Affiliate marketing in Ireland got a lot more interesting on 18 March 2025, the day Amazon.ie opened with prices in euro. Before that, an Irish blogger or business sending readers to Amazon was earning sterling commission from a UK site. Now there’s a home programme for Amazon, and many Irish brands run their schemes through affiliate networks.
How does affiliate marketing work?
You put a special link to a product or service on your website, your newsletter or your social media. Someone clicks it and buys. The seller pays you a percentage of the sale, or a fixed fee, because your link brought them the customer. That’s the whole model.
Three parties are involved. The advertiser is the brand paying the commission. The publisher is you. Between you sits either the brand’s own programme (Amazon runs its own) or an affiliate network, such as Awin or Impact, which tracks the clicks, holds the money and pays out.
The tracking depends on a cookie set when someone clicks your link, and the cookie has a life. That window differs between programmes, and it’s the first thing to check before you join anything.
Amazon.ie Associates, before you join
Amazon opened its Irish store on 18 March 2025. The Associates programme for it lives at affiliate-program.amazon.ie. Its Irish page says you can “earn up to 9%”, but it does not list a rate for each category, so read the current terms there before you join.
Amazon’s operating agreement requires Associates to use a disclosure sentence: “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases.” The agreement leaves the detail of which purchases count to Amazon’s commission statement, so check the current terms before you rely on any of them.
Affiliate programmes in Ireland, and the networks behind them
Many brands don’t run their own programme. They use a network, and you join the network once to apply to many of them.
Awin is a sensible first network, and its Irish publisher page says joining takes a small refundable deposit. Impact, Partnerize, Tradedoubler and Rakuten Advertising also run publisher programmes. Check which brands you want are on each one, and the join terms, before you apply.
How to start affiliate marketing in Ireland
- Have somewhere to send people. A website with real readers, a newsletter, or a social account with an audience that trusts you. Affiliate links on an empty site earn nothing.
- Pick products you’d recommend without the commission. Readers can tell, and so can the ASAI (more below).
- Join Amazon.ie Associates and one network. Awin is a sensible first choice. Apply to the brands you’ll actually feature.
- Write the page people search for. “Best air fryer under €100 in Ireland” beats a paragraph in a general post. Comparison tables, your own photos, the euro price.
- Label every link. #Ad at the top of the post, and the Amazon sentence where you use Amazon links.
- Track it. Every network shows clicks and conversions; put the page and the link in a spreadsheet and check it monthly. Kill what doesn’t earn.
The disclosure rules, and they are rules
The Advertising Standards Authority of Ireland (ASAI) and the CCPC published joint guidance for influencers in late October 2023. It treats affiliate links as commercial content, so they need the #Ad label.
The label should be easy to see, at the start of the text rather than buried at the end or in a bio. The rules sit in Irish consumer protection law. In February 2026 the CCPC published compliance notices to two influencers, including Conor McGregor, for undisclosed commercial content on Instagram. Our guide to the ASAI rules covers labelling in more detail.
For Amazon there’s a second layer: the operating agreement requires the “As an Amazon Associate I earn from qualifying purchases” line on any site using its links.
Is affiliate income taxed in Ireland?
Yes. Affiliate commission is income, and it is taxed like other self-employed income. Whether you must register as self-employed depends on your net income, so check Revenue’s guidance for people starting a business.
If you also have a PAYE job, the affiliate income still counts, and the return you file depends on how much it is. Ask Revenue or an accountant which return applies.
Costs you incur to earn the commission, such as hosting and the domain, can usually be set against it. An accountant can confirm what applies to you.
Do I need to register for VAT?
You must register once your turnover from services passes €42,500, the threshold Revenue sets for persons supplying services only. Affiliate commission is a service. Below that line you don’t charge VAT and don’t register, unless you choose to.
Above it, the VAT treatment of commission from networks and brands abroad depends on where they are established, so check with Revenue or an accountant before you invoice.
What affiliate marketing is worth in Ireland
Affiliate spend is rarely broken out in Irish advertising figures, so the answer depends on your own traffic and niche.
Affiliate marketing for a business, not a blogger
That is the publisher’s side of it, the person earning the commission. If you’re the brand, the same networks work the other way round: you set a commission, publishers send you customers, and you pay only on sales. For an Irish online shop it sits well beside paid social and ecommerce SEO.
Questions people ask about affiliate marketing in Ireland
Does Amazon have an affiliate programme in Ireland?
Yes. Amazon.ie Associates runs on the Irish site. Its Irish page says you can “earn up to 9%”, so read the current terms there before you join.
How much do Irish affiliates make?
Earnings depend on your traffic, the commission rate for each brand, and how many readers buy. A site without readers earns nothing.
Do I have to say a link is an affiliate link?
Yes. The ASAI and CCPC guidance treats affiliate links as commercial content, so they need the #Ad label, on your own site as well as on social media. Amazon also requires its own disclosure sentence.
Is affiliate income taxable if it’s only a few hundred euro?
Yes. It is income, and it goes on your tax return. Whether you must register as self-employed depends on your net income, so check Revenue’s guidance.
Which affiliate network suits Irish retailers?
Awin is a sensible first network for Irish retailers, and Amazon.ie suits product links. Check which brands you want are on each network, and join the ones whose brands you’ll feature rather than all of them.
If you want to talk through your digital marketing, contact us. No obligation.
Sources
The ASAI and CCPC influencer guidance (October 2023); the CCPC release on compliance notices (12 February 2026); Revenue’s VAT thresholds page; Amazon’s Associates operating agreement for Ireland and its Irish commission page; Amazon’s Irish store launch (18 March 2025); Awin’s publisher pages for Ireland. Checked October 2026. None of it is tax advice.
