FAQs: How Much Commission Should I Offer Affiliates?
How much commission should you offer an affiliate? Avelon looks into the average across each industry.
This article has been updated from our previous article to include more up to date statistics. We have merged this article with the other, but if you'd like to read the original article, just click here.
Deciding on your commission structure for affiliates can be complicated. Offer too little and affiliates won't want to work with you, but offering too much will reduce your profit margin. We look at the average commission percentages across every industry, to ensure you're on the right path.
In this article, we look at:
- What's the average commission offered to affiliates?
- Should I change my commission for different affiliates?
- Affiliate commission calculator
Note: this is a short, concise article that gets right to the point. If you'd like to read what percentage of my total sales revenue should come from affiliate marketing, please click here.
What's the average commission offered to affiliates?
The below table gives an overview of the average commission offered across the course of a year by the industries we work within:
This table is pretty bare bones, but gives a good explanation. Be aware there are months where average commissions change slightly, such as during Black Friday and the New Year, and we recommend altering your affiliate strategy to work alongside this.
Should I change my commission for different affiliates?
We highly recommend commencing with affiliates on a trial period of a lower commission percentage, then bumping them up and offering rewards for achieving certain sales numbers. We've taken some data from how 15 of our top affiliate programs alter their commissions for affiliates, depending on their worth to the program, below:
The above is a manual process, and requires a member of your team to manually change their commission structures and keep an eye on the program.
Affiliate Commission Calculations
Unlike other affiliate networks, Avelon charges no onboarding, upfront, monthly or override fees. We designed the platform to give advertisers the insight and confidence to pay affiliates what they're worth.
With the huge upfront costs attributed to other networks, the average commission payment for Affiliates in 2022 is just 3%. With Avelon, you're able to offer 2 - 5 times the average commission payment than other affiliate networks, and still retain a better margin.
We have included our recommendations based on a product margin below for an AOV of £62.50.
| Average order value | Margin % on product | Commission % | Final payment | NET profit |
| £62.50 | 20% | 5% | £3.13 | £9.38 |
| £62.50 | 30% | 10% | £6.25 | £12.50 |
| £62.50 | 40% | 15% | £9.38 | £15.63 |
| £62.50 | 50% | 20% | £12.50 | £18.75 |
| £62.50 | 60% | 25% | £15.63 | £21.88 |
And again below, based on the higher end of the spectrum for an average order value of £1500.00.
| Average order value | Margin % on product | Commission % | Final payment | NET profit |
| £1500.00 | 20% | 5% | £75.00 | £225.00 |
| £1500.00 | 30% | 8% | £120.00 | £330.00 |
| £1500.00 | 40% | 11% | £165.00 | £435.00 |
| £1500.00 | 45% | 13% | £195.00 | £480.00 |
How much money can an affiliate make in the UK?
The answer: how long is a piece of string. The amount of money an affiliate can make in the UK depends on a huge variety of factors, such as the industry they're working within, whether they earn bonuses, work with brands on a CPC basis or even how long they've been working as an affiliate.
We've included a list of resources below to help you understand all of these factors:
Avelon Team
Avelon TeamAvelon TeamAvelon TeamIf you have any questions, or require help delivering an affiliate strategy for your team, be sure to get in contact via hello@avelonetwork.com.