The use of publisher types in reporting provides valuable insights into the effectiveness of marketing strategies across different segments of the brand's audience, enabling informed decision-making and targeted optimizations to maximize campaign performance and ROI.
Publishers will often fit into multiple categories. They may have coupon, loyalty, and content on their sites. For this reason it is important to keep in mind this list is a basic framework, not a one-size fits all.
Different programs may classify each publisher differently based on the industry vertical and the program's strategy (how publishers are utilized within the program). Generally, the categorization of publishers by the brand depends on factors such as how the publishers drive traffic to the brand's site, where and how they feature the brand, and the success of their campaigns.
NOTE: There are multiple interchangeable terms used for publishers.
Publisher = Pub = Affiliate = Media = Partner
To make things even more confusing, there are also different terms used for the same types and categories of publishers.
Publisher Categories
Jump to: B2B / Small Business - Buy Now Pay Later / BNPL - Cart Abandonment - Loyalty / Rewards / Incentive - Closed Portal - Content - Content Portfolio / Super Publishers - Coupons / Deals / Voucher - CLO / Card-Linked Offers - CSS - CTV / Connected TV - Domain Recovery / Redirect - Email Marketing - Employee Benefits / Corporate Benefits - Finance / Fintech - Influencer - Lead Generators - Media Buyers - Mobile/Tablet Application - Niche / Mid to Longtail Content - Offline - Search / Paid Search - Podcast - Price Comparison - Registry - Retargeting / Remarketing - Review Sites - SEO - Service Provider / Strategic B2B - Shopping Communities / Shopping Sites - Technology / Software / Conversion Tech / On-Site Optimization - Student - Sub-Affiliate Network / Syndication Blog Network - TM+ - Toolbars / Browser Extensions - Universal Shopping Cart - Video / Vloggers / YouTube - White Label
B2B / Small Business - Small Business or Business to Business Affiliates are a very specific set of publishers that can support B2B brands and other small businesses.
Brand's should think about your product set and desired audience to determine if this is the right fit. Also, do you have the resources to customize an offering for this audience, which might differ from a typical end consumer?
Examples: Fit Small Business, Fundera
Buy Now Pay Later / BNPL - While these parters operate as a credit utility giving consumers the ability to make a purchase now and pay over time, as affiliates they offer a marketplace of brands there consumers can find offers
Brands do not need to use these affiliates as part of their checkout flow to be featured on their sites. Partner: Mid level CPA (specific minimums, some have integration fees).
Examples: Klarna, Affirm, Sezzle
Cart Abandonment - Cart Abandonment Affiliates offer a solution for abandonned online shopping carts. They employ strategies to re-engage potential customers who have left items behind through targeted email campaigns, retargeting ads, and other methods to encourage users to return to the website and complete their purchase.
Examples: UpSellIt
Loyalty / Rewards / Incentive - Loyalty / Rewards / Incentive affiliates provide the customer with a reward for taking an action, typically making a purchase. The commission earned for each purchase is passed to the user or 3rd party either in part or in full using different business models and reward based systems: Cashback, Points, Miles, Savings, Charity (there may also be overlap).
- Cashback users are loyal to their chosen cashback partner and/or app. These partners have a huge loyal audience, allowing brands to tap into new audience pools. Often users browse a cashback site and make their purchase decision based on cashback availability and may purchase from a competitor that is offering more cashback. Is it common that these sites have toolbars and other browser extensions that alert users when a brand is offering cashback while they are on the brand's site.
- Savings loyalty partners offer shoppers points on each purchase that are added to a savings account an investment or even an alternate form of currency. Charity partners offer a portion of the commission they make to charitable causes.
- Charities and nonprofit organizations make great partners. Many have an extensive donor base that you can tap into, unlocking new customers who are not yet familiar with your brand.
- Points rewards publishers offer shoppers points or rewards on each purchase that they can later redeem for various things, like a gift card to their favorite merchant, cash back on a receipt or even airline miles.
Examples: Cashback: Rakuten Rewards, TopCashBack
Points / Miles / Rewards: Cartera, MyPoints
Charity: Giving Assistant, iGive.com
Closed Portal - Closed Portal Affiliates require users to sign in to access offers and discounts and are closed off to the general public. Typically these publishers are communities with similar interests, careers, demographics, etc. These may be employer benefits, student sites or other types of reward or loyalty sites.
Content - Content affiliates provide authentic, native, and integrated content such as gift lists, how-to guides, product reviews, and comparison shopping guides. These sites are top of funnel and typically have high traffic & brand recognition to the end user. Brands can work with content partners on specific content pieces or give them full editorial control, either way they will maintain their "editorial integrity". These affiliates are great at driving interest and creating new cusumer demand for products and services, they offer long-term benefits as the content stays live and is favorable for SEO, help build brand trust and can vouch for your credibility. These partners typically want a flat fee payment or hybrid (with CPA / gifting in addition) for guaranteed content. If they feature a brand on a CPA only, they will typically will go through Sub-Affiliate Networks. Some content publications will only work through Sub-Affiliate Networks.
- Sponsored Content: This type of promotion enables brands to guarantee a spotlight promotion either as a standalone article or a premium placement on a deals page, product roundup, or similar.
- Product Reviews: Reputable publications will publish product or service reviews with editorial discretion, which allows editors to evaluate sources, balance claims, making them accurate, verifiable and comprehensive articles that readers trust.
- Deals Article Inclusions: Lists all the best deals online that would be relevant for their audience, in form of ‘Daily Deals’, 'Seasonal Deals’ pages, such as ‘Best Black Friday Deals’, or product specific deals pages ‘Best TV Deals’.
- Product Round ups / Shopping Guides: These include expert reviewed products, raking them in the order of their preference i.e. ‘Best Mattresses'.
Examples: CNN, Wirecutter, Sports Illustrated
Content Portfolio / Super Publishers - Content Portfolio Affiliates have a group of content sites, cashback, coupon, publications that roll up into one offering. These partners often own a variery of other publications and provide an opportunity to work with multiple publications under one relationship which can provide potential to scale.
Examples: Future PLC: TechRadar, PCGamer, Marie Claire, T3, GoCompare, Price Panda + 100s more
Ziff Media Group: Offers.com, RetailMeNot, Mashable, AskMen
Coupons / Deals / Voucher - Coupon affiliates (aka "Voucher" in Europe) primarily offers sitewide discounts or coupons to shoppers and drive traffic to your site (ie. 20% off or Free Shipping). They typically have extensive lists of customers they can reach via mobile app, email, or other methods. Consumers have come to expect "promo codes" and sometimes you may lose to a competitor if you don't provide them. Deal affiliates focus on product or category-specific deals at the beginning of the shopping funnel and show a discount or price drop. Great for liquidation of products. They typically drive traffic from deals on their website and/or by email. These partners ofter have Toolbar/Browser Extentions: downloadable software or extensions for customers to opt into that pop up on a brand's site when there is a coupon/deal. Coupon, Deal and Loyalty affiliates often overlap.
Examples: Coupon: RetailMeNot, Honey, Offers.com
Deal: SlickDeals, Coupons.com, TechBargains
CLO / Card-Linked Offers - Card Linked Offer affiliates (CLO) use card-linking technology to create a direct link between a user’s credit or debit card and their purchases with a brand. It is a frictionless experience for consumers as no codes or membership cards are needed. Consumers link their card to participating brand's offer or reward and then use their linked card to make a purchase with that brand (either online or instore) in order to receive the offer/reward.
Brands can personalize offers and add geo-targeting so they can promote to users that shopped with competitors before.
At the end of the month, CLO partners provide a list of transactions to the brand to verify and pay commissions to manually, typically outside of an affiliate network. impact is currently the only affiliate network that you can track, report on and pay these partners within the network by setting up a CLO Event Type and creating a contract (needs to be set up through the impact team / CSM, CLO partners must be one of the impact CLO participating partners).
Examples: cardlytics, Finfare Connect, cheddar
CSS - CSS means Google’s Comparison Shopping Service - These publishers are a type of comparison partner that run Google Shopping Ads on behalf of brands by taking the product information from the brand’s feed.
CSS Google Shopping Ads sit in a secondary auction and do not conflict with brands’ own Google Shopping activity. They target customers with concrete purchase intent. CSS partners can work on CPA and CPC models (depending on the partner and the market). They support retailers in driving higher sales, engaging with potential clients and generating visibility for brands. Thus allowing consumers to easily find the best product for the best price.
Examples: Kelkoo, Incubeta, Twenga, RedBrain
CTV / Connected TV - CTV advertising is a term for the ads shown on connected TV devices paid for on a performance basis. Many streaming services provide the option for viewers to watch shows for free, as long as they watch ads paid for by brands. Using CTV as an advertising channel enables advertisers to track those viewers who see a certain ad and end up purchasing the advertised products or taking the desired action.
Currently a small category, but likely to grow along with the conversion method of performance basis.
Examples: tvScientific
Domain Recovery / Redirect - Very uncommon and tyically looked at as unethical as it can infringe on trademarks and confuse users, Domain Recovery Affiliates capitalize on the typing mistakes made by users who enter misspelled or wrong URLs, redirecting them to different websites. This may involve bidding or registering domains of similar variations to the brand and redirecting through an affiliate link. It is important to make sure affiliates engaging in domain redirects should respect trademarks, avoid misleading users, and adhere to the terms and conditions of domain registrars and your affiliate program.
Examples: Affinity Group
Email Marketing - Email Marketing affiliates advertise products or services and drive traffic to brands through email sends. Email marketing affiliates work hard to build trust with their audiences, providing value, and respecting privacy and anti-spam regulations. Many types of publishers also use email marketing as a secondary part of their affiliate model as well.
Examples: theskimm, Morning Brew
Employee Benefits / Corporate Benefits - Employee Benefits publishers are companies that offer an employee benefits platform to employers. Users that work for these employers get exclusive access to different perks like wellbeing or reward benefits. Rewards can be giftcards, cashback or discounts. When brands work with employee benefits publishers their offers will be shown on the employee benefits platform. They profit from their audience reach and high shopping intent of the closed user group. They work on CPA but some Employee Benefits partners also charge an annual fee - additional exposure.
Examples: BenefitHub, ticketsatwork, Reward Gateway
Finance / Fintech - Finance Affiliates are specific sites that focus on the financial services industry. This can include credit cards, checking accounts, and a lot more. Given the depth and breadth of these sites and that they often work a bit differently from traditional retail partners, it’s important to take notice. Some can extend beyond just a traditional finserv offering as well. There are also a subset of these publishers who have a logged-in state that can provide a more personalized experience for the end user.
Influencer - Influencer affilaites use social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube to promote products and services to their audiences. Influencers can be largely beneficial for growing brand awareness, educating customers, and improving brand trust amongst their loyal audiences. It’s becoming increasingly more important what others say about a brand, vs what that brand says about themselves. Influencers able to affect the purchasing decisions of others due to their relationship with their audience.
Examples: Credit Karma, Nerdwallet, creditcards.com
Lead Generators - Lead Generation publishers tend to be ""agencies"" specialized in email marketing, native or social ad’s, videos and mobile. They own a global inventory of inclusive and exclusive site lists, are experts in media buying or own a huge portfolio of email addresses. They collect details of customers who express interest in a product or service, typically through email-marketing, sweepstakes, surveys, product samples or brochure requests. As this isn't a sale, the brand needs to be able to import this data and process in a way that ultimately generates a sale. Brands want to work closely with them to understand how they are generating leads, understand the flow, fraud precautions they take, analyze the quality of leads and be transparent with these affiliates to optimize Operate on set budget/flat fee agreement, CPL, or CPC commissioning models.
Examples: esbconnect
Media Buyers - Media Buying Affiliates work as affiliates to promote products or services through paid advertising, They engage in media buying to acquire ad space and promote affiliate offers, earning a commission for each sale, click, or desired action generated through their advertising efforts. They negotiate deals with publishers or advertising platforms, create and run campaigns to drive traffic to brand offers and leverage their understanding of target audiences and advertising platforms to maximize the return on investment (ROI) for their campaigns.
Mobile/Tablet Application - Mobile Affiliate mobile app partners that leverage various types of mobile advertising to drive traffic to brand's mobile sites. They might use moble push notifications and SMS for pushing timely offers for brands, GPS for geo targeting which is great for brands who need to personalize or promote based on location, app monetization, mobile display and search ads and more. They promote programs with mobile offers or that are geared towards a mobile audience and typically use cross device tracking to give users a seamless experience. Work on CPA, flat fee and CPC.
Niche / Mid to Longtail Content - Niche Content Affiliates are similar to content affiliates but are more targeted in their topics and audiences. These affiliates are typically smaller and pickier in the brands that they work with so they take more time to nuture relationships and get onboarded. You will work with these publishers closer, they learn about your brand, figure out how to convert while also growing their traffic and refining their site/business.
Offline - Offline affiliates may advertise and drive traffic to brands through events, mailers or other offline advertising methods by utilizing promo codes or even QR links.
Search / Paid Search - Paid Search Affiliates leverage their expertise in search engine advertising: conduct keyword research, set up and manage paid advertising campaigns on platforms like Google Ads, optimize landing pages, and track performance metrics to drive targeted traffic and conversions for the products or services they promote. These affiliates may operate on a CPA, flat fee or pay per click (PPC) commission model.
Podcast - Podcast can operate as affiliates by incoporating product or service recommendations into their content. They typically use unique promo codes that give listeners discounts or exclusive offers, but may also have designated landing pages where listeners can find the deals.
Price Comparison - Price comparison websites usually work within the insurance and utilities sector. Customers can compare products and services from merchants using search, filters and reviews to generate quotes. Price comparison websites work on both a CPL, CPA and fixed fee model.
Registry - Registry affiliates offer registry sites and extensions for gifts for different types of key events in people's lives. Because of their nature they typically drive high new-to-file customers, high incrementality, full price sales, and have a low return rate.
Examples: MyRegistry (B2C & B2B)
Retargeting / Remarketing - Retargeting / Remarketing Affiliates are similar to Cart Abandonment Affiliates, however they operate on a broader range where consumers may not have added products to their shopping carts, they might be triggered by visiting specific pages, viewing products, or taking other actions on the website. They use various methods: display advertising, social media ads, email marketing, etc and show targeted ads to keep the brand or product in front of the user, increasing the chances of a return visit and conversion.
Review Sites - Review affiliates are very powerful affiliates, providing opinions and feedback on products or services for consumers. These sites influence purchases in that they empower consumers to make more informed decisions and provide trust in a brand. They may be general, reviewing all types of products, or more niche providing reviews for very specific industries.
Examples: Consumers Advocate, Best Reviews
SEO - SEO affiliates are affiliates that utilize SEO as a method to drive organic traffic. They optimize for relevant keywords, build quality backlinks, and ensure technical and on-page SEO best practices are met, aiming to increase visibility in search engine results and drive conversions.
Examples: Applied Mind
Service Provider / Strategic B2B - Service Provider Affiliates are businesses who offer a product or service themselves, but work alongside another business in a mutually beneficial relationship to promote their products or services as well. This could be through content where they showcase both their expertise as well as include information about the product or service, through webinars, emails, or other cross promotional methods.
Shopping Communities / Shopping Sites - Shopping Communities or Shopping Sites generally help consumers search, save, track, or identify products or brands that interest them. Think product search engine with similar products and brands. These sites are great for full-price products or niche verticals or categories. They might also feature discounts and deals but can be great as a product search engine amongst similar brands & products.
Examples: ShopStyle, Modesense, Shopittome, myregistry.com
Technology / Software / Conversion Tech / On-Site Optimization - Technology is an umbrella term for ecommerce solutions that run on an affiliate model. These include many different innovative solutions to common ecommerce challenges & cost-effective solutions. Technology publishers are conversion focused and hyper-personalized data driven. These partners may use AI to intelligently suggest bundled products to increase order value, adjust and personalize messaging on the brand's site, even offer personalized shopping assistants on the brand's site. They could also use smart overlays tiggering exit intent messaging, email retargeting, and pop-up notifications, videos, etc. Most tech partners will require a website integration (mostly through GTM but bespoke integrations are available). Technology partners will use AI or brands own data to drive the customer to convert. Some tech partners have minimum or specific requirements and charge integration fees or reoccuring monthly fees. Brands are able to set-up rules regarding cannibalisation of other partners and channels.
Examples: UpSellIt, intent.ly, RevLifter, envolve tech
Student - Student Affiliates are affiliates who have sites dedicated to deals for students. You need to sign in and must be a student to redeem these deals. Brands work with these publishers to provide one time coupon codes, or specific offers (typically better than any other offer out there) and may add a ""Student"" link to the footer of their site.
Sub-Affiliate Network / Syndication Blog Network - Sub-Affiliate Networks are consolidated, easy-to-use alternatives for publishers so they don’t have to partner with multiple parent affiliate networks / partnerships platforms. They sign up as affiliates themselves on impact.com as well as other parent affiliate networks and join programs of multiple brands. Affiliates join their ""network"" and promote underneath them. The Sub-Affiliate Network then takes a portion of the commissions from sales driven from the respective affiliate. They provide affiliates one location to connect with multiple brand's affiliate programs that are on multiple parent networks, providing them with tools to make it easier to promote brands: tracking links, offers, payments and reporting. They provide brands with an expansive pool of partners to engage with, giving brands the potential to scale quickly. Some are transparent and use Shared ID's so brands can see the affiliate who drove the sale, and others do not offer any visibility into their publishers. There are different types. Traditional Sub-Affiliate Networks allow all type of affiliate to join while others have specific categories joined: Finance, Influencer .
Examples: Traditional: Skimlinks, Sovrn, FlexOffers, digidip
Financial: RedVentures, QuinnStreet, Credit Soup
Influencer: FYI, LTK, Stylink, MagicLinks, BrandCycle
TM+ - TM+ Affiliates are similar to Paid Search Affiliates, however they specifically focus on bidding on trademarked terms or brand names, often in conjunction with additional keywords (hence the "plus" in TM+). This strategy involves affiliates targeting search terms that include the trademarked name of a brand, product, or company.
Toolbars / Browser Extensions - Coupon and cashback browser extensions are software tools that seamlessly apply coupons and cashback incentives at checkout, enabling consumers to save money while shopping online. These extensions are compatible with most popular web browsers, including Google Chrome, Mozilla Firefox, and Microsoft Edge. Leveraging browser extension publishers offers a cost-effective approach to reaching and engaging potential customers compared to conventional marketing channels. Brands typically compensate these publishers based on sales generated through their extensions, aligning marketing expenses with actual conversions, making them an invaluable asset to any affiliate program.
Examples: Honey, TopCashBack, Rakuten Rewards, Karma, RetailMeNot, slash, lumaly
Universal Shopping Cart - Universal Shopping Cart Affiliates utilize technology to be able to offer a seamless shopping experience across multiple online stores, basically providing users with a unified shopping cart, allowing them to add items from various merchants and complete the purchase in one transaction. These affiliates typically integrate with e-commerce platforms or provide browser extensions that enable users to shop from different online stores without having to navigate separate checkout processes for each one.
Examples: ShopRunner
Video / Vloggers / YouTube - Video Affiliates utilize videos to promote products or services, many time with their own promo code. They add the affiliate links in the description for their audience to use, though they may also use promo code tracking. This is one type of affiliate model that influencers may use, typically on YouTube. Podcasts may also fall into this category as many industry experts are using video as a means for their podcasts.
White Label - White Label Affiliates are B2B companies that provide other sites with a solution to offer their users access to loyalty or coupon solutions. These coupon pages often perform well in search and give additional reach for a brand as well as an off-the-shelf monetization solution for some traditional publishers. Loyalty solutions help solve many development and resource issues for publishers looking to quickly get into the space with a provider who knows how to make it happen.
Examples: Global Savings Group, Cartera