The fastest reliable way to find your competitors' affiliate marketing partners is to combine referral data, backlink analysis, and manual verification.

No single tool can prove that every referring website is an affiliate. Referral traffic can also come from PR coverage, directories, partnerships, social media, and ordinary editorial links.

Start with:

  1. Similarweb or Semrush to find websites sending referral traffic.
  2. Ahrefs or Semrush Backlinks to find linking domains and shared link sources.
  3. Google and manual page checks to confirm whether a website promotes the competitor through affiliate content.

At-a-Glance Method

Method What it reveals Best use
Competitor referral analysis Websites sending traffic to competitors Find likely high-volume partners
Backlink analysis Linking domains, pages, and anchor text Find review, coupon, and comparison sites
Google searches Public affiliate pages and disclosures Check possible relationships
Affiliate networks Brands and programs available to publishers Find similar programs and networks
Manual inspection How each partner promotes the competitor Decide whether to recruit them

1. Identify Your Real Affiliate Competitors

Do not start with a list of brands you personally consider competitors. Build three separate lists.

Direct Competitors

These brands sell a similar product or service to the same audience.

Examples include:

  • Nike and Adidas for athletic footwear
  • Semrush and Ahrefs for SEO software
  • Shopify and BigCommerce for ecommerce platforms

Search Competitors

These websites rank for the keywords you want to target, even if they do not sell the same product.

A product review website, coupon website, or comparison publisher may be a search competitor because it controls the same buying-intent traffic.

Affiliate Competitors

These are brands receiving traffic from the same publishers, comparison websites, deal websites, or content creators.

Affiliate competitors often differ from direct business competitors. A publisher may promote several competing products in one article, which gives you a possible opening in that comparison.

2. Find Competitor Referral Sources with Similarweb or Semrush

Referral analysis is usually the quickest way to build a prospect list.

Similarweb's competitor research tools can identify websites sending referral traffic to selected competitors. The data may include referring domains, traffic volume, industry categories, and engagement metrics. Similarweb also recommends judging traffic quality instead of ranking prospects by visit volume alone.

Semrush provides a Referral dashboard for identifying websites that send visitors to competitor domains. Its Backlinks tools also show referring domains and links associated with competitor websites.

  1. Enter your website and three to five competitors.
  2. Export the referring domains for each competitor.
  3. Remove obvious sources, including:
    • Search engines
    • Social networks
    • News aggregators
    • Payment providers
    • Customer support platforms
    • Unrelated directories
  4. Group the remaining websites by type:
    • Product reviews
    • Comparison websites
    • Coupon and deal websites
    • Bloggers
    • Influencers
    • Editorial publications
    • Loyalty and cashback websites
    • Email publishers
    • Industry communities
  5. Prioritise domains that refer traffic to multiple competitors.

A website that promotes three competing merchants is often a strong prospect. It already understands the category, has relevant visitors, and may be willing to add another merchant.

Backlink tools help when referral platforms do not provide enough detail about individual pages.

Ahrefs' Link Intersect report shows domains that link to multiple competitors but not to your website. Ahrefs recommends using competing-domain data and shared referring domains to find link opportunities.

Semrush's Backlinks Competitors report also identifies websites that link to several competitor domains.

Look for These Page Types

Review linking pages that contain terms such as:

  • Review
  • Best
  • Alternatives
  • Comparison
  • Versus
  • Coupon
  • Discount
  • Promo code
  • Deals
  • Buying guide
  • Top products
  • Recommended
  • Partner
  • Commission

These terms do not prove that a link is an affiliate link. They help you find pages with commercial intent, where affiliate links are more likely to appear.

Inspect the Actual Linking Page

For each promising domain, open the page and check:

  • Does it recommend or compare products?
  • Does it link directly to the competitor's product or signup page?
  • Does the link pass through a tracking or redirect URL?
  • Is there a coupon code or special offer?
  • Does the page include an affiliate disclosure?
  • Does the publisher promote several competing brands?
  • Is the content current and maintained?
  • Does the website appear to have a real audience?

A backlink alone is not enough. A news article, sponsorship announcement, or supplier page may link to a competitor without involving an affiliate relationship.

4. Search Google for Public Affiliate Evidence

Google search operators can narrow results to a particular domain or URL prefix. Google documents the site: operator for finding indexed pages within a specified domain.

Use searches such as:

"Competitor Name" affiliate
"Competitor Name" commission
"Competitor Name" review
"Competitor Name" coupon
"Competitor Name" "promo code"
"Competitor Name" "I earn a commission"
"Competitor Name" "partner program"
site:competitor.com affiliate
site:competitor.com "affiliate program"

You can also search likely publisher websites:

site:publisher.com "Competitor Name"
site:publisher.com "Competitor Name" review
site:publisher.com "Competitor Name" coupon

Search the Competitor's Website

A competitor's affiliate or partner page may reveal:

  • The affiliate network it uses
  • Commission structure
  • Cookie duration
  • Accepted promotional methods
  • Restrictions on paid search or coupons
  • Application requirements
  • Geographic availability
  • Product feeds or deep-linking options

This information helps you understand how the competitor runs its program. It will not necessarily reveal every active affiliate.

5. Check for Signs of a Genuine Affiliate Relationship

Use several signals together. One URL pattern is rarely enough.

Stronger Signals

  • A clear statement that the publisher earns commissions
  • A tracked link that redirects through an affiliate platform
  • A discount code attributed to the publisher
  • Product links with affiliate parameters
  • Repeated commercial links across product reviews
  • A publisher profile in an affiliate network
  • A competitor-specific offer or landing page
  • A shop, deal, or buy-now section using tracked links

Weaker Signals

  • A standard editorial backlink
  • A brand mention without a purchase link
  • A press article
  • A social post linking to the homepage
  • A URL containing utm parameters
  • A logo or product image without a tracked destination

UTM parameters show campaign tracking, but they do not prove that the publisher earns a commission. Paid media, email, partnerships, analytics, and internal campaigns can all use tracking parameters.

Affiliate networks can help you find programs similar to those run by your competitors.

For example:

  • impact.com lets publishers search brands, products, and partner programs through its marketplace. Its documentation explains that brands can run separate programs for different regions or partner types.
  • Awin connects publishers with more than 30,000 brands and lets partners discover advertiser programs.
  • Rakuten Advertising lets publishers search advertisers, review program information, and apply to available programs. Some programs are private and will not appear in public searches.

Use these networks to answer questions such as:

  • Which network manages the competitor's program?
  • Does the competitor offer a public affiliate program?
  • What commission model does it use?
  • Does it support deep links, product feeds, or coupon codes?
  • Are similar brands available in the same network?
  • Is the program public, restricted, or private?

A program missing from a network directory does not mean the competitor has no affiliate activity. The program may be managed in-house, hosted on another network, or kept private.

7. Study How Competitors Use Affiliates

Finding a publisher is only the first step. Study how the competitor works with that publisher.

Record the following:

Field What to record
Publisher Website, creator, or media company
Competitor Brand being promoted
Page type Review, comparison, coupon, editorial, or video
Target keyword Search term the page appears to target
Promotion format Text link, button, product table, banner, or code
Offer Discount, free trial, bonus, or standard offer
Tracking method Redirect, parameter, code, or visible network
Audience Country, niche, customer type, and device
Evidence Disclosure, link behaviour, or network listing
Recruitment status Prospect, contacted, accepted, or rejected

This research may show that competitors offer affiliates:

  • Exclusive discount codes
  • Higher commissions on selected products
  • Free trials
  • Custom landing pages
  • Product feeds
  • Seasonal promotions
  • Co-branded content
  • Higher payouts for new customers
  • Recurring commissions for subscriptions

A high-traffic affiliate is not automatically the most valuable partner. A smaller publisher with strong purchase intent may produce better results than a large website with broad but poorly qualified traffic.

8. Prioritise Prospects with a Simple Score

Give each prospect a score from 1 to 5 for each category:

  • Audience fit: Does the publisher reach your target customer?
  • Commercial intent: Is the page aimed at people close to purchase?
  • Competitor evidence: Is there clear evidence of an active relationship?
  • Traffic quality: Does the traffic appear relevant and engaged?
  • Competitive overlap: Does the publisher already compare several brands?
  • Strategic value: Can the publisher provide content, email, video, deals, or loyalty exposure?

Add the scores and start with the highest-ranking prospects.

The example below uses four of those categories:

Prospect Audience fit Commercial intent Competitor evidence Strategic value Total
Niche product review site 5 5 4 4 18
General news website 2 2 3 4 11
Coupon website 3 5 5 3 16
Small industry blogger 5 3 3 4 15

This is not an industry benchmark. It is a way to stop traffic volume from becoming the only selection criterion.

9. Contact Competitor Affiliates with a Specific Offer

Do not send a generic message asking whether a publisher wants to "partner." Explain why your offer fits its audience.

Include:

  • The product or service that fits its audience
  • Your proposed commission or payout
  • A product page or deep link
  • A discount code, if available
  • The conversion action that earns commission
  • Geographic restrictions
  • Cookie or attribution terms
  • Available creative assets
  • Restrictions on paid search, trademark bidding, or coupon use

The publisher needs a reason to add your brand. Asking it to replace a competitor rarely works unless you offer a stronger commission, better conversion rate, unique product, exclusive offer, or clearer audience fit.

10. Avoid Common Research Mistakes

Backlink tools identify links, not commissions. Check the page and the destination.

Confusing Traffic with Sales

Referral traffic estimates do not confirm revenue. Use traffic data to find candidates, then measure performance through your own affiliate reporting after recruitment.

Copying Competitor Terms Without Testing Them

A competitor may pay more because it has a different average order value, customer lifetime value, or conversion rate. Calculate your own economics before matching its commission.

Ignoring Publisher Restrictions

Some publishers do not accept competing products, coupon-only offers, certain industries, or low commission rates.

Relying on One Tool

Referral platforms, backlink crawlers, and search engines have different coverage. Combine at least two data sources with manual review.

Affiliate Disclosure and Compliance

If you recruit publishers in the United States, require a clear disclosure of the commercial relationship. The Federal Trade Commission says affiliate relationships should be disclosed clearly and conspicuously, close to the recommendation or affiliate link. The FTC also advises advertisers to train and monitor affiliates.

A disclosure such as "I may earn a commission from purchases made through links in this article" is clearer than using only the phrase "affiliate link." The FTC notes that consumers may not understand what "affiliate link" means on its own.

The Most Efficient Workflow

For most businesses, use this order:

  1. List three to five direct and search competitors.
  2. Export competitor referring domains from Similarweb or Semrush.
  3. Run Ahrefs Link Intersect or Semrush Backlinks Competitors.
  4. Filter for reviews, comparisons, coupons, and buying guides.
  5. Search Google for public affiliate pages and disclosures.
  6. Inspect the top 50 to 100 candidate pages manually.
  7. Record the findings in a prospect spreadsheet.
  8. Score publishers by audience fit, intent, and evidence.
  9. Contact the top prospects with a specific commercial offer.
  10. Track approved partners separately from unverified prospects.

Treat every candidate as unverified until you have checked the page, link, and promotion method. Competitor data helps you find possible partners. Manual review tells you whether they are genuine affiliate prospects.