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How to find your competitors' affiliates: the full manual method

Jimi Barkway · 20 October 2026 · 7 min read

To find your competitors' affiliates, search for the pages that review, compare or discount them, then check which of those pages carry the competitor's tracking links. Anyone whose link is on the page is a working affiliate.

An affiliate is someone with an audience who sends buyers to a product for a cut of each sale. Your competitor's affiliates already know your category and already take commission. That makes them the easiest people to recruit.

The method has five steps. Done by hand it takes an afternoon per competitor.

Which Google searches find them?

Pick one competitor. Type these, with their name in place of the brackets:

• [competitor] review
• [competitor] alternatives
• [competitor] vs [another competitor]
• [competitor] coupon code
• [competitor] discount
• [competitor] "affiliate disclosure"
• best [your category] tools

The coupon and discount searches matter most. Coupon pages exist for one reason: to earn commission. Review and "vs" pages are the next best, because the writer chose a side and probably earns from it.

Skip the competitor's own site and big directories. Open every blog, newsletter archive and review site, and note the writer, the site and the date. A post from this year means the person is still active, which is what you want.

How do you spot an affiliate link?

Hover over the "Try it" or "Get the deal" button. The address shows in the corner of your browser. Better still, click it and watch the address bar. Most affiliate links land on the competitor's site with a tag in the address.

Here's what the common tags look like.

A network is a marketplace that tracks clicks and pays affiliates for many brands. A link through Awin or impact.com tells you which network your competitor uses. That's useful too: you can search that network's directory for their affiliates.

Many links are shortened or hidden behind a redirect, such as site.com/go/competitor. Click it. The tag shows up after the redirect.

What do backlink tools show?

A backlink is a link from another site to yours. Affiliate pages link to the competitor, so they show up in a backlink report.

Put the competitor's domain into a backlink tool. Sort by referring pages. Then scan for anchor text like "review", "discount", "alternative" or "coupon".

• Ahrefs has a free backlink checker that shows a sample of links (checked 20 October 2026). Paid plans on its pricing page start at £99 a month for Lite and £199 for Standard (checked 20 October 2026).
• Semrush lists SEO at £113 a month billed monthly, or £95.07 billed yearly, with a seven-day free trial (checked 20 October 2026).
• Similarweb shows referral sources for a site. Its own guide (checked 20 October 2026) covers comparing sites and judging quality. It doesn't cover reading tracking links or finding contact details, and those are the two steps that decide whether you can recruit anyone.

Prices were shown in pounds to a UK visitor. They may differ where you are.

Backlink tools find pages, not affiliates. A page that links to your competitor might be a news story. Open it and check for a tracking tag.

Does the competitor list its own affiliates?

Some do. Check these:

1. The footer of the competitor's site, for "Affiliates", "Partners" or "Refer and earn".
2. Google: site:competitor.com affiliate and site:competitor.com partners.
3. Their program terms. They often name the network.
4. A "featured partners" or "become a partner" directory. Some programs list top affiliates by name.

If they use a network, search the network's public pages for their program. The terms show the commission and cookie length. A cookie length is how many days after a click the affiliate still earns. You'll need those numbers to beat their offer. See what to offer affiliates.

Where else do competitors' affiliates hide?

Newsletters and podcasts. Their reviews don't rank in Google, so they hide from step one.

• Search [your category] newsletter and read the archive for sponsor lines and tracked links.
• Search a podcast app for your category. Read the show notes. Affiliate links usually sit there.
• Check the show's website for a "tools I use" page. Those pages are often all affiliate links.

There's a deeper guide to finding podcasters and review sites, and a wider list in where to find affiliates.

How does RecruitAffiliates.ai do this for you?

It runs the same steps. You skip the afternoon.

1. It reads your website and suggests your competitors. You can change the list.
2. It finds the sites already promoting them. These include blogs and review sites, newsletters and podcasts, YouTube channels, and Instagram and TikTok creators.
3. Each one comes with the page that shows it. You can check the proof yourself.
4. From a site's tracking links, it spots which affiliate networks it already uses.
5. It ranks the list. The best fits sit at the top.
6. It finds an email and shows the page each address came from. Role addresses like partnerships@ come first.

Next, AI drafts a personal first email for each person, built from real facts about them. Three follow-ups come after it, four emails in one thread. It sends from your own Gmail, Outlook, Yahoo or IMAP inbox after you approve. A pipeline board tracks each person from found to joined.

When someone signs up, one click hands them to AffiliateRail, which tracks sales and pays commission. See how it compares to doing it by hand.

Fresh affiliates arrive every week. The list stays current.

What should you do with the list?

Don't write to everyone. Pick the 20 with the best fit: right audience, recent posts, a way to reach them. Open each email with the one page that made you pick them. This post shows how.

In short

How do I find who promotes my competitor?

Search Google for [competitor] review, alternatives, vs, coupon code and discount. Open each result and check the buttons for tracking links. A tag like ?ref= or an Awin or impact.com link means the writer earns commission.

Are my competitors' affiliates allowed to promote me too?

Most can. Most affiliates promote several tools in one category. Check the competitor's program terms for an exclusivity clause. It's rare, but read before you recruit.

Can I find every affiliate?

You won't. Backlink tools show samples and some links hide behind redirects. You're after a good list of 20, not a full census.

How much does it cost?

By hand, nothing but time. A backlink tool adds roughly £99 to £113 a month at the entry level. RecruitAffiliates.ai is $79 a month for one brand, with a 14-day free trial and no card.

Find your first 20 affiliates

We find your first 20 emails free. It's 14 days free, no card.

Sources

• Ahrefs pricing: https://ahrefs.com/pricing (checked 20 October 2026)
• Ahrefs free backlink checker: https://ahrefs.com/backlink-checker (checked 20 October 2026)
• Semrush pricing: https://www.semrush.com/prices/ (checked 20 October 2026)
• Similarweb, finding competitors' affiliates: https://www.similarweb.com/blog/marketing/affiliate-marketing/find-competitors-affiliates/ (checked 20 October 2026)
• Rewardful help centre: https://help.rewardful.com/en/articles/12856689-tracking-referred-visits-from-existing-affiliate-urls (checked 20 October 2026)
• Awin, what an affiliate link looks like: https://success.awin.com/articles/en_US/Knowledge/What-does-an-affiliate-link-look-like (checked 20 October 2026)
• FMTC, ShareASale link notes: https://fmtc.atlassian.net/wiki/spaces/DI/pages/605454356/ShareASale (checked 20 October 2026)
• impact.com help, link structure: https://help.impact.com/en/support/solutions/articles/48001238125 (checked 20 October 2026)