Affiliate and Partner Marketing in Germany is demonstrating significant resilience despite a sluggish broader economy. According to the first consolidated market study by the Affiliate and Partner Marketing Circle (APMC) within the BVDW, investment in the channel is projected to reach €932 million in 2025. This represents an 8.3% increase over 2024, a growth rate that significantly outperforms the 3.2% increase predicted for the total German advertising market by the ZAW.
The data, aggregated from 13 leading Networks and platforms alongside a touchpoint analysis of 185 Advertisers, paints a picture of a high-efficiency ecosystem. While the German e-commerce sector overall is growing at a modest 3.2%, Affiliate Marketing revenue is expanding nearly four times as fast, reaching a total of €18.7 billion in generated sales.
Performance Metrics at a Glance
- €932 Million in total investment (+8.3%)
- €18.7 Billion in generated revenue (+12.0%)
- 228 Million Transactions (+9.2%) — roughly 7 orders per second
- 5.54 Billion Clicks (+16.0%)
- ROAS of 16 in the Retail and Travel segments
- 16.3% Share of total Retail E-Commerce
The Attribution Gap: Hidden Value in the Funnel
A critical finding of the study involves how the channel is measured. Standard Last-Click-Attribution models appear to significantly undervalue the actual impact of partners. The APMC's touchpoint analysis, conducted by attriXus, easy Marketing, and Ingenious Technologies, reveals a stark discrepancy between visible and actual contribution.
Affiliate and Partner Marketing is involved in 24.9% of all analyzed online transactions with at least one touchpoint—yet standard Last-Click-Attribution only credits the channel for one in eight sales.
This suggests that the channel's influence on the Customer Journey is roughly twice as high as typically reported in standard dashboards. This mirrors trends in the US and UK, where sophisticated Multi-Touch attribution is increasingly used to justify Upper-Funnel spend.
Commission Structures and Publisher Trends
The German market remains heavily performance-oriented, with 80% of all budgets flowing through pure CPA/CPO models. However, the mix of partners is evolving. Comparison Shopping Services (CSS) are the fastest-growing category, seeing a 22% increase in investment. Other significant contributors include Content Creators, Influencers, Cashback and Loyalty programs, and the growing niche of Brand-to-Brand partnerships.
Benchmarking Against Global Markets
When placed in a global context, Germany holds a solid middle ground between the world's leading affiliate economies. The PMA Industry Study 2025 values the US market at $13.62 billion, while the APMA reports the UK market at £1.66 billion. Germany's Retail and Travel ROAS of 16
also sits comfortably between US benchmarks (Retail 11, Travel 19), indicating a highly mature and efficient market environment.Strategic Outlook for 2025
This data provides a necessary quantitative foundation for a channel that has often struggled with visibility in the C-suite. For Marketing Managers, the 16
ROAS and the high transaction volume (7 per second) serve as a powerful argument for shifting budgets away from volatile Programmatic or Social channels toward the more stable, performance-based Affiliate ecosystem. As First-Party-Data becomes the primary currency in a Cookieless world, the direct relationship between Publishers and Merchants in this "controllable ecosystem" is likely to drive further growth through 2026.Sources: APMC within BVDW — Market Data Survey 2025; ZAW Year-End Forecast 2025; bevh press release dated 22 January 2026; HDE Online Monitor 2025; PMA Industry Study 2025; APMA State of the Affiliate Nation 2025.
Affilitizer Editorial Team
This article was created with AI assistance and editorially reviewed.
