At Impactbytes, we’re on a mission to help purpose-driven brands scale their impact. In 2025, we’ve seen the original performance-based marketing platforms, like Google and Meta, openly support rightwing politicians and scale down their impact efforts. At the same time, online publishers have seen a rapid decline in their visitors due to Google rolling out AI summaries. In short? Scaling your brand or platform ethically online in today’s economy is a challenge.

Well, that’s until you learn about affiliate marketing. Affiliate marketing is one of the most effective ways for brands to grow and for creators to earn in 2025.  

In this blog, we’ll help you understand what affiliate marketing is and how you can use it to scale your revenue online. Whether you're a brand, influencer or blogger, understanding how affiliate marketing can help you boost business ethically despite today’s socio-economic challenges.

Let’s break it down!

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What Is Affiliate Marketing?

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based marketing strategy where a brand pays a commission to a third party (usually a content creator, influencer, blogger or other type of online publisher) for driving traffic or sales to its website.

Think of it like word-of-mouth marketing, but then it's digitised and trackable. When the publisher shares a product and their audience buys it through a unique affiliate link, they earn a commission on the sale.

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How Affiliate Marketing Works (Step-by-Step)

1. A brand creates an affiliate program
   The brand sets commission rates and provides unique tracking links.
   
   
2. Publishers join the program
   Publishers can be anyone who will use links to promote a brand's products, like creators, bloggers, influencers or websites who want to promote the brand.
   
   
3. Publishers share content
   They publish reviews, tutorials or recommendations that include the affiliate link.
   
   
4. A user clicks the link
   When someone clicks the affiliate link and makes a purchase from the same device within the commission period, it’s tracked.
   
   
5. The publisher earns a commission
   The brand pays a percentage of the sale (or a flat fee for the click) to the publisher.
   
   

An Example of An Affiliate Marketing Collaboration

At Impactbytes, we facilitate more than 3000 affiliate marketing partnerships reaching millions of visitors per month. An example of a successful affiliate marketing partnership is Project Cece (publisher) and a sustainable brand like Mud Jeans. 

The publisher: Project Cece, a search engine for sustainable brands, collects the items from 350+ impact-driven brands in one place to connect them to larger audiences.

The affiliate: Mud Jeans, a purpose-driven brand that is at the forefront of creating sustainable denim. They were actually one of the first brands to offer renting!   

How they work together through affiliate marketing: Project Cece unites the items from all these different webshops in one place and provides information on why an item is sustainable. Whenever a visitor decides to buy, they are redirected to the brand’s own webshop to finalise the order. The redirection link is an affiliate link, which means that if the visitor places an order from the same device within the affiliate period (30 days), Project Cece receives a percentage of that order from Mud Jeans.

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Why Affiliate Marketing Matters (Especially for Impact-Driven Brands)

Affiliate marketing isn’t just a revenue tool; it’s a relationship builder. For brands focused on sustainability, transparency and social impact, working with value-aligned creators can amplify your message and build trust with conscious consumers.

At Impactbytes, we believe affiliate marketing could:

• Reward authenticity
• Encourage long-term brand relationships
• Empower ethical creators to earn sustainably
• Support transparency in eCommerce

How Publishers and Brands Use Affiliate Marketing

For Publishers (Creators, Bloggers, Media Outlets)

Publishers use affiliate marketing to monetise their content by recommending products or services they trust. This includes:

• Bloggers writing product reviews or gift guides
• Influencers sharing affiliate links in videos, Instagram Stories or newsletters
• Media outlets like digital magazines or news platforms embedding affiliate links in editorial content

Every time a reader clicks and makes a purchase, the publisher earns a commission without needing to hold inventory or sell directly.

This allows value-aligned publishers to focus on what they do best: creating great content, while earning through honest recommendations.

For Brands

Brands use affiliate marketing to drive sales, increase brand awareness and build long-term relationships with creators who genuinely believe in their mission.

Instead of spending huge sums on ads, they:

• Collaborate with authentic voices who already reach their ideal audience
• Reward performance, only paying commissions on actual results
• Track what works, using data to refine campaigns and build loyalty

For impact-driven brands, affiliate marketing offers a way to scale sustainably and transparently, especially when partnering with like-minded publishers through platforms like Impactbytes.

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Benefits of Affiliate Marketing

For Brands:

• Cost-effective (pay only for performance)
• Scalable customer acquisition
• Builds brand trust through third-party recommendations
  
  

For Publishers:

• Earn income from content you already create
• Align with brands you genuinely believe in
• Turn your audience into a source of sustainable revenue

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Affiliate Marketing With Impactbytes: A Better Way

Most affiliate platforms are built to maximise profit. We’re built to maximise impact.

With Impactbytes, brands and creators connect through a curated affiliate network that values authenticity and purpose. We vet partners, ensure data transparency and make it easy to build ethical affiliate programs.

Our platform is designed for:

• Sustainable brands looking to scale without compromising values
• Content creators who prioritise integrity over clickbait

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Final Thoughts

Affiliate marketing is powerful. When done right, it's also ethical, transparent and meaningful. Whether you're a brand ready to grow your mission-driven business or a creator looking to monetise authentically, affiliate marketing with purpose is the way forward.

Ready to get started?
Explore the Impactbytes platform and join the movement toward a more transparent and values-driven digital economy.

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