5 Oct 2026 · @Matthew
By Matthew Wood, Hello Partner
Search for partnership marketing and you'll get a dozen different answers. Some say it's co-branding. Some say it's two software companies running a webinar together. Neither is what thousands of people in our industry mean when they use the term every day.
So here's our definition, from the team that has run the Performance Marketing Awards since 2007.
Partnership marketing is when a brand grows by paying publishers, creators, apps and other businesses for the customers and sales they send its way, rather than paying upfront for advertising.
That's it. The partner brings the audience and the trust. The brand pays when it works.
What partnership marketing actually means
In our world a partner is anyone who recommends a brand to people who already listen to them. That might be a cashback site with millions of members, a review site, a newsletter, a YouTuber with a discount code, a banking app that offers retailer rewards, or another brand selling to the same customers.
What makes it partnership marketing rather than advertising is how the deal is struck. The brand agrees a reward for a result, usually a sale, sometimes a lead or a new subscriber. Every result is tracked back to the partner who drove it, and the partner gets paid for what they deliver. If nothing happens, the brand pays little or nothing.
You'll sometimes see it called partner marketing, affiliate partnerships or performance partnerships. In the UK and European market it's broadly the same thing. It's worth knowing that in B2B software the phrase often means something seperate, two companies co-marketing a joint product. That's a perfectly good use of the words, it just isn't what this guide is about.
Partnership marketing vs affiliate marketing vs influencer marketing
This is the question we get asked most, usually by someone new to the industry who's been told all three are different and all three are the same.
Affiliate marketing is where partnership marketing came from. It's the original model, a publisher puts a tracked link on their site and earns commission on each sale. It's still the biggest part of the channel by a distance.
Influencer marketing grew up seperately. Brands paid creators a fee for a post, and the measure of success was reach and engagement rather than sales.
Partnership marketing is the umbrella over both. Over the last few years the two worlds have pulled together. Creators now work on commission and hybrid deals, affiliate publishers make video and social content, and brands increasingly want one team and one budget managing all of it. When people in our industry say partnership marketing, that combined channel is what they mean.
Affiliate marketing | Influencer marketing | Partnership marketing | |
|---|---|---|---|
Who the partner is | Websites, cashback, voucher and content sites | Creators on social platforms | All of these plus apps, newsletters and other brands |
How they're usually paid | Commission per sale | Flat fee per post | Commission, fee or a mix |
What gets measured | Sales and revenue | Reach and engagement | Sales first, plus the value of reaching new customers |
How brands pay partners
Most programmes use one of four models, and plenty use more than one.
- Cost per sale. The partner earns a percentage of each sale, or a fixed amount per order. This is still the default.
- Cost per lead or acquisition. A set fee for a sign-up, an application or a new customer. Common in finance, insurance and subscriptions.
- Hybrid. A smaller upfront fee plus commission. This is how most creator deals now work, and how brands secure premium placements with big publishers.
- Tenancies and flat fees. Paying for a guaranteed slot, say a homepage feature or a newsletter mention, usually on top of commission.
The tracking sits with a network or platform, which records the click, matches it to the sale and makes sure partners recieve what they're owed. Brands either run the programme themselves or hand it to a specialist agency.
Who's involved
A typical programme has five types of player. Most brands work with all of them at some point.
Who | What they do | Examples |
|---|---|---|
Brands | Set the rewards and pay for results | Retail, travel, finance, telecoms, subscription businesses |
Publishers | Recommend products to an audience they already have | Cashback and loyalty sites like TopCashback and Quidco, voucher sites, review and shopping content from news publishers |
Creators | Drive sales through content, links and codes | YouTubers, TikTokers, podcasters, newsletter writers |
Networks and platforms | Track sales and pay partners | Awin, Rakuten Advertising, CJ, Partnerize, impact.com |
Agencies | Run programmes on a brand's behalf | Specialist affiliate and partnership agencies |
How we got here
I've worked in this industry for more than twenty years, and for most of that time nobody outside it really knew what we did.
It started as affiliate marketing. Amazon launched its Associates programme in 1996 and the idea caught on fast. In the UK it was voucher codes, cashback and price comparison that built the channel, and for years the rest of marketing treated it as a bit of a backwater. Useful, but not glamorous.
When I set up the Performance Marketing Awards in 2007 the point was partly to change that. The work was good and it deserved to be seen. Pay-on-results was spreading into lead generation, mobile and paid media, and "performance marketing" became the name for all of it.
Then creators arrived, and the money followed them. Brands that had treated affiliate and influencer as two seperate things started to realise they were buying the same thing, trust from someone their customers already listened to. By 2022 the overlap was so obvious that we merged PerformanceIN and Talking Influence into one publication, Hello Partner. Partnership marketing is simply the honest name for what the channel became.
Where it's heading
Three things I'm fairly sure of.
First, the split between affiliate teams and influencer teams won't last. By 2030 I'd expect most serious brands to run partnerships as one channel, with one team and one budget. The ones already doing it are pulling ahead.
Second, AI is about to make partners more valuable, not less. When people ask a chatbot what to buy, the answer is built from reviews, publishers and creators. Content is becoming the trust layer for AI, and partnerships are how that trust gets paid for. If your brand isn't showing up with the people AI reads, it won't show up in the answer either.
Third, measurement has to grow up. Last click has had a long run. The partners who introduce a customer deserve credit alongside the ones who close the sale, and the brands that work out how to reward both will get the best partners.
Quick answers
What is partnership marketing in simple terms?
A brand pays publishers, creators and other businesses for the customers and sales they send it, rather than paying upfront for ads.
Is partnership marketing the same as affiliate marketing?
Not quite. Affiliate marketing is the original and largest part of it. Partnership marketing also covers creators, apps, newsletters and brand-to-brand deals.
Is partnership marketing the same as influencer marketing?
No, although they overlap more every year. Influencer marketing traditionally pays creators a fee for reach. Partnership marketing pays for results, and more creators now work that way.
Is partnership marketing the same as co-marketing?
In B2B software the terms are often used interchangeably. In ecommerce, retail, travel and finance, partnership marketing usually means the affiliate and creator channel described on this page.
How do partners get paid?
Usually commission on each sale, a fixed fee per lead, or a mix of upfront fee and commission. A network or platform tracks the results and handles payment.
Is partnership marketing worth it for a small brand?
Often, yes. Because you mostly pay for results, it's one of the lower-risk ways to test a new audience. The catch is that good partners are choosy, so you need a competitive offer and someone to look after the relationships.
Where can I learn more?
Hello Partner covers the industry every week, and the Festival of Partnerships in London each October brings the whole channel together, with PI LIVE for affiliate and performance partnerships and CreatorFest for creator partnerships.
Keep up with partnership marketing
We've been covering this channel since before most people had a name for it. If you work in partnerships, or you're thinking about it, the Hello Partner newsletter is the easiest way to stay on top of who's doing what. It's free and it comes out every week.
And if you want to meet the people behind the best programmes in Europe, come to the Festival of Partnerships in London. I'll see you there.
Matthew Wood, Hello Partner