Affiliate Marketing on YouTube
(A2019-8252)

AUTHORS

Anthony Galluzzo, Université de Saint Etienne; Julien Cloarec, TSM-Research, Université Toulouse Capitole, CNRS

KEYWORDS

Affiliate Marketing; Influencers; YouTube

ABSTRACT

While affiliate marketing is still gaining ground on social media, this advertising model has rarely been investigated by scholars. The present research contributes to the literature on affiliate marketing by exploring the YouTubers’ characteristics behind affiliate marketing practices. Thanks to a collaboration with a multi-channel network, the analyses were conducted on a complete sample of the most popular French YouTubers (n = 407). First, the results show that, due to the product categories involved, female YouTubers are more likely to do affiliate marketing than male YouTubers. Second, due to higher para-social interactions, vloggers and let’s players are more likely to do affiliate marketing than other YouTubers.