If you want to earn some income in addition to trading and you are good at marketing, the Forex industry has something to offer you — affiliate programs. Forex affiliate programs present an opportunity for any individual to earn commissions by promoting brokerage services. These programs, with right approach, can be used to make significant amounts of money. Unfortunately, the Forex affiliate business is extremely competitive and could sometimes be even more difficult than currency trading itself.
How do Forex affiliate programs work?
Earning with FX affiliate programs involves referring new clients to brokers and receiving commissions. In general, there are three types of commission deals in such affiliate programs.
- Cost Per Acquisition (CPA): You earn a fixed amount for every client who signs up and makes a deposit. Most affiliate programs offer this commission scheme. If you aren't new to affiliate marketing, this is probably the scheme you are well-acquainted with. In Forex, there are two main points about CPA programs: the reward usually varies a lot depending on the trader's country, and to qualify for a reward, the trader has to trade a certain volume after making their deposit.
- Revenue Share: You receive a percentage of the revenue generated by the clients you refer. A percentage in the range of 30-60% is what you can expect to be earning with such programs. Brokers generate revenue from commissions and spread markup.
- Volume-Based Commission: You earn a commission based on the number of lots traded by the clients you refer. This depends significantly on the trading instrument traded by the referred customer. Unlike the revenue share model, the commission size varies a lot based on the currency pair, index, commodity, or cryptocurrency traded by your lead.
Most newly registered affiliates can start referring by asking their friends to join the broker using their affiliate link. Advanced affiliate techniques may involve creation of a dedicated website, starting a social media group, promoting your affiliate link to your followers, or smart pay-per-click campaigns.
Selecting the right Forex affiliate program
Choosing the right affiliate program hinges on understanding commission structures, the reputation of the trading platform, and the company's ability to turn the visitors you refer to them into active traders. It's essential to consider programs that align with your audience's interests and offer commission schemes that fit your marketing efforts.
Forex affiliate program comparison
Program 🏷️ | Commission structure 💸 | Payment frequency 📅 | Marketing support 🛠️ | Unique features 🌟 | Payment options 🏦 |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
RoboForex 🤖 | Revenue share — up to 84% | Daily, no payout limits | Live affiliate support, detailed commission reports | Expert multi-level affiliate program, CopyFX and R StocksTrader affiliate programs, online since 2010 | Bank, crypto, credit/debit cards, Tether (USDT) |
Affstore (IQ Option) 🏪 | Up to $2,000 CPA or 80% revenue share | Semi-monthly payments | 30+ landing pages, 100+ banners, 50+ videos | Multi-broker program, diversity of tools | Bank, crypto, WebMoney, Skrill, Neteller, AdvCash, Perfect Money, Tether (USDT) |
EightCap 🎩 | Up to $6 commission per lot | Monthly, negotiable | Personal manager | Influencer program, IB program, white label | Bank, credit/debit cards, PayPal, Skrill |
easyMarkets 🌐 | Up to $1,000 CPA, 40% revenue share, hybrid | Monthly schedule | 400+ banners, real-time reports | Vanilla options platform, seriously regulated broker, online since 2001 | Bank, Skrill, crypto, Tether (USDT), WebMoney |
Exness Affiliates 📈 | Up to $1,850 CPA or up to 40% revenue share | Daily payouts | Personal support, real-time statistics, bonuses | One of the largest brokers with very attractive trading conditions, online since 2008 | Skrill, Neteller, Perfect Money, Tether (USDT), crypto |
RoboForex affiliate program
The two most important advantages of choosing RoboForex affiliate program are the following:
- Their duo of affiliate models: you get to pick either the VIP program and earn up to 84% on the first level referrals + 12% on the second level referrals or the Expert program to earn up to 42% on the first level and then up to 24% on four more levels deep.
- The broker's reputation and conditions are simply outstanding. Your referrals will like doing business with them.
The program's lack of restrictions on payments means affiliates have the freedom to earn as much as they can, based on their referral success, without worrying about caps or limits. Furthermore, the broker's credibility, enhanced by compelling features like CopyFX and the R StocksTrader platform, makes it easier for you as an affiliate to promote the services, as they're backed by quality and reliability. These tools not only add value for potential traders but also serve as key selling points for affiliates, enabling you to attract a wider audience.
Affstore (IQ Option) affiliate program
Affstore affiliate program is unique in that it offers a choice of four different brands to promote — from a well-established broker (IQ Option) to a prop trading firm, to a relatively new LATAM-targeted broker. Keeping multiple offers within one affiliate program lets you diversify your income streams but at the same time keep the aggregated earnings balance. This can be useful if you own more than one media channel with distinct interests and financial goals.
Other advantages include:
- Very high commission levels (up to 80% for their best offer).
- Great choice of payment options
What you have to be wary of when promoting Affstore's offers is that their offers are rather tightly tailored to specific niches. Whereas other brokers normally provide a generalist one-size-fits-all service, with Affstore, you need to understand very well what you are promoting and to whom.
Eightcap affiliate program
Eightcap is a very well-known broker among prop firm traders since most popular proprietary trading companies used or continue using the broker's accounts. As for Eightcap's affiliate program, even though it is far from being the most generous, it offers a chance to promote a broker that is currently favorably regarded by many newbie traders and that is registered with serious regulatory authorities.
Other advantages of Eightcap's affiliate program are:
- The only program among the presented here that offers withdrawals via PayPal.
- Separate dedicated programs for influencers, introducing brokers, and white label partners.
As with any Forex affiliate program, and especially with regulated brokers, you have to have clear understanding of which countries you can promote to. Don't forget to get the up-to-date list of allowed countries from your personal manager when your partnership application is approved.
easyMarkets affiliate program
easyMarkets affiliate program is probably less glossy than the rest, but this broker has some unique features to help you attract traders to them. The biggest of them is that easyMarkets is one of the few brokers where retail traders without a huge deposit can still trade classic (vanilla) options. You probably won't be able to pitch that to an inexperienced trader, that's a very specialized feature, but if your main topic is options, easyMarkets' program can be quite good for you.
Among other advantages of their affiliate program are the following:
- Abundance of advertising materials in multiple languages
- Serious regulation (EU)
- MT4, MT5, and TradingView platforms
- Online since 2001
As with other partnership programs in Forex, pay extra attention to regions where you can refer clients from. With easyMarkets, there are quite a few restrictions, so make sure to hit up your affiliate manager to avoid wasting time and money by promoting in unsupported geos.
Exness affiliate program
Exness managed to build a broker that is remarkably good. Few brokers can compare with how easy it is to attract new live account traders to them. Exness Affiliates is a perfect choice if you want to be offering your followers a broker with outstanding trading conditions: very low minimum account size, high leverage, lots of account currencies, diverse account types to fit any trader's style, and so on.
Some other advantages of Exness Affiliates include:
- No restriction on payout frequency
- Really neat statistics reports
- Bonuses for passing affiliate milestones
If you are about to register as an affiliate with Exness, you need to know that it's among the few programs that don't currently support bank transfer to payout your earnings. It's not a problem for some potential affiliates, but could be a deal breaker for many.
How to start earning with a Forex affiliate program?
Here is the step-by-step guide to starting working as a foreign exchange trading affiliate:
- Join a Forex affiliate program: Firstly, you need to sign up for an affiliate program. You can choose one from the comparison table above. The registration process is usually straightforward but may involve a short period of waiting for approval.
- Get your affiliate link: Once approved, you'll receive a unique affiliate link and, with some programs, a set of other marketing materials (banners, landing pages, videos, and so on). This link is used to track the clients you refer to the broker.
- Promote the broker: Use your affiliate link to promote the broker's services. You can do this through various channels, such as personal connections, a blog, social media, email marketing (though remember that affiliate programs strictly prohibit all forms of spam!), or a website with some useful information on FX trading. The goal is to encourage your audience to sign up with the broker using your link.
- Earning commissions: As discussed above, there are different commission structures in Forex affiliate programs. In any case, once a person signs up with your link, it's up to the broker to do the rest of the job. Some affiliates encourage referred traders to deposit as quickly as possible and to trade as much as possible, but not only the ethicality of this is questionable, this may also get you into all sorts of regulatory trouble.
- Provide quality content to attract more clients: Provide valuable content such as market analysis, trading tips, educational resources, tools, etc. This will bring more traders and, eventually, more earnings.
- Track your performance: Use the tools provided by the affiliate program to track your referrals, conversions, and earnings. Use this data to optimize your marketing strategies and improve your performance. You don't want to be wasting time on something that doesn't work and you don't want to promote an affiliate program that doesn't click with your audience. If necessary, switch to a different affiliate program.
- Receive payments: Affiliate earnings are usually paid out regularly (e.g., monthly) or upon request. They can be withdrawn using the broker's specified payment methods. Make sure you can use at least one of their supported payment options. You don't want to end up with money in a payment system that doesn't work in your country, for example.
- Compliance with rules and regulations: Some countries have strict limitations on how affiliates can promote brokerages. Ensure that your marketing practices don't break any laws and regulations. You should also make sure to comply with the broker's affiliate program terms and conditions.
How do I promote my Forex affiliate link?
There are many ways to promote your affiliate link: social media channels, SEO-optimized websites, paid advertisement campaigns, targeted email marketing. It's important to understand the audience you are working with and tailor your content to resonate with their interests and needs. In the Forex trading industry, most of the affiliate marketer's success depends on the trust they are able to build with the community. It's also vital to have trust in the brokers that you promote — your followers won't appreciate if you peddle a scam to them.