If you are launching an affiliate campaign, how can you tell if your affiliate sales are meeting your expectations?
Affiliate marketing has gained popularity and is now regarded as a successful strategy for increasing sales. Brands can reach their business goals by working with affiliates and affiliates earn commission for each sale they bring.
However, to monitor the success of your affiliate program, you must set clear, measurable, and time-bound metrics. But which ones to choose? To help you decide, we have listed 15 affiliate marketing metrics.
Top 15 Affiliate Marketing Metrics for Advertisers
Businesses rely on affiliate marketing metrics to measure their progress toward their main goals. These metrics provide a clear picture of a company’s chance of success. Let’s look at the top 15 metrics for affiliate marketing.
1. ROAS
If a marketer or publisher is running advertisements, return in ad spend (ROAS) calculates the amount of money made for each dollar spent on promoting the campaign. ROAS helps in assessing the effectiveness of affiliate campaigns on website revenue. Affiliate marketers can look at this metric to compare it to other channels, and use it as a guide to budget.
2. Conversion Rate
Conversion rate measures the percentage of affiliate link clicks that result in purchases. This is one of the most commonly used affiliate marketing metrics. You can monitor this metric to find your top affiliates and compare the performance of each.
These rates can be influenced by factors such as the quality of affiliate content, the ease of use of the landing page, and whether the product meets the needs of the affiliate audience.
3. Revenue
To determine how financially successful your affiliate program is, you must monitor the total amount of generated revenue. You may need to change your strategy if your campaign is falling flat. Marketers can assess their affiliate marketing metrics and find the areas for improvement.
An affiliate tracking software like Trackier has a user-friendly dashboard that can help you view real-time updates on your revenue so you always know the performance of your campaign.
4. ROI
Return on investment (ROI) is the revenue generated from your affiliate program after you have covered the program expenses such as affiliate commissions or affiliate program software. This affiliate marketing metric helps in determining profitability, cost-effectiveness, resource allocation, and more.
5. Click Traffic
Click traffic calculates the total number of clicks that affiliate links have produced over a given period. This affiliate marketing metric helps in assessing the reach and engagement of the program.
6. Affiliate Commission Rate
The affiliate commission rate is the percentage of sales that an affiliate earns for each measurable action, such as clicks, leads, installs, or purchases. Commission rates can vary from 1% to 20% or more, depending on factors like product, brand, or industry.
7. Number of New Affiliates
This affiliate marketing metric shows the expansion and reach of an affiliate campaign. By monitoring the number of new affiliates you can evaluate the success of your recruiting efforts.
8. Customer Lifetime Value
Customer lifetime value (CLV) is the total revenue a company can expect from a single customer account throughout their relationship. This keeps track of every user interaction and transaction that takes place. CLV makes it easier to calculate how much you can afford to spend on getting customers through affiliate marketing.
9. Average Order Value
The average amount spent on each transaction is the Average order value (AOV). It is calculated by dividing total revenue by total orders. Your total revenue can be greatly increased by increasing your AOV. This affiliate marketing metric is about how much you can sell in a single transaction.
10. Cost Per Lead
Cost per lead (CPL) is the amount of money a company spends to obtain a single lead. A lead is a potential client who has expressed interest in a product or service by giving their contact details or taking a particular action. CPL is an affiliate marketing metric that helps scale lead generation efforts while controlling costs and determining the right commission rates.
11. Earnings Per Click
The amount generated for each click on the affiliate link is displayed by earnings per click (EPC). EPC helps in comparing the performance of different affiliate programs, allowing you to concentrate on the profitable prospects.
12. Click-Through Rate
This affiliate marketing metric gives the percentage of people who click on an affiliate link out of the total who viewed it. By looking at the CTR you can determine whether your affiliate content is appealing to your audience.
13. Rate of Return/Rate of Cancellation
The rate of return or cancellation represents the percentage of purchases that are canceled or returned after buying from an affiliate link. If the rate of return is more than 10%, it means there is something wrong with the affiliate program, perhaps their marketing strategy is failing or worse, they might be committing affiliate fraud. Top affiliate tracking software like Trackier offers a fraud prevention feature that helps in identifying and blocking suspicious activities.
14. Percentage of Click Active Affiliates
This affiliate marketing metric is a comparison between the total number of affiliates who have joined the program and the number of affiliates who are generating clicks. It is critical to review this percentage regularly to make sure that a large number of affiliates are bringing in conversion.
15. Percentage of Sale Active Affiliates
This is the ratio of affiliates generating sales or conversion to all affiliates who signed up for an affiliate program. This affiliate marketing metric helps in understanding how effectively the program is engaging affiliates and generating revenue.
Final Thoughts
Advertisers are increasingly collaborating with affiliates to promote their brands and drive sales, while affiliates continue to see the benefits of partnering with established brands. However, simply signing up for an affiliate program will be insufficient, it is important to monitor the affiliate marketing metrics and make adjustments that are crucial for success.
Remember that data is powerful when used, so make smarter decisions with these measurable metrics in 2025!
