⏰Last Updated on 01/09/25
Affiliate marketing is a win-win strategy for both brands and marketers. Businesses can tap into a new revenue stream, while affiliates get the chance to earn money by promoting products without the need to own them.
However, have you known that affiliate marketers aren’t just influencers or bloggers? Affiliate types are diverse. They can work from anywhere, drive traffic, and boost sales for brands without owning a website or even showing their face. Pretty amazing, right?
So, how do affiliates make that happen? The answer lies in the different channels they can use as traffic sources for affiliate marketing.
In this article, we’ll explain what affiliate traffic sources are, highlight 5 common ways affiliates generate traffic and sales.
Our list of affiliate traffic sources includes:
Let’s dive in!
What Is An Affiliate Marketing Traffic Source?
An affiliate marketing traffic source refers to the platform, channel, or method an affiliate uses to attract potential leads and customers and direct them toward a merchant’s products or services.
Simply put, imagine your online store is a physical shop selling fashion items, beauty products, tech gadgets, home tools, etc. Affiliates act like guides, using different ways (traffic sources), like their websites, social media accounts, or email lists, to help buyers quickly find and walk into your place.
5 Common Types of Affiliate Marketing Traffic Sources
Most business owners are familiar with collaborating with bloggers, influencers, and brand ambassadors.
But affiliate marketing isn’t just about them.
There are many types of affiliates, each using different ways to promote a brand and drive traffic.
Understanding how affiliates attract visitors to a merchant’s site is key to making the most of affiliate marketing.
Here’s a breakdown of the 5 main types of affiliate marketing traffic sources:
1. Social media
Did you know that as of 2024, 5.22 billion people—63.8% of the world’s population—were social media users? This makes social media platforms a goldmine for reach and engagement, especially for those looking to make money online—like affiliate marketers.
You’ve probably seen influencers and brand ambassadors using their social media accounts to talk about products they love or endorse.
Some popular ones they’re using:
Facebook is by far the biggest of the social media platforms, with 2.7 billion users. It’s still the go-to network for affiliate marketers, with 75.8% using it to drive traffic and promote products.
Here’s what they can do to bring visitors to a store’s website:
- Post engaging product reviews, tutorials, or testimonials on their accounts.
- Use Facebook stories to share limited-time promotions or product highlights with eye-catching visuals and direct links.
- Create niche-specific Facebook pages to share valuable content and affiliate links.
- Join or create Facebook Groups related to their field to share affiliate links within a community of interested users.
Instagram is a social media platform that specializes in photo and video sharing, with about 2 billion monthly active users access globally by early 2024.
Instagram’s visual content formats—images, videos, and livestreams—let affiliates, particularly influencers, easily show shoppers detailed product information to a wide reach of users.
When recommending products on the platform, affiliates usually do the following things:
- Include their affiliate links or affiliate discount codes on their posts.
- Add their affiliate links or discount codes on their Instagram stories.
- Link brand websites with their Instagram’s reels
- Direct followers to brand websites from the links in the bio.
YouTube
Have you ever watched a YouTuber talk about a product and say, “Check the link in my description box below”? That’s video affiliate marketing in action!
Using YouTube, affiliates can promote your brand and drive traffic to your store’s website in different ways:
- Create reviews or unboxing videos that highlight product features and share personal experiences.
- Make how-to guides to show the practical uses of your products.
- Include affiliate links or coupon codes in video descriptions or pinned comments to direct viewers to your store.
LifebyMikeG is a YouTube channel created by Mike Greenfield, a home cook and video content creator.
He enjoys sharing recipes and kitchen tips to help people improve their cooking skills. With engaging videos, his channel has attracted over 4 million subscribers. And, of course, he also often adds affiliate links for the kitchen and home tools he uses in the description section of his episodes.
TikTok
TikTok is a popular platform for affiliate marketing. Its short-form video format—featuring trending sounds, hashtags, and challenges—makes it easy for content to go viral. The platform’s algorithm is also designed to push new content to wider audiences, helping affiliates quickly reach potential customers and drive traffic to brands, especially D2C (Direct-to-Consumer) businesses.
Here’s how affiliates can leverage the platform to drive customer purchases:
- Use a link-in-bio tool, like Linktree and Linkpop. It lets TikTok creators organize multiple affiliate links in one place.
- Share affiliate promo codes with their audience. These can be integrated into a TikTok video by displaying it on-screen, mentioning it in their voice-over, including it in the video caption, or leaving it in the video’s comments to encourage followers to use and make purchases.
- Create a multiplatform funnel. Affiliates can drive TikTok viewers to your website or platforms like Instagram and YouTube for detailed product info and multiple affiliate link touchpoints.
X
Affiliate marketers prefer social networks that are currently in demand to promote brands and products. So, X (formerly Twitter), with over 400 million users worldwide as of early 2024, is also a wonderful channel for them to do just that.
Using X, they can:
- Post tweets with direct links to items, leveraging hashtags and trending topics.
- Create a thread of linked posts to showcase product roundups, lists, comparisons, or reviews.
Don’t overlook the power of Pinterest in affiliate marketing. It’s more than a social media platform—it’s a visual search engine where people discover, save, and share ideas and inspiration through “pins”—images, videos, or links—organized by keywords and categories
With over 535 million active monthly users, Pinterest is a great place for affiliates to capture traffic and drive it to a merchant’s website.
With Pinterest, here are some ways affiliate marketers can promote a brand:
- Put affiliate links directly as the attached URL in their pins, making it easier for people to find and buy things.
- Direct pins to affiliate landing pages, product pages, or blog posts with embedded affiliate links.
Podcast Platforms
Podcasts are becoming more popular than ever because they’re easy to listen to while multitasking or on the go. Many podcasters have built loyal audiences who tune in regularly.
As of 2024, there are about 4.25 million podcasts worldwide, with over 504.9 million listeners. Popular platforms include Spotify, Apple Podcasts, Stitcher, and Castbox.
As skilled storytellers, podcasters can make great affiliates and promote your brand in ways that feel personal and relatable. Here’s how they can help spread the word about your products:
- Talk about your products during episodes, sharing their features and benefits in a conversational way.
- Invite niche guests to share their thoughts about your products.
- Use host-read ads to make promotions sound natural and engaging.
- Include affiliate links or discount codes in episode descriptions for easy access.
Take The Lavendaire Lifestyle, a popular podcast hosted by Aileen Xu, as an example. The show inspires listeners to grow personally, and design lives they love.
Through expert interviews and personal reflections, Aileen shares practical advice to help her audience improve their well-being. She also includes affiliate links and coupon codes in her recommendations, giving fans easy access to her suggested products. It looks like this:
Twitch
Twitch is one of the largest platforms for live streaming, especially in gaming. Millions of people come here to watch and broadcast live gameplay, chat with streamers, and join online communities. But Twitch isn’t just for gaming—it also has music, talk shows, art, and IRL (In Real Life) streams.
Thanks to its interactive nature and real-time engagement, Twitch is a great place for streamers and content creators to become affiliates. They can promote brands and drive potential customers by sharing affiliate links or discount codes in:
- Their profile bios
- Panels below their streams
- Stream descriptions
Reddit is a social media platform and online community where users can share content, discuss topics, and vote on posts. It’s divided into subreddits—smaller communities focused on specific interests such as news, hobbies, gaming, and more.
Even though Reddit has strict rules against direct advertising, it can still be a good traffic source for any business. Affiliates can join niche subreddits. Then, they can discuss, answer questions, and share product recommendations in a friendly, natural way.
Quora
Quora is a question-and-answer platform where people ask questions, share answers, and discuss all kinds of topics. It’s a place where experts and enthusiasts share insights, tips, and experiences, making it a helpful resource for learning and solving problems.
Affiliates can use Quora to answer questions related to their niche, offering helpful solutions that naturally lead to affiliate products. They can also include links to their website, newsletter, or affiliate offers in their profile bios to attract more clicks.
2. Website/Blog
Websites and blogs are also great traffic sources for affiliate marketing alongside social media.
Many affiliates use these channels to share helpful and engaging content that answers what people are looking for online. They also focus on SEO (search engine optimization) to help their content show up higher in search results, bringing in steady, organic traffic. Well-placed affiliate links fit naturally into the content, making it easy for readers to visit brand websites and buy something.
Some popular types of websites and blogs used in affiliate marketing are:
Personal Blogs
You’re probably familiar with this type of site—most of us call the owner a “blogger.” Bloggers often write regularly on their websites, sharing personal stories or covering topics they’re passionate about, like fashion, beauty, travel, and more, usually in a conversational tone.
Bloggers who join affiliate programs promote a brand’s products by weaving affiliate links into their posts—just like Emily, who built a blog, “Emily Elizabeth May,” to share personal stories about self-care and tips for creating a mindful wardrobe.
Sometimes, Emily’s readers find posts where she shares skincare tips. She features beauty products she’s tried with discount codes or links to the brand’s website, like this:
Coupons or Deals Websites
Such sites are perfect for deal-hunting shoppers. They feature discounts, promo codes, and exclusive promotions from various retailers and brands.
Bringing them into your affiliate program can be a game-changer—they help attract more visitors and boost sales on your store’s website by:
- Feature active coupons and hot deals prominently on their websites to attract budget-conscious buyers.
- Send regular newsletters that showcase the latest savings opportunities, including your offers.
For instance, RetailMeNot is among the largest coupon and deal sites. It shows all promotions from thousands of retailers in various industries. When shoppers find a good deal for what they want and click on it, they will immediately be led to the brand’s online store.
Comparison shopping engines
Comparison shopping engines are platforms where people compare prices, features, and reviews of products from different retailers in one place to find the best deals before shopping. Popular examples include Google Shopping, Shopzilla, and PriceGrabber.
These sites display listings for similar products across various stores, organized by categories. Shoppers can click a product link to visit the retailer’s site for more details or to buy it.
Content or Niche Websites
A content or niche website typically focuses on a specific audience or topic (e.g., fitness tips, vegan recipes, or travel guides). It’s designed to provide helpful information or educational content that solves problems or answers questions within that niche, making it highly relevant to a targeted group of users.
Both types are effective for affiliate marketing. They attract traffic via SEO, blogs, tutorials, and reviews. So, they are great for promoting products and generating brand revenue.
For example, Healthline is a trusted health and wellness website that provides medically reviewed articles, guides, and tips on topics like nutrition, fitness, mental health, and disease management. From there, health-conscious readers can also find reliable health products by featuring trusted brands right in the articles.
3. Paid advertising
You might be more familiar with how most affiliates focus on search engine optimization (SEO) and build content on websites or blogs to win organic traffic or leverage their social media followers to drive free traffic to a brand.
However, both methods take time to grow. That’s why some affiliates turn to paid ads as a faster way to reach the right audience and bring in traffic immediately.
Affiliates can “buy” their way into potential customers’ screens through:
Paid Search Advertising
Affiliates can pay search engines to place their ads higher on SERPs like Google, Bing, or Yahoo. The goal is to drive traffic to their sites.
To be more specific, they bid on particular keywords that potential customers are searching for, and their ads appear at the top or bottom of the search results. These ads are often marked as sponsored ads.
For example, an affiliate promoting fitness products might bid on keywords like “best protein powder” or “top workout supplements” to attract people actively looking for those items. When users click the ads, they are directed to the affiliate’s landing page or content, which includes affiliate links that lead to the merchant’s site.
Paid Social Advertising
Affiliates can pay to show ads on social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TikTok, LinkedIn, and Pinterest to reach potential buyers. These ads come in various formats: images, videos, carousels, stories, and reels. They are designed to catch users’ attention as they scroll through their feeds.
With advanced targeting options, affiliates can reach specific audiences based on demographics, interests, behaviors, and even engagement history. Clicking the ad leads users to the affiliates’ posts for more product details, increasing the chances of visiting the merchant’s site and making a purchase.
Paid Display Advertising
Affiliates can also invest in visual ads. These include banners, videos, and interactive formats. They are placed across websites, apps, and video platforms to attract buyers.
These ads often run through ad networks like Google Display Network, AdRoll, or Criteo. They target users based on browsing behavior, demographics, or interests using cookies and retargeting.
When users click these ads, they’re redirected to the merchant’s site via the affiliate’s tracking link. Affiliates earn commissions if their referrals result in sales or actions.
4. Email marketing
Email remains a powerful tool for affiliate marketing, even with many alternatives available. With 4 billion daily users and over 85% checking email daily, it’s highly effective. Partnering with email publishers can help you reach niche audiences. They do this through product-focused emails, newsletters, and seasonal promotions.
For example, Tim Ferriss’s “5-Bullet Friday” delivers quick tips and favorites. It’s a great way to promote productivity tools, lifestyle products, or books.
5. Mobile traffic
Mobile traffic might seem new to you.
But here’s the truth—by 2021, roughly 7.1 billion people worldwide had mobile phones, with that number expected to reach 7.49 billion by 2025. By the last quarter of 2023, mobile devices (excluding tablets) accounted for 58.67% of global website traffic.
With so much mobile traffic, businesses have a great opportunity to implement marketing strategies, including affiliate marketing. Many affiliate marketers are already tapping into the growing mobile market to promote products, drive sales to brands, and earn money.
Below are a few types of mobile traffic you should take a look at:
Mobile Web
Mobile web refers to internet content that is specifically designed or optimized for access on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Simply put, users can browse websites, read content, and interact with online platforms through mobile browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Firefox.
With high mobile usage, as mentioned above, the mobile web has become a powerful traffic source for brands that create fast, mobile-friendly websites and landing pages.
Affiliate marketers are already making the most of this trend. They use the mobile web to attract visitors, capture leads, and drive sales by adding affiliate links to mobile web ads, blogs, and images—making it easy for mobile users to click and take action.
In-app Traffic
In-app traffic refers to user activity and interactions that happen within mobile applications rather than web browsers. It includes any form of engagement, such as viewing ads, clicking links, making purchases, or using app features, all of which happen inside the app environment. For example:
- Buyers browse and buy products inside shopping apps.
- Users interact with ads in gaming apps to earn in-game rewards
- People engage with ads in utility apps, such as weather, finance, or fitness tracking apps.
In the context of affiliate marketing, affiliates will place ads within mobile applications to attract users to click on these ads and direct them to external landing pages, e-commerce sites, and app stores, encouraging actions such as signing up, installing, or purchasing products.
SMS/MMS
SMS (Short Message Service) and MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) let you send text and multimedia content through mobile networks.
SMS is great for quick, text-only messages (usually up to 160 characters), while MMS lets you send images, videos, and audio along with text. Both are popular tools for businesses to share updates and run marketing campaigns.
In affiliate marketing, brands can team up with affiliates to promote products, services, or special offers directly through SMS or MMS messages sent to their contact lists.
- With SMS: Send discount offers with affiliate links to product pages. Promote flash sales and limited-time deals. Share alerts and reminders about events and webinars.
- With MMS: Product showcases with images or videos to attract attention. Event invitations with colorful banners and CTAs. Coupons and QR codes to encourage quick purchases.
Push Notifications
A push notification is a clickable message sent directly to a user’s mobile device through an app. It serves as a way to engage users in real-time and drive actions like clicks, purchases, or app usage. What’s great is that the messages can pop up even when the app isn’t open, making it a smart tool for driving mobile traffic and conversions.
In recent years, push notifications have turned into a powerful advertising format that both brands and affiliates can rely on. Affiliate marketers, in particular, use them to send clickable messages with affiliate offers to users who have opted in to receive them.
App Installs
App installs are just what they sound like—users downloading and setting up an app or game on their phones or tablets.
App developers often team up with affiliates to grow their user base and revenue. They run promotions to boost engagement and encourage people to try the app. Affiliates promote the app via blogs, social media, ads, emails, or push notifications, using unique tracking links.
When users click the links and download the app from an app store (e.g., Google Play or Apple App Store), affiliates earn commissions based on the installs they generate.
Wrapping Up
As you’ve seen, there are many ways affiliates can promote your products and drive traffic and sales to your brand. Their main goal is to attract potential customers to your website and encourage purchases to earn commissions. The best part? You only pay affiliates for the actual sales they generate, regardless of the approach they use.
Social media, blogs, and email marketing work well for organic growth. Paid advertising delivers faster results. Mobile traffic is key to reaching modern, on-the-go consumers.
We hope this guide has given you useful insights into common traffic sources for affiliate marketing. To maximize your results, consider partnering with a variety of affiliates who leverage different channels—like podcasters, coupon and deal sites, email publishers, and mobile marketers. Don’t limit yourself to just influencers or bloggers. Diversify your affiliate network to expand your reach and revenue.
