ThePMA.org

PerformanceMarketingIndustry Study
Report and analysis of affiliate
channel marketing spending
in the United States for thecalendar year 2021.

US Market Data

2022

TABLE OF CONTENTSLETTER FROM THE PMA EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

3EXECUTIVE SUMMARY4OVERALL AFFILIATE MARKETING SPENDING

6CONTRIBUTION TO E-COMMERCE

7CHANNEL INVESTMENT BY INDUSTRY7RETAIL AD SPEND

9

CHANNEL REVENUE BY INDUSTRY

10REVENUE BY RETAIL SUBSECTOR

11

RETURN ON AD SPENDING (ROAS)

11

ROAS BY RETAIL SUBSECTOR

13

CHANNEL INVESTMENT BY AFFILIATE TYPE

14

KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS

16

METHODOLOGY20

ABOUT THE PMA

21

ABOUT PWC RESEARCH

22

LETTER FROM THE PMAEXECUTIVE DIRECTOR

yn, it is msociatio
s
A
g
n
ti
rke
earch
ance Ma
vital res
m
is
r
h
fo
T
r
.
e
y
eP
tud
ging.
rs for th
dustry Sader,
y is chaneting Inf Directotrork
Dear Re
s
a
u
rd
d
M
a
in
o
e
c
B
r
r
how ourformantaff andndar yeaof the S
hts into
2022 Pe
lf
ig
e
a
s
th
h
in
e
g
b
to
the cale
r
in
u
k
o
fo
On
c
y
y
lo
e
tr
n
c
s
u
u
,u
to introd
f the ind
al yeard trends
additione state oprivilege's size an
.
n
y
th
a
tr
d
s
d
e
u
e
fi
d
y
anti
andemic
dela
es our in
r first qu
Global P
ear, we
u
y
9
1
O
t
.
s
quantifi
y
la
ID
d
V
y
d
stu
the CO
itionalw-up stu
industryed due tog an addcsecondct a follo
in
r
fa
u
r
it
u
d
u
a
o
n
s
w
o
t
is
c
a
y
This
stries. B
dustry.
malies thlanned toiple induof the inile we p
rcial ano
lt
e
h
u
te
m
W
m
ta
.
s
m
8
in
1
o
g
s
in
20
xtreme c
isruption
nt/ongoaffiliateof the eporary d
the curre
m
f
o
te
t
e
leadingv
nbecause
n
ti
a
e
c
c
v
e
ifi
e
fl
n
s
re
ig
m
aused synamicare more
ation fro
COVID cnd this d
the data
d inform
ta
t
e
s
a
it
r
c
e
th
li
d
o
e
n
s
v
u
belie
port, wetypes tocluding
year, weustry, inizes andfor this re
d
s
ts
in
le
h
ip
re
ig
lt
s
ti
u
en
sing
d in
fm
s for thepanies u
rtners or data an
te
a
m
e
a
p
o
th
c
m
a
te
ti
y
g
a
s
b
li
e
d
To
ct
teen affimanageata refles and sixrogramse. Our d
p
p
”
o
e
c
s
s
u
networkdo–“hale anresearch
ms and's full sc
s/platfors to thisnrkooindustry
ti
u
tw
e
ib
rs
tr
gn
e partneable conticipatin
ure these invalusnon-par
d
s
a
a
.
o
m
ts
T
s
e
.
m
possiblewn tools
e surveys/platfor
homegroanage thnetworke been im
v
m
n
a
e
h
v
to
e
ld
C
s
u
work.
wo
and
h Pw
r all theirlike thiscted wit
partners
fo
y
a
n
d
tr
C
e
n
tu
w
te
o
s
P
c
ix
t
a
a
t,
The s
the PMA
mitmenanalysts
ducate,fidential,
eir comteam of
n
th
e
o
t
c
th
u
t
o
k
p
ear to e
h
n
e
y
k
a
h
e
wit
th
c
b
a
e
e
ld
W
e
s
s.
ou
ndertaketo join thn phaseir data w
e PMA uvite youcollectiothat the
th
in
ta
s
er
e
a
e
d
v
W
.
o
ti
d
itia
and thustry
ment anpapers,critical inting ind
e
e
e
it
rk
h
th
a
develop
f
w
o
,
m
ne
ce
nts
is just o
stry everformany Studycy, indu
f the pe
a
o
tr
c
s
o
u
th
v
d
w
d
In
a
e gro
The
and ourmote ths like thiseand pro
v
,
ti
e
ir
ia
p
it
s
in
critical in
supportPMA tos.
programards,
Best Regeyer
Tricia More Direct
ociation
Executivting Ass
e
rk
a
M
ance
Perform
3

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

The PMA Performance Marketing Study 2021 wasdesigned and fielded to “take the pulse” of theperformance marketing industry in the UnitedStates. The study was designed to provide an overall
sizing of the industry, including overall spending,sales impact, composition of the partner/publisher
community, and spending by industry.

In 2021, each dollar of
performance marketinginvestment drove an
average of $12 ine-commerce contribution.
This is the PMA’s second such study. Our first study
analyzed data for 2018.
Here are some of the key highlights of this research:• Total industry spending on programs reached$9.1 Billion, an increase of 47% over the 2018
estimate of $6.2 Billion. That represents acompound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 13.7%.

• The top publisher sector by revenue was
Cashback, Loyalty, and Rewards. 35% of total
spending, or just over 1 in 3 dollars, went toCashback, Loyalty, and Rewards sites.
• Coupons, Vouchers, and Rebate websites
garnered the second-largest share of category
spending, at 16%. These traditional affiliates
continue to capture a significant portion of total
spending.
• Content and Subnetworks captured the next
largest shares of total spending, at 15% and12%, respectively. Subnetwork share wassignificantly higher in this report than in 2018.
Since a large portion of subnetwork activity is on
mainstream content sites, the two categories
show that less-discount-centric publisher types
are now capturing a large portion of totalchannel spending.
• Social, Influencer, and Content Creators now
capture a significant portion of total channel
spend, at 5%. That represents a substantial
increase in share versus 2018 as more suchvoices begin to accept performance-based
compensation for their activity.

• The $9.1B in performance marketing spending
drove $71 Billion in e-commerce contribution.

• Technology Solutions, comprising a mix ofConversion Optimization, Buy Now/Pay Later,and other providers, now capture about 2% of
total spending. This is up from near zero
spending and share in 2018.

• The average return on ad spending (ROAS)
across all industries was 12:1, meaning eachdollar of channel spending drove an average of$12 in e-commerce contribution.

• Retail brands drive 76% of total category
spending. This represents a larger share ofspending than in the 2018 report. About 1/3 ofthat spending was for clothing programs.

4

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY• Financial Services invests the next largest
share of spending, at 12%. This sector hashistorically been dominated by credit cardcustomer acquisition programs but also includes
acquisition programs for new “fintech”
businesses and business models.
• The Travel sector drove about 5% of totalchannel spending. This represents a smaller
share than in the 2018 report. COVID-19 had aprofound impact on all Travel marketing
spending, but these data indicate that Travel
investment in our channel is returning.
• Automotive and Healthcare spending has
increased during the period. This reflects thegrowing diversity of brands and industries active
in our space.
These data reveal robust overall industry growth
and a broadening of affiliate marketing andpartnership definitions. Further, while categories
like Retail and Travel continue to show strong usageof the channel, more industries are now adopting
performance marketing as part of their overall
go-to-market programs.

Affiliate marketing spending in the US reached $9.1B in CY 2021, an increase of 47% over the$6.2B figure recorded in our 2018 study. The figures include straight-performance-based
spending and fixed-cost media investments with performance marketing partners forplacements like tenancies and integration fees. That three-year growth rate translates to a
13.7% CAGR for the period.

5

US PERFORMANCEMARKETINGINVESTMENT

$6.2

$9.1

CY 2018

CY 2021$BILLIONSA DYNAMIC, FAST-GROWING INDUSTRY
Affiliate marketing investment grew to $9.1B in
2021, up 47% over 2018. The PMA believes that avariety of forces contributed to that strong upward
trend:

companies and other partner classes to accept
performance-based media contracts to combat
the growing dominance of Google, Meta, andAmazon in CPM- and CPC-based digital media.

• Continued strong ROAS performance in thechannel, coupled with more widespreadawareness of its pay-for-performance model.

• Overall increases in digital spending as digital’sshare of total media investment climbs.

• Increased recognition of affiliate and partner
marketing traffic quality after years of skepticism.
• Gradually increasing channel adoption in newverticals like Auto, CPG, and B2B Services.
• Shifts in consumer buying patterns toward digital
shopping due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
• Desire among brands to find scalable alternatives
to increasingly dominant media players Google(NASDAQ: GOOGL), Meta (NASDAQ: META), andAmazon (NASDAQ: AMZN).
• The increased willingness of mainstream media• Growth in mobile marketing spending and anincrease in the ubiquity of mobile performancemarketing tracking. Many brands moved fromtraditional third-party cookie tracking tofirst-party and server-to-server measurement
during the period. Further, many more brands aretracking performance marketing conversions in
mobile web and mobile app environments.

Affiliate marketinginvestment grew to $9.1B in
2021, up 47% over 2018.
6

CONTRIBUTION TO E-COMMERCE
Our 2021 study revealed that the $9.1B industry
investment drove $71B in e-commerce sales. This
represents sales impact for all performancemarketing investments, including both straight
performance-based media and fixed costs liketenancies, integration fees, and other tactics.

CHANNEL INVESTMENT BY
INDUSTRY
Retail drives the majority of performance marketing
channel advertising investment. The sector drives
76% of total channel spending. Financial services
contribute the next largest share, at 12% of totalchannel investment. Travel, Entertainment, andTelecom drive the next largest shares, at 5%, 3%, and
3%, respectively. Auto and Healthcare drive a bit
more than 1% each.

7

Travel

TOTAL SPEND BY
ADVERTISER SECTOR

5%Entertainment& Media

Healthcare

3%

>1%

Other

2%

Telecom

3%

Financial
Institutions

12%

RetailAutomotive

>1%

Total
Spending byAdvertiser Sector

PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021

76%

Percentage may not total to 100% due to rounding

Versus our 2018 report, Financial Services shows a significantly smaller shareof total spending. Travel shows a much smaller percentage than in 2018. Thisis likely due to the immense impact that the COVID-19 pandemic had on theTravel business. Nevertheless, Travel spend is returning as air travel andhospitality categories begin their long-term recovery. Other industries
showed similar shares versus three years ago, indicating continued dollar
growth across most industries.

Retail drove morethan three-quartersof total affiliate
investment in 2021.

8

RETAIL AD SPEND

Retail Ad Spend
Because Retail represents such a large
proportion of total channel spending, weanalyzed the composition of those sales
to understand which categories arestrongest. As in past years, the strongest
spending was on Clothing/Accessories,
Beauty/Health/Wellness,
Department
Stores, and Home/Garden. Note: a large
portion of Department Stores sales comefrom Apparel and Accessories, so thoseverticals likely represent an even larger
share than our data show.

Other Notable Categories
Beyondthose“Core”
categories,
Computers and Electronics, Food andDrink, and Sports and Fitness categories
also represent a significant share of thetotal. In 2018, a similar set of categories
followed the largest.

29%

Clothing &Accessories
Beauty, Health &Wellness

18%
13%

Department Store

12%

Home & Garden
Computing Products &Consumer Electronics

9%

Food & Drink

4%

Sports & Fitness

4%
3%

Business Services
Games & Toys

1%

Gifts & Flowers

1%

CPG &
Consumer Products
Other Retail

SPEND BYRETAIL SUBSECTOR

0%6%

PMA Performance Marketing
Study: Full Year 2021

Brick-and-mortar retail disruptions caused by the COVID-19 Global Pandemic appear
to have accelerated spending growth in Clothing/Accessories andBeauty/Health/Wellness, among other sectors.
Clothing/Accessories and Beauty/Health/Wellness play a central role in our industry. While they have beenstrong sectors for some time, the brick-and-mortar retail disruptions caused by the COVID-19 global
pandemic appear to have accelerated spending growth in these categories. Many affiliate marketers reported
spikes in spending in 2020 and 2021 as lockdowns drove temporary store closings and somebrick-and-mortar bankruptcies.

9CHANNEL REVENUEBY INDUSTRY

CHANNEL REVENUE BY INDUSTRY
Retail accounts for an even larger share of e-commerce revenue driven by the performance marketing
industry than channel investment. 84% of total e-commerce revenue came from Retail in 2021, a higher figure
than reported in 2018. Travel represented the number two category by e-commerce revenue, despite themany headwinds the industry has faced since the advent of COVID-19. Financial services drove a relatively
small share of revenue despite its significant share of channel investment. This is because most of the income
for financial services programs occurs long after the initial transaction or lead is captured.
Entertainment& Media

Travel10%
Financial
Institutions

2%

Other

1%

Telecom

1%

1%

TOTAL REVENUE BY
ADVERTISING SECTOR
Retail, Travel, and Entertainment/
Media accounted for a similar
share of performance marketing
e-commerce revenue in 2018.

Automotive>1%

RetailTotal Revenue by
Advertising Sector

84%

PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021
Percentage may not total to 100% due to rounding

10

REVENUE BY RETAILSUBSECTORREVENUE BY RETAILSUBSECTOR
Within the retail sector, the same four
verticals dominate, with Home andGarden capturing a much larger share ofrevenue than its share of investment.
This was likely due to larger average ordervalues (AOVs) in this category over thosein the Beauty/Health/Wellness sector. AOVnaturally has a strong and direct impact
on e-commerce share.
About 4% of e-commerce sales fell into
our “Other” category, which includes
Art/Collectibles,
Books/Magazines,
Cards/Stationery, Office Products, Pets,
Photography, and Wedding items.

RETURN ON AD SPENDING(ROAS)
Performance marketing spending has
historically shown an excellent return on
advertising
spending,
which
wasreaffirmed in the 2021 study. Across all
verticals, the category averaged 12:1
ROAS. A dollar invested in the channel

29%

Clothing &Accessories

17%

Home & Garden

16%

Department Store
Beauty, Health &Wellness

15%

Computing Products &Consumer Electronics

9%4%Sports & Fitness
Games & Toys

2%

Food & Drink

2%

Gifts & Flowers

1%

Business Services

0%

CPG &
Consumer Products

0%

Other Retail

REVENUE BY
RETAIL SUBSECTOR
4%

PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021
Percentage may not total to 100% due to rounding

drives $12 in sales. ROAS by vertical varies
significantly but is consistently high versus
other marketing channels and tactics.

11

RETURN ON AD SPEND(ROAS) BY SECTOR

RETURN ON AD SPEND (ROAS) BY
SECTOR

investments for that industry. Therefore, Financial
Services Data are omitted from this report.

12:1 ROAS represents an excellent return on
investment for a marketing channel and is likely a
key reason for the industry’s strong growth. This
chart shows average ROAS figures by sector:
Return of $1 of Performance Marketing
Advertising Investment$5

Telecommunications
Entertainment &
Media

$9
$12

Retail$21

Travel$26

Automotive

$0

$5

$10

$15

$20

$25

$30

PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021

We also analyzed the ROAS for financial services.
But because the bulk of the revenue benefits fromperformance marketing initiatives occur long after
the initial transaction or lead capture, they do notaccurately reflect the actual value of channel

Retail maintained its excellent 12:1
ROAS in 2021, while the Automotive
and Travel industries saw sizable
gains versus the 2018 report.
Versus our 2018 study, Retail maintained its
excellent 12:1 ROAS, while the Automotive andTravel industries saw sizable gains. Entertainment
and Media ROAS declined. The PMA believes this is
primarily due to macro changes in the types ofentertainment products and services sold. Whereas
tangible products like DVDs and purchased media
played a more significant role in 2018, 2021 saw
more sales from subscription services, where muchof the benefit of a transaction comes from theannuity of monthly subscription fees. Those annuity
payments are not captured in our data.
The average transaction value in categories like
Automotive and Travel is far higher than for othercategories studied. This helps explain the very high
ROAS scores for these industries.

12

ROAS BY RETAIL SUBSECTOR

ROAS BYRETAIL SUBSECTOR

Since Retail contributes a large share of total channel investment, we analyzed ROAS by product category forthis sector. Our data showed the highest Return on Ad Spend for Games/Toys and Home/Garden. Department
Stores, Gifts/Flowers, and Sports/Fitness delivered the next highest ROAS. Clothing/Accessories reflected theaverage for the sector of 12:1.

Performance Marketing Channel
Average Return on Ad Spend by Retail Category
Advertiser Sector

Return on Ad SpentGames & Toys

18:1

Home & Garden

16:1

Department Store

15:1

Gifts & Flowers

15:1

Sports & Fitness

13:1

Clothing & Accessories

12:1

Computing Products & Consumer Electronics

11:1

Beauty, Health & Wellness

10:1

Food & Drink

5:1

CPG & Consumer Products

3:1

Business Services

2:1
PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021

Perhaps not surprisingly, the categories showing the lowest ROAS figures are less developed “emerging
sectors'' for the channel. Food and Drink, CPG/Consumer Products, and Business Services are among thenewest categories to garner significant performance marketing investment in 2021.

13

Other Ad
Spend

CHANNEL INVESTMENTBY AFFILIATE TYPE

CHANNEL INVESTMENT BY
AFFILIATE TYPE

8%

Affiliate channel spending has
evolved significantly over the past
Subnetwork
several years as new classes of
12%
publishers and advertiser
industries have joined thespace. Our industry haschanged so dramatically in
Comparison
Websites
the past three years that we
4%
significantly revised our
publisher categorization.
Because of thisrecategorization, making
comparisons to our 2018
Content
study is challenging. This
15%
chart shows the share of total
performance marketinginvestment by publisher class:Technology

Cashback, Loyalty &Rewards Websites

35%

Ad Spend by
Affiliate Type

Coupon, Vouchers& Rebate Websites

Solutions

2%
PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021
Percentage may not total to 100% due to rounding

16%
Search Engine
MarketingSocial, Influencer,
and Creator

2%

5%

Cashback/Loyalty/Rewards and Coupon/Voucher/Rebate, two “traditional” affiliate types, captured the largest
share of total category spending. They earned just over half (51%) of total category spending. Versus our 2018
report, this represents a significant increase.

Traditional affiliate categories continue to grow, with Cashback/Loyalty/Rewards andCoupon/Voucher/Rebates properties capturing just over half of total spending.

14

CHANNEL INVESTMENTBY AFFILIATE TYPE

In 2021, several other sectors captured large sharesof total category spending. The third-largest wasContent, which captured 15% of total spending. The
next largest was Subnetworks, at 12%. Subnetworks
aggregate ad inventory across hundreds or
thousands of publishers, making it easier foradvertisers to deliver offers in a diverse set ofhigh-quality venues. Industry observers will notethat many subnetwork publishers and traffic arecontent-centric versus discount-centric. Thus,
content-centric publishers are driving an evenlarger share of total spending than indicated in thepercentage figure listed in the chart.

on-site conversion optimization technologies and
Buy Now/Pay Later (BNPL) fintech partners. While
their share in this report is modest, it is interestingthat many of these partners are focused onmonetizing existing traffic versus driving traffic. Thisis another sign that our industry is growing morediverse and strategically important to manybusinesses.

Content and content-heavy
subnetworks now capture 27%of total industry investment.

Social/Influencer/Creator publishers now capture
5% of total industry investment, a significant
increase versus 2018.
The Other category grew its share since 2018, partly
reflecting the growing diversity of publisher types in
the industry. The Other category includes Ad
Networks, B2B Partners, Email Affiliates, MediaBrokers, Mobile Partners, and UGC Partners.
New to the spending “pie” are Technology Partners,
which captured 2% of total category spending in
2021. Tech Partners is a category that includes both

15

KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS
In reviewing the data, the PMA identified the following key industry trends.

KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS

New Verticals Begin to Invest
While they represented a relatively small share of total category investment in 2021, several “emerging”
verticals seem poised to increase spending in the future. Automotive spending has continued to grow, andwithin Retail, CPG and Business Services also
registered for the first time. It demonstrates
how our advertiser community is
broadening over time.

16

KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS

Cashback/Coupons Move from Strength
to Strength
While much of the “talk” in our industry has focusedon content and social publishers over the past
several years, traditional affiliate classes, including
the Cashback / Rewards/ Loyalty grouping and
Coupons/Vouchers/Rebates, actually grew theirshare of total category spending during the period.
The PMA believes that the COVID-19 Global
Pandemic contributed significantly to the strong
performance of these traditional affiliate sectors.
Many merchants, facing abrupt disruptions in theirbrick-and-mortar sales, turned to affiliate to help
drive the immediate transactions necessary to
power these companies through challenging times.
These categories also include many of theindustry's largest and most technologicallyadvanced publishers.

developed products for precision targeting by geo,
shopper behaviors, demographic characteristics,
lifestyles, behaviors, and more.
While existing members of these communities
significantly increased their average spending
during and after the arrival of the COVID-19
Pandemic, their membership numbers also grew.
Some economic analysts are warning of a recession
beginning later this year. We expect Cashback andCoupon sites to enjoy continued growth despite
the economic downturn because merchants will
increase investment in performance media withhigh ROAS.

Cashback and Coupon sites will likely
show continued growth despite thecoming economic downturn because
merchants will increase investment intheir "bottom-of-funnel" tactics.
Several top players in these categories have also
developed innovations that have broadened theirrole in advertisers’ go-to-market plans. Thesepublishers are the dominant players in the browser
extension arena, accounting for a growing
proportion of total channel sales. Many have also17

KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS

Mainstream Media Publishers Embrace
Performance-Based Compensation
Years ago, most mainstream publishers like CondeNast, Hearst, Meredith, and The New York Timesmonetized digital content almost exclusively via
CPM-based agreements. But in recent years, the“big three” tech companies Google, Meta, andAmazon have taken a dominant place in the digital
media business, capturing 64% of all ad spending in
2021, according to eMarketer1. Additionally, the riseof programmatic media buying diminished theperceived value of contextual relevance among
many advertisers.
These two forces have significantly constrained
mainstream content publishers in their efforts to
attract sufficient advertising dollars. In the last
several years, these mainstream content companies
have embraced performance marketing by creatingor acquiring new publications and developing newmarketing vehicles sold on performance.

so their share of total category spending is evenhigher.

PERFORMANCE MARKETINGSPENDING FOR CONTENT
Other

19%

Bloggers

34%

Percent of Total Content
Spending by Partner Class

Mainstream content publishers willplay a growing role in the performancemarketing industry in the years ahead.
Major Media Companies /Publishing Houses

In 2021, our data showed that these mainstream
publishers captured almost half of the content
spending. Further, many of these companies also
leveraged subnetworks to monetize their content,

46%1) eMarketer, November 2021
18

KEY INDUSTRY TRENDS

Social/Influencers/Creators Become aChannel Force
Social/Influencer/Creator publishers now capture
5% of total industry investment, a large increase
versus 2018. One key driver here is the growing
willingness of such content creators to accept
partial or total compensation based on
pay-for-performance. In 2018, almost all spending
with influencers was pay-for-activity (e.g., $50 per
post)versus pay-for outcomes (e.g., 10%commission on actual sales driven.)

capturing more than a third. Such partners enablemerchants to monetize traffic from performanceand other channels better, providing strong ROI.

PERCENT OF TECH PARTNER REVENUEBY PARTNER CLASS
Other

3%

Tech Partners "Arrive"
Tech Partners is a category that includes bothon-site conversion optimization technologies and
Buy Now/Pay Later (BNPL) fintech partners.
While currently a small share of total spend, thePMA believes this segment will show strong growthin the years ahead as advertisers explore ways toenhance their tech stacks on a cost-per-outcome
basis.

Buy Now
Pay Later

37%
Percent of Total Content
Spending by Partner Class

Tech partners will play a growing rolein our industry as companies turn tothem for ways to enrich their techstacks on a cost-per-outcome basis.
On-siteconversion
optimization
andpersonalization tech represented 59% of the total
investment in this sector in 2021, with BNPL

Conversion
Optimization

59%

PMA Performance Marketing Study: Full Year 2021
Percentage may not total to 100% due to rounding

19

METHODOLOGYMETHODOLOGY

Following the success of the inaugural 2018
Performance Marketing Study, PwC has worked
with the PMA to design and facilitate a study thatenables us to estimate the size of affiliate marketingin the US and how it has changed since 2018.
PwC collected and analyzed self-reported data fromseven leading performance marketing networks
and software platforms:• Awin• CJ• LinkConnector• Partnerize• Ascend by Partnerize• Rakuten Advertising• ShareASale
Additionally, we fielded a second online survey of
publishers of multiple sizes, to which 16 responded.
A mix of small, medium, and large businesses wereinvited to complete the online survey to collect
results representative of the market, including cash
back and loyalty sites, influencers, bloggers, review
sites, coupon sites, and others. These publishers
played an invaluable role in helping us size theentire performance marketing industry, including:• Participating Affiliate Networks and Platforms• Non-Participant Networks• Independently-Managed “House” Programs• Other Affiliate Marketing Sources

The purpose of the publisher survey was to gather
additional insight into the portion of the industry
that is not represented by the seven participating
performance marketing solutions providers. Data
from both surveys have been reviewed andanalyzed to determine the size of the performancemarketing market and pinpoint changes to keymarket performance metrics since 2018.

The survey was conductedindependently by PwC, including
research by their in-house market
research team, on behalf of the PMA.
We developed our 2018 study with the assistanceand participation of eight networks and techplatforms. For this study, one of those providers
chose not to participate. Because of this, andbecause we made some adjustments to thecategorization of partner types, we urge caution in
making year-to-year comparisons.
The survey was conducted independently by PwC,
including research by their in-house market
research team, on behalf of the PMA. Multiple steps
were taken to keep the data from individual
participants confidential. Only aggregate results are
published, and individual company information isheld in strict confidence with PwC.
PwC does not audit the information provided by thestudy participants and provides no opinion or otherform of assurance with respect to the information.

20

ABOUT THE PMAABOUT THE PMA

The Performance Marketing Association (PMA) is a
non-profit trade association founded in 2008. It is
the only trade association representing theperformance marketing industry.
The PMA’s mission is to champion and protect
accountable performance marketing. Our main
goals are to promote the industry's growth, help
model standards and best practices, and advocate
for the businesses that comprise the performancemarketing industry.
The PMA strives to raise the profile of performancemarketing by demonstrating the value of thismulti-billion marketing channel. With the PMA
leading the charge, companies will continue togrow and succeed, the quality of work will bedemonstrated, and further quality participation in
the performance marketing field will be
encouraged.
Learn more at thepma.com

21

ABOUT PWC RESEARCHABOUT PWC RESEARCH
PwC Research is PwC’s global center of excellence
for bespoke research and insight, working withclients to help them build industry-leading insightcapabilities and solve their business challenges. Our
real-time insight and analytics and unique advisory
frameworks help businesses achieve sustained
outcomes as they transform in the digital age. For
over 25 years, we have been trusted to undertake
some
of
the
most
prestigious
andthought-provoking research in the UK, Europe, theAmericas, and Asia Pacific. We deliver impactful andvisual insight for global clients ranging from
Fortune 500 companies to national governments,
informing
strategy,
driving
performance
improvement, and supporting change. With theunique ability to connect with subject-matter
experts across the PwC global network, we canintegrate and embed global citizen, customer,
market, and employee insight at the right timewithin an organization’s decision-making.
Our research and insight services include market
sizing, insight consulting, market assessment,
customer experience, product design and brand,
conduct and culture, agile data collection, andthought leadership.

222022 PERFORMANCEMARKETING INDUSTRY STUDYOUR SPECIAL THANKS TO THESE PMA INDUSTRY CHAMPIONSWHOSE SUPPORT IS CRITICAL TO OUR WORK.

Copyright 2022, Performance Marketing Association. All Rights Reserved.