TLDR: Affiliate marketing remains one of the most cost-effective performance channels available, but only when it’s built with a clear strategy behind it. This guide walks through every stage of starting or scaling an affiliate programme, from defining what success looks like before you build anything, to recruiting the right publishers, onboarding them properly, and reviewing performance in a way that drives continuous improvement.
Step 1: Define what success looks like before you build anything
The most common mistake brands make with affiliate marketing is launching before they’ve decided what they actually want to achieve. Without clear objectives from the start, every decision that follows, which publishers to recruit, how to structure commissions, which promotions to run, becomes harder to make and easier to get wrong.
Affiliate programmes can support a wide range of business goals. Some brands prioritise ROAS and overall profitability. Others focus on acquiring new customers, increasing brand awareness, or driving volume on specific product lines. The channel can support all of these, but not all at once, and not without knowing which one matters most to you right now.
Before you do anything else, answer these questions:
- What is the primary goal of this programme? New customer acquisition, incremental revenue, or brand awareness?
- Are there specific product categories or lines you want to prioritize?
- What does a successful first 6-12 months look like in terms of measurable outcomes?
Your answers will shape everything from the publishers you bring on to the commission rates you offer. Brands focused on new customer acquisition, for example, should build a commission structure that rewards new customers at a higher rate than returning ones, which only works if you’ve decided that’s the objective before you set the rates.
It’s also worth revisiting these objectives regularly. As the programme scales, what you’re optimising for may shift and your publisher mix and commission structure should shift with it.
Step 2: Choose the right affiliate network for your category
Choosing an affiliate network isn’t about picking the biggest name. It’s about finding the one that’s the best fit for your brand’s category, geography, and the type of publishers you want to work with.
The main networks each have different strengths.
Awin
Is strong for UK-based programmes and rapid scaling. Well-connected across all publisher types including cashback, voucher, content, and influencer partners. Easy to use and a solid default choice for most UK retail and ecommerce brands.
CJ (Commission Junction)
Is better suited to enterprise brands with international publisher relationships. Particularly strong in finance, telecoms, and large retail accounts.
Rakuten
Is historically positioned as the premium-tier network, with a stronger presence in the US market than most UK-first networks.
Impact and Partnerize
Are SaaS-based platforms rather than traditional networks, which means no dedicated account manager but often lower override costs, more automation, and more flexible commissioning models. Worth considering for brands that want greater technical control.
Beyond the network name, think about what you need from a technical perspective. Server-to-server tracking, attribution models, reporting depth, and the quality of insights available on individual publishers all vary between platforms. The right network is the one that gives you the data visibility and publisher access you need, not necessarily the one with the biggest market share.
Commercials matter too. Network overrides, the percentage the network takes on top of affiliate commissions, vary by contract, so it’s worth negotiating before you sign.
Step 3: Set a commission structure that rewards the right behaviour
Your commission structure is one of the most powerful tools you have for shaping what your programme does and who it attracts. Get it right and it drives incrementality. Get it wrong and you end up paying high commissions for sales that would have happened anyway.
The most common model is cost-per-acquisition (CPA), where publishers earn a percentage of each sale. But flat CPA rates, where every publisher gets the same percentage regardless of what they sell or who they sell to, are increasingly rare for a reason. They don’t differentiate between high-value and low-value behaviour, and they make it harder to drive the outcomes you actually care about.
Tiered commission structures are now the standard for well-run programmes. You can tier by:
Customer type
Paying a higher commission rate for new customers than returning ones is one of the most effective ways to drive genuine acquisition rather than just rewarding existing demand.
Product category
If you want to push a specific product line, you can incentivise it with a higher rate. A brand wanting to grow its premium range might pay 10% on those products and 4% on everything else.
Publisher type
Content publishers and influencer partners typically command higher rates than cashback and voucher sites. If you want to diversify away from voucher-heavy traffic, paying content partners at a premium encourages that behaviour.
Cookie window
The period during which a publisher gets credit for a sale after a customer clicks their link, also need consideration. Shorter windows suit fast purchasing decisions; longer ones are more appropriate for considered purchases with longer research cycles.
Hybrid models
Hybrid models combining flat rates with performance bonuses or fixed-fee placements alongside CPA commissions, are also increasingly common, particularly for brands running more sophisticated publisher relationships.
Step 4: Recruit your first affiliates strategically
Most networks receive a constant stream of publisher join requests, and the majority of them won’t be relevant to your brand. Reviewing and approving requests manually is time-consuming, but important. Approving the wrong publishers can dilute programme quality and create compliance headaches down the line.
The smarter approach is to use the network’s partner discovery tools proactively. On AWIN, for example, the partner discovery tool lets you filter publishers by category, objective, and programme participation. Searching by relevant terms, for a food brand, filtering by ‘vegan’ or ‘healthy eating’, surfaces publishers that are likely to be a genuine fit before they’ve even applied.
Other ways to recruit strategically:
Gap analysis
Most networks offer periodic gap analysis reports (often once per quarter or once per year, depending on your contract). These show publishers working well for competitor programmes that you haven’tyet recruited, as well as publishers already on your programme that aren’t being fully activated.
Direct outreach
For high-value content publishers or niche sites that would be a strong brand fit, outreach directly rather than waiting for them to find you.
Influencer platforms
Content creators who operate in your category can often be recruited as affiliates, particularly if you’re using a network with good influencer infrastructure.
In terms of publisher mix, aim for diversity across types. Cashback and voucher sites drive volume and visibility quickly. Content publishers and review sites build brand awareness and support upper-funnel activity. Having a range of both means your programme isn’t overly dependent on one type of traffic and it gives you more levers to pull when you want to grow.
Step 5: Onboard new affiliates with everything they need to succeed
The easier you make it for a publisher to start promoting your brand, the faster they’ll get live and the faster you’ll see results. A smooth onboarding process removes friction and sets the tone for the relationship.
Most of what publishers need can be hosted directly on the network. On AWIN, for example, brands can upload brand guidelines, commission structure details, creative assets (banners, logos, lifestyle imagery), product feeds, and current promotional offers, all accessible from the moment a publisher joins the programme.
On top of what’s available on the network, a welcome email is worth sending to every new publisher. It doesn’t need to be long, but it should cover:
- A brief introduction to the brand and what you want from the partnership
- Commission rates and cookie window
- Key contacts – who to reach out to with questions or for bespoke content requests
- Any products or promotions you’d like them to prioritise
- Clear guidance on what they can and can’t promote, including any product lines that carry a 0% commission rate
Some publishers (particularly larger content sites) will have specific requirements: particular logo sizes, lifestyle images in certain formats, bespoke copy. Being responsive to those requests pays off in the quality of promotion you’ll get in return.
The clearer the communication at onboarding, the less time you spend firefighting later. Publishers who understand exactly what they’re promoting and why are more likely to do it well.
Step 6: Activate your affiliate partners with promotions and content
Recruiting and onboarding publishers gets them onto the programme. Activation is what gets them live on site and driving revenue. Exclusive promotional codes are one of the most effective activation tools available. Exclusive codes, specific to one publisher rather than shared across the programme, perform significantly better than generic affiliate codes because they give the publisher something unique to offer their audience. For brands working with cashback sites, retailer-specific codes can also help with tracking attribution more accurately.
Beyond codes, a range of activation tactics can keep publishers engaged and performing:
Early access to sales and launches
Letting publishers know about an upcoming sale or product launch ahead of time allows them to plan content and promotions in advance. Even a brief heads-up that a launch is coming, before full details are shared, helps publishers schedule coverage.
Time-specific promotions
Creating a sense of urgency around a specific window (a bank holiday weekend, a product launch, a seasonal event) tends to drive stronger publisher engagement than open-ended offers.
Bespoke creative assets
When a brand is running a specific campaign or launch, providing publishers with campaign-specific imagery, copy, and assets leads to higher-quality promotions. Generic banner packs are a starting point, not an end point.
Exclusive partnerships
For your highest-performing or most strategically important publishers, consider bespoke arrangements that go beyond the standard programme terms. A fixed-fee placement alongside the CPA rate, or an exclusive category arrangement, can deepen the relationship and drive meaningful uplift.
The brands that get the most from their affiliate publishers treat activation as an ongoing conversation rather than a one-time setup. Regular communication, even a brief monthly newsletter to your publisher base covering new offers, upcoming promotions, and top-performing creative, keeps publishers engaged and gives them reasons to keep promoting.
Step 7: Review and optimize your programme monthly
A programme that isn’t reviewed regularly will drift. Publishers that were strong six months ago may have gone quiet. New publishers may have joined but never gone live. Traffic volumes may be up while conversion rates are falling. Without consistent monitoring, these issues compound before you notice them.
A monthly review is the right cadence for most active programmes, with daily or weekly checks on the headline numbers, revenue, clicks, conversion rate, during busy periods or active campaigns.
A thorough monthly review should cover:
Revenue by publisher
Who’s driving the most revenue? Who drove strong numbers last month but has fallen off this month? Is the decline category-wide or specific to your programme?
Publisher activity
Are all approved publishers actually live and promoting? Publishers sometimes join a programme but never go live, often because they need a placement fee or additional assets to feature the brand. A quick outreach to inactive publishers can unlock placements you didn’t know were available.
Conversion rates by publisher
High click volumes with low conversion rates are a red flag. Traffic that doesn’t convert is either low quality or poorly targeted, and it’s worth questioning whether those publishers are the right fit for the programme.
Year-on-year trends
Comparing performance to the same period last year surfaces patterns that month-on-month analysis might miss, particularly for seasonal businesses.
Alongside the network’s native reporting, platforms like ASK BOSCO® give you an affiliate overview that consolidates programme data alongside your other marketing channels, so you can see affiliate performance in the context of your wider marketing mix rather than in isolation.
The goal of the monthly review is to identify opportunities, publishers that are growing and deserve more attention, promotions that performed well and are worth repeating, and gaps in the publisher mix that could be filled.
Conclusion
An affiliate programme is never finished. Start with clear objectives. Build a commission structure that rewards the behaviour you want. Recruit publishers that are genuinely aligned with your brand. Onboard them properly. Keep them activated with relevant promotions and content. And review regularly enough to catch what’s working and fix what isn’t.
Done well, affiliate marketing delivers incremental revenue that compounds over time. Done badly, it delivers volume that looks good on a dashboard and doesn’t survive scrutiny. The difference is in the detail and in treating the programme as the performance channel it has the potential to be.
Want to talk through how ASK BOSCO® can help you manage and measure your affiliate programme alongside your other channels? Get in touch with the team.
