The Awin Group is an affiliate marketing network owned by Axel Springer and United Internet. It consists of two brands: Awin (formerly Affiliate Window, Affilinet, Zanox and ShareASale), Commission Factory. ShareASale was acquired by Awin in January 2017 and by August 2025 all active clients were migrated over, completing the merge. Later shutting down completely on October 6^th 2025.

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

Awin acts as a trusted third party between advertisers and publishers, providing the account management, payment functionality, strategy and technology that connects both sides. Awin works with publishers across a wide range of sectors including:

• Price comparison
• Blogs and Content
• Social Networks and communities
• Email marketing and display
• Influencers and content creators
• Brand to brand partnerships
• Card-linked offers (CLO)

Both locally and internationally.

Awin is one of the most recognised affiliate networks in the industry, having been voted Affiliate Network of the Year 6 times at the annual Performance Marketing Awards, and picking up over 20 wins in multiple categories across the board. Awin offers an award-winning suite of affiliate management and reporting tools designed to be flexible, powerful and easy to use. This includes AI powered tools like Smart Partner Search for intelligent publisher matching, and Campaign Builder, which reduces campaign setup time from hours to minutes. Beyond technology, Awin supports both advertisers and publishers with dedicated global and local teams, giving businesses the expertise to grow their affiliate programmes across new markets, worldwide.

Affiliate marketing is a form of performance-based marketing, in which publishers (affiliates or partners) earn a commission by referring customers to an advertiser’s website. A commission is awarded each time a referred customer completes a purchase or desired action, meaning advertisers only pay for results.

For advertisers, affiliate marketing is a cost-effective, low-risk channel where spend is tied directly to measurable results.

For publishers, it provides an opportunity to monetise their audience by promoting products and services that are relevant to them.

For consumers, affiliate marketing helps them discover relevant deals, reviews and recommendations through trusted content creators, comparison sites, and communities.

Awin’s affiliate marketing platform operates on a global scaleconnecting advertisers and publishers across more than 180 countries.

An affiliate network acts as the bridge  between advertiser and publishers, bringing both sides together in one place and providing the tools to collaborate effectively.  Instead of hunting down individual publishers, or applying to multiple affiliate programmes, a network like Awin creates a global ecosystem where those connections can happen smoothly  and at scale. Tracking, payments, account management,  technical support and strategic consultancy are all handled through the network, so all sides can focus on driving results.   

Being part of one of the world’s largest partner platform makes a real difference. Awin’s network spans over 180 countries, connecting over 1 million publishers with leading brands worldwide, giving advertisers direct access to promotional partners straight away.

An affiliate marketing network is the platform that hosts and facilitates affiliate marketing programmes, think of it as the marketplace, and each affiliate programme is an individual market stall within it. The affiliate programme is specific to an advertiser. When a publisher joins a programme, they gain access to everything they need to start promoting -   banners, imagery, offers, product feeds and tracking links that ensure they’re correctly credited for every action or sale. For example, a fashion content creator joining Adidas’s affiliate programme would get Adidas specific creatives and links to share.

The differences in short, advertisers run programmes, networks power them.

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

In affiliate marketing, advertisers are the businesses with something to sell, and publishers are the people or platforms that help sell it, in exchange for a commission.

A publisher is the person or platform that does the promoting aspect. Instead of selling their own products or services, publishers drive traffic or customers to an advertisers' site. This can be done in a variety of ways, through blog content, viral moments on social media, email marketing, comparison websites and video content, to name a few. When a customer they have referred makes a purchase or other desired action, the publisher is rewarded with a commission. Think of them as the word-of-mouth machine that brings people to the publishers’ market stall.

Together they form both sides of the relationship in affiliate marketing, one has the product and the other has the audience, and both need each other to succeed.

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.

‘Cost Per Lead’ or CPL is the amount an advertiser is willing to pay per lead generated for their programme.  A CPL programme 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 are submitted.

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.

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.

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

Getting started in affiliate marketing is much easier than you might think. Simply joining an affiliate network like Awin provides everything you need. Instant access to a global community of all types of publishers, from content creators to cashback sites, who are all ready to promote your products or services.

Once signed up, you then decide what action you want the publishers to take, whether it’s a purchase of a new product, a form signup to a latest offer or a lead for a service business, then simply choose how much you want to reward the publisher for this action.

From there Awin’s tools will do the heavy lifting by connecting you with publishers that align with your goals, handling all the transactions and payments, so you can focus on growing your business while we grow your affiliate programme.

If you're new to affiliate marketing, our is a great place to start, or you can who will be happy to walk you through everything.

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 networks make money by charging advertisers fees to run their affiliate programmes on the platform. The fees come in two forms:

1. a setup or access fee to join
2. a cut of the commission paid out to publishers

The second point is what makes affiliate networks invested in your success. When advertisers perform well and publishers drive more sales, the network earns more too. Some networks also charge monthly platform or technology fees depending on the level of service provided. At Awin, advertisers can choose between a full account management service or a technology-only option, the cost structure is flexible depending on the needs of your business. Full details on Awin's pricing can be found on our

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

Publishers earn money through affiliate marketing by promoting a brand's products or services to their audience, if someone makes a purchase, signs up or completes a form for example, then the publisher will get a commission.

And this works with any business model. Whether you run a blog, a social media account, a newsletter, a podcast or a YouTube channel, affiliate marketing gives you a way to earn from the audience you've already built.

Once you and get approved onto an advertiser's programme, you receive unique tracking links to place in your content. Commissions are paid directly into your account every time a desired action happens via your link.

Awin handles all the tracking and payments, there is full transparency of how much you earned and when its coming.

Commission structures vary depending on the programme, some pay a percentage of the purchase, others offer a fixed fee for a sale or a lead. For a full breakdown of how commission models work, take a look at our commission models FAQ.

Successful affiliates build genuine trust with their audience before they try to monetise it. You must consider first if the product or service aligns with your audiences' interests, or if this is a niche that your audience trusts your expertise in, before choosing a product simply based off commissions.

Relevance drives clicks, and clicks drive conversions. The affiliates who grow consistently treat their activity like a business, always monitoring their content to see what is performing, testing different formats and checking which affiliate programmes are converting.

Data matters, even at a small scale. Consistency is equally important. Building an engaged following takes time, and those who stick with it, refining their content and staying close to their audience, are the ones who see results compound.

covers everything from setting up your account to learning how to make best use of Awin’s tools and features.

Affiliate marketing must adhere to the same advertising standards as any other marketing channel, with IAB UK helping to set guidelines across the industry.

Within a network like Awin, compliance goes further. Publishers are vetted before joining, activity is monitored, and every participant must agree to Awin's network terms and conditions.

This creates a transparent working environment for both advertisers and publishers. For more details on the specifics of Awin’s compliancy, visit our

Affiliate marketing is best learned by doing, and having the right resources behind you makes a real difference. Awin has dedicated resources for both advertisers and publishers:

Advertisers can explore our , which covers everything from getting started on the platform to running a successful affiliate programme.

Publishers can head to covering account setup, tools and practical guidance on making the most of your affiliate activity.

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

When a customer interacts with multiple marketing channels before making a purchase, decides which one gets the credit.

For example, if a customer clicked an affiliate link, but then later converted through a paid search ad, without de-duplication, both channels could claim the sale. De-duplication rules, set by the advertiser, make sure the commission is only paid out once.

For publishers, it matters because it directly affects whether you get credited for a sale. Awin's tracking makes sure attribution is handled accurately within each advertiser's programme rules.

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. 

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.

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 programme, 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. 

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.

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.

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.

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

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.

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.

Ad-misplacement refers to ads appearing in environments that are inappropriate or unsafe for a brand, such as alongside harmful or irrelevant content. Yes, Awin has clear policies in place to prevent this.

All publishers must agree to Awin's terms and conditions as well as our Publisher Code of Conduct, which explains the standards expected around promotion and content environments. Publishers who violate these standards are subject to removal from the network.

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.

Join our platform via our simple sign up process here. Once approved, you can then apply to join individual advertiser programmes as you wish.

We accept publisher sites of all types, but your site must have a means of linking to an advertiser to promote their affiliate programme.  All publishers who apply to the Awin group 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 in order to verify your bank account details and minimise 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 teams to ensure the quality of publishers which 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 which allow you to personalise 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.  You can invite additional users to your account by logging into the interface and selecting “Invite User” under the “Account” tab. 

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 carries out payment runs on the 1st and 15th of every month.  If you have selected to be paid once a month then payments are made on the 15th of the month for commissions earned up to the previous 30th.

We offer payments via BACS, international wire transfer or ACH.  Awin can pay non-UK bank accounts by international wire transfer, ACH transfer, SEPA transfer and Domestic payments in NOK, SEK, DKK, PLN, CHF & AUD.  Your payment details need to be entered into your publisher account via the 'Account' section, and completing the Payment Details form.

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 worlds 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 which should be adhered to join the platform; however, each advertiser programme 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 programmes. 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.

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

The best affiliate marketing programme 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 programmes will work best for your brand.

You can find all 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 personalised 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.

All publishers have access to 'My Creative' which contains all banners and creative for the advertisers you are joined to.

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.

Yes, the API can be found here. For more information about using the API, please click here. 

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 optimise their site. All technology partners have been vetted for a trustworthy and effective solution.

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