Build an affiliate marketing competitor research checklist

What to take away

• Decide first whether you are comparing commission rates, audience fit or tracking quality, because each needs different evidence.
• Collect competitor data only from public pages, affiliate networks and published terms, not from hearsay.
• Check cookie consent and VAT treatment before you copy a competitor's payment or tracking setup.
• Record every source with the date you found it, so the comparison stays useful after a programme changes.

Why does competitor research start with your own audience?

You cannot judge a rival's offer until you know which readers or shoppers you are trying to reach. Start with the audience questions in the affiliate marketing audience research guide for England. That guide sets out how to segment demand by region and buying stage.

A competitor with a higher headline commission may still lose if its audience is a poor match. Write down your three core audience groups before you open any rival site. Note which of those groups a rival already serves well, and which it ignores.

Which competitors should you actually track?

Track a maximum of five. Pick two direct rivals, one adjacent brand and one publisher that sends traffic to your category. Smaller sets are easier to keep current.

For each, note the commission structure, cookie window, payment threshold and any exclusivity clause. If a rival pays on renewals but you pay once, that difference matters more than the headline rate.

Add a column for the network or platform each rival uses. Platforms charge differently, and a rival may look cheaper only because its network charges the advertiser less per sale. That changes your own margin calculation. Where a network publishes a public rate card, treat that card as stronger evidence than a screenshot posted in a forum thread.

Step-by-step checklist

1. List your audience groups and the action you want each to take.
2. Choose up to five competitors using the mix above.
3. Capture their public commission and cookie terms, with the date.
4. Note the payment options they promote, such as instalments or deposits.
5. Check how their tracking uses cookies and how consent is collected, against the ICO guidance on the use of storage and access technologies.
6. Review how they present prices and savings, so you can spot misleading claims early.
7. Compare their content themes with your own buyer personas, using the affiliate marketing buyer personas in England method.
8. Summarise gaps and set a review date.

How do you check offers without guessing?

Public terms pages and affiliate network directories are the safest sources. Read the network's published commission table rather than a blog summary.

Where a competitor promotes instalment payments, check the VAT treatment of those sales. HM Revenue & Customs sets this out in its guidance on VAT: instalments, deposits, credit sales, which affects how you compare net revenue.

If a rival claims a discount that never existed, that may breach fair trading rules under consumer protection law. Environmental claims deserve the same scepticism, since the statutory climate targets in the Climate Change Act 2008 have made green wording a sensitive area.

How should you record and refresh findings?

Use one table with columns for competitor, offer, audience, source URL and date checked. Add a column for confidence: high if the source is the network or brand, low if it is a forum post.

Keep the table short enough to read in five minutes. A long document that nobody opens is worse than a short one that shapes decisions. Name one owner for it.

Set a refresh cycle. Commission rates and cookie windows change often, so a quarterly review is sensible for most programmes.

Share the table with whoever approves budgets. A clear, dated record prevents the same questions being asked twice.

Common questions

How many competitors should I track?

Three to five is enough for most programmes. More than that and the table becomes stale before you finish updating it.

Can I rely on affiliate network directories?

Yes, if the directory is the network's own published list. Treat third-party summaries as leads to verify, not as final evidence.

Do I need consent to track competitor cookies?

You are not placing cookies on their site, so consent rules apply to your own tracking. The ICO guidance on storage and access technologies explains what counts as consent when you do place them.

How often should the checklist be repeated?

Quarterly for active programmes, or whenever a competitor changes its commission or cookie terms.