Affiliate program playbook

Purpose

An affiliate program can have a thousand sign-ups and produce almost no revenue. The usual failure is recruiting people who have a link but no reason to use it, then paying them without activating them. This skill sets the whole system, from who the partners should be to how the program is audited, so that partners become a revenue channel.

The thesis

Affiliates are people, not links. A program wins when each partner is recruited for fit, onboarded, trained, and given a reason to show up. Sign-up volume is a poor measure of success.

When to use

• A B2B SaaS company is starting an affiliate program.
• A live program has sign-ups but little revenue.
• A team is deciding what commission to pay and on what terms.

Route elsewhere when:

• The question is paying creators for sponsored content. Use creator-program-strategy.
• The question is channel partners that resell the product. Use partner-channel-operations.
• The question is the partner ecosystem architecture. Use partner-ecosystem-architect.

Inputs

• The product, its price and average deal size, and the most the company can pay to acquire a customer.
• Expected retention, for the commission arithmetic.
• The buyer's journey, and the voices the buyer already trusts.
• The cookie window the buyer's decision needs, and the terms the company is willing to state.
• The current partner list and sign-up data, if a program is already live.

Procedure

1. Ideal partner personas. Reverse-engineer the buyer's journey to find where the buyer already trusts a voice: a newsletter, a community, a consultant, a peer. Each persona is a type of partner who reaches buyers at one point in the journey.
2. Commission structure. Set the commission from the allowable acquisition cost: the most the company can pay to acquire a customer and still make the economics work. The partner's share must stay under that limit at the expected deal size and retention. Show the arithmetic.
3. Cookie window. Choose a window long enough for the buyer's decision, and state it in the terms.
4. Gated application. Screen applications against the persona before approval. A short application that asks about audience and how the partner would promote the product filters out sign-ups with no reach.
5. Outbound recruitment. Find partners who match the personas and invite them, rather than waiting for applications.
6. Onboarding sequence. A short sequence of messages that explains the product, the offer, the assets, and the first action to take.
7. Launch challenge. A time-boxed activation goal, with a clear prize, to get partners to their first sales.
8. Partner development. Give the top partners more support: early access, a named contact, and co-marketing. Most revenue comes from a small group.
9. Audit, twice a year. Review partner activity, remove inactive partners, and remove fraud, such as self-referral and misleading claims.

Set the development criteria for the top partners and schedule the audit with its fraud rules in step 9.

Output

• The partner personas, with the buyer-journey point each one reaches.
• The commission structure, with its arithmetic.
• The cookie window, the application gate, and the recruitment list.
• The onboarding sequence, the launch challenge, and the development criteria.
• The audit schedule and fraud rules.

Quality bar

Commission is set from the allowable acquisition cost, with the arithmetic shown. Applications are screened against the personas. Partners are onboarded before they are paid for activity. Top partners get development. Audits remove fraud. Watch for a program judged on sign-ups, commission set without the arithmetic, and no audit after launch.