Affiliate marketing trends for 2025

Affiliate marketing is growing rapidly, with a projected global spending of $15.7 billion by 2024. 

It’s one of the most popular forms of advertising, as the affiliate marketing industry requires little to no investment to get started.

As more and more affiliate partners and brands use this strategy, it’s essential to know the top affiliate marketing trends to look for in 2025. Make money by boosting your traffic and conversions with valuable tips and tricks from Printify – from the latest trends to the best niches.

1. AI and affiliate marketing

In 2023, the AI industry experienced significant growth, establishing itself as a key affiliate marketing trend that’s expected to continue throughout 2025.

Affiliate networks adopted AI-driven matching tools, reducing time with recruitment and administration and improving security. 

• Mundane tasks like selecting potential partners and screening applications according to predetermined criteria are becoming increasingly fast, precise, and fair. 
• At the same time, affiliate marketing teams are increasingly capable of providing higher-quality customized support to partners, allowing them more time to create campaigns instead of spending time with administration.  
• AI spreads through all content creation processes, enhancing competitiveness while giving creators more time to think, create, and innovate.   

How affiliate marketing SEO will change is still to be seen. While their dependence on organic traffic should continue, affiliate marketers must be attentive to updates from major platforms like Google and Bing and keep an eye on alternative engines like DuckDuckGo.

2. Video continues its dominance

Video is one of the most engaging forms of content. Affiliate and influencer marketing via video can transmit more authenticity by presenting detailed reviews of products and items with genuine pros and cons, tutorials, guides, entertainment, and even user-generated content. 

However, when researching before purchasing, most users prefer educational content that could help them make an informed decision.

YouTube is the most popular and effective platform for affiliate marketing. It will likely keep this position not only as part of the Google ecosystem but also due to its ability to adapt to new trends, such as live streams and short videos. 

Still, video content like Instagram Reels, Facebook Live, and, most recently, TikTok and Snapchat short videos can resonate with diverse audiences and become powerful affiliate marketing channels.

3. Influencer importance grows further

Macro and micro Influencers alike will continue to have a prominent role in the affiliate marketing industry in 2025, especially among young audiences. 

Young modern buyers are tech-savvy, depending strongly on social media platforms and influencers to make up their minds before a purchase.  

Influencer marketing associated with an affiliate marketing program can develop loyal audiences by displaying authenticity and know-how through short and engaging pieces of content on platforms like YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. 

Since AI tools make a whole new world of resources available to general audiences, specialized social media influencers with valuable content will make a difference. For instance, many affiliate partners can now use Midjourney prompts to create astonishing designs, but only a few can edit them in Photoshop or teach others how to do it.

4. Optimizing for voice search queries

By 2024, the forecast predicts that the number of digital voice assistants in use will reach around 8.4 billion, surpassing the world’s total population. 

In recent years, virtual assistants such as Alexa, Google Assistant, and Siri have greatly improved. They’re becoming a convenient way to perform tasks and give commands – including searching the internet and purchasing. 

An increased number of voice searches impacts SEO (search engine optimization) and the organization of online content. Influencer marketing must adapt and take advantage of this trend to keep a steady flow of organic search results. 

• People use voice commands to search for information quickly. Make your content easy to navigate.
• Voice searches are mainly performed on smartphones. Ensure your website and content are responsive and easy to navigate on mobile devices. 
• Voice search SEO can be more wordy but specific. People will ask for whole phrases more often instead of typing a few keywords in search engines. Add FAQs answering comprehensive questions and long tail keywords to your website. Look for inquiries related to your content and affiliate promotions on Google to help you build your own FAQs. 

People can buy directly from stores and marketplaces with voice commands, which may take away traffic from intermediaries such as affiliate marketers. However, people also look for product reviews before purchasing. Offer comprehensive product or service reviews, tutorials, and guides with affiliate links. Potential customers will be more than willing to buy a product after a valuable, engaging review or tutorial.

5. Sustainable and ethical affiliate marketing

As 2024 approaches, ethical and sustainable practices resonate with a growing audience, with a projected $21.19 billion market. 

Affiliate marketers willing to pursue this field can obtain substantial returns but must be mindful of increasingly aware generations. Eco-friendly consumers are growing tired of affiliate brand sales using the label “sustainable” as green-washing for practices that, otherwise, don’t differ from other companies.  

Successful sustainable marketing nurtures trust not only by repeating an audience’s values but by doing it transparently.

Go for it if you strive for fairness and integrity beyond simple profit. Prioritize fair-trade affiliate products, even if they may cost more, and return smaller earnings.  

Aim for the long run if you intend to become an eco-friendly, ethical, or sustainable affiliate marketer. Sustainability involves a lasting commitment.

6. Expansion of affiliate marketing dudget and tools

2023 saw significant developments in existing and new affiliate marketing tools, especially AI-driven tools – improved automation allowed for sourcing suitable affiliates, monitoring and tracking progress, managing seasonal campaigns, and improving consumer insights. 

The affiliate marketing budget also saw developments as more brands and companies dived into this industry, with an expected overall spending of over $13 billion in Q4 2023 in the US alone. 

These trends should continue in 2025, with improved affiliate websites and budgets streamlining daily operations and cultivating bigger profits, with more opportunities in affiliate marketing for beginners and experienced marketers alike.

7. Increased globalization of affiliate marketing

Affiliate marketing campaigns have expanded to globalized audiences, an irreversible and welcomed trend. 

Countries previously off limits due to language and localization are increasingly enjoying the same products and services once available only to English-speaking countries and Europe. 

Influencers and content creators should go beyond local link building and look for brands and affiliate marketing platforms with good localization solutions, capable of expanding from North America and Europe to Oceania, Latin America, Africa, and APAC. 

Best niches for affiliate marketing in 2025

To thrive in the affiliate marketing world, staying informed about the current trends and exploring the best niches is essential. 

Marketing affiliates should find good niches and create quality content that will generate traffic, conversions, and brand recognition. Fear not, as we’ve selected some affiliate marketing niche examples for the best results in 2025.

Health and wellness

Existing customers are increasingly more health-conscious. At the same time, a growing number of companies have become more attentive to the well-being of their employees.

Investing in an affiliate marketing business focused on health and wellness is an investment in the future with the potential to cater to loyal, long-term customers. 

It goes without saying – traditionally, fitness is a very profitable niche, with the home fitness equipment market alone worth almost $10 billion a year.

Expanding it to a broad audience, not necessarily interested in winning a marathon or becoming the strongest person in the room but simply seeking to enhance their well-being, is definitely a smart business move.  

Sign up for affiliate marketing partners able to reach from traditional fitness enthusiasts and people with an active lifestyle to those with chronic conditions, recovering from illness, and braving old age.

Eco-friendly, sustainable, and ethically-made products

This niche remains one of the trendiest and will continue to be – not only are more people willing to pay more money to reduce their environmental impact, but producers are increasingly incorporating sustainability and social responsibility in their practices.

Promote eco-friendly products like tote bags, t-shirts, candles, and even canvases and doormats. Partnering with an eco-friendly affiliate program is the perfect way to focus your marketing efforts on getting more revenue while keeping your conscience clean by diminishing the environmental impact.

Kitchen, home, and garden

Home decor and gardening are part of a broad but evergreen niche, with products always in demand. On average, people spend between $500 to $5,000 per room solely on furniture. 

There is a large audience willing to spend to improve their homes. Some sub-niches in this category, such as selling kitchen accessories, are particularly promising – more than two-thirds of Americans cook at home at least three to five times a week, meaning the demand for kitchen appliances, accessories, and decor is always high. 

Affiliate partnerships promoting this niche earn commissions and help people improve their homes, cooking, and hobbies.

When promoting products related to this niche, look for items that are practical and convenient but also look good. After all, aesthetics are fundamental in decor. 

Finally, remember to align this trend with the bigger ones and commit to products that are also sustainable.  

Consider the following products and services for contextual targeting: 

• Furniture and home organization
• Home decor
• DIY and hobbies with a focus on home improvement – i.e., woodworking
• Smart home and energy efficient services and products
• Outdoor activities
• Gardening and landscaping

Online courses and education

Self-improvement and ongoing education are not only up-to-the-minute but should grow as trends, as more people of all ages opt for online courses instead of enrolling in traditional classes.  

This affiliate marketing strategy can be considered from two angles: 

• Affiliate marketing focused on online courses fits almost any niche you consider as long as you can produce valuable content and find the right affiliate publishers. From this point of view, online courses and education are affiliate marketing strategies that should apply a niche-focused approach. For instance, creating courses for a target audience of artists interested in AI technologies.
• Education and self-improvement can be grouped within the lifestyle niche, appealing to people looking for ways to grow or organizations intending to improve training and quality of personnel. This strategy should focus on education itself, from how to create and produce online courses to methods and strategies for self-improvement.

Summary: Affiliate marketing trends

Keep an eye on the popular niches and watch out for these key affiliate marketing trends in 2025. Pay attention to the next AI advancements, voice-related marketing trends, video content, sustainability, and more, and stay ahead of your increasingly global competition. 

Become a Printify affiliate partner by logging in to your existing Printify profile and signing up for our program. Soon, you’ll start earning easy commissions by promoting high-quality products and services.

Have an incredibly profitable holiday and new year!