What partner marketing covers, and why Europe treats it differently

Partner marketing is any arrangement where one business pays another to bring in customers, and in Europe it splits into three commercial models that get lumped together far too often: affiliate marketing, referral programmes and recurring commission. Each moves money differently, suits different site types, and carries different European compliance obligations — VAT treatment, cookie consent, and increasingly DAC7-style platform reporting on payouts.

For a European site owner, the practical question isn't "should I do affiliate marketing" — it's which model fits the audience and traffic type, and which of the pan-European networks (Awin, Tradedoubler, Daisycon, Kwanko, Affilae) or direct SaaS programmes make sense for the niche. This pillar frames the whole area; the four linked sub-pillars — affiliate networks, programmes by niche, referral programmes and recurring commission — go deep on each.

Three models, three sets of economics

Affiliate, referral and recurring commission all pay someone for bringing in business, but the resemblance stops there.

Affiliate marketing

An advertiser pays a commission — usually a percentage of sale value or a fixed amount per lead — through a network that handles tracking, invoicing and payment across many publishers at once. It suits content sites, comparison sites and coupon sites with enough traffic volume to make the network overhead worthwhile.

Referral programmes

A business pays its own customers or a smaller circle of introducers a flat reward — cash, credit or a discount — for bringing in a named new customer, usually run in-house or via a lightweight referral tool rather than a full network. It suits companies with strong existing customer relationships more than open publisher traffic.

Recurring commission

Common in SaaS, a recurring programme pays a percentage of the customer's subscription fee for as long as they keep paying, not just on the first sale. It rewards publishers who write evaluation-driven content, because the payout compounds over the customer's lifetime rather than ending at sign-up.

Rates and windows are illustrative ranges drawn from published programme terms; individual programmes vary and should be checked directly before signing up.

The networks that carry most European affiliate traffic

Five networks handle the bulk of European affiliate relationships, and which one fits depends on vertical and geography rather than headline commission rates.

Awin is the largest by publisher count, built on its 2017 merger with Affiliate Window and Zanox, and is strongest in retail, finance and travel across more than a dozen European markets. Tradedoubler, headquartered in Stockholm, has the deepest Nordic bench and a long history in travel and electronics. Daisycon, based in the Netherlands, undercuts both on network fees and leans into fashion, energy, telecom and travel for Dutch and Belgian advertisers. Kwanko and Affilae, both French, pair network functions with their own SaaS tracking stacks and are a common choice for advertisers who want an EU-based data processor. Commission Junction (CJ), US-headquartered, is the largest global network with a substantial European advertiser base, particularly for transatlantic brands selling into Europe.

That isn't a ranking — see affiliate networks for a full comparison of payout thresholds, approval speed and support quality across all five.

The European layer: VAT, platform reporting and cookie consent

Three regulatory mechanics shape how European partner marketing runs day to day, and none of them is optional small print.

VAT on commission

When a publisher invoices a network or advertiser for commission and both are VAT-registered businesses in different EU states, the transaction is normally a B2B service under the reverse-charge mechanism: the publisher invoices net of VAT, and the buyer self-accounts for VAT in its own country. That is separate from the €10,000 EU-wide threshold that governs when a seller of goods or digital services must start charging VAT in the customer's country under the One Stop Shop (OSS) scheme — that threshold applies to advertisers selling to consumers, not to affiliate commission itself, but it matters if a publisher also sells its own digital products.

DAC7 and platform reporting

Council Directive (EU) 2021/514, known as DAC7, requires digital platform operators to collect seller tax-residency details and report earnings to EU tax authorities annually, with due diligence completed by 31 December and reports filed by 31 January for the previous year. Some affiliate and marketplace-style platforms now apply DAC7-style verification to publisher payouts, which is why sign-up increasingly asks for a TIN or VAT number that it didn't five years ago.

Cookie consent and tracking

The European Commission formally withdrew its proposed ePrivacy Regulation in February 2025, and cookie governance is being folded into the GDPR itself through new Articles 88a and 88b, including formal recognition of browser-level signals such as Global Privacy Control. For affiliate tracking specifically, this has accelerated the shift from client-side cookies toward server-to-server (postback) tracking, which survives consent refusals and ad-blockers better than a dropped cookie.

Matching a programme to a niche, not the other way round

The commission rate that looks best on a network directory rarely predicts what a specific site will actually earn, because conversion rates and average order values vary enormously by vertical. A travel site converts on click-to-book journeys that finance or B2B software content never sees, and a niche home-and-garden blog often earns more from a well-matched mid-tier retailer than from a generic big-name programme with a diluted cookie. Programmes by niche breaks down what performs in the verticals that carry most European affiliate traffic: retail and fashion, travel, finance and insurance, and B2B software.

Where referral programmes fit alongside affiliate

A referral programme makes sense once a business already has customers who like it enough to introduce others, which is a different growth lever from open publisher traffic. Because referral rewards go to named individuals rather than professional publishers, they carry lighter reporting overhead but far lower reach — a referral programme rarely scales past the size of the existing customer base. See referral programmes for how European companies structure rewards, and where referral and affiliate can run in parallel without conflict.

The programme with the highest headline commission is rarely the one that pays the most — payout threshold, cookie window and approval rate decide actual earnings more often than the rate card does.

Recurring commission and the lifetime-value publisher

Recurring commission suits SaaS and subscription products because it pays the publisher every month the referred customer keeps paying, not once at the point of sale. European examples worth knowing: Brevo (the French email and CRM platform, formerly Sendinblue) and GetResponse (Poland) both run affiliate programmes with recurring elements aimed at marketing-tool reviewers, alongside well-known recurring programmes such as Systeme.io's lifetime 60% rate and ConvertKit's 30% lifetime commission. The trade-off is patience: a recurring programme typically pays less upfront than a one-off CPA affiliate deal, and it rewards publishers who keep evaluation content current rather than those chasing one-off traffic spikes. Recurring commission covers how the model compares across major SaaS categories and what customer churn does to publisher earnings over time.

Where partner marketing ends and structured partnerships begin

Affiliate, referral and recurring commission all run through a rate card and a tracking link; once a relationship needs a signed agreement, a shared roadmap or a co-selling motion, it has moved into partnerships and alliances territory instead. Site owners who outgrow pure commission relationships — becoming a certified reseller, running joint campaigns with a vendor, or integrating a partner's product technically — should also look at reseller & channel and cross-border trade, which cover the deeper end of the same relationship.

Quick answers

Do I need a VAT number to join a European affiliate network?

Most networks accept sole traders below their home country's VAT registration threshold, but cross-border commission invoicing is simpler with one, and several networks now request a VAT or tax ID at onboarding as part of DAC7-style due diligence.

Is a 30-day cookie window still the European standard?

Yes, for classic affiliate networks; SaaS recurring-commission programmes commonly run 90–180 days because subscription decisions take longer to reach than a retail purchase.

Can the same site run affiliate, referral and recurring commission programmes at once?

Yes, and many established publishers do — a comparison site might run network affiliate deals for retail, a direct recurring-commission deal for a SaaS tool it reviews, and its own referral incentive for readers who share the site.