Top Canadian Affiliate Programs
The good thing about affiliate marketing is that you can do it everywhere in the world. One day, you could be writing your content from Bali and the next, you might be solving some technical issues in Berlin.
But your home address has a say when it comes to the types of affiliate platforms and programs you can join and how you can do so.
Amazon Associates isn’t the only choice you have available, so here are some Canadian affiliate programs you might want to know about if you are based in this country or you’re looking to market to this audience.
Top Canada Affiliate Programs
First of all, we have to note that some of the programs you’ll see listed below are global and are available in Canada, too, but can be accessed by affiliates based in other countries, mainly in the United States as well.
The other category of programs that we are going to showcase is that of strictly Canada-based affiliate programs. CanadianPrescriptionDrugstore.com is a good example of this, so if you are interested in promoting products or services strictly available for this country, we will specify this aspect on all of them.
Lowe’s
This is one of the largest home improvement stores currently available in Canada, and the brand offers a myriad of products in various categories, whether that be electrical, flooring, lighting and ceiling fans, or for plumbing repairs.
While pretty much anyone in North America has at least once in their life heard about Lowe’s, the downside to their affiliate program is that the cookie lasts for only 24 hours, much like what Amazon Associates has to offer.
The commission rate isn’t all that worth writing home about, either, since it stands at just 2% out of every sale you refer to the shop. Still, if you’re in the right niche and you’re looking to diversify your income streams, Lowe’s might be a good option, especially since it’s available through multiple affiliate networks (CJ Affiliate, FlexOffers, Skimlinks and more).
Tidal
Tidal is a music subscription service that tends to cost a little less compared to some of the others available out there today. As an affiliate, you can make commissions in value of up to $9.
For example, if someone gets the Hifi subscription, that’s what your rate will be ($9), but if someone opts for the Premium subscription, you’ll earn just $7.
The cookie lasts for thirty days, so there are no surprises there. This program is self-managed, meaning you will have to apply on the company’s own website — from what we’ve gathered, it’s not available on any separate networks at the time we’re writing this.
Skyscanner Canada
This one is basically the mother site, but just available in Canada – so while the brand is undoubtedly global and most Internet users have heard of it before (and probably even used it for comparing the cost of flights), it definitely works for affiliates in this country.
But there are some caveats. While the cookie is 30 days and the commission you can expect with this one is a whopping 20%, it’s not as high as you might think. In other words, you will get a 20% commission (which can go up to 50% based on your performance) but you’ll do so out of Skyscanner’s share, not the whole price of a trip, for example.
Therefore, that means that you can make anything between $.10 and $.20 for flights and up to $.80 for car hires. That doesn’t sound like a lot anymore, does it? The good thing is that everything is managed through CJ Affiliate, so when your commissions are approved (after about 30 days), you will be able to withdraw your earnings from the rest of the programs.
Read more: Top email marketing affiliate programs
Square One
Although in the past, we wrote about insurance affiliate programs, we didn’t tackle this one. It’s a Canadian affiliate program in the sense that the services offered by the company are available in this country.
Square One specializes in anything from tenant insurance to natural disasters insurance, and all of the plans you’re going to find here abide by Canadian legislation — so you have nothing to worry about when recommending the service (even via email automation) to your Canadian audience.
Although the cookie duration remains a mystery with this one, in terms of commission rates it’s more than decent. You can earn up to $175 per every referral sale, but the exact value differs on the service they opt for. For instance, the highest one, meaning $175, can be earned when someone buys a homeowners’ insurance policy through your affiliate link.
But if someone decides to get the qualified tenant insurance policy, your earnings will be just $50. You must apply on the brand’s website and your blog should have a considerable audience based in Canada, mainly in the districts of British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, and others.
Indigo
If you’re one of those people who have dozens of agendas and planners in their home even though they’ve graduated years ago, you’re going to like this affiliate program. If you’re in the right niche, promoting Indigo products is super easy, particularly since they’re high-quality and also quite visually appealing.
The brand sells anything related to Back to School and has a generous inventory, including products in the baby and kids categories, as well as anything related to paper, gifts, and even some electronics.
The commissions vary from 2% to 7% depending on the types of products your audience picks and the value of their orders. Everything is managed through CJ Affiliate, so that’s one less thing to worry about.
Questrade
If you are in the finance niche and you’re always looking for new ways of educating people on how they can keep their money securely and grow their investments, too, this one might be right up your alley.
Questrade offers a broad variety of managed and portfolio investment products customized for the Canadian market, which means that they are specifically designed to abide by local regulations — definitely something to consider before investing in anything.
As a Questrade affiliate, you can make up to $70 for every customer you refer to them, but with this one, you can even make money by referring affiliates ($10 a pop). When trades are made by your referrals, you’ll get a 7.5% commission, too, so it all seems like a pretty nice deal.
Web Hosting Canada
You were probably able to tell what this business is all about right from the name, and while it’s probably not the most popular web hosting service in the world, the servers are pretty good and the company does offer a variety of services.
More importantly, as an affiliate you can make up to $300 per referral. However, if you take the time to go on the WHC site and check the commission rates for yourself, you’ll see that the $300 one is only available for the Dedicated BEAST Server package. The rest can assist you in earning pretty good money, but most commissions actually range from $25 to $100 tops.
Unfortunately, we were unable to find any information on how long the cookie lasts, so you’ll have to do a little digging on your own for that. This program also doesn’t seem to be available through a separate affiliate network, so you will have to use the company’s website to submit an application.
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Newegg
This is yet another global affiliate program in the sense that it is available both in the United States and in Canada. The commissions actually differ depending on the location. If you’re based in Canada, your rate will be 2.5% but if you’re in the U.S., your rate will be just 1.5%. We suspect that the difference is due to the currency value, not anything else in particular.
On the downside, the cookie lasts for just 7 days, which means that it is among the lowest we’ve compared for this article. Besides, you need to join the program separately since it is not available through any other network, which can seem like a hassle.
Finally, since these are electronics we’re talking about, there is quite a bit of competition out there, both in terms of other stores and affiliate programs, but also in terms of blogs and websites that review such products.
Crystal Clear Memories
This one might be the perfect fit for mommy blogs, food blogs, family blogs, and anything else in similar niches. And the reason we’re saying that is that Crystal Clear Memories specializes in photo printing services with a focus on personalized 3D photo gifts.
Some of the products you can find in their inventory are quite pricey, which is a good thing for you since you can make 12% out of the value of each one. Moreover, the cookie lasts for 90 days, so it’s significantly longer compared to what we’ve seen with other affiliate programs.
All in all, this one definitely makes a good choice if you’ve been looking for something to diversify your passive income streams with and you are in the right niche.
Read more: Teachable affiliate program
American Express Canada
Amex is a global company although it is headquartered in the United States. While researching the program, we found that it is available both in Canada, but also in other locations, including the Netherlands.
The commission rates vary depending on the location of their affiliates. For example, as a Canadian affiliate, you can make $200 per approved lead — but if you were a Dutch affiliate, you’d make 110 euros for the same thing.
The cookie duration also varies depending on the specific affiliate program, which seems a little weird. The Dutch affiliate program comes with a 30-day tracking cookie whereas the Canadian one has a 7-day affiliate cookie window.
At least you can join the program through CJ Affiliate, which is a plus.
Ancestry.com
If you have a passion for genealogy (and considering that many people in North America come from immigrant families), you may want to try Ancenstry.com and recommend it to your blog readers, too.
The affiliate campaigns are available only in Canada, the U.S., Australia, and the UK and everyone gets the same commission rates — 10% on all sales and 20% on subscriptions.
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Scotiabank
This is one of the most popular banks in Canada right now. The company does offer its services on a global scale, but the affiliate program is available strictly to Canadian affiliates and that’s where most of their audience should be based, too.
As a Scotiabank affiliate, you can make $99 per referred sale. There are 14 credit cards that individuals can choose from and lots of them have offers and other special features that you can conveniently promote to your audience.
The cookie lasts for 30 days, so there are no surprises there. We might go as far as to say that this is one of the best Canadian affiliate programs strictly because it’s so well-known and secure and lots of people trust the bank.
Roku
It goes without saying that this one is global and that you can earn your commissions from Canada even though you might have people in the U.S. ordering Roku devices.
Although it’s become a little less popular compared to other similar devices through the years, Roku still plays an important part in the digital media player industry.
As an affiliate, you can make up to 5% in commissions each time someone makes a purchase through your affiliate link. And since the average order size is $99, you probably don’t have too many things to complain about.
The affiliate cookie window for the Roku affiliate program is 30 days.
Read more: Elegant Themes affiliate program
Royal Canadian Mint affiliate program
If precious coins are more up your alley when it comes to such programs, the Royal Canadian Mint affiliate program might be a good fit for what you have in mind.
Your commission can go up to 5% in the sense that it’s what you will be paid for new customers. But even if your referrals are placing recurring orders, you’ll still get paid a 2% commission, which is not bad. Everything works through Partnerize, an affiliate marketing network.
CanadianPrescriptionDrugstore.com
You might not have expected to find a Canadian pharmacy affiliate program on this list, but here it is. This service is a little unique in that people actually have to use the prescription they have from their physician to get their orders, even though they do it online.
We checked out the site and it doesn’t have an inventory with other non-prescription medication that people can get, whether that be teas, supplements, or anything else.
So you’ll have to use your creativity when recommending this service to your audience — unless your readers are approaching their senior years and need a subscription practically every month. As an affiliate, you can make 6% out of the value of every order you refer to the site.
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Craig Campbell
I am a Glasgow based SEO expert who has been doing SEO for 22 years.
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