What Is Affiliate Marketing and How to Get Started

Written by Coursera Staff • Updated on Nov 6, 2024

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Affiliate marketing allows you to act as a third party to advertise products and earn a commission. Explore the ins and outs of affiliate marketing and how you can start doing it yourself.

Affiliate marketing is a marketing model in which third-party publishers promote a merchant’s goods or services and receive a percentage of the sales or web traffic generated as a result. It is typically considered a key part of modern digital marketing. 

Affiliate marketing appeals to businesses because it enables them to meet their marketing goals at a low cost. It benefits affiliates by allowing them to earn income simply by promoting products they use and enjoy themselves. Generating affiliate income requires developing a platform and building an online audience. In addition, it’s essential to stay current with affiliate marketing industry trends. New technologies like generative AI, new social platforms like TikTok, and shifts in consumer behavior over time will change how you interact with your audience and how they react to you. 

Keep reading to explore this career path, how affiliate marketing works, and how to begin your affiliate marketing journey. If you’re ready to start building skills in this field, consider enrolling in the Meta Social Media Marketing Professional Certificate.

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What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a revenue-sharing marketing method in which a third-party affiliate, such as a blogger, YouTuber, or influencer, advertises a business’s goods or services to help it meet sales or marketing goals. In return for generating sales, the affiliate earns commissions or rewards. A business might work with an affiliate to achieve the following:

• Increase sales
• Attract more web traffic
• Improve brand awareness
• Connect with the affiliate’s audience

For example, a shoe company could partner with a fitness blogger to reach the blogger’s audience of fitness-minded readers. Through the blogger’s efforts, the shoe company could experience more site visitors and boost sales. Some of the new customers could go on to become long-term subscribers.

Amazon affiliate marketing program

Amazon Associates, Amazon’s affiliate marketing program and one of the largest such programs in the world, boasts tens of thousands of affiliates earning up to 10 percent commission on qualifying referrals [1].

What makes affiliate marketing attractive is that businesses can partner with affiliates at a low cost. Typically, businesses offer their affiliate marketing partners such rewards or compensation as:

• Commissions (percentage of the sales)
• Free products and samples
• Exclusive rewards
• Networking opportunities
• Access to training or education

While revenue-sharing is not a new marketing concept, modern affiliate marketing usually refers to online digital marketing in which affiliates link to a business’s product or service online and receive a percentage of sales or web traffic. 

How does affiliate marketing work?

Affiliate marketing involves a relationship between four main actors: the affiliate, the merchant, the affiliate network, and the customer. Each plays a unique part in the marketing process:

• The affiliate (or “publisher”): This is an individual or entity that promotes the merchant’s product or service.

• The merchant: This is an individual or entity selling the product or service that the affiliate promotes. 

• The affiliate network: A network serves as an intermediary between an affiliate and a merchant’s affiliate program. While affiliates and merchants can connect without an affiliate network, it is a common channel for such relationships.