How is Affiliate Marketing Viewed and Used Around the World?
Written by Richard Towey on 8 minute read
Our final deep dive into Awin and Forrester’s survey looks into views of the affiliate channel in the UK, US, France, and Germany.
Do perceptions of the affiliate channel vary across different regions? Of course they do.
Budgets, partner selections, program management - each market has its own way of doing things. But if you’re managing a global affiliate program or interested in expanding to a new territory, it’s always useful to recap on the key differences.
So how does a comparison of opinions from nearly 700 marketing decision makers in France, UK, US, and Germany sound?
Using previously unreleased data from Awin’s 2024 survey with Forrester, covering perceptions of affiliate marketing from around the world, we’ve managed to summarize the key points.
As well as downloading the original report for a global consensus of your channel, be sure to take a look at the main differences in each market.
Views on the effectiveness of affiliate marketing
Affiliate marketing is clearly appreciated in all the regions we surveyed, with 92% of the group labeling it as either effective or highly effective. However, it seems to have struck the right chord in Germany in particular, and there’s room for improvement in France.
Affiliate marketing is valued more in Germany than in any other market, with 99% of marketers viewing it as effective or highly effective. It’s the highest score from our survey group and puts the channel above all the other options we presented to that region.
UK and US marketers still value affiliate, just not to the same extent as their German counterparts. Both UK and US marketers believe email to be more effective, and US respondents even believe social media to carry greater value.
French marketers are less optimistic about the effectiveness of affiliate marketing vs the study group. On average, 88% rank it as effective, which is less than the 92% global average. We were therefore particularly interested in the challenges French marketers face when investing in the channel, which we’ll discuss a little later on.
What is affiliate marketing used for?
From racking up leads to increasing order values, there are many reasons for creating an affiliate program, but marketers tend to share an opinion regarding the primary ones.
Lead generation, enhancing customer loyalty, and diversifying revenue are top, with improving customer experiences placing last.
Market by market, there are only slight differences in opinion:
- In France, lead generation was the primary purpose for investing in affiliate marketing, followed by enhancing customer loyalty and diversifying revenue streams.
- In the UK and Germany, lead generation and enhancing customer loyalty also took the top two spots, but UK marketers did place direct sales in third despite its absence elsewhere.
- US marketers named enhancing customer loyalty as their top reason for investing in the channel, with lead generation placing second. Interestingly, raising brand awareness placed 5th overall but made the top three in this market, where top-of-funnel results are clearly valued.
What challenges do marketers encounter when investing in the affiliate channel?
The top challenges associated with affiliate marketing across the survey group were:
- Relationship management: Maintaining mutually beneficial partnerships.
- Brand consistency: Ensuring affiliates align with values and guidelines.
- Fraudulent activities: Protecting operations from fake leads or dishonest practices.
We presented other challenges to the group - like tracking, integrating with other channels, and commission structuring - but the top three stayed the same, albeit in different orders.
- In France, the top challenge is relationship management, followed by fraud, then brand consistency.
- In the UK, US, and Germany the top challenge is brand consistency, then fraud, then relationship management.
What we’ve determined is that affiliate marketing has three big challenges to solve globally. That’s tighter relationships between partners, a clampdown on fraud, and a concerted effort to ensure brands are represented in a positive light.
How many partners are deemed important to an affiliate program?
Before drilling down into individual partner types, we asked each respondent how many publishers they deemed important to their program. This revealed the following:
Average amount of partners used: 5.0
Average amount of partners used in each market:
- US (5.2)
- UK (5.1)
- Germany (5.1)
- France (4.5)
US marketers look to be playing more of a volume game, outscoring every market in terms of the partners they deem important to their program.
France sits at the bottom end of the scale, with a relatively trim 4.5 important partners. Given French marketers rate affiliate marketing as less effective than the other markets, expanding their partner selection seems like a good place to start.
What is the most popular partner type in each market?
In terms of individual partners, each market certainly had its own preferences. From looking at the most and least popular options, we determined an overarching theme.
While data from Awin’s platform shows rapid growth for new partner types like influencers, brand partnerships, and buy now, pay later, they’re yet to threaten the mainstays like discount code, email, and loyalty partners.
Here are the top and bottom results from each market. Just for guidance, when a partner type takes either the least or most popular spot, they either over or under index against the average across the entire survey group. For example, as coupon partners are the most popular partner in the US, their adoption rate is higher here than the global average (57% vs 50%).
US
- Most popular: Coupon (57%)
- Least popular: Tech partners (42%)
UK
- Most popular: Email (58%)
- Least popular: Buy now, pay later (43%)
France
- Most popular: Coupon (56%)
- Least popular: Influencers (36%)
Germany
- Most popular: Loyalty and reward (69%)
- Least popular: Coupon (40%)
Coupon partners taking the top spot in the US and France yet finishing last out of 10 options in Germany shows just how different affiliate partner mixes can look from market to market.
What are the unique strengths of affiliate marketing?
We’ll end on a positive note with a look at affiliate marketing’s unique strengths.
The survey asked each respondent to select up to three strengths of affiliate compared to other marketing channels. The global verdict was:
- There are always new, innovative partners entering the channel
- The incremental value it provides
- The simplicity of management
Looking at the order of these strengths by country, there’s a huge amount of variation.
In Germany, “it is a transparent ad channel and tied to sales” is the second most commonly cited option despite failing to place in the top in any other market.
In the UK, affiliate marketing is lauded for being a “reliable source of revenue”. It’s the top strength in that market but fails to make the top three anywhere else.
In the US, “it is an industry premised on personal relationships” places first but is nowhere near the rankings in other regions, while France is the only market to name “it is simple to manage” as its top choice.
Ready for a deeper dive?
As we can see, affiliate marketing means different things in different markets. If you’re interested in learning more about these nuances, we highly recommend checking out our Awin Global ThinkTank session: ‘Around the World in 30 Slides’.
Geographics aside, we saw a similar level of variation when looking at the differences between how small and large businesses view and use the affiliate channel.
If anything, a lack of a consensus when it comes to partners, applications, and strengths speaks to affiliate marketing’s flexibility, adaptability, and all-round usefulness, allowing it to cater for a range of different challenges and budgets.
That said, if you’d like to get a feel for the most commonly cited perceptions, Awin’s report with Forrester is free to download.