The industry has four core players:
[citation needed]
The market has grown in complexity, resulting in the emergence of a
secondary tier of players, including affiliate management agencies,
super-affiliates, and specialized third party
vendors.
[citation needed]
Affiliate marketing overlaps with other
Internet marketing methods to some degree because affiliates often use regular
advertising methods. Those methods include
organic search engine optimization (SEO), paid
search engine marketing (PPC – Pay Per Click),
e-mail marketing,
content marketing, and (in some sense)
display advertising.
On the other hand, affiliates sometimes use less orthodox techniques,
such as publishing reviews of products or services offered by a partner.
[citation needed]
Affiliate marketing is commonly confused with
referral marketing,
as both forms of marketing use third parties to drive sales to the
retailer. The two forms of marketing are differentiated, however, in how
they drive sales, where affiliate marketing relies purely on financial
motivations, while
referral marketing relies more on trust and personal relationships.
[citation needed]
Affiliate marketing is frequently overlooked by
advertisers.
[6] While
search engines,
e-mail, and
web site syndication capture much of the attention of
online retailers, affiliate marketing carries a much lower profile. Still, affiliates continue to play a significant role in
e-retailers' marketing strategies