Top Affiliate Programs in the UK
If you are based in the United Kingdom or a good portion of your blog or website audience is located in this country, finding the right affiliate program should be one of your main goals.
For today’s article, we have compiled a list of some of the best UK affiliate programs out there. In the second section of the article, we will also look at a few UK affiliate networks so that your task is made much easier.
Top UK affiliate marketing programs
Before we move on to the following list of UK affiliate marketing companies, we’d like to note that the audience of many of them is global. That means that if your readers are based in other English-speaking countries or even in various other locations across the world, you may still earn a commission for their purchases.
Others are more specific location-wise, or you might gain a commission only for purchases made in the United Kingdom.
A2 Hosting
We did a separate review of this hosting affiliate program and even named it one of the best in its category. A2 Hosting is available to a worldwide audience. Their services are reliable, convenient, and effective.
As an affiliate, you can make up to $125 per new customer, depending on what plan they opt for, and a flat $5 commission for referrals. The tracking cookie lasts for 90 days and they can pay you via wire transfers or PayPal, depending on your preference.
If you’re in the right niche, this one is worth looking into.
TemplateMonster
As its name suggests, this one speaks to people looking to build their first blog or website and wanting to invest in a good-quality theme that can’t get hacked as easily.
The affiliate program is pretty decent since it pays you a 30% commission for new users and a 10% one for returning ones. The cookie lasts for two whole months and you can withdraw your money through bank or wire transfers, Webmoney, or PayPal.
ConvertKit
This marketing automation tool set makes it possible for people to market to new and exciting audiences. If your readers are always interested in trying out new tools that can help their marketing efforts reach a whole different level, the ConvertKit affiliate program might be right up your alley.
Every signup will make you a 30% commission, but we found that there are no recurring rates. Like the TemplateMonster affiliate program, this one has a 60-day cookie duration. The company pays its affiliates via PayPal.
You might also like: Fiver Affiliate Program Review
Fiverr
We did a review of this program, too, and we’d like to note that some parts are excellent while others are less worth writing home about. In general, it is one of the best paying affiliate programs in the UK and while it might be a little challenging to work with, it’s still going to make you a decent income.
The revenue varies between $10 or 10% and $150 depending on the earning model you pick and the types of products or services your audience chooses. Fiverr has a Net30 system in place and pays its affiliates through a variety of methods, from Payoneer to PayPal.
ThriveThemes
There’s not too much to add about this one other than the fact that it has one of the longest cookie durations we have come across — 2 whole years. You get paid a 35% rate whenever everyone makes a purchase through your affiliate link, but you also get the benefit of a 25% recurring commission.
There are no other payment methods available aside from PayPal, though, so unless you can use it, you really have no other option.
Shopify
As one of the biggest platforms now being used for eCommerce stores and other gimmicks, Shopify is a fairly big name that most anyone in the marketing space has heard at least once before.
The Shopify affiliate program is quite interesting since the commission is a very good one — you get 200% of the value of a merchant’s subscription for the duration of the first two months and if they get a very generous plan, your rate can go up to $2,000. Shopify pays its affiliates through PayPal.
LeadPages
As its name suggests, this brand (and tool) is mostly focused on lead generation, so it integrates everything from a landing page builder to additions that work with pop-up forms, alert bars, and more.
The LeadPages affiliate program gives you the opportunity to make 30% for every sale made through your affiliate link (without recurring commissions). Unfortunately, the cookie lasts for just 30 days, which is relatively low when comparing it to most of what we’ve seen in other programs. As usual, the payments in this case are processed through PayPal.
You might also like: LeadDyno Review
Udemy
If you have some time on your hands, we suggest you go and have a look at the Udemy affiliate program review that we did a while back. This company is in the education and technology niche and publishes courses practically on a daily basis.
The nice thing is that the commission is a fixed 20% on all of the referred course sales; however, on the downside, the cookie lasts for just a week. Udemy pays its affiliates through cheque, ACH, or PayPal, depending on whatever you prefer.
Bluehost
With its 90-day cookie duration and $65 commission, Bluehost is yet another popular affiliate program in the UK. It is also one of the fairly known companies in the web hosting service field, which is why you may have less of a hard time recommending it to your blog readers.
You can be paid through PayPal, wire transfers, and ACH with this one.
DHL
Here’s something a bit out of the ordinary. DHL is one of the largest international shipping companies out there, and they’ve been quite successful in the United Kingdom for the past few years. Most parcels are sent out via DHL, so people seem to be partial to using their services.
As an affiliate, you can earn up to 5% commission for new customers — for the sum that they pay for the shipping, that is — and returning users will make you a 2% commission. The cookie lasts for 30 days, so there are no surprises in this sense.
Ancestry.com
Here’s another service that has been getting popular over the past few years, ever since people have started to become more and more interested in genealogy and finding out more about their roots from an ethnic perspective and what other people they may be distantly related to.
The Ancestry.com program makes a good choice in terms of affiliate marketing in the UK since the rate you can earn with this one goes up to 20%. You get a 10% rate on all sales and 20% on subscriptions.
Read more: Hostinger affiliate program
Roku
As one of the largest digital media player manufacturers in the world right now, it was almost expected for this company to also have an affiliate program.
Although you aren’t going to make a fortune with this one, since the commission rate is 5% on all purchases made through your affiliate links, the value of the devices isn’t all that low, so it will still add up.
Amazon Associates UK
There are both good things and bad things when it comes to being an Amazon associate. On the downside, the commission rates are quite low and you also get a 24-hour cookie duration, both of which might convince you against joining.
On the other hand, you can use the API to convert your affiliate links into ones specifically geared to the location of your audience. For example, even if a good portion of your readers are in the United Kingdom, if someone from the US clicks on your link, they will be directed to the Amazon page from the US website.
In any case, Amazon Associates UK may now make a good option only for diversifying your income streams. You’re not going to get rich being a UK Amazon affiliate, that’s for sure.
You might also like: Udacity affiliate program
What UK affiliate network is right for you?
Since the UK is a fairly large market for many brands, lots of the affiliate platforms you may have heard about if you already own a site whose audience is mostly based in the United States are available for this country, too.
For example, some of the most popular options in terms of affiliate programs UK are Awin, Skimlinks, FlexOffers, CJ Affiliate, eBay, as well as Rakuten Advertising. Here’s a breakdown of most of these networks.
Awin
The number of advertisers on this platform is what makes it worth looking into. It’s extremely large and generous, so here you’ll find big names such as Boots and Tesco — but you will also come across lots of brands based in the US and other countries if you have a global audience.
The downside is that you need to pay a 5-pound fee in order to have your application reviewed. And if you get rejected, you are not going to receive your money back. But everything else is beneficial, we’d say, so you should consider becoming an Awin UK affiliate.
FlexOffers
Even though this company is also headquartered in the United States, there are plenty of UK-based brands available, too. There are more than 10,000 advertisers available through this platform, and you’ll see that thanks to its dashboard and basic process, joining a UK affiliate marketing program is very easy.
You will receive your earnings in US dollars, though, so you need to factor in the currency exchange. Getting a service like Payoneer might be helpful in this case. We’d also like to note that the payment threshold for this one is just $25, which is a clear advantage.
Rakuten
As one of the most popular affiliate networks right now, Rakuten stands out from the crowd because it pays its affiliates four times per month. You do need to reach a threshold of at least 50 pounds in earnings, though, but if you have a fairly large audience and a good conversion rate, that shouldn’t be a significant drawback.
The nice thing about Rakuten is that the brand collaborates with some pretty well-known brands, such as McAfee, Microsoft, and more. As such, you aren’t going to have that much of a hard time promoting these products or services to your audience.
Read more: LinkMink review
CJ Affiliate
Once again, if you are a seasoned affiliate marketer, you may have heard of this platform before. There are only a few hundred advertisers strictly based in the United Kingdom on this network, but lots of other brands offer international shipping.
CJ Affiliate is a pretty good choice if you do not want any particular hassle with payments or anything else. On the downside, you do have to apply individually to each and every program that seems like a good match for your niche, and that can take some time.
In the past, CJ Affiliate representatives weren’t as easy to contact or have a chat with, but their customer support has gotten a lot better over the past years.
ClickBank
Although ClickBank’s reputation has had its ups and downs over the past decade or so, they seem to have put in some type of process in place that now makes it possible for the products and offers to be a little better and not as spammy as in the past.
Most of the services that you will be able to market with this one are completely digital, which means that you can recommend them to a global audience, including folks based in the United Kingdom.
The commission rates can vary a lot from one advertiser to the next, with some of them offering you rates of up to 75% while others have more realistic ones of 10%.
You can get your ClickBank earnings either once a month or twice a month as per your personal needs and preferences. They pay affiliates through several different methods, whether that be cheque, wire transfers, or Payoneer.
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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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