Let’s be honest: the more saturated your affiliate marketing niche, especially in high-ticket verticals, the more crucial it is to evaluate your competitors to uncover your unique edge and outperform rival affiliates or advertisers.
Strategic affiliate competitor analysis is key to optimising your lead generation and boosting sales. Luckily, with a strong framework (outlined below) and the right analytics tools, it’s easier than you think.
Let’s break down the ultimate affiliate competitor analysis process step by step.
Your journey to beating the competition starts by pinpointing exactly who they are. Use platforms like Ahrefs or SEMrush to identify your target keywords and link them to competitors. This will clarify who you’re competing with and identify potential gaps or opportunities.
Also check out: Key Affiliate Marketing Metrics and KPIs You Should Track
Let’s say you’re an affiliate promoting solar panels in the U.S. A smart first step is to find the most searched keywords in the niche, like “solar”.
Your keyword research aim should be to find high-volume keywords with low competition, which boosts your chances of ranking well on search engines. Remember, only the first page results get meaningful traffic, while results on page two and beyond see little to no traffic.
Because of this, “solar” is a very competitive and broad keyword. It’s non-commercial, making it unclear whether users seek to buy solar panels or just want general info.
So, you need to refine your keyword search to find more targeted options.
Head over to the “Matching Terms” section:
Filter the results to show keywords with low difficulty and decent search volume. For example, set the keyword difficulty to a maximum of 30 and the minimum search volume to 30.
Use the “Include” filter to target commercial keywords often found in buying guides and reviews, like “best”, “top”, “review”, or “vs”.
After filtering, you’ll get a list of actionable, high-volume, low-competition commercial keywords:
You now have 13 keywords to investigate further. These receive at least 1,000 monthly searches, although some lower-volume keywords may also be worth exploring.
Don’t forget to check the keyword commercial value via CPC (cost per click). For example, “best solar company” commands a higher CPC, while “best solar charger” and “best solar phone charger” have lower CPCs.
Remember, CPC is only an estimate. To get a full picture, analyse all keywords and identify companies currently ranking for your targets; these are your direct competitors.
To find affiliate websites that may be your competitors, enter your target keyword into Ahrefs’ Content Explorer. Ideally, choose a primary keyword you want to rank for (here, I used “best solar company”) and apply the “In Title” filter to show pages containing that keyword in their titles. This is a simple yet effective first step in conducting affiliate competitor analysis.
Next, you’ll get a detailed list of websites that include the phrase “best solar company” in their titles, with important metrics such as domain rating, traffic, and estimated cost.
Now it’s time to review the results and concentrate on the most relevant competitors.
I found six sites with high traffic value, but I can immediately exclude Forbes and MarketWatch since they aren’t affiliate-focused. Therefore, I can begin analysing https://solarreviews.com/ to check if it’s an affiliate website and continue my research from that point.
If you’re uncertain about your niche or wish to narrow your focus, you can reverse-engineer affiliate marketing by examining what affiliates link to major advertisers like Amazon. This method helps uncover niches with reasonable competition and high profit potential, making it a useful approach to affiliate competitor analysis.
Begin by typing the advertiser’s site (for example, Amazon) into Ahrefs’ Site Explorer:
Then, go to the backlinks section to identify sites that send traffic to Amazon. To refine your list, filter by domain rating, traffic, and language, and opt to show only one link per domain. This way, you get one affiliate website per domain.
Look for websites with lower domain ratings but strong traffic, preferably within a niche you’re interested in. Once identified, assess the site’s commercial potential to further refine your search.
After compiling a shortlist of competitor sites, investigate which programs they promote beyond Amazon Associates (or your chosen advertiser). Many affiliates join several programs, possibly revealing niche opportunities you hadn’t explored.
Whether you’re an advertiser or affiliate, researching competitor affiliate programs is a powerful way to analyse competition. Advertisers can create better programs, while affiliates discover which programs to focus on and potential earnings through effective affiliate competitor analysis.
Read also: Affiliate Marketing Programs: Your Key to Business Success
Below are the main elements to review in any affiliate program:
Larger commissions typically make affiliate programs more appealing. However, commission rates differ by industry and other variables.
Here are some general benchmarks:
However, payout size isn’t everything. Some programs provide tiered commissions, giving affiliates higher payouts as they bring in more customers. Others have sub-affiliate networks, letting affiliates earn from recruits they bring in.
Read also: Top Affiliate Commission Models for Your UK Business
Commission structures matter as well. Most networks take a percentage from the payout, often up to 30%, prompting advertisers to seek networks with lower fees to boost profits. In some cases, affiliates may be charged too.
Longer cookie durations increase the likelihood that affiliates will earn commissions on related purchases. Typically set at 30 days, extending this period can give advertisers a competitive advantage or help affiliates find better programs.
Read also: Google’s Cookie Plans Crumble: What Advertisers & Affiliates Need to Know
Finding out what kind of traffic your competitors are getting definitely opens up the possibility of seeing underserved areas or gaps. For instance, it may be the case that no solar panel sellers are present in the rural regions, which means that only a few qualified installers will be needed there. Such insights are worth a lot in a good affiliate competitor analysis, as they allow you to see if there are any strategic opportunities that your competitors are not aware of.
It’s also useful to check which traffic sources competitors block. Though some industries avoid specific traffic types (like gambling or adult content), sometimes taking risks with sources such as social media traffic can be beneficial.
Read also: Free Traffic Sources for Affiliate Marketing
Robust tracking and management software greatly benefits advertisers, affiliates, and networks, particularly when managing large amounts of traffic.
Tools like Phonea’s Lynx allow you to trace lead origins, understand interactions between affiliates and advertisers, and pinpoint what drives conversions.
Advertisers want to demonstrate that promoting their brand is simple, without needing to create ads from scratch. Templates like banners, emails, product feeds, landing pages, social media posts, promo codes, and other branded materials help achieve this.
Once you understand your competitors and their offerings, analyse their traffic sources and engagement methods. Knowing where your traffic comes from and how the customer journey develops helps you optimise your sales funnel.
For engagement, tools such as Ahrefs and SEMrush reveal competitors’ keywords and details like titles and descriptions. To examine their social media and email acquisition tactics, subscribe to their channels and newsletters.
Read also: Affiliate Marketing on LinkedIn – Top B2B Lead Gen Tactic
This approach also applies to their website, landing pages, and blog.
Paid advertising intelligence tools such as SpyFu, AdSpy, and WhatRunsWhere allow research across vast databases of paid ads, revealing competitor creatives, audience engagement methods, and top-performing ads.
The software managing affiliate marketing campaigns largely influences their accuracy and success, especially for larger advertisers and networks processing thousands of acquisitions every day.
Here are key tools marketers rely on beyond just link tracking software:
After estimating competitor traffic in Step 1, conversion is key. Larger companies often rely on lead management systems to track, route, and analyse web and call leads dynamically and strategically.
Read also: Affiliate Tracking Software: Improving Attribution & Maximising Profit
An excellent lead management example is combining LMS Sync with Call Logic. LMS Sync manages web leads, while Call Logic handles calls end-to-end, helping sales teams and centralising campaign control.
Read also: Pay-Per-Call Affiliate Marketing Guide for Affiliates and Advertisers
Here’s an overview:
Take a product tour to experience the synergy of Phonexa’s proprietary performance marketing products. No strings attached – you can explore the software suite for free.
Affiliates and advertisers must understand how users behave on their sites: the clicks they make, which features catch their attention, and what boosts or blocks conversions. Such detailed insights require specialised user behaviour analytics tools and are also essential for effective affiliate program competitive analysis, as they help benchmark performance against top-performing competitors.
This is the way on-site user behaviour analytics tools function:
As businesses or affiliates scale, they seek to mitigate risk by gradually increasing budgets. Predictive modelling software helps by simulating upcoming campaigns using business insights and market trends, letting you test several strategies before making final decisions.
After spotting market gaps and your own advantages, capitalise on them. Concentrate on your core skills while staying flexible to changes in the market.
Good news: many tasks can be automated today, giving you more time to concentrate on your overall strategy.
Ahrefs ranks among the best tools for affiliate competitor analysis, especially for organic traffic. It covers backlink tracking, website content audits, and identifying content gaps, supporting cost-efficient lead generation strategies to grow your market presence.
Unlike Ahrefs, which focuses on keywords and backlinks, SEMrush includes paid search data, making it ideal for all-around competitor analysis. It offers tools for organic and paid traffic, social media monitoring, and position tracking.
Here are five main competitor analysis tools offered by SEMrush:
BuzzSumo leads in social media analytics, enabling you to monitor competitors’ affiliate social campaigns. It reveals backlinks, shares, likes, and trending posts. You can also find top influencers in your niche and analyse their promotion tactics.
SpyFu excels at PPC research by revealing competitors’ Google Ads keywords and ad designs. Additionally, SpyFu uncovers SEO tactics, detects keyword gaps, and provides domain insights including rankings, ads, and backlinks.
SpyFu’s basic plan is now available, starting at $ 9 per month as a limited-time offer.
Similarweb provides a comprehensive suite of tools for in-depth analytics on competitor affiliates, SEO, and PPC campaigns. Its tracker holds key data and lets you monitor up to 25 affiliates at once.
Advertisers can leverage Similarweb to identify top-performing affiliates by analysing reach, traffic, and engagement. Additionally, conducting affiliate competitor analysis helps align affiliate and referral campaigns, assess current referrals, and track competitor activities.
AdSpy specialises in analysing advertising campaigns on Facebook and Instagram. It helps monitor affiliate performance, discover trending promotional products, and pinpoint profitable markets.
Key features of AdSpy include:
Adplexity stands out as a powerful affiliate spying tool, offering access to millions of ads across different platforms, devices, locations, and industries. It enables users to identify top-performing publishers and replicate successful ad components, including landing pages.
It also offers tested ad creatives and the option to set competitor alerts to track their updates and strategies. With real-time data updates, you stay ahead of market trends.
While competitor research is valuable in affiliate marketing, it’s just the beginning. After analysing the market and outlining your strategy, you’ll need the right tech stack to execute your plan effectively.
Affiliates can follow one of two main approaches:
Related read: Top 19 Affiliate Marketing Software Suites for Affiliate Management
Core components of a full-featured affiliate marketing suite include:
| Affiliates | Advertisers | Affiliate Networks |
| Basic: Link tracking software for proper attribution and payout accuracy Advanced: Lead management tools for product-owning affiliates (includes advertiser-grade tools) | Basic: Customer routing and link tracking tools Advanced: Predictive analytics and lead intelligence platforms for safer and more efficient campaign testing | All tools from affiliate and advertiser stacks, plus ping tree software to create a lead distribution marketplace |
Discover how Phonexa unifies everything into one powerful performance marketing platform:
Book a free demo to learn more about Phonexa
As an advertiser or affiliate, you benefit from managing campaigns in one place – and aligning them with marketing channels like email, SMS, phone calls, and social platforms creates a unified strategy.
That’s the core of Phonexa – comprehensive marketing management through one interface, offering high automation and minimal manual tasks. With eight proprietary tools, your data flows seamlessly without switching between systems and dashboards, supporting tasks such as affiliate competitor analysis to optimise your strategies.
Let’s break it down:
Get Phonexa’s all-in-one performance marketing software suite at a single price:
| LMS Sync | Lead management software |
| Call Logic | Call tracking and distribution platform |
| E-Delivery | Emails and SMS marketing platform |
| Cloud PBX | Cloud-based phone system |
| Lynx | Click tracking software |
| Opt-Intel | Suppression list management tool |
| HitMetrix | User behaviour tracking and analytics solution |
| Books360 | Automated accounting software |
Book a demo today to learn more about Phonexa.
Studying competitors in your affiliate space helps identify your strengths and fine-tune your strategy for attracting the right audience. Effective affiliate competitor analysis allows you to benchmark your performance, discover new opportunities, and stay ahead in a competitive landscape.
To identify competing affiliates, analyse niche-specific keywords, study industry insights, and explore your affiliate network’s marketplace. Learning how to find competitors in affiliate marketing also involves tracking who ranks for your target keywords and what affiliate strategies they use.
Top tools like SEMrush and Ahrefs offer deep insights into competitors’ keywords, backlinks, traffic, and more. These platforms are essential for comprehensive affiliate program competitive analysis, helping you uncover gaps in your strategy and improve affiliate performance.
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