion in revenue and 357 million transactions.
What is a good ROI for affiliate marketing?
In the US, retail averaged $11 of sales per $1 of affiliate spend and travel $19 in the PMA's 2024 data. Department stores reached $21. The UK APMA reports 15:1 overall and 19:1 in travel for 2025.
How did affiliate marketing perform in 2025 compared with 2024?
For North American retail brands on impact.com, clicks rose 2% but transactions fell 5% and conversion rates fell 6%. Average order value rose from $118 to $123. In the UK, spend and revenue both grew 7.3%.
Why are affiliate conversion rates falling?
impact.com's data shows more clicks, especially in November, but fewer purchases per click. Shoppers bought less often but spent more per order. Traffic is also shifting as AI search changes how people find products.
Is there a forecast for affiliate marketing spend?
Neither the PMA nor the APMA publishes a forecast in its free summary. US spend grew 14.42% a year from 2021 to 2024 and UK spend 7.3% in 2025. We will update this page when new studies come out.
Sources
- Performance Marketing Association (PMA), PMA Industry Study 2025, June 2025, accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association (APMA), State of the Affiliate Nation 2026: UK affiliate and partner marketing spend surges to £1.8bn, 30 April 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- impact.com, The 2025 affiliate benchmark: Shoppers bought less often but spent more per order, 9 February 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Performance Marketing Association (PMA), PMA Study: Affiliate Marketing Industry Grows 49.8% to $13.63 B (Industry Study 2025), 18 June 2025, accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Affiliate & Partner Marketing Association (APMA), UK Affiliate Market by Sector: State of the Nation 2025, 10 February 2026, accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- impact.com, The State of Affiliate Marketing Research Report 2025, 2025 (page modified 16 January 2026), accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
- Awin, Awin x Forrester Affiliate Marketing Survey 2025, 24 June 2025, accessed 20 October 2026. Link · Saved data copy
Changes to this page
- : Page published with the PMA Industry Study 2025, APMA State of the Affiliate Nation 2026 and 2025 sector data, impact.com's 2025 benchmark and State of Affiliate Marketing report, and the Awin x Forrester survey.