MarketingSherpa.com has just released their latest study on affiliate marketing networks and how they perform in the eyes of affiliates.  The five affiliate networks that are included in the survey are Commission Junction, Linkshare, Performics (soon to be Google Affiliate network), Share a Sale and PepperJam.

For this affiliate marketing survey, Marketing Sherpa interviewed 41 affiliates who use more than 1 affiliate network.  They asked their respondents which affiliate networks they use and which they use the most often.   For those of you looking for a surprising answer … look elsewhere.  Commission Junction has long been the leader in affiliate marketing and this survey shows that Commission Junction has not relinquished their hold on the affiliate marketing business.  The only real surprise in this survey is that Share a Sale is used more often than both Performics and Linkshare, despite having a lower key, more niche driven merchant base.  Pepperjam is a fast growing affiliate network with a little over 17% of the surveyed users promoting Pepperjam merchants.  Despite Pepperjam’s growth they still remain the low man on the totem pole with the smallest market share of any of the surveyed affiliate marketing networks.

The next 3 surveys were dedicated to Commission Junction, Linkshare and Performics.  The survey asked respondents to rate service on technology, customer service, merchants/advertiser clients, and payment dependability.  All of the companies rated as average for customer service, although customer service was rated as the 3^rd most important factor when using an affiliate network.  All of the companies also rated average in terms of technology, which is the 2^nd most important factor.  Commission Junction rated above average (the highest score) for merchants/advertiser clients and payment dependability, while Linkshare and Performics scored averages on these two factors. 

At the end of the day, Commission Junction is still the player to beat while the other two giants, Performics and Linkshare are floundering a bit.  Smaller companies Pepperjam and Share a Sale are working hard with smaller clients to gain market share.  In this sponsored post, I take away that people end up using Commission Junction’s affiliate network for two reasons.  #1  They have great merchants and #2 They pay on time.  One thing is for sure, affiliate marketing will continue to grow and affiliate networks will continue to evolve.  Check back in the future to see where these same companies stand.