Measuring your affiliate marketing success cannot be random observations. You ought to consider standard affiliate marketing metrics and use data.
Moreover, every successful affiliate program requires a strategic approach that involves tracking, analyzing, and optimizing affiliate marketing KPIs.
Hence, you must understand these metrics to make data-driven decisions.
The 19 affiliate marketing metrics and KPIs we have explored in this blog form an exhaustive list of all the essential measurements.
Following this, you can optimize, scale, and get the complete story of your affiliate marketing performance.
Automate affiliate tracking with Afflr and focus on metrics that drive real sales and ROI.
What are Affiliate Marketing Metrics?
Affiliate marketing metrics are measurable indicators that track the performance of your affiliate program to reveal how efficient they are.
These affiliate marketing success metrics are mostly quantifiable and numerical. Hence, it helps arrive at a precise decision.
Firstly, they help with identifying where your money is going and which affiliates deserve more investment.
Secondly, they reveal hidden problems that you may not otherwise realize.
Overall, they help build affiliate marketing strategies that drive you towards success.
The right metrics can convert vague impressions into actionable insights.
However, ensure the data you get from measuring affiliate marketing performance is accurate to avoid discrepancies.
Benefits of Measuring Metrics & KPI in Affiliate Marketing
Measuring metrics & KPI in affiliate marketing can help you answer the following questions:
- Is your affiliate program driving profitable growth?
- Which affiliate payout methods are motivating?
- Which influencer partnerships deliver the highest quality customers?
- Which affiliates might need additional support or training?
- Where should you direct more resources for higher results?
- Which affiliate commission model is incurring a loss?
Moreover, the importance of KPIs in affiliate marketing becomes clear when making budget decisions. Thus, you can optimize commission approval, streamline affiliate recruitment, etc.
When properly selected and monitored, affiliate marketing metrics can bring the best out of your partner programs.
19 Key Affiliate Marketing Metrics Every Brand Should Track
Here are some of the best affiliate marketing metrics every brand should track:
- Sales Revenue
- Net Profit
- ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
- ROI (Return on Investment)
- Cost per Sale (CPS)
- Cost per Lead (CPL)
- Profit Margin per Sale
- Conversion Rate (CR)
- Average Order Value (AOV)
- Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
- New vs. Returning Customers
- Revenue per click (RPC)
- Repeat Purchase Rate
- Click-Through Rate (CTR)
- Earnings Per Click (EPC)
- Active Affiliate Rate
- Top Affiliate Contribution
- Fraud Rate
- Reversed Sales Rate
1. Sales Revenue
This is one of the most straightforward affiliate marketing key metrics to track, as it simply reveals how much money your affiliate links are generating.
How to measure: You can calculate the total money generated through affiliate sales tracking over a specific period.
What it conveys: It shows the direct financial impact of your affiliate program. Thus, provides context for performance evaluation.
Advantage: If you measure this metric consistently over time, you can get a clear measure of program scale and growth possibility.
Limitation: However, it doesn’t account for costs, profitability, or quality of sales. Therefore, without proper context of the affiliate marketing data, it can be misleading.
2. Net Profit
Following sales numbers, for better marketing performance analysis, you must determine what profit you have made.
How to measure: You must subtract all costs (commissions, platform fees, product costs) from affiliate-generated revenue.
What it conveys: It reveals the actual money your business gets after all affiliate-related expenses.
Advantage: It helps to identify which affiliates and products deliver the highest bottom-line impact. Thus, you can enable better resource allocation.
Limitation: This digital marketing analytics can tell you whether you are making money. However, they don’t factor in all indirect costs or the long-term value of acquired customers.
3. ROAS (Return on Ad Spend)
ROAS is simple affiliate ROI tracking. It reveals the revenue you get for every dollar you spend on the affiliate program.
This is exactly what the main purpose of tracking tools in affiliate marketing is.
How to measure: To get this affiliate marketing ROI, divide revenue by your affiliate program costs. This shows you how many dollars you’re getting back for each dollar spent.
What it conveys: It shows how many dollars you earn for each dollar spent. In addition, you can also measure performance marketing benchmarks for each affiliate.
Advantage: It allows for direct comparison between different marketing channels or individual affiliates. Thus, helps justify affiliate program investments.
Limitation: This metric focuses only on revenue rather than profitability.
4. ROI (Return on Investment)
ROI focuses on profit, unlike ROAS, which focuses on revenue. Thus, these affiliate marketing metrics help you understand the true value your program creates.
To calculate affiliate marketing ROI:
ROI = [(Profit – Investment) / Investment] × 100%
Pro Tip: Use the affiliate marketing ROI calculator for quicker results.
What it conveys: This metric demonstrates the true profitability of your affiliate investments.
Advantage: You can get an accurate affiliate marketing percentage. Thus, helps secure continued budget approval.
Limitation: This affiliate monitoring system calculates profit accurately. However, it may not provide non-monetary benefits like brand awareness.
5. Cost per Sale (CPS)
By tracking affiliate program performance at this level, you see exactly how much each sale costs you.
In addition, if the sale is by a new customer, it also accounts for Customer acquisition cost (CAC). Thus, you can find two affiliate marketing metrics with one calculation.
How to measure: You can divide total affiliate program costs by the number of sales generated.
What it conveys: It indicates how efficiently your affiliate channel acquires customers, especially compared to other marketing channels.
Advantage: This tracking of customer acquisition cost in affiliate marketing can reveal which platform and affiliates bring more conversions.
Limitation: Unfortunately, it doesn’t distinguish between high-value and low-value customers or account for customer lifetime value.
6. Cost per Lead (CPL)
Not all affiliate marketing is about immediate sales. Some affiliate programs are for lead generation. Thus, this is one of the crucial metrics for affiliate marketing to measure.
How to measure: Divide the costs associated with lead-generating affiliates by the number of leads acquired (not necessarily sales).
What it conveys: It can reveal how effective your affiliate marketing lead generation is, rather than direct sales.
Advantage: These lead generation metrics can help evaluate the top-of-funnel affiliate activities.
Limitation: It requires additional tracking of lead quality and eventual conversion to sales for complete evaluation.
7. Profit Margin per Sale
Simply calculating total sales or net profit will not reveal full results. Hence, you should dig deeper and analyze the profit from each sale.
How to measure: Calculate the percentage of profit retained from each affiliate-generated sale after all costs.
What it conveys: This gives which affiliate marketing products offer the best profitability.
Advantage: It helps optimize product mix. Thus, you can sell slow-moving products and clear stocks.
Limitation: If you have varied profit margins or limited stock, then program-wide generalizations are difficult.
8. Conversion Rate (CR)
Your affiliate marketing conversion rate measures what percentage of affiliate visitors make a purchase. Thus, this is perhaps the most telling of all metrics.
How to measure: You can divide the number of completed desired actions (purchases, sign-ups) by total affiliate traffic.
What it conveys: It indicates how effectively affiliate traffic converts to actual customers or leads.
Advantage: Such metrics of affiliate marketing help you identify high-quality traffic sources. Thus, you can optimize affiliate landing pages for better engagement.
In addition, you can find ways to optimize click-through rates in affiliate programs.
Limitation: It doesn’t account for traffic quality or value of conversions. Thus, it needs industry and internal benchmarks for context.
9. Average Order Value (AOV)
While reviewing affiliate marketing performance metrics, you notice that although Affiliate A drives more sales than Affiliate B, the AOV from Affiliate B is nearly double (For example, $85 vs $45).
How to measure: Divide total affiliate revenue by the value of orders generated through an affiliate. Remember, you have to do this for every single affiliate.
What it conveys: It shows the purchasing power of the audience of the affiliate.
Advantage: It helps you make your affiliate management strategies better by identifying top-performing affiliates.
Limitation: It doesn’t reflect purchase frequency or customer loyalty. Thus, it can be messed up by really unusual or super big purchases.
Let Afflr auto-track your KPIs so you can scale with clarity and precision.
10. Customer Lifetime Value (CLV)
This KPI affiliate marketing metric looks beyond the first purchase to measure the customer’s worth over time.
How to measure: To calculate customer life time value, multiple the average purchase value and purchase frequency of the customer with average customer lifespan.
What it conveys: It tells which affiliates bring long-term, valuable customers versus one-time purchasers.
Advantage: You can make strategic decisions about higher commission rates for affiliates who bring high-value, loyal customers. Furthermore, turn these loyal customers into brand advocates.
Limitation: This online affiliate tracking system requires long-term data collection. Moreover, it involves complex calculations or projections. Therefore, you can use tools for tracking affiliate marketing metrics.
11. New vs. Returning Customers
These affiliate marketing metrics examples help you understand if affiliates are expanding your customer base or just redirecting existing customers.
How to measure: You can track and compare the percentage of first-time buyers versus repeat customers coming through affiliate links.
What it conveys: It can give you data on whether affiliates are expanding your customer base or primarily affecting existing customer journeys.
Advantage: Such metrics for affiliate success confirm if your customer referral programs are actually growing your business, or just changing how existing customers purchase.
Limitation: It can be hard to know where a customer really came from. Therefore, this tracking isn’t always clear.
12. Revenue per click (RPC)
Such advanced metrics of affiliate marketing estimate sales that wouldn’t have happened without your affiliate program.
This affiliate network reporting provides the average revenue from clicks of your referral links.
How to measure: You can divide the total money you made from affiliate clicks by the total number of clicks.
What it shows: It tells you how much money each click from an affiliate is really worth.
Advantage: You can find which affiliates bring in real money, not just clicks.
Limitation: When there is one big sale, RPC can look higher than it really is.
13. Repeat Purchase Rate
When analyzing your publisher performance metrics, identify how many customers you acquired through affiliate marketing who come back to shop. Additionally, measure how many times they come back.
How to measure: Calculate the percentage of affiliate-acquired customers who make additional purchases within a specific timeframe.
What it conveys: It indicates customer loyalty and the quality of customer relationships from different affiliate sources.
Advantage: You can find affiliate marketing publishers who bring customers with the highest potential for repeat business and loyalty.
Limitation: It requires extended tracking periods. Moreover, it may vary significantly by product type or category.
14. Click-Through Rate (CTR)
These marketing metrics for affiliate programs measure how often people click affiliate links after viewing them.
How to measure: You can get the influencer affiliate metrics by dividing the number of clicks on affiliate links by the number of impressions or views.
What it conveys: It shows how compelling affiliate promotions are at generating initial interest and engagement.
Advantage: It helps optimize influencer marketing. Hence, you can work on creative assets and promotional messaging to improve affiliate link performance.
Limitation: It doesn’t indicate the quality of traffic or the likelihood of conversion. Hence, it can be manipulated by misleading content.
15. Earnings Per Click (EPC)
Primarily, it is measured by affiliates to know their income. However, even business owners can use this.
It is a combination of two metrics in affiliate marketing: conversion rates and average order value. Consequently, you can know how much revenue each click generates.
How to measure: Divide the total money earned by an affiliate by the number of clicks on their affiliate links.
What it conveys: This online affiliate tracking system reveals how much is the value of a single affiliate. In addition, you can know their traffic quality and conversion effectiveness.
Advantage: It provides a comprehensive measure of affiliate quality. Thus, you can assess who is adding value to your word-of-mouth marketing campaign.
Limitation: This technique may become invalid if there are high-value outlier purchases.
16. Active Affiliate Rate
What if your metrics of the affiliate program show that only 35% of your registered affiliates drove traffic?
Additionally, this affiliate monitoring insight also suggests that most of your partners are disengaged.
This can bring down the overall morale of your marketing campaign. Thus, learning how to identify inactive affiliates and clean your program to focus on quality partners.
How to measure: You can calculate the percentage of registered affiliates who have driven traffic or sales in a given period.
What it conveys: This will indicate affiliate program engagement and efficiency in affiliate recruitment versus activation.
Advantage: This can help strategize better on how you sign up your affiliate marketing partners. Thus, avoid the continuous recruitment of inactive partners.
Limitation: It doesn’t account for affiliate quality. Consequently, a smaller number of active high-performers may be preferable to many low-performers.
17. Top Affiliate Contribution
The 80/20 rule of affiliate marketing reveals that 80% of your sales come from 20% of your affiliates. Hence, finding top performers using affiliate program metrics is important.
How to measure: You can calculate the percentage of total program revenue and compare it with revenue per affiliate to arrive at the result.
What it conveys: It identifies the dependency risks and concentration of performance within your affiliate program.
Advantage: It is mandatory to reduce over-dependence on top affiliates. Hence, with these metrics, you can craft risk mitigation strategies and strengthen relationships with special influencer partnerships.
Limitation: Such a high concentration may indicate program vulnerability rather than success if too dependent on a few partners.
18. Fraud Rate
While reviewing affiliate program analytics, if you spot unusual patterns, then you must take note immediately.
How to measure: Track suspicious patterns like abnormally high conversion rates or short click-to-purchase times.
What it conveys: It shows the fraudulent activities affiliates take up to earn more commission.
Advantage: You can protect your affiliate program’s profitability and integrity.
Limitation: Some legitimate high-performers may trigger false positives. Thus, you require careful investigation before action.
19. Reversed Sales Rate
In some cases, customers who purchased through an affiliate link might return. This affiliate marketing data suggests they might be using misleading claims to drive sales.
How to measure: You can calculate the percentage of affiliate sales that result in refunds, returns, or chargebacks. Following that, identify if there is are pattern to it.
What it conveys: It can show potential issues with affiliate promotion quality, misleading claims, or customer satisfaction.
Advantage: It helps identify affiliates using misleading tactics and protects brand reputation and customer experience.
Limitation: Some product categories naturally have higher return rates. Thus, measuring such Metrics for affiliate marketing requires industry benchmarking for context.
Use Afflr to monitor every click, conversion, and commission in one efficient dashboard.
Conclusion
The most successful brands know that metrics in affiliate marketing aren’t just numbers. They, indeed, are actionable insights that drive strategic decisions.
Therefore, by properly tracking affiliate marketing metrics KPIs, you get valuable guidance on optimizing your marketing strategy.
Consistency is what separates thriving affiliate programs from struggling ones. Hence, keep tracking affiliate programs and make informed, confident decisions for your business growth.
Further Reading
- How to Calculate Influencer Marketing ROI – A Complete Guide
- Affiliate Marketing Pros and Cons: Is It Right for You?
- Affiliate Disclosure Examples: Tips and Best Practices
- Quick Start Guide: Affiliate Marketing for Shopify Beginners
Frequenty Asked Questions:
KPI in affiliate marketing are specific metrics that can be mapped with your primary business objectives for results. Primarily, not all metrics are KPI in affiliate marketing.
To improve affiliate click-through rate, you can use messaging that addresses customer pain points and add strong CTAs. Following that, regularly test and experiment with content to boost affiliate CTR.
The best tools for tracking affiliate metrics are Afflr, Post Affiliate Pro, Refersion, and Tapfiliate. They track clicks, conversions, commissions, and automate payouts effectively.
To measure affiliate marketing performance, track key metrics like clicks, conversions, EPC, RPC, and ROI. Furthermore, identify top-performing affiliates and content to optimize your campaign.
A good affiliate marketing percentage is between 5% to 20%. However, the right percentage for your business depends on industry standards, profit margin, and affiliate nature.
