• Top 20 Affiliate 
    (CPS) Networks 2023

    These are the Blue Book Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks, as chosen by the advertisers and publishers of the world-wide performance marketing community.

    INDUSTRY LEADERS 2023

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Rakuten Affiliate Network

    Rakuten Affiliate Network, part of Rakuten Advertising, has been our #1 network for 12 years in a row and show no sign of slowing down. Rakuten is the favorite of our Blue Ribbon Panel of experts, and of our advertiser voting panel, demonstrating excellence across every aspect of their business. Ranks best for service levels and innovation. Rakuten says: "Rakuten Advertising is a digital advertising provider delivering solutions that span affiliate marketing, programmatic display, social and paid search. Harnessing the best of strategy and technology, our products help global businesses seamlessly expand into new markets, acquire valuable new customers and authentically engage their existing audiences by delivering experiences people love."

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Impact

    Run by affiliate marketing legends, with top-class technology and a great reputation, Impact is now indisputably an industry leader. A terrific platform, an extensive network and influencer marketplace, and advanced analytics means one of the most complete set of service offerings in the business. Impact is increasingly influential and a serious competitor for the #1 spot in our rankings in future.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Awin Group

    Awin Group, incorporating ShareASale, is one of the best-loved networks in the industry. The support from Awin's publishers is unmatched by any other network, and advertisers love their scale and technology. Awin says, "We recognize this achievement is largely a result of votes from our clients and affiliates. We are honored to receive the continued support from our Awin and ShareASale platform partners and would like to thank them for considering both among the top affiliate networks.” -Alexandra Forsch, Awin US President.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    CJ

    CJ is still the world's biggest affiliate network and are now back on their game following their acquisition by Publicis. Huge scale, a good platform and access to masses of data makes them impossible to ignore. They were an early mover on Pay-Per-Call, which means they rank well in that category too.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    FlexOffers

    FlexOffers continues their seemingly unstoppable rise up our rankings, with a great reputation for straight-shooting, good support for publishers and quality traffic for advertisers.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    LinkConnector

    LinkConnector has a terrific range of trusted brands. In combination with their focus on proprietary technology this is consistently pushing them higher in our list.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Partnerize

    The former Performance Horizon Group with a new name and a different approach to performance marketing pricing models. Their head-to-head with Impact Radius will be interesting in 2019.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Webgains

    Based in the UK, with an active US office, Webgains delivers world-class customer service and cutting edge technology.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Avangate Affiliate Network

    Avangate is consistently well-regarded. The most popular digital goods network by some margin. Avangate says, "Launched in 2006, Avangate Affi­liate Network has been awarded the mThink Blue Book badge for #1 Software and Digital Goods Affi­liate Network six years in a row. The platform provides the right tools that enable you to focus on your strategy and campaigns and worry less about the means to achieve your results. By joining this network, you will drastically reduce the time it takes to build the plumbing for your business and focus on driving revenues by adding that personal touch, the spark of passion every affi­liate business needs!”

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    AvantLink

    A stable and professionally operated network with a great business model.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    TradeDoubler

    A very strong European network founded way back in 1999. Tradedoubler has global reach and a terrific publisher network.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    TradeTracker

    Another London-based network, and with 16 offices worldwide TradeTracker offers a lot of reach and a good platform.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    AdMedia

    AdMedia is the biggest search engine marketplace outside the major search engines. They offer a huge network, a full range of channels and technology partners, and full-service account management.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Skimlinks

    Skimlinks is a content monetization platform for online publishers that specializes in in-text, contextual advertising. Based in London since it was founded in 2007, Skimlinks has built its own niche in the industry and is highly respected.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    ClickBank

    Enormous and extremely popular, ClickBank is still the entry point to the industry for a large number of merchants.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    TravelPayouts

    The fast-growing travel-focused network claims to have just crossed the 200,000 affiliates mark and is a new entry to our Top 20 rankings.

    # in Best Cost-Per-Sale Affiliate Networks

    Affiliate Future

    Based in London, founded in 1999 and owned by Global Data, Affiliate Future is a solid network well-respected by our survey respondents.

    Best CPS Affiliate Networks – Top 20 Affiliate Networks

    Each year we conduct the biggest research survey in the performance marketing industry in order to identify the best CPS Affiliate Networks (Cost-Per-Sale). The responses are then aggregated with input from the Blue Ribbon Panel of industry experts and mThink’s own research. The result is the Blue Book Top 20 Affiliate Networks, as chosen by the advertisers and publishers of the world-wide performance marketing community. These are the industry leaders that provide the levels of customer service, professionalism and consistent ROI that is the mark of a top network. They have also learned to survive and thrive in an ever-changing and incredibly competitive environment, so they are without exception run by smart, effective leaders.

    The BLUE BOOK Top 20 is not a simple list of the biggest networks. Instead, it takes into account reputation, influence, clientele, popularity and scale.

    An important part of the ranking process is our survey of over 25,000 industry figures that is carried out during the Fall. In the survey, we ask an open-field first question to identify the respondent’s favorite networks for running CPA and affiliate campaigns. The open-field nature of this first question is designed to avoid any selection-bias caused by prompting or by which networks we include in a pick-list. On a subsequent screen we provide a list of almost 50 networks from which respondents are asked to choose an additional four networks in each of the CPA and affiliate network categories, together with an additional open-field for write-in choices. In all, some 400 networks are included in our considerations.

    In addition to the survey, we researched and aggregated expert views, traffic data, measures of industry influence and as many other pieces of data as we can gather. We also have a strong Blue Ribbon Panel of respected leaders in the industry that help provide insight and evaluation.

    The final result of all these deliberations is the BLUE BOOK Top 20: the biggest and fairest evaluation of the best performance marketing networks in the world.


    Disclaimer
    While we put a huge amount of effort into researching and compiling the Blue Book rankings, as with all such lists they should be taken only as an expression of our opinion. By developing and posting these rankings, mThink makes no representation or warranty as to the accuracy or factual basis of the rankings. We recommend that users should carry out their own research. Under no circumstances will mThink be held liable in any way for any ranking, any errors or omissions in any ranking/s, or any loss or damage of any kind incurred as a result of the use of the ranking/s.

    Top 20 Affiliate Networks 2017