20 TOP Fashion Affiliate Programs — Best CPA Fashion Networks and Offers of 2024 For Sites and Online Bloggers
Coco Chanel once said, and we quote, “To be irreplaceable, one must always be different.”. There’s a lot that we can learn from that quote. Every brand wants to be irreplaceable, and the pressure to maintain that status is bigger than the largest hippopotamus in the world.
To stay ahead of time and trends is especially taunting for designers and brands with a specific kind of creative genius competition to stay on top of. And gone are the days when brands had to wait for inch-thick spring editions of fashion magazines to declare what the new 'hot trend of the season' was. Now, to get in the race, the fashion industry has resorted to a multitude of affiliate marketing strategies, including having its affiliate marketing plan.
For instance, Burberry founded 165 years ago, turned to affiliate marketing during the Economic Recession of the 2000s. Using fashion influencers, Burberry has become the 4th fastest-growing fashion brand after Apple, Google, and Amazon. That's quite an esteemed competitor line-up for a 165-year-old fashion brand, no?
Most importantly, and equally surprisingly, the number of searches for the term ‘Affiliate Marketing’ has skyrocketed in the past five years, as illustrated by Google Trends.
So, without further ado, let’s dive into your recipe for success in the fashion industry without further ado: affiliate edition.
What Is CPA Marketing
CPA marketing, or Cost-per-action marketing, is a type of affiliate marketing that gives the affiliate a commission when a specific action is completed, such as getting a quote, filling out a form, making a purchase, or watching a video.
E-commerce sites design online marketing campaigns that the CPA networks then promote via affiliates. Affiliate marketers get paid a specific fee every time a visitor completes an action through their unique referral.
How Does Cost Per Action (CPA) Marketing Work
The CPA marketing model comprises of three main characters:
- The Publisher or Affiliate Marketer: The influencer markets a product or a service to increase the eCommerce site's traffic and make a specific conversion.
- The Advertiser or Business: The brand or business is looking for a partnership with an affiliate marketer to get quality leads and boost conversions to the brand's website.
- CPA Network: The network acts as the middleman between the brand that wants its products marketed and the affiliate marketer who wants to earn money by marketing.
Let's consider an imaginary Youtuber named Karen (the affiliate marketer in the story) who has a good YouTube following and amazing credibility, so much so, that her subscribers are eager to buy any products that she recommends.
Enter Cooking Gadgets (our imaginary business in the story), a business that sells kitchen gadgets. Cooking Gadgets are looking for ways to reach a wider audience, and they want to leverage Karen's audience of aspiring chefs.
Enter a CPA marketing network that connects Karen and Cooking Gadgets. Now, this relationship works by Karen promoting the brand's gadgets, and Cooking Gadgets makes money from Karen's referrals and pays a certain amount in return.
CPA Marketing Payment Model
The CPA affiliate marketing has different payouts depending on the average commission rates and competition in each vertical.
For instance, outdoor gear manufacturer Kelty's successful affiliate program offers up to 10% based on a tiered commission structure. It relies on the competition in your vertical.
Advertisers prefer CPA marketing because of its low-risk working because they only have to pay when an action occurs compared to paid traffic, where you pay to get traffic via ads.
While the cost per action is different for every industry, Google AdWords says the average CPA is $48.96.
- The automotive industry reports having the lowest CPA at $33.52.
- And the tech industry reports the highest CPA at $133.52.
The top 10% of advertisers have Costs Per Action that are 5X better than the average rate.
How to Choose a Fashion Affiliate Marketing Network
The success of an affiliate marketing program is directly proportional to the kind of affiliate marketing network you choose. Affiliate marketing is responsible for 16% of all online marketing, and people spend more when they buy something recommended by an affiliate. So, it’s essential to choose the right network to represent and be represented.
When selecting an affiliate marketing program, choose something that has more scope and offers you great exposure. Although you can promote a product and generate revenue independently, a network can make the process easier for you. Choose a credible network because the network will connect you with merchants, track your commissions, and take care of the behind-the-scenes so you can work smoothly.
Why Choose the Fashion Affiliate Niche
Fashion, jewelry, and makeup are three interconnected sub-niches (collectively grouped under the umbrella of fashion) that never go out of business. Take a look at clothes; even a significant pandemic couldn't stop people from buying clothes. Fashion is the perfect niche for a steady flow of income because even when everything is going to hell, people like to look and feel good. We’re talking about trying times here, even war. Plus, the fashion market is expected to reach up to $3.3 trillion by 2030.
Jewelry is a no-brainer. People from all walks of life buy jewelry worth US$300 billion per year. Jewelry isn't exclusive to rich people. Everyone loves bling. About 30% of jewelry sold internationally is because of affiliate marketing. Therefore, despite physical stores, people prefer shopping online.
This is good news for all the affiliates out there because some offers even pay $900 commission per sale on average. And that is NOT a typo.
The trick in affiliate marketing is choosing a golden, evergreen niche. A niche in which customers spend money even if they're broke. We’re talking about cosmetics/beauty that saw an increase in sales in an economic downturn. Makeup is a comfort for some people, and they’ll spend their earnings on it no matter what. And that's all the more reason for you to market it.
According to AM Navigator, the retail and fashion affiliate niche takes the trophy for generating the highest % of revenue all over the world. It sits at the top of the 20 best affiliate categories. What more do you need to know?
How Much Can You Earn as a Fashion Affiliate Marketer in 2023
Just like there’s no one-size-fits-all in clothes, there isn't a specific amount. Fashion affiliate marketers' earnings can range anywhere in-between $3,000 – $6,000 every month. However, it’s important to know that there are many sub-niches in Fashion, including men's fashion, slow fashion, kid's fashion, luxury fashion, sustainable fashion, fast fashion, ethical fashion, and even pet fashion. Not every sub-niche is as profitable as the other. For example, sustainable fashion affiliates don't make even a fraction of what luxury fashion affiliates make because luxury fashion has ridiculously high profit margins.
For example, Danielle Berstein earns over $15,000 per post on her Instagram account; We Wore What. Granted, she has 2.6 million followers, and that big of a number is sure to attract big brands who want to spend a pretty penny. But if you think that’s a lot of money, it might come as a shock to you, so brace yourself that this number can range anywhere from $20,000 to 100,000 per post when you’ve several million followers.
Like every affiliate niche, the fashion industry also has its fair share of all-star fashion affiliate marketers earning millions, and the average successful marketers are still doing good. Not everyone earns millions in the fashion niche, so what are the average earnings?
Here are some more fashion bloggers and their earnings per month:
- Sandy a la Mode makes a reasonable $3,650 every month. She has 155K followers on Instagram and a blog.
- Guitar and Lace, run by Lori, racks up to $3,000 every month. She has both an Instagram and a blog. All of her posts on Instagram contain a link to the Like To Know It app.
These aren’t millions, but that’s the reality of working in the fashion industry. Not everyone makes it to celebrity status, but that doesn't mean that fashion affiliate marketing isn't lucrative. So, is it worth a try? We'd say so.
Real-Life Examples of Affiliate Marketers in the Fashion Industry
These real-life examples will surely inspire you to start something of your own in affiliate:
- Roxxsaurus
According to Trend, a fashion YouTuber and/or Instagrammer with a user base of 500 000 or more is more likely to charge more than $5,000 per sponsored story, video, or post, on average. The rate, however, varies depending on the brand, the marketers’ reach, and engagement.
Roxi, also known as Roxxsaurus, is a famous YouTuber with 4.41M subs. She does frequent collaborations with Makeup Revolution and also works as an affiliate marketer for them. The bio of every YouTube video contains her affiliate links for the brand.
Roxi also makes sure to mention that her affiliate links are marked with an '*.’
Roxi boasts 550K followers on Instagram. She often does sponsor posts for brands to increase their sales, reach, and engagement. Here is her, in her element, promoting the brand Spectrum Collections with a post dedicated to their new shop:
- HopeScope
HopeScope is an Instagram influencer and an aspiring YouTuber. She has various sources of earning as an affiliate marketer. On her Instagram, she has a specific story highlight dedicated to her discount codes.
Moreover, a lot of her Instagram posts illustrate her collaboration with different brands that involve her either offering a discount code or free shipping on giveaways, for instance, with Corioactive here:
You can find the link to her Amazon store on YouTube, where she has added her favorite snacks, beauty products, leggings, etc. There are a lot more links in her YouTube bio, along with discount codes.
Lastly, she also has a website that contains several links, including links to her Poshmark Closet and Amazon Store. Other links include her profiles on YouTube, TikTok, and Cameo (that’s another way, she earns some cash, although not an affiliate).
- Angwi Tacho
Our third example is Angwi Tacho. Tacho has 220K subscribers on YouTube and 105K followers on Instagram. Apart from having different discount codes in her videos, she’s also a Fashion Nova partner. Fashion Nova partners act as affiliate marketers for the brand. They usually post try-on hauls on YouTube for the brand, or they pose in clothes from Fashion Nova, tag it in the post, and add their code, link, or just the hashtag (#FashionNova or #FashionNovaPartner), and then get paid when people buy products using their links.
Angwi Tacho also has her unique referral link for Fashion Nova in her YouTube video’s bio,v along with a hashtag for the brand.
Other than that, she also has all the individual links in the bio after listing her social media handles.
On her Instagram, she does ads for Pretty Little Thing and has a discount code for White Fox Boutique.
Conclusion
Fashion affiliate marketing is the only marketing model that is extremely cost-effective as a form of lead generation tactic and pays you solely for your performance. This is why both brands and affiliate marketers love affiliate marketing equally.
And with so many sub-niches in the Fashion industry, you have so many options to try and see the results. Rest assured, no matter what niche you choose, you are going to find a never-ending plethora of high-ticket affiliate programs and networks to match your unique interests and offer you high commission rates.
