Affiliate marketing is the one channel where you only pay when it works. Most brands still set it up wrong.
The idea is simple: creators, publishers and customers promote your product with a unique link or code, and earn a commission on every sale they drive. No upfront fee, no paying for impressions that never convert. Done well, it turns the people who already love your brand into a sales force. Done badly, it hands commission to coupon sites for sales you would have made anyway.
Who your affiliates should be
- Creators whose audience already buys in your category. The strongest affiliates are rarely the biggest accounts — they are the ones whose followers ask “where did you get that?”. See micro vs macro influencers.
- Customers. Happy customers with a personal link are some of the most trusted recommenders you will ever have. This overlaps with a good referral programme.
- Publishers and newsletters that write gift guides, reviews and “best of” lists — especially valuable ahead of the holidays.
- Complementary businesses. A yoga studio recommending activewear, a wedding planner recommending a florist. Partnerships like these are covered in strategic collaborations.
Setting the commission
There is no universal rate. Work it out from your own numbers:
- Start from what a new customer is worth over twelve months, not just the first order.
- Compare with what you already pay to acquire a customer through ads. Affiliate commission should be competitive with that, not an afterthought.
- Pay more for new customers than repeat ones where your platform allows it.
- Reward your best affiliates with higher tiers once they pass a sales threshold. A few partners usually drive most of the results; treat them accordingly.
Our 2027 budget guide walks through the unit economics behind this.
Affiliate plus paid, not affiliate instead of paid
Commission alone rarely motivates a creator with a real audience. The programmes that work best combine a flat fee for content with a commission on sales — the fee guarantees the post happens, the commission rewards performance. Rates and structures are in what creators charge, and the agreement itself belongs in writing: see influencer contracts.
Avoid paying for sales you already had
- Watch coupon and cashback sites. They often capture the last click from customers who were already at checkout.
- Keep affiliate codes out of public code-sharing sites where you can, and retire codes that leak.
- Set a sensible attribution window and a rule for when a sale touches both an ad and an affiliate link.
- Review sales by affiliate monthly. Look for partners whose volume is suspiciously high relative to their content.
Make it easy to promote you
- A short brief with the products, the key messages and what not to say. See writing a brief that works.
- A shared folder of photos, videos and product details
- Early access to launches and seasonal offers, so affiliates have something new to talk about
- Landing pages that match what the affiliate promised — covered in landing pages for paid traffic
Disclosure is not optional
In the US, the FTC requires affiliates to clearly disclose that they earn from a link or code. Build it into every agreement and brief: a clear “#ad” or “I earn a commission” where people will see it, not buried at the end of a caption. The platforms' own paid-partnership labels help. It protects the brand as much as the creator.
What to measure
- New customers by affiliate, not just total sales
- Average order value and return rate of affiliate orders
- Repeat purchase rate of customers each affiliate brings in
- Effective cost per new customer including fees and product, compared with paid ads
- Active affiliates — how many actually posted this month
The bottom line
Recruit affiliates whose audience already buys what you sell, set commission from your own customer economics, pair it with a fee for serious creators, guard against paying for sales you already had, and require clear disclosure. Affiliate marketing then becomes a channel that scales only as fast as it pays for itself.
Want help launching or fixing an affiliate programme? Let's talk.