How Much Do Affiliates Make? Fee Guide

How much affiliate marketers make depends on factors like experience level, product category, and commission model. Jeremiah Curvers, founder of Polysleep, says on Shopify Masters that one of his affiliates earns $2,000 a month by referring her interior design clients to the mattress brand.

For brands with affiliate programs, understanding the range of what participants make can help with budget planning and offering competitive rates. According to survey results from Impact’s 2025 Global State of Affiliate Marketing report, 30% of smaller companies (fewer than 50 employees) allocate 10% to 20% of their marketing budget to affiliate marketing.

In this guide, you’ll learn how much affiliate marketers earn, what drives affiliate earnings, and how to budget for your own affiliate marketing program.

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a marketing model where brands partner with third parties such as bloggers, content creators, and publishers to promote the brand’s products. The third-party affiliate partners create and publish content to their own audience and earn commission every time a customer clicks their affiliate link and completes a desired action, such as making a purchase or signing up for emails. 

How much do affiliates make?

Affiliate marketers make anywhere between $600 and $12,000 per month. Although multiple factors influence how much affiliates make, earnings can increase as creators build larger audiences, stronger traffic, and more established affiliate businesses. 

Affiliate marketers like Wirecutter, NerdWallet, and The Points Guy have entire teams of content creators and have built their audiences over more than a decade.

A widely cited Authority Hacker report surveyed more than 2,000 affiliate marketers to determine their average monthly earnings. Here are the results broken down by experience level:

• Average: $8,012 per month

• Less than one year: $636 per month

• One to two years: $4,196 per month

• Three to 10 years: $10,000 to $12,000 per month

Typical fees vary widely. Beyond experience level, several other factors impact how much brands pay affiliates:

• Niche. Product prices, market size, and market growth potential impact commission rates in different affiliate niches. A typical commission rate for digital products is 20% to 50%, compared to 5% to 15% for physical goods, for example.

• Commission structure. There are a handful of common commission structures brands can choose from, ranging from paying affiliates a fixed percentage of each sale to recurring commissions for subscription-based products.

• Conversion rate. The percentage of customers who complete a desired action after clicking an affiliate link directly impacts affiliate commission. It is one of the most important affiliate marketing metrics, as high conversion rates mean more commission.

How affiliates get paid

Affiliates earn commissions when a customer completes a desired action, such as clicking a link or making a purchase. Those actions need to be tracked for accurate attribution and timely payments. Businesses use affiliate marketing software to track commissions, pay creator partners, and automate tasks for efficiency. 

Common commission structure models for brands selling affiliate products include:

• Pay-per-sale. The affiliate earns a percentage of each sale. This model aligns with store owners who want to clearly tie affiliate commissions directly to sales revenue.

• Pay-per-click. The affiliate earns a small fee for each click their link generates; fees don’t depend on whether the customer actually makes a purchase. This model aligns with store owners focused on driving traffic and brand awareness.

• Pay-per-lead. The affiliate earns a fixed fee each time a referred visitor completes a desired action, such as signing up for an email list or starting a free trial. This can align with businesses that have longer sales cycles, where the purchase doesn’t happen immediately after the first visit, such as high-ticket items or services that require research.

• Recurring commissions. The affiliate earns an ongoing percentage for as long as a customer stays subscribed or active with a business. This model aligns with subscription-based businesses.

Shopify Collabs allows you to create different commission levels based on affiliate performance. You can build out programs that allow content creators to move up the commission structure ladder as they hit sales goals.

How to budget for affiliate commissions

• Look at your net profit margins
• Set your commission rate
• Consider commission tiers
• Factor in product seeding
• Use affiliate marketing software

A full budget for your affiliate marketing efforts should account for factors like your industry, performance incentives for top affiliates, product seeding costs, and program management expenses:

Look at your net profit margins

How much commission you can offer is tied to your net profit margins, or the profit remaining after business expenses like cost of goods sold (COGS), operating expenses, and taxes are factored in. Higher net profit margins mean both parties benefit: You turn a profit while still attracting affiliates with competitive commission rates.

Set your commission rate

Commission rates vary by industry, but they generally fall from 5% up to 30%. Across product categories, commission rates often land in these ranges:

• Physical goods (e.g., fashion, home, beauty): 5% to 15% per sale

• Digital products and online courses: 20% to 50% per sale

• Subscription services: 15% to 30% recurring commission payments (for as long as a customer is subscribed)

• B2B software and services: 10% to 30% of the first contract value

• High-ticket items (e.g., furniture, mattresses): 3% to 8% per sale

Consider commission tiers

Tiered commissions can incentivize affiliates and keep them working with your business, allowing you to build long-term, mutually beneficial relationships. Under this model, commission rates increase as an affiliate hits higher sales goals. 

For example, you might set 5% as the commission rate for 10 sales per month, 10% for 11 to 25 sales, and 20% beyond that for super affiliates. This option can be a fit for brands that want to incentivize volume.

Factor in product seeding

Product seeding, or sending free products to creators before any commission relationship is established, is a way to build relationships and encourage authentic content that can be transitioned into an affiliate program. 

For example, Laura Thompson, cofounder of natural skin care brand Three Ships, built up her affiliate program through seeding. On an episode of the Shopify Masters podcast, she says that people will post about the product if they really love it, which works well because it’s built on authenticity. Once they post, Three Ships sets them up with an affiliate code to start earning commissions.

Akram Abdallah, founder of jewelry brand Nominal, says on Shopify Masters that seeding is a cost-effective way of building credibility. Akram says that the only costs the business incurs when seeding products are the cost of the product and the cost of shipping. 

Use affiliate marketing software

When every commission is automatically attributed to a creator and recorded in one place by affiliate management software, you can see how much you’re paying each affiliate and the outcome each partner is generating in return. 

That data is what makes it possible to figure out things like which affiliates justify a higher commission tier, which are underperforming relative to their payout, and where to adjust rates to ensure you are still within budget and generating profit.

Popular affiliate marketing apps for Shopify stores include:

• Shopify Collabs. Keep track of custom commission structures, manage product gifting and discount codes, and recruit affiliates.

• Affiliatly. Set custom commission for different affiliate tiers, track sales by email, SKU, coupon code, and links.

• Post Affiliate Pro. Sales tracking that tracks links, pixels, cookies, and IP referrals, and gives you an overview of your commissions and costs.

• Impact. A larger affiliate platform that connects brands with an established network of partners, automates performance tracking at scale, and can track complex commission structures.