21 Winning Affiliate Marketing Programs + Why They Rock
In the dynamic world of digital marketing, affiliate marketing programs shine as a potentially lucrative and rewarding opportunity for businesses and individuals. By teaming up with established brands and promoting their products or services, affiliates can earn substantial commissions, boosting their financial success while contributing to the growth of the businesses they represent.
But coming up with a bulletproof affiliate marketing strategy isn’t easy. Finding and recruiting affiliate partners, for one, is a challenge. One-off affiliate marketing campaigns also don’t work. So, what does successful affiliate marketing look like? We've studied, analyzed, and curated a list of the 21 best affiliate programs that truly rock.
Our comprehensive guide provides in-depth insights for beginners and seasoned partnership managers into each affiliate marketing program's unique strategy, benefits, and how they make marketing efforts much easier. Want to see your conversion rate soar? Let’s discover all the secrets that make an affiliate marketing program successful together.
1. Amazon Associates: the King of Affiliate Marketing
The Amazon Associates program is one of the world's most popular affiliate marketing programs, with over 900,000 affiliates. Amazon is a trusted brand with a large customer base, making converting their audience into buyers easier.
Why They Rock
Variety of products: Amazon sells everything from books and electronics to clothing and home goods, so affiliates will surely find something their audience is interested in.
New products: Amazon constantly adds new products. Affiliates always have fresh content to promote.
High commission rate: Amazon’s affiliate commissions go up to 10% on eligible sales, one of the industry's highest rates.
Tracking tools: Amazon offers tools to help them track affiliate performance. These tools make it easy for affiliates to track and maximize their earnings.
Amazon Influencer program: An affiliate program designed for prominent content creators. It includes a personalized Amazon page with a unique URL for sharing recommended products. Amazon wins more by segmenting their affiliates and providing their segments with what they need.
2. Skillshare: Learn and Earn
Skillshare is an online learning platform that allows users to learn from industry experts. The platform offers various courses in business, design, technology, and more. Users can earn money by sharing their knowledge and creating courses on Skillshare.
Why They Rock
Unique learn-and-earn model: Affiliates acquire valuable skills and earn income by sharing their knowledge and expertise with others. By creating and publishing video courses, an affiliate can earn a commission based on each enrollment or subscription generated through their referral link.
From passion to passive income: Skillshare’s affiliate program helps affiliates turn their passions and expertise into a source of revenue or passive income. Skillshare reliably pays their affiliates each month.
Course selection: Skillshare hosts over 29,000 courses. There are so many that affiliates can promote, depending on their audience.
Easy sign-up process: Skillshare makes it easy to be an affiliate. With a well-structured and guided setup process, affiliates can start promoting quickly.
High commission rate & monthly payouts: Affiliates can earn 40% commission, up to $67, for every new customer they refer to Skillshare. This is paid out monthly.
3. Canvassador: Create to Earn Extra Income
Canva, a revolutionary graphic design platform, empowers users to create captivating visuals, ranging from social media graphics to stunning presentations. Canvassadors are also empowered to create and share special tips on using Canva to earn affiliate commissions, perfect for frequent Canva users.
Why They Rock
Content-creator-driven approach: Canva has been strategic in its affiliate program, aiming to only work with independent content creators with active and engaged audiences on channels they want to be seen on. They’ve specified social media platforms such as Instagram, Twitter, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, and LinkedIn.
Generous commissions: Canvassadors earn 20-80% commission on all referred paid Canva plans.
Non-monetary perks: Canva offers other perks on top of commissions, too, such as Special Canvassador badge, beta test opportunities on future releases, access to educational workshops and webinars, and swag.
Clear expectations: Canva has outlined clear expectations for their affiliates. For example, canvassadors must commit to creating and publishing at least one piece of Canva-related tutorial or feature per month on one of the specified platforms. Canvassadors must also comply with Canva's Trademark Policy.
Easy sign-up: Joining the Canva affiliate program is a breeze. Simply create a free Canva account and navigate to the affiliate program page. Once approved, you'll receive a unique affiliate link, your gateway to earning commissions.
4. ActiveCampaign: send great emails and earn recurring lifetime commissions
ActiveCampaign is a powerful email marketing tool that empowers users to craft captivating emails that boost business growth. ActiveCampaign has one of the most lucrative affiliate programs in the market. An affiliate earns an average of $1,350 per conversion.
Why They Rock
Good commissions: Affiliates can gain up to 30% in recurring lifetime commissions on every qualifying sale.
Impressive features: ActiveCampaign makes it easy for their affiliates to champion their brand. As an industry leader, boasting a comprehensive suite of marketing automation tools that streamline your marketing efforts and amplify customer engagement, affiliates can pick and choose what they want to promote.
Affiliate support that goes the extra mile: ActiveCampaign offers personalized assistance and a starter pack to their affiliates so that they have the knowledge and resources to thrive in their affiliate marketing journey.
Other rewards: ActiveCampaign further sweetens the deal with enticing promotions and bonuses, rewarding their affiliates'’ efforts with additional income and well-deserved recognition such as gold and premium affiliate partner badges.
Affiliate portal: Affiliates can track and find resources in one place, which makes their job easier.
5. HubSpot: Turn Content into Revenue
HubSpot is one of the most trusted names in marketing and sales software. HubSpot’s affiliate program offers affiliate partners the opportunity to earn generous commissions by promoting HubSpot's suite of powerful tools and solutions. HubSpot’s affiliate program is tiered, offering room to grow.
Why They Rock
Recurring commission: With HubSpot, affiliates can earn a 30% recurring commission for up to one year.
Tiered payouts: HubSpot rewards hardworking affiliates within their affiliate network. The more customers they convert, the higher their payout.
Ready-to-use creative library: With over 400+ promotional assets available, HubSpot arms their affiliates with the right sales enablement assets to promote their brand.
180-day cookie window: Affiliates can maximize their earnings with a generous cookie window.
Performance reports: Affiliates can optimize their promotions with highly customizable reports.
Reliable support: HubSpot supports their affiliate network whenever they need it, ensuring partnership beyond an approved application.
6. Fiverr: Profit From Freelancing Marketplace
Fiverr is a freelancing marketplace that connects businesses with freelancers who offer a wide range of services, from graphic design and writing to programming and marketing. With over 400 different niches to choose from, there's sure to be something for everyone on Fiverr, even affiliates.
Why They Rock
Choice: Fiverr affiliates can promote the freelancing marketplace (Fiverr), talent pool (Fiverr Pro), or AI logo generator (Logo Maker) – not just one product.
High first commission: As a Fiverr affiliate, you can earn up to 70% commissions for first orders and 10% for future orders.
Intuitive dashboard for optimization: Fiverr’s easy-to-navigate dashboards enables affiliates to launch, manage, and track campaigns to optimize.
Marketing hub: Fiverr’s extensive creative library helps beef up affiliate marketing campaigns to convert potential customers.
Education & support: Fiverr provides dedicated account managers and instructive tutorials for affiliates to meet their goals.
7. Booking.com: Sweet Pocket Money For Your Trip Abroad
Booking.com provide an exceptional opportunity to earn some extra cash and make travel dreams a reality. This official affiliate network can help boost affiliates’ travel budgets by promoting Booking.com’s offerings.
Why They Rock
Converts traffic into revenue: Affiliates can earn by promoting Booking.com’s 28 million accommodations, transportation and attraction options in over 60,000 locations (and counting!) on their online channels.
Range of options: This affiliate program covers everything you could think of when it comes to traveling –one-of-a-kind accommodation, last-minute attraction tickets, or a car for a spur-of-the-moment road trip!
Customer-driven service: Booking.com offers 24/7 customer service so your customers can book easily through affiliate links.
Affiliate-friendly: Our affiliate program products are optimized for affiliates. Booking.com keeps it simple and convenient so affiliates can focus on promoting and converting, not on product issues.
Easy to register: It’s a simple 4-step process to joining the affiliate program. Booking.com makes it easy for affiliates to start promoting right away.
8. Patagonia: Spread Responsible Consumerism
Patagonia is a pioneer in ethical fashion and sustainable business practices. They want to partner with creative websites and businesses that share their passion for adventure and sustainable initiatives. Patagonia affiliates’ landing pages earn an average of 5.5%. That’s impressive, eh? It’s a program that many affiliates believe could out-earn Amazon Associates.
Why They Rock
Technology: Patagonia’s affiliate program runs their program on autopilot thanks to a partnership management platform (AvantLink).
Generous commission: Affiliates can earn 8% commission. This is plenty, especially with a $150 average order value.
Real-time reporting: Thanks to Patagonia’s partnership management tech stack, affiliates can track their progress online with real-time data.
Easy to promote: Patagonia is a popular brand, and according to Google Trends, it’s probably one of the most searched brands, which makes it easy to promote its products online.
Contributes to their mission: By promoting Patagonia, affiliates contribute to their mission of reducing environmental impact and promoting fair labor practices.
9. Sephora: Beauty Secrets and Commission
Sephora is a trusted and well-known brand in the beauty industry, making it easy to promote their products and earn a commission. This program is perfect for beauty influencers, and it’s certainly geared toward those affiliate audiences. Influencer marketing is a big part of this affiliate program.
Why They Rock
Technology: Sephora uses Rakuten to provide their affiliates with easy access to everything they need to earn commissions.
Unrestricted commission: Affiliates can earn 5-10% commission on sales from over 13,000 products, without any brand limitations.
Affiliate-only special offers & promotions: Sephora curates special offers and promotions meant for affiliates only. This incentivizes people to join their program.
Free to join: No barriers to joining – it’s free to join! For aspiring money-earning influencers, this could be a starting point.
Exclusive promotions, newsletters, and more: Sephora gain access to exclusive promotions, newsletters, and product sneak peeks. Affiliates are the first to know and share!
Long cookie duration: Sephora affiliate cookies last for 30 days, so affiliates can earn commission on any sales made within 30 days of someone clicking on affiliate links.
10. Kajabi: Share Knowledge and Profits
Kajabi is an all-in-one platform that empowers you to create, launch, and sell online courses, memberships, and coaching programs. With Kajabi, affiliates can turn your knowledge and expertise into a thriving online business, reaching students worldwide.
Why They Rock
Lifetime commission: Kajabi affiliates earn a lifetime commission of 30% from each sale they make. This is a great source of passive income.
Partner tiers: Kajabi incentivizes their affiliates with partner tiers. There are nine tiers in total.
Monthly payouts: Affiliate payouts occur on the 25th of every month so affiliates know they’ll get paid on time and with certainty.
Promotion options: Kajabi offers various ways to promote their products, such as affiliate coupons and affiliate share links. This creates some variety for affiliate marketing.
Readily-available resources: Kajabi offers great resources for affiliates, including webinars just for affiliates, customizable email templates, brand guide, affiliate FAQ, and more.
11. Unbounce: Help Marketers Everywhere and Earn
Unbounce is a comprehensive marketing platform, empowering businesses of all sizes to elevate their online presence and drive conversions. By leveraging the platform's intuitive drag-and-drop interface, even those without technical expertise can effortlessly craft impactful marketing assets, which makes it an easy product to promote for affiliates.
Why They Rock
Recurring revenue: Unbounce affiliates can earn up to 35% recurring revenue for every referral for 12 months.
Know their target: Unbounce knows who their target audience is and who their target affiliates are. Their affiliate program is geared towards content creators, educators, service providers, and community leaders.
Dedicated support team: If affiliates run into any problems, the Unbounce support team is just an email away so things get solved quickly and affiliates can get their job done.
Custom tracking dashboard: Unbounce helps affiliates stay on top of their goals by tracking every URL click in one place.
Early access to features: Unbounce affiliates get to try the latest features so they can sell better and quicker.
12. Beehiv: Prizes and Uncapped Revenue Split
If there’s a company that is tackling affiliate marketing differently and successfully, it’s Beehiv. Beehiv hosts a unique and generous affiliate marketing program. With just five referrals, affiliates could earn over $20,000 a year. Yes, you’ve heard that right.
Why They Rock
Unique prizes: Beehiv offers top prizes to top performers. And these aren’t just any prizes – it’s a trip to the Bahamas or anywhere sunny, really, thanks to the Beehiv beach club.
Uncapped revenue split: Affiliates can earn a 50% commission for 12 months on all revenue they generate.
No sales minimum: Beehiv’s affiliate program is free to join, with no minimum sales requirements.
Marketing resources and case studies: Beehiv provides actionable marketing resources and case studies so affiliates can learn from the best and replicate successful tactics.
Exclusive affiliate community: Beehiv created an exclusive affiliate community for affiliates to discuss strategies and share wins.
13. Zoom: Connect. Earn.
Zoom is a leading provider of video conferencing and collaboration solutions. With over 300 million active users, Zoom is one of the most popular communication platforms in the world. To amplify its marketing efforts, Zoom also runs an affiliate program.
Why They Rock
Ready-to-use brand creatives: Zoom offers affiliates brand creatives ready to promote when they join the affiliate network, such as image, text links, online tracking links, and media source tracking.
Embraces technology: Zoom uses Impact, a partnership management platform, to run its affiliate program smoothly.
Real-time tracking: Affiliates can track their progress and earnings through the Zoom affiliate dashboard.
Performance-based compensation: Zoom tracks every referral, and affiliates are awarded based on performance.
Get paid daily: Affiliates could get paid daily depending on the affiliate agreement and performance.
14. BigCommerce: People-First Compensation
BigCommerce is an e-commerce platform that truly values affiliate marketing and offers a people-first compensation program for its affiliates. This means that BigCommerce values the contributions of its affiliates and is committed to providing them with the resources and support they need to succeed. In the last year, BigCommerce paid over $1.5 million in commissions alone.
Why They Rock
Industry-leading commissions: Affiliates can earn a generous 200% bounty for each referral and $1,500 for every Enterprise referral, without commission caps or minimum commitments. As affiliates drive more referrals, they can increase their commission tier for even higher earnings.
Powerful tracking: BigCommerce’s affiliate dashboard enables affiliates to easily monitor and analyze clicks, trials, sales, and commissions in one place. It provides a comprehensive overview of affiliate earnings and performance.
Dedicated account manager: BigCommerce offers tailored growth strategies to increase its affiliates’ website visibility with direct access to an affiliate expert. This program offers personalized guidance to maximize affiliate success.
Easy to promote: Affiliates can promote BigCommerce easily through referral links or ready-made banners, emails, and other promotional materials.
Packaged marketing material for ads: BigCommerce targets affiliates who can promote their brand through ads and have made content for that purpose. By leveraging content created by BigCommerce, such as blogs and webinars, affiliates can save valuable time and resources on content creation while effectively engaging their audience.
15. MailerLite: Pocket Lifetime Commission
MailerLite is an email marketing service provider that offers a user-friendly platform for creating, managing, and sending email campaigns. MailerLite’s affiliate program has been a big revenue driver, generating over $5.9 million.
Why They Rock
Lifetime commission: MailerLite affiliates earn 30% of every sale they make for life. That’s a pretty good deal.
Free promotional assets: MailerLite also offers its affiliates access to professional branding and marketing assets to keep their brand neat and arm their affiliates with the right tools to sell.
Dedicated partner support: MailerLite’s team is ready to help affiliates build their business and careers with MailerLite anytime.
Partnership management technology: MailerLite uses Partnero to run its affiliate program, track its performance, automate payouts, and optimize its incentives.
Custom partner dashboard: Using Partnero, MailerLite affiliates can track their earnings and optimize their performance with real data.
16. ConvertKit: Help Creators Earn a Living
ConvertKit is an email marketing platform designed specifically for creators, bloggers, and online entrepreneurs. ConvertKit also has an affiliate program that allows affiliates to monetize their influence and promote a valuable email marketing solution.
Why They Rock
Affiliate training: ConvertKit offers affiliates training to be successful in what they do. ConvertKit currently hosts a training course with Pat Flynn.
Upfront expectations: ConvertKit expects affiliates to understand the importance of email marketing and to have an audience that needs a powerful email marketing tool to expand their email list and earn a living online.
Higher commission: ConvertKit offers a 30% commission for 24 months whenever someone signs up for ConvertKit through an affiliate link.
Dashboard: ConvertKit affiliates can track their progress using a dashboard that tracks affiliate metrics. This helps to optimize their affiliate campaigns.
Marketing assets available: ConvertKit has evergreen webinars that affiliates can use as a funnel, and graphics and video assets that affiliates can use to create content.
17. SEMRush: Shape Marketing While Boosting Income
SEMrush is an all-in-one digital marketing platform that provides tools and insights for SEO, PPC, content marketing, social media, and more. SEMrush also offers an affiliate program, which allows marketers and website owners to monetize their audience and promote a leading digital marketing solution.
Why They Rock
Last-click attribution model: SEMRush tracks all affiliate referrals through the last-click attribution model, so affiliates understand how to convert potential customers.
Long cookie life: SEMRush’s affiliate cookie life lasts 120 days. That’s plenty of time to close a deal.
Extra bonuses: SEMRush rewards good performance by offering extra bonuses for hardworking top affiliates at the start of the month.
Dedicated support: SEMRush’s seasoned experts can guide affiliates every step of the way, no matter where they are in their affiliate journey.
Pre-designed promotional material: SEMRush affiliates can access and leverage various pre-designed promotional materials, proven to be high-converting and effective.
18. Ycode: Earn 50% Commission
Ycode is a no-code website builder built for designers. Like many startups, Ycode sees value in having an affiliate program. Ycode drives revenue through affiliate sales and has a great partner program to enable that using Partnero.
Why They Rock
Generous commission: Ycode affiliates earn a 50% recurring commission for 24 months on all paid plans sold through their affiliate link.
Long cookie lifetime: Ycode’s affiliate cookies stay fresh for 60 days, giving affiliates more time to seal their deals.
Partner dashboard: Ycode’s affiliate program runs on Partnero, where affiliates can access a personalized partner dashboard to track earnings in real-time.
Pre-made marketing materials: Ycode’s affiliates can also find pre-made marketing materials on Partnero’s platform.
Access to support: Ycode’s partner team is here to help affiliates grow their business and deal with any program malfunctions.
19. Wise: Money Without Borders
Wise is a global financial technology company that offers international money transfer services. It provides a convenient and cost-effective way to send and receive money across borders so influencers, bloggers, and financial professionals can monetize their audience and promote a trusted international money transfer service.
Why They Rock
Localized briefs and resources: Wise provides affiliates with localized briefs and resources to build successful campaigns and promote Wise.
Expert support: Wise account managers can answer any questions Wise affiliates may have and advise on how to promote Wise best to increase their earnings.
One-year cookie window limit: Wise’s affiliate cookies have a one-year window limit, so affiliates can earn a commission whenever their audience converts during this period.
Multiple currencies: Wise offers affiliate payouts in five different currencies, so affiliates can choose which currency they want to be paid in.
Multiple products: Wise affiliates can promote three products – Money transfers, Wise account & card, and Wise business accounts. Affiliates can choose what they feel most comfortable promoting and deliver what their audience needs.
20. Brevo: Earn Fixed Commissions
Brevo is an email marketing and CRM suite, an all-in-one platform to manage customer relationships. With over 500,000 customers, Brevo uses affiliate marketing to break into new markets and increase revenue.
Why They Rock
Attractive fixed commissions: Brevo offers a fixed commission, so affiliates know what they’re getting into each time they sell. Affiliates earn $5 for each free Brevo account and $100 for each paid recurring subscription.
Reliable tracking: Brevo helps affiliates monitor commissions in real time with a 90-day cookie and reliable tracking system.
Competitive prices: Brevo’s platform is competitively priced and rich in features. As a leading and affordable marketing platform, conversion rates tend to be high.
Targeted affiliates: Brevo’s affiliate programs target bloggers, publishers, or content creators based on eligibility. They need to have a website business and email address.
Fair play: Brevo encourages affiliates to use affiliate links in ways that will benefit potential customers, the Brevo community, and Brevo. While affiliate sales are important, ethical behavior is just as important.
21. Partnero: Your Connections, Your Commission
Partnero is a partnership management platform that helps businesses maximize their revenue potential from launch to reward through partnership programs. Partnero runs over 3,000 partnership programs with over 150,000 active partners. Partnero also has an affiliate program. After all, it’s our bread and butter!
Why We Rock
Generous commission: Partnero offers a 30% recurring omission for 12 months on all Partnero paid plans.
Long cookie lifetime: Partnero’s first-party cookies stay fresh for 60 days.
Relationship-driven approach: While Partnero enables many automation features on its platform, the affiliate program is focused on building real human relationships with their affiliates.
Partner dashboard: Partnero affiliates can track earnings in real-time to optimize their affiliate performance with partner statistics.
Support squad: Partnero’s support squad is happy to help affiliates whenever they face a challenge. Partnero wants to see their affiliate succeed!
Important Lessons on Building an Affiliate Program
Affiliate marketing can be a lucrative and rewarding way to generate revenue and passive income. To get started, businesses can learn from the above-mentioned examples and use them as inspiration for building their own affiliate program. The biggest takeaways from these examples are:
Have an attractive and easy-to-understand commission structure
Ensure your product is competitively priced and easy to promote
Provide support and training to affiliates
Provide ready-to-use promotional materials
Remain compliant and ethical
Long cookie duration
Use a partnership management platform to run and optimize affiliate program effectively
Incentivize affiliates with tiers, prizes, or bonuses
Have upfront expectations and know target affiliate (i.e. bloggers, YouTubers)
Build a Winning Affiliate Program on Partnero
Remember, success in affiliate marketing requires consistent effort. This is true for any business – from startups to big corporates. Businesses should also strive for valuable content creation and effective audience engagement. By providing audiences with insightful recommendations, brands and affiliates can build trust and credibility, leading to increased conversions and long-term success.
Partnero is a partnership management platform that makes it easy to get started and track your progress. Want to start your own affiliate program? Do it in seconds. Give Partnero a try today. It's free!