FAQs

The Awin Group consists of Awin (formerly Affiliate Window, affilinet and zanox), Commission Factory and ShareASale.  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 javascript sent from a website that stores information on a user's computer, within a web browser, while the user is browsing.  For affiliate marketing, cookies are the mechanism that allows a network to understand the click time and advertiser that sales are being driven for.

An affiliate publisher is a website owner or business that earns commission for referring sales to an advertiser by using affiliate links. 

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.

'Cost Per Acquisition' or CPA is the amount  an advertiser would be willing to pay for an acquisition/lead. The cost per acquisition may be set as a percentage or fixed value, and is also a metric used to monitor performance and to set targets to.  This method ensures advertisers are paying publishers for successful transactions.

‘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 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 are tracked through the use of cookies.  When a user clicks on your affiliate link, a cookie is dropped on their browser.  Once they complete a purchase on the advertiser's site, Awin tracking code will fire from the confirmation page and record a sale in our interface.

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.

According to the most recent research into the industry, over 80% of brands are using affiliate marketing to drive sales. On the Awin network, there are over 30,000 active merchants working in over 180 countries around the globe. 

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 marketing helps your business by giving you access to professional marketers (affiliate publishers), giving you a chance to expose your product to new audiences, offering you a cost-effective method with a good ROI and helping you to save time on marketing that you can spend on other aspects of your business.

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.

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.

It’s important to be transparent and follow the network policy. Awin’s compliance team monitors all activity to prevent unethical activities and to ensure a fair space for both advertisers and publishers to operate in. Awin includes terms and conditions in all our contracts and publishers also need to accept network terms and conditions when joining the network. 

We do not use the data for any targeting or marketing. The data stored by Awin is used to apportion sales and commission payments.

Legitimate interest. Affiliate marketing is generally light touch in terms of the personal data collected which is typically limited to IP address and customer order reference.

There is no current affiliate marketing certification. Awin, however, adheres to the self-regulatory framework the industry has created including codes of conduct regarding different types of affiliate activity.

All publishers have to undergo a manual and automated series of checks prior to joining Awin. The business also requires a nominal fee in order to verify their identity. The fee is reimbursed in the publisher's first payment. In addition, advertisers can manually approve all publishers to their affiliate campaign as well as set additional terms and conditions. All publishers are bound by the network's standard contract as well as an additional publisher agreement. Awin also has a series of proprietary and third-party tools in order to monitor ongoing performance.

Awin provides a reporting interface that includes a breakdown of each publisher's activity including clicks, impressions and sales. Where applicable revenue is also tracked back to individual publishers providing return on investment data.

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.

We are monitoring whether we need to be included. As the framework is primarily focused on the programmatic industry, it isn't necessarily the best fit for our business.

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.

Login via this page.  From here, fill in the form for 'create a new publisher account,' completing all fields within the signup form. Once the form is complete, it can take up to 48 hours for your Awin account to become active after creation.

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 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.

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 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.