The best affiliate program will depend on a couple of factors, the most important being pay-out which is either cost per acquisition or revenue share, see our how will I be paid blog for more. In summary, if you want to be paid a percentage of what your applicant generates, you should opt for a revenue share model. Brand affinity and cookie lifespan are also important.
What you want to know is: Who runs the best affiliate programme per industry? Here are our top picks:
888 offers (in our view) the best gambling affiliate program. Not only do they have a competitive revenue share model, which offers 40% when you sign up 41+ new players, which isn’t a lot when you consider that competitors typically offer only 30% rev share for far more new signups. Pokerstars offers 35% rev share but you have to sign up over 201 new players! We’d rather work smart than hard. furthermore, with 888 being a globally recognised brand, you’re sure to have the brand affinity that other companies lack.
Secondly, 888 is one of the only brand that offers CPA, which means you could be earning up to $200 (~£150) for every new signup. Most brands don’t advertise CPA models but if you speak to your account manager you might be able to arrange a unique package. However, we’d rather have the work done for us. Just to be clear, this means that if you sign up 51 new players with 888 you’ll get an extra $10,200 (~£7,800) a month, Woah!
What’s more, you also have the option to run a hybrid model which we’ve spoken about here in our Affiliate Pricing Models. A hybrid account means that you can choose between CPA and Rev share, which is handy if you’re just starting and don’t want to wait until your players start spending, you just want to be paid when you sign people up.
One of the only downsides of 888 is their short cookie lifespan at 15 days. Whilst this isn’t the lowest we’ve come across, it’s certainly not the highest. It’s just below the average at 30 days, the highest being 45 and lowest, sessions based models (which is rubbish). We also need to point out that their website isn’t the most user friendly we’ve experienced, but this is a small price to pay.
In Summary
888 is a fantastic global brand with flexible payment methods and a pretty decent cookie lifespan. This is one to have if your blog or website features gambling information.
PROS:
Globally recognised brand
CPA, Revenue share and hybrid
Largest revenue share per player model
Largest CPA model per player
CONS:
Below average cookie lifespan
The website could be more user friendly
Runner up – GVC
Ok, so not technically one individual brand. GVC is the parent company for some of the worlds’ biggest brands like Gala and Foxy Bingo, Bwin, Sporting Bet, Ladbrokes and Party Poker. They also offer a competitive revenue share model. The reason we’ve included it is because you’ve got all your brands in one place and the website’s dashboard is easy to navigate. The only downside is that the revenue share levels are quite steep and you’ll need to sign up over 300 new players to see their top earnings of 35%, far less than 888.
All brands in one place (makes reporting and troubleshooting easier)
Above-average cookie lifespan
CONS:
Steep levels of revenue share
No CPA
No Bonuses
Best Trading Affiliate Program
Just like the best gambling affiliate programs, there are several factors you’ll need to consider when deciding which is the best trading affiliate programme. None of the trading sites we list offer a revenue share model, so that’s out the window. Instead, you’ll need to weigh up CPA, cookie lifespan, bonuses and brand recognition. With that in mind, here’s our pick for the top spot:
The decision was easy for us. There are so many perks to joining this affiliate program that they wasn’t anyone else who comes close. Firstly, the company is now recognised across Europe (inc. the UK) and operates in the USA, Australia, Hong Kong, Kuwait, New Zealand, UAE which means that you’ll have a strong brand backing your campaign.
Highest Paying Affiliate
Trading 212 is also the highest paying trading affiliate. For every new applicant you bring on you’ll receive a pay-out. The amount depends on how much they deposit in their first session. If the client deposits between $100 and $300, you receive $300? This increases to $1000 if they deposit the same amount. The only brand that offers the same is IG. The reason they didn’t make it to the top spot is that their payment for entry is higher than Trading 212, coming in at $250, whereas Trading 212 is $100.
Best Affiliate Monthly Bonuses
Trading 212 also offers a monthly bonus scheme (IG, another big player in the sector, don’t..) which means that you can earn more money on top of the cash you’ve already received signing up new depositing traders. The benchmark is 25 to 50 players which will get you £2,500, this increases to a whopping £30,000 every three months if you sign up over 50 players! That’s £120,000 a year, which is more than enough to take the crown of the best trading affiliate.
In Summary
Trading 212 is far and above the best trading affiliate program. It’s got a high paying CPA program and is a globally recognised brand. We even had a look at the T&C’s and found that they may be able to offer a Revenue Share model if you spoke to your account manager. This is a case by case basis and probably requires you to be a top-achieving affiliate first.
PROS:
Globally recognised brand
Average cookie lifespan
Highest paying affiliate program
CONS:
Nothing of note
Best Travel Affiliate Program
The travel industry has taken a real beating this past year for obvious reasons. We haven’t seen any affiliate programs drop off because of it but affiliates are going to be fighting over a smaller pool of applicants. For this reason it’s more important than ever to find the best travel affiliate program.
I know we badger on about brand affinity but it’s really important to understand that people tend to choose the brands that they trust and get value from. Skyscanner used to be the new kid on the block that only your cool uncle got his 16 quid Tuesday morning flight to Majorca. Since then it’s grown into Europe’s leading travel brokerage and people are more than happy to browse the app for the best deals. This is great for us because they also have a very competitive revenue share model.
Best Revenue Share
Skyscanner’s revenue share clocks in at 50%. This is in line with the highest affiliate programmes which are Trip advisor and Kayak. If this sounds high that’s because it is. Travel affiliates usually come in around 10-15%. The best thing about it is that you get 50% of every purchase which supposedly means that they can purchase any large booking through the app and you receive payment the next month. Whilst Skyscanner doesn’t offer CPA, this is standard across the industry, and of the ones that do it is typically for newsletter signups where the CPA’s are low.
Skyscanner’s cookie lifespan is average but they offers several different widgets, banners and text links. Skyscanner runs through CJ Affiliate who are a massive player in the affiliate market especially for travel, currently representing Virgin Atlantic, Expedia, Lonely Planet, Booking.com, Trip Advisor, G Adventures, Hotels.com, Cheap flights and Momondo. That’s a massive list of some of the world’s largest, most recognisable travel brands all in one place. We recommend you sign up to CJ affiliates if you’d like to represent them.
PROS:
Globally recognised brand
Average cookie lifespan
One of the highest revenue shares
CONS:
Nothing of note
Best Fashion Affiliate Program
The world of fashion was partially rocked by this year’s pandemic, all that happened was that high street shops spiralled further into irrelevance. With even market leaders such as Arcadia not making it out alive. This is great news for the budding fashion affiliate because it meant that people were pushed to shopping online which has opened up the playing field to new affiliates.
When deciding what is the best fashion affiliate we’ve looked at what the range of products the company offers i.e. does it have both men and women fashion wear?
These guys don’t mess around when it comes to revenue share, offering an impressive 12% on sales when you don’t book more than $4000. For the high flyers out there, this increases to 50% on orders over $20,000 (which is a lot, we know). They also have a really impressive 60-day cookie lifespan which is top of the class. (most offer 30).
Paxful is an online peer-to-peer (P2P) over-the-counter (OTC) exchange platform where users buy and sell cryptocurrency. The platform functions mainly as an escrow service between the two parties and offers users 300 different ways to buy and sell cryptocurrency.
Members of their affiliate program get 50% of the exchange fees whenever one of the customers referred through their link makes a transaction on the platform. You also receive a 10% commission whenever one of your second-tier affiliates makes a transaction on the platform.
For a platform that handles up to $25 million worth of transactions a week, this can sum up to a pretty decent amount with the right strategy. The key is to build a network of well-connected affiliates and earn money passively.
Pros
Fixed fees for instantly buying and selling Bitcoin
Fixed fees to buy and sell
Over 300 payment methods
Live intra-trade chat capabilities
ID and biometric verification
Full-featured, secure wallet app
Cons
Not regulated
Runner Up – AWIN
We had to mention AWIN again because they have Topshop, Topman, Allsaint, Karen Millar and Boohoo. So if you want all you most recognisable brands in one place then these are the people to sign up with. Just remember they have a sign-up fee
Awin is a global affiliate network with numerous partners and tens of thousands of advertisers. The services or products sold by these advertisers are classified into four categories, further sub-classified into multiple niches. They are listed below:
1) Insurance and Finance: Has niches such as loans, savings and investments, credit cards and insurance, mortgages, personal banking, and property.
2) Retail and Shopping: Includes niches such as accessories, electronics, clothing, toys, shoes, gifts, sporting equipment, and gardening equipment.
3) Services and Telecommunications: Has niches such as digital gaming, business-oriented services, gambling, education, training and recruitment, web hosting, and B2B.
4) Travel: Has niches such as ferries, trains, vacations, hotels and lodging, auto rentals, flight bookings, parking, and tourism.
They have an excellent filter search that helps affiliates easily select the brand whose products or services they wish to promote. Awin also enables affiliates to add as many websites as they can to their account. Plus, they have expanded their variety of payment options by adding Payoneer, an option preferred by bloggers and freelancers.
Awin lets affiliates see their statistics and metrics (conversions and impressions) coming to their website.
Certain products can earn you a commission percentage as high as 50%, while some can be as low as 10% or lesser. The payment model of this network is CPA.
PROS:
The application process is quick and easy.
The site is user-friendly.
Affiliates get to see their stats and conversions.
A wide range of advertisers and merchants to select from.
CONS:
There is a sign-up fee.
For more tips, visit our homepage and compare hundreds of affiliate programs and see which affiliate program fits you best.