Affiliate programmes that pay for results, not promises
Programme design, partner recruitment, tracking and fraud control
Affiliate marketing is performance pricing applied to distribution. Partners promote you, and they earn when a sale or a qualified lead happens. Run properly it is among the cheapest channels available. Run carelessly it quietly pays commission on customers who were already halfway through your checkout.
The rules decide whether it pays
A programme is worth exactly as much as its rules. What earns commission and at what point. How attribution works when an affiliate link and your own Google Ads click touch the same order. How long the cookie lasts. What is forbidden, and brand bidding and coupon-code leaks are the two that cost the most.
We write those rules with you before anything is switched on, because retrofitting them onto an active programme means renegotiating with every partner at once.
Then the partners
Tracking goes in next, on a network or an in-house platform, and gets tested with a real transaction end to end. After that comes recruitment, which is the part most programmes skip. We build a target list of content sites, creators, comparison sites and businesses that sit next to yours, and pitch them individually with a reason to care.
What we avoid is filling the programme with coupon aggregators. They will show excellent numbers, and most of what they book is a customer who was already buying and stopped to search for a discount code.
Each month you see revenue by partner, an incrementality check on the top few, the payouts due, and whatever fraud was blocked. Where partners need assets to work with, that overlaps with the content programme rather than duplicating it.
What affiliate marketing includes
Programme design
Commission structure modelled against your margin, attribution rules, cookie window, and a written brand-bidding policy.
Platform setup
Impact, PartnerStack, Refersion or an in-house tracker configured, then tested with a live transaction before launch.
Partner recruitment
A target list of content sites, creators and adjacent businesses, approached individually with a pitch rather than a form letter.
Creative & assets
Banners, deep links, sample copy and a product feed, so a partner can promote you without asking for anything.
Fraud & compliance
Click and conversion monitoring, coupon-code control, manual review of new applicants, and terms that get enforced.
Reporting
Revenue by partner, incrementality on the largest ones, and payouts reconciled against returns.
Standing a programme up
Rulesweek 1
Commission, attribution and policy agreed in writing with you, including what happens when two partners touch the same sale.
Platformweeks 1–2
Tracking configured and verified with a test order that we follow all the way through to the payout report.
Recruitweeks 2–8
A target list built by hand, then outreach in batches, with follow-ups. This is the slow part and the part that decides the outcome.
Enableongoing
Assets, onboarding and a named contact, so a partner who wants to promote you in week three can do it that week.
Managemonthly
Performance reviews, fraud checks, payout approval and reporting, with underperforming partners either helped or removed.
From $700/month
Programme management from $700/month; platform fees and commissions separate.
Affiliate, answered
How does affiliate marketing work?
Partners send you visitors through tracked links and earn a commission when a defined action happens, usually a sale or a qualified lead. You pay after the result rather than before it, which is why the rules around what counts as a result matter so much.
How much should we pay affiliates?
Enough to be worth their attention while leaving you a margin, which normally lands between 5% and 15% of sale value, or a fixed fee per qualified lead. We model it against your actual contribution margin, not against what competitors advertise.
How do you find good affiliate partners?
By working out who already has the attention of your buyers, then approaching them directly. Content sites, creators, comparison and review sites, and businesses selling something complementary. Waiting for a network to send applicants produces coupon sites and little else.
Should we use a network or run it direct?
A network gives you tracking, contracts and payments on day one for a slice of the revenue. Direct costs less at volume and gives you the relationship. Most programmes are better off starting on a network and moving across once there are enough partners to justify the admin.
How do you prevent affiliate fraud?
Explicit rules against brand bidding and coupon-code leaking, monitoring of click and conversion patterns for the tell-tale spikes, manual review before a new partner is approved, and a payout hold long enough to cover your return window.
How long before an affiliate programme produces revenue?
Setup takes about a month. Meaningful partner revenue usually appears between month three and month six, as recruits publish and their content starts ranking. It is a slower channel to start than paid media and considerably cheaper to keep running.
Pay for results, not reach.
Tell us your margin and what a conversion is worth to you. We will model a commission structure that still leaves you a profit.