FAQs

The Awin Group consists of Awin (formerly Affiliate Window, affilinet and zanox), and Commission Factory. The group is owned by Axel Springer and United Internet.

Affiliate Window and zanox have been united under one company since March 2017, and are now known as Awin in all markets.

Awin is a specialist affiliate marketing platform.  Our role is to connect our advertisers with a network of publishers from a variety of sectors - price comparison, blogs, social networks and communities, email marketing, display, etc., both locally and internationally.  Awin's role is to position itself as a trusted third party between advertisers and publishers, providing account management, strategy and technology.

Awin has a track record of delivering growth to leading brands across the globe through their affiliate programs. In recognition of our work, Awin has been voted 'Best CPS Network for Publishers' and 'Top 3 Best CPS Networks for Advertisers' for the last six consecutive years. Our suite of award-winning tools for affiliate management and reporting are easy to use, flexible, and offers powerful functionality and insights to help you get the most out of the affiliate channel. Our platform also provides global expansion opportunities into new markets for both advertisers and publishers, supported by our global and local teams.

Affiliate marketing is a form of performance marketing, generated by referrals from a publisher (affiliate) site to an advertiser site. The publisher is awarded a commission based on every completed purchase they drive for the advertiser within a set cookie window. 

An affiliate network acts as an intermediary between advertiser and publishers. Networks provide tracking, account management, payment management, technical support and strategic guidance to aid with the optimization of both parties' affiliate marketing activity.

An affiliate program is specific to an advertiser, and publishers joined to an affiliate program will have access to all the tools provided by the advertiser to promote their products. This can include banners, imagery, offers, product feeds. This also allows access to the tracking links that will help to ensure a publisher is paid for the promotional activity they run. An affiliate network is a company which faciliates affiliate programs.  These will often include teams of account managers who provide service and strategy to both advertisers and publishers, as well as technology teams who uphold the tracking and reporting systems that are fundamental to running an affiliate program. An affiliate network will also facilitate payments and tracking.

A cookie is a small piece of data stored in a user’s browser when they visit a website. In affiliate marketing, cookies are the mechanism that makes accurate tracking possible, recording when a user clicked an affiliate link and which publisher referred them.

This matters for both parties. For publishers, cookies ensure they are correctly rewarded for the sales and actions they provide. For advertisers, cookies allow them to see exactly which partners and channels are performing.

An affiliate publisher is anyone who promotes an advertiser's product or service in exchange for a commission, earned when their audience makes a purchase or other desired action through their affiliate link. Publishers come in many different forms:

• Content and blog sites – writers and content platforms that naturally recommend a product or service into their articles, guides and reviews.
• Social Media Influencers – Content creators on social media platforms like TikTok, Instagram and YouTube who recommend products directly to their audience.

Voucher, Coupon and Cashback sites – platforms like TopCashBack and HotUKDeals that attract shoppers looking for deals, discounts and offer

There are a variety of different publisher types, but some of the most common categorizations are:

• Cashback - Offers end users a portion of commission back when they make a purchase
• Loyalty - Offers end users a reward for shopping through links, normally a non-monetary reward but this can vary across publishers
• Price comparison - Collates a range of products from different advertisers to offer users the ability to filter and compare products across a range of features
• Coupon/discount code - Primarily offers a variety of coupon discounts, and deals messaging for a range of advertisers
• Editorial - Focuses on content and engaging an audience through articles, blog posts and reviews
• Social/influencer - Promotions and ads run primarily through social media accounts

An advertiser is an online retailer with a transactional website. Advertisers can set up an affiliate program to promote your products or services on another website (publisher) who would drive traffic to your site to increase  sales.  A publisher promotes transactional websites and drives traffic to them through text links and banners placed on their own site.  They are awarded a commission once a customer makes a purchase on an advertiser’s site.

Affiliate marketing is performance based, meaning advertisers only pay when a specific action is completed. The commission model determines what that action is and how the publisher is rewarded. Here are the most commonly used payment models:

• CPA — Cost Per Acquisition: The most widely used commission model in performance and affiliate marketing. This generally revolves around a desired action but typically a purchase, when the purchase happens, the advertiser pays a commission to the publisher. The commission can be set as a fixed fee or a percentage of the transaction value.
• CPL — Cost Per Lead: This model rewards publishers for driving potential customers who have shown genuine interest in a product or service, this is called a lead. Generally, this comes in the shape of a completed enquiry form, quote, a callback request, a brochure download or a newsletter sign-up. CPL is particularly common in industries like finance, insurance, and travel where the sales journey is longer and a sale is unlikely to happen in a single session.
• CPS — Cost Per Sale: Similar to CPA, CPS specifically rewards publishers for completed sales rather than any other type of acquisition. Some networks use CPA and CPS interchangeably, but CPS is the more precise term when the desired outcome is purely transactional.
• CPC — Cost Per Click: CPC rewards publishers each time a user clicks their affiliate link, regardless of whether a purchase or lead happens after that. While straightforward, it carries more risk for advertisers as spend is not directly tied to a conversion.

The right commission model depends on the advertiser's goals, their industry, and the length of their customer journey. Awin supports all these models, giving advertisers the flexibility to run their affiliate programme in a way that works best for their business.

Affiliate marketing works via tracking pixels.  When a user clicks through an affiliate link, a cookie is dropped in relation to that action.  Once the user completes a sale and reaches the confirmation page of the advertiser, a tracking pixel is fired which ensures a sale is registered within the Awin interface.  The publisher can then be awarded the relevant commission.

Sales in affiliate marketing are tracked through  cookies and Awin’s server to server (S2S) technology, ensuring every publisher is rewarded for the traffic and conversions they drive. Accurate tracking is crucial to affiliate marketing, giving publishers confidence to promote products and services with their audience, and advertisers full visibility of the process.

Cookie based tracking – The most common method; when a user clicks on an affiliate link, a cookie containing a publisher ID is stored in the browser. This ID identifies which publisher referred the customer. A tracking code fires when the customer reaches the advertiser’s order confirmation page and automatically attributes the sale back to the publisher.

Awin’s cookies are first party, meaning they are not affected by third party cookie blockers in the same way, making tracking seamless and reliable for both publishers and advertisers.

Server to Server tracking (S2S) - Rather than relying on a browser cookie in Safari, S2S communicates directly to the server, making it much more reliable across devices regardless of the browser type. Awin supports both tracking methods, ensuring all activity is measured as accurately as possible.

‘Cost Per Lead’ or CPL is the amount an advertiser is willing to pay per lead generated for their program.  A CPL program is where an advertiser pays a publisher an agreed fee for each qualified lead (potential customer) referred to your website. This usually takes place as completed forms requesting further information on your business, and a callback or a brochure request is submitted.

Affiliate marketing is one of the most widely adopted performance marketing channels in the world. Over 80% of brands now use affiliate marketing to drive leads and sales. Research shows that 65% of retailers say it makes up to 20% of their annual revenue. On the Awin network alone, there are over 30,000 active advertisers working with publishers in over 180 countries. For a deeper look at how certain statistics shape the industry read Awin’s affiliate marketing statistics

Affiliate marketing is one of the most cost-effective ways to help your business grow, because you only pay for results.  

For brands and advertisers, affiliate marketing with a network like Awin gives you direct access to a vast community of publishers, and because its results driven, your budget works harder. Research shows that 65% of retailers say affiliate marketing accounts for up to 20% of their annual revenue, making it one of the highest-returning channels available.

Affiliate marketing networks track every publisher on the network through a unique publisher ID. The ID is used in tracking cookies to record which affiliate publisher generates what sale.

The key to successful affiliate marketing lies in striking a balance between competitive commission rates and efficiently managing budgets. Aim for CPA increases and utilise tenancy-based activity where possible. Collaborate with your network contacts (account managers, consultants, publisher services) to make the most of your program. Awin provides a comprehensive training course, catering to new advertisers to optimise their affiliate programs. Sign up for our advertiser training seminar or get in contact with our commercial team.

Affiliate networks make money through fees charged to the affiliate advertisers. The fees usually consist of a percentage of each sale made on the program. These fees are agreed to by each individual advertiser.

Wordpress, Wix and Squarespace are all great free platforms that would support an affiliate marketing website.

To become a successful affiliate, you will need to make sure you promote products customized to your audience. It is also important to test, measure and track your campaigns to optimize your affiliate activity. Work with advertisers that suit your brand, and ensure you are keeping your audience engaged with your content.  You can read more tips on how to run your affiliate website in our Market Insights.

You can earn money through affiliate marketing by promoting products or services using unique affiliate links on your blog, social platform or website. When users make purchases through these links, you receive a commission. Typically, the commission is a percentage of the sale value, although fixed amounts are common in certain sectors. After the sale is confirmed and meets the programme criteria, the commission is approved and deposited into your account.

Affiliate marketing rules exist to protect everyone, advertisers, publishers and consumers alike. They set clear boundaries around promotional activity, covering things like misleading advertising, unauthorised use of brand terms in paid search, and deceptive tracking.

At Awin, every publisher goes through a verification process before joining the network, and activity is closely monitored by our compliance team. Advertisers and publishers both agree to Awin's terms and conditions when joining, setting clear expectations from the start.

Awin makes sure the channel stays relaible, transparent and worth investing in. For a full overview visit our or review the for specific guidelines.

If you're part of an affiliate network, they will help you prevent potential issues, monitor compliance issues and make sure all the publishers on the network go through an application process and compliance checks before joining the network.  In the US, the Performance Marketing Association help steer best practices in the affiliate marketing industry.

If you're an advertiser, you can visit the "How to Use Awin" section of our Market Insights. If you're a publisher, you can get to know all the basics of affiliate marketing in our publisher training portal.

To become an affiliate marketer, you need a site, blog or any other internet presence to drive traffic to an advertiser's site.  Once you have joined an affiliate network and then the advertiser programs you want to promote, you'll have access to all of the links and promotional materials you need to add to your site and begin affiliate marketing.

Awin is always looking for passionate people to join our teams across all disciplines. If you're looking for a career in affiliate marketing, visit our careers page to see all our vacancies. 

No, affiliate marketing is not a pyramid scheme. Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing method where affiliate advertisers offer their products to affiliate publishers to promote on their behalf.

When you're choosing an affiliate network it's important to take some factors into consideration.

• What types of affiliates are you targeting?
  Some affiliate networks specialise in certain verticals, and promotional tools can differ across networks. Awin has a wide range of promtional tools available to assist both publishers and advertisers with their affiliate marketing, including automated link creation through Create-A-Link and MyAwin and a simple to use directory of publisher opportunities within Opportunity Marketplace.
• Are you looking to establish an international affiliate program?
  Awin operates globally, which would facilitate you when entering more than one market.
• How do the affiliate network screen and evaluate affiliates before accepting them on the network?
  Awin assesses every affiliate through a thorough evaluation process and monitor the network constantly to prevent unethical activity.

Affiliate programs make money when publishers refer visitors to the advertiser page through an affiliate link and complete a transaction. This is counted as revenue for an advertiser.

To start an affiliate marketing business, you need a website, blog, or other internet presence where you can communicate to an online audience.  It's important to choose a direction you'd like to work in.

You can only decide on a profitable niche by analyzing your own audience; what works for others might not be the way to success for you.

You can start an affiliate marketing website from any base.  Many of our publishers use free ISPs like Wordpress or Wix to get started.  Its important to find something you're passionate about and can continue to post regular, engaging content about - particularly in the beginning to build up a strong and engaged following.  Once you've joined an affiliate program, through a network like Awin you can begin to incorporate affiliate links behind the products or brands you mention and start to drive traffic and sales through affiliate marketing.  Read more about how to get started in our getting started guide. 

De-duplication is the process of attributing a sale to one online marketing channel under predefined conditions. These conditions will decide which tracking tag is shown on the confirmation of sale page.

To start an affiliate marketing business, you need a website, blog, or other internet presence where you can communicate to an online audience.  It's important to choose a direction you'd like to work in.

Data obtained through advertiser campaigns and data tags is used only to track and attribute sales and commission payments accurately. Awin does not use this data for targeting, profiling or any marketing purposes.

Keeping that data secure and using it responsibly is something we take seriously. Publishers and advertisers can trust that the information flowing through the platform exists to make the affiliate channel work accurately and fairly.

For a full breakdown of how Awin handles data, visit our Privacy Policy.

Awin operates under legitimate interest as its legal basis under GDPR. By nature, affiliate marketing requires very little personal data to function.

The information collected is typically limited to IP address and customer order reference, the minimum needed to accurately track and attribute sales. No sensitive personal data is collected or stored through the affiliate tracking process.

For more detail on how Awin handles data and privacy, visit our Privacy Policy.

Awin holds ISO 27001 certification, the internationally recognised standard for information security management. This means Awin's systems have been independently audited to meet strict requirements around protecting the confidentiality and integrity of data.

Awin also operates a Compliance Management System which is fully GDPR compliant, with strict controls around data access and security.

For full details visit our information security page.

Publishers on the Awin network go through a thorough verification process before they can join. Advertisers also have full control over who promotes their programme, they can manually approve publishers and set terms specific to their campaign.

Once live, all publisher activity is monitored using a combination of Awin's own tools and third-party technology, so any non-compliant behaviour is caught and addressed quickly. For more detail on how Awin maintains quality and compliance across the network, visit our compliance page.

Awin gives advertisers full visibility of their programme performance through detailed reports covering clicks, impressions, sales and revenue, divided into publisher, product and creative.

Advertisers can also track detailed customer journeys, compare their performance against the industry averageand use commission reporting to understand what's driving results. On the higher tier plans custom reporting and competitor comparison are also available.

Ava, Awin's AI assistant, monitors and provides insights and recommendations so advertisers can focus their time on action rather than analysing.

For a full breakdown of reporting features by plan, visit our pricing page.

You can view a full list of advertisers we partner with in our advertiser directory.

We publish weekly content to explain how to increase the performance of your programme. You can also get inspiration from our publisher case studies and advertiser case studies.

Yes. Awin is a registered member of the IAB Transparency and Consent Framework (TCF), listed as a vendor on the IAB's global vendor list.

This means advertisers using a Consent Management Platform can include Awin when collecting user consent, ensuring tracking activity remains fully compliant with GDPR requirements.

For technical guidance on implementing the consent framework with Awin, visit our consent framework documentation

No, Awin acts as an intermediary between publishers who own their inventory and advertisers who can work with them through our network. All advertisers and publishers have the ability to communicate directly with each other, with contact details provided within Awin's user interface.

Yes, some publishers have this as their primary business model.

Yes, in addition to our publisher terms and conditions, we also request all publishers sign our publisher code of conduct that explains how to market responsibly.

After registering, you will be given access to both the Awin and marketplace platforms. Via our Advertiser Directory, you can search for any programme you'd like to join and apply, or get in contact with the relevant person via the interface to discuss building a partnership.

To become an affiliate publisher, sign up here.

Join our network via our simple sign up process.  Once approved, you can then apply to join individual advertiser programs.

We accept publisher sites of all types, but your site must have a means of linking to an advertiser to promote their affiliate program.  All publishers who apply to Awin's platform pass through our compliance team who verifies the details you've provided.

Yes, we accept publishers using all social media channels including Pinterest, YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram.

Awin asks for a $1 deposit to join the platform to verify your bank account details and minimize the risk of unethical activity. It is refunded to your publisher account as soon as you track your first sale.

The $1 joining deposit will be reimbursed via your publisher account once you reach your first payment threshold. The deposit is a requirement for our compliance team to ensure the quality of publishers that join the platform.  

In order to become a publisher, you need to offer links to redirect to our advertisers with the intention of driving sales for these sites.

You can have numerous sites within the same Awin account.  There are a number of methods within the interface that allow you to personalize the tracking links in order to differentiate between your sites within our reporting suites. Within the promotional spaces section, you have the option to list your sites to showcase to advertisers.

Yes. Additional users can be invited to a publisher account directly through the Awin platform. This is useful for teams managing a publisher account collaboratively, giving each member their own access without sharing login credentials.

As the ShareASale platform has now been closed down and all accounts merged into Awin, you can work with Awin by creating a new publisher account here

To reset your password, click here.   If you still have issues, please contact the local support team.

We can update the email address for an account whether it is active or still pending approval.  Please get in touch with our Publisher Success Team in order to do this.

Payment times can vary per advertiser and per sector.  Average payment times are shown within the Awin interface, in the advertiser directory and on the left hand side of each advertiser's profile.  You can follow the payment status of individual transactions within the 'Transactions' report.

Awin runs payments on the 1st and 15th of every month. Publishers opting for monthly payments receive them on the 15th, covering commissions earned up to the previous 30th. Payments are made on the next working day and can take 3 to 5 days to clear into a publisher's bank account.

For a full breakdown of the payment process, visit Awin's publisher payments guide.

Awin offers multiple payment methods including BACS, international wire transfer, ACH and SEPA transfer. Domestic payments are also available in a range of currencies depending on your location.

Payment details are managed through the Account tab in the Awin platform. For a full list of supported payment methods and currencies, visit the Awin payment methods guide.

Once you have been approved onto the network and added affiliate links to your website, you are able to start tracking how many clicks and sales you generate to an advertiser's website.  You'll start to earn money as soon as a user makes a purchase through one of your links, and you'll be able to see this commission track into your publisher dashboard within our user interface.

For publishers, once you've been approved onto the platform, you can start promoting products and services to your audience and earn money immediately.

This can vary greatly from affiliate to affiliate, but there is no upper limit if your website or promotional materials perform well for the advertisers you choose to promote.  Although few websites directly publish their affiliate earnings, there are examples of bloggers earning as much as $50,000 a month in the online content space.  You can read more about this in our 12 tips for becoming a professional travel blogger.

Many of the world's leading brands have their own affiliate program. At Awin, we work with over 30,000 advertisers around the globe. View our list of advertisers in our Advertiser Directory. 

The Awin Group works with over 30,000 advertisers globally, including many household names and well-known brands.  Our full list of advertisers can be found within our Advertiser Directory. 

There are platform Terms and Conditions, as well as a code of conduct, that should be adhered to to join the platform. However, each advertiser program will have different criteria to accept publishers.  These can be found on the advertiser's profile within the Awin interface.

Although you were rejected to promote this particular advertiser, you were approved as a publisher by Awin and can still apply to any of our other advertiser programs. We recommend you browse our Advertiser Directory to see if there are any other advertisers that would be a good fit for your site. If you'd like to find out more about why you were rejected, we recommend getting in contact with the relevant account manager who will be able to discuss the reason for your rejection.

Yes, by joining Awin you are able to promote any of the advertisers available on our platform.

Publishers are categorized by the way in which a consumer would interact with the site, and the type of content they create. Some of the most well-known publisher types are: cashback, social & blogs, editorial content and discount codes, however this list is not exhaustive.

The commission levels differ for every program depending on different variables. When applying to a program, you will be able to see information about the commission.

The best affiliate marketing program is the one that fits your own, or your company's goals the best.  A great way to get started in the affiliate industry is to start generating traffic for some key advertisers that you want to work with, which will allow you to build relationships with these teams.  Ensure you also speak to Awin's Publisher Success Team who will be able to guide you through any issues you may have and which programs will work best for your brand.

You can find all of our programs by browsing our Advertiser Directory.

The Opportunity Marketplace is a great tool that allows publishers to list, manage and promote all of the advertising options available on their website. They are then viewed and considered by advertisers in an easy-to-use directory. Once joined to a programme, you can get in contact directly with the advertiser, or their account consultant here at Awin.

Media placements and positions will be outlined by the individual advertiser in their terms and conditions, visible on their profile page.

You can either use our Link Builder within the interface to create deeplinks, which requires you to copy and paste the page you would like to link to and the tool will create the relevant deeplink.  You can also use our Chrome plugin, MyAwin, which will create deeplinks with one click when installed on your browser.

There are several ways to link to a specific product. However, one of the easiest is our Chome plugin MyAwin.  With the plugin installed, open the web page of the product you wish to link to, open the plugin, and this will generate a personalized affiliate link with your publisher ID ready to be added to your website.  You can also use the deeplink generator within the Awin interface to generate deeplinks for a specific product. Copy and paste the link for the product you wish to use into the generator, select the advertiser this is for and the affiliate link will be generated for you.

Yes. Once joined to an advertiser's programme, all banners and creatives are available through the My Creative section of the Awin platform.

This includes display banners, text links and any other promotional assets the advertiser has made available to publishers. Creatives can be filtered by type, dimensions and advertiser to find exactly what you need.

Yes, the Awin API gives publishers direct access to their account data, including transaction reports, publisher programmes, product feeds and more. It is particularly useful for publishers who want to automate reporting or build custom integrations.

Full documentation is available at the Awin Developer Portal.

A product feed provides publishers with details of the products you sell and is vital to work with publishers such as Google shopping (CSS), comparison and can also be used by some content sites. You can create your product feed in either Excel, CSV or XML as well as through Google or Shopify before uploading it to the My Product Feeds section in Awin's interface.

We work directly with a range of technology partners and are committed to bringing on more partners through our Publisher MasterTag. These are third-party technologies that publishers can use to help increase conversion rate and optimize their site. All technology partners have been vetted for a trustworthy and effective solution.

We use a MasterTag that allows us to include all of the technical functionality we need to run an affiliate program within it.  This intergrates perfectly with your own technical setup and should not slow down your website.