Affiliate marketing is simply a way for your brand to partner with websites or platforms (aka affiliates) who promote your products by recommending them to their audience.

When they drive a sale, they earn a small commission - so you only pay for actual results.

It’s one of the few marketing channels where spend is directly guaranteed to performance, making it a reliable and measurable way to drive revenue through trusted exposure.

It’s as simple as: you onboard affiliate partners onto your “affiliate network” and they generate a unique tracked link to promote your products, which they share with their audience - whether that’s in content, social posts, or on-site features.

When a customer clicks through and makes a purchase, the link tracks the journey, so you know exactly which partner drove the sale - meaning commission is only paid where it’s genuinely earned.

An affiliate network acts as the middleman, connecting your brand with affiliate partners.

It handles all the behind-the-scenes essentials - from tracking sales, reporting performance, to managing payments. So you can easily work with multiple partners and build up a portfolio that represents your brand.

Popular networks include AWIN, Partnerize, Impact and Rakuten Advertising - each with its own strengths depending on your goals.

For brands, affiliate marketing is a low-risk, cost-effective way to grow sales. You only pay when a sale happens (and is kept, not returned), so every pound spent is tied to real profitable results.

It also expands your reach, getting your products in front of new audiences through trusted partners, and can often deliver stronger ROI than other channels like PPC or paid social.

Essentially, it’s a way to scale your business efficiently while keeping costs and risk under control.

Whether you’re looking to launch a programme from scratch, optimise an existing one or just explore how it could fit into your wider marketing mix, the first step is to reach out.

Drop me an email and we’ll talk through your goals, challenges and the best way to set up an affiliate strategy that works for your brand.