What characterizes affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is primarily characterized by performance-based rewards for driving sales. In this model, affiliates earn a commission or payment for each sale or action that results directly from their marketing efforts. This relationship incentivizes affiliates to effectively promote products or services, knowing that their earnings are directly tied to the results they generate.

Affiliates often employ various digital marketing strategies such as content marketing, social media outreach, and SEO tactics to attract consumers. This focus on performance allows businesses to scale their marketing efforts, as they only pay for actual sales or leads that affiliates produce, making it a cost-effective approach.

While the other choices touch on aspects related to marketing, they do not define affiliate marketing as precisely as the correct option does. Traditional advertising methods lack the performance-based nature that affiliate marketing embodies, offering free products doesn’t capture the essence of the reward structure, and creating partnerships with businesses can be part of affiliate marketing but is too broad and not its defining characteristic.