In simple terms, an affiliate commission is a payment that an affiliate receives for promoting someone else’s product or service and driving a sale or lead.
For example, let’s say you join an affiliate program for a company that sells fitness equipment. You promote their products on your website or social media accounts using a unique referral link that the company provides you. When someone clicks on your link and makes a purchase, you earn a commission on that sale.
What Is Affiliate Commission? Formal Explanation
An affiliate commission refers to the compensation paid to an affiliate marketer for promoting a product or service and driving a sale or lead. Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where an individual or company, referred to as an affiliate, partners with a business to promote their products or services in exchange for a commission or fee.
Example:
Let’s say John runs a fitness blog where he writes articles and reviews about different fitness equipment and supplements. John joins an affiliate program for a company that sells fitness equipment and supplements. The company offers John a 10% commission on any sales generated through his unique referral link.
John writes a review of the company’s new protein powder and includes his referral link in the review. One of John’s readers, Sarah, reads the review and clicks on John’s referral link to purchase the protein powder. The protein powder costs $50, so John earns a 10% commission of $5 on the sale.
In this scenario, John earned a commission for promoting the company’s product and driving a sale. The company benefited by generating a sale that they may not have otherwise received without John’s promotion. Affiliate commissions allow businesses to increase their sales and affiliate marketers like John to earn income by promoting products they believe to their audience.