Affiliate marketing
Build an affiliate channel you can actually steer.
Affiliate marketing is not a free channel just because it is paid on performance. Its profitability depends on the programme's economics, partner quality, and tracking able to distinguish real contribution from claimed volume.
Direct answer
How do you know if affiliate marketing is sustainable for your economics?
Starting from what remains after variable costs, operating costs and the minimum contribution to preserve. That balance defines the maximum envelope available to pay for a partner's contribution. Until it is calculated, a commission grid is just an assumption copied from the industry.
Important considerationWe hold no pre-built partner network and quote no standard commission rate: the envelope is calculated from your data.
The problem
An open programme without rules quickly becomes unmanageable.
Without a framework, a programme first attracts partners who capture demand that was already going to convert. The cost per sale looks controlled, but part of the commission pays for sales that would have happened anyway.
No written rules on authorised channels — brand bidding in particular — a commission set without reference to real margin, incomplete tracking, and no sorting between contributing and opportunistic partners: these are the recurring failure points.
Approach
Build the programme before recruiting.
Programme economics
Available margin, customer value, sustainable commission, break-even threshold by partner type.
Partner proposition
Why a partner would promote you rather than a competitor: pay, materials, support.
Rules
Authorised and forbidden channels, brand usage, attribution window, commission validation conditions.
Recruitment
Identifying profiles aligned with your audience — publishers, referrers, business partners, creators.
Onboarding
Documentation, communication assets, tracking links, a named point of contact.
Activation
A signed-up partner is not an active partner: follow-ups, campaign moments, supplied content.
Tracking
Reliable sales tracking, deduction of cancellations, reconciliation with your internal data.
Quality & fraud
Traffic source controls, anomaly detection, an exclusion procedure.
Optimisation
Concentrate effort on partners who bring incremental demand.
Example framework used during the engagement. It is adapted to your context, data and decisions.
Deliverables
What gets put in place.
- Programme economics and a reasoned commission grid.
- Written participation terms.
- Choice of platform or tracking setup, with its limits.
- Partner kit: arguments, visuals, tracking links.
- Recruitment plan and outreach tracking.
- Reporting: contribution per partner, quality, increments.
Fit
Which models this channel works for.
Favourable
An offer understandable without a long demo, margin sufficient to pay for a contribution, transaction volume that allows readable tracking.
Unfavourable
A long sales cycle with heavy sales involvement, thin margin, or no way to distinguish an incremental sale from a captured one.
Read next
Related pages in English.
- Data analysis
Without reliable attribution, the envelope stays an estimate.
- Google Ads
A comparison point for brand bidding and channel overlap.
- Strategy consulting
For long-cycle B2B, compare partner referrals with classic affiliate marketing against margin, tracking and referrer availability.
FAQ
Frequently asked questions
Is affiliate marketing right for our business?
It depends on margin, offer simplicity and the existence of referrers. For long-cycle B2B, compare partner referrals with classic affiliate marketing against margin, tracking and referrer availability.
What commission level should we set?
It is derived from your margin and customer value, not from what the industry displays. We model the threshold beyond which the programme stops being profitable.
Do we need an affiliate platform?
Not systematically. A platform brings tracking and a pool of partners, with associated fees. A direct programme is workable with a limited number of identified partners. We compare both options on your case.
How do you recruit partners?
By manually identifying relevant sites, media, creators and complementary players, then a reasoned approach. We claim no existing network we could not document.
How do you handle fraud?
Written rules, traffic source control, monitoring of abnormal rates, commission validation after a return period, and contractually planned exclusion. Risk is reduced, not eliminated.
Will the programme cannibalise our other channels?
That is the main risk, notably via promo codes and brand bidding. Attribution rules and channel restrictions are set from the start to limit it.
Next step
Let's model the commission your economics can support.
The scoping call checks contribution, attribution and exclusion rules before recruitment.