Most affiliate programmes look profitable because last-click reporting flatters them. We design and run partner programmes the other way round: commission set against margin, brand and coupon leakage closed, partner mix built by role, and the whole channel tested for incrementality the same way we test paid media.
Paid on incremental revenue, not on last click
(the question is never how many sales a partner was credited with — it is how many would not have happened without them)
Brand terms and coupon leakage closed first
(trademark bidding rules, attribution windows and checkout-adjacent clicks are the fastest margin recovery in most programmes)
Partner mix built for demand, not volume
(content, comparison, creator and loyalty partners each do a different job — and each needs a different commission)
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Commission is paid after a sale, so the classic failure mode is not wasted budget — it is paying for revenue that would have arrived anyway.
A performance channel with a fixed unit cost
Commission is paid after the sale, so the channel cannot overspend the way an auction can. The risk moves elsewhere: paying commission on demand you already owned.
It overlaps every other channel
Affiliate touchpoints sit next to paid search, email and organic. Without incrementality controls, the affiliate report and the paid media report will both claim the same revenue.
Partners are a portfolio, not a list
A comparison site, a niche newsletter, a cashback portal and a creator behave nothing alike. Treating them as one channel with one commission rate is what quietly kills programme margin.
Which is why the first question we ask about an existing programme is not how to grow it, but how much of it is already incremental — and the answer changes the commission model, not just the partner list.
From commission design and partner recruitment to brand protection and incrementality testing — the parts that decide whether the channel adds profit.
Programme design and launch
Commission structure, cookie and attribution windows, partner tiers, terms and the technical setup — on a network or on your own platform, depending on where your buyers actually are.
Partner recruitment by role
We recruit against gaps, not against volume: content and review sites for consideration demand, comparison for high intent, creators for reach, loyalty for retention. Each with its own target and rate.
Brand protection and compliance
Trademark bidding rules, coupon-code policy, enforcement of disclosure requirements and monitoring of how partners describe your brand. Written into terms, then actually checked.
Incrementality testing
Holdout and geo tests to establish which partner types generate net-new demand. The same discipline we apply to paid media, described in our incrementality guide — applied to commissions.
Commission and margin management
Rates set per partner type and per product margin, with tiered and performance-based structures instead of one flat percentage that overpays the easiest sales.
Reporting next to your other channels
Affiliate revenue reported against total blended performance — not in a network dashboard that counts every assisted sale as its own win.
We start by auditing the credit, not the growth
The first deliverable is usually uncomfortable: how much commission is being paid on sales that were already coming. Fixing that funds everything else in the programme.
Commission follows margin, not revenue
A flat rate across the catalogue overpays low-margin products and underpays the ones worth pushing. We set rates against contribution, so partner incentives match your P&L.
Affiliate run by a performance team
Partner recruitment, commission, leakage and incrementality sit in one commercial model. The programme is judged with the same discipline as paid media, not by a network dashboard that rewards last click.
It pays off where order volume makes commission economics material and margin differs enough across products to matter.
It makes sense when
Not yet, when
Recovered margin from the first phase usually funds the recruitment in the second.
Audit of credit and leakage
We map current partners by type, check where commission is paid on brand and coupon searches, review attribution windows and identify overlap with paid media. Output: what is incremental, what is not, and what it costs today.
Restructure and recruit
Commission model rebuilt against margin, terms tightened on trademark and coupon behaviour, then recruitment into the gaps — content, comparison and creator partners that reach demand before it becomes a brand search.
Test, scale, enforce
Holdout and geo tests confirm which partner types add net-new revenue. Budget and rates move toward those; monitoring keeps brand terms and disclosure rules enforced as the programme grows.
Our fee is for managing the channel, so removing non-incremental commission never works against us.
Your programme, your partners
The network account or platform stays yours, along with partner relationships, terms and historical data. Nothing is held hostage to the engagement.
Management fee, not a cut of commission
We charge for managing the programme. A percentage of commission would reward volume — including the non-incremental volume we are supposed to remove.
Reported in incremental terms
Reporting separates assisted revenue from incremental revenue, and shows the programme next to your other channels rather than in a network dashboard.
A cross-section of work across premium e-commerce, marketplaces, local lead generation and ticketed experiences. Each story shows how the right strategy, capabilities and operating cadence come together around the business model.
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The way we work is consistent across every scope: the business objective comes first, each capability has a defined role, and decisions are made against real business numbers.
Direct strategist contact
You work with the person responsible for direction, priorities and delivery — not a layer of account managers.
Infrastructure on your side
Accounts, analytics, automations, creative and data stay yours from day one — no dependency on the agency.
A daily decision rhythm
We connect marketing and analytics data in one operational view, so evidence turns into priorities and action quickly.
No long lock-ins
A 14-day rolling notice, a clear billing model and a clean handover if you decide to stop.
It designs and runs a partner programme: commission structure, terms, tracking setup, partner recruitment, brand-protection rules and reporting. The management part matters more than the setup — rates, partner mix and attribution rules need continuous adjustment as the programme grows. Without that, a programme drifts toward whichever partners are best at claiming credit rather than creating demand.
Affiliate marketing pays a commission on a tracked outcome, usually a sale, and partners are often publishers, comparison sites, newsletters or loyalty platforms. Influencer marketing usually pays for content and reach, with the creator relationship as the asset. They increasingly overlap — many creators now work on commission — and both should be measured against incremental revenue. Our approach to creator programmes is on the influencer marketing page.
By testing rather than by reading attribution reports. Holdout and geo tests suppress a partner type in part of the market and compare total revenue against a control. Attribution shows which partner touched the path; only a test shows whether the outcome changed. Coupon, cashback and brand-bidding partners appear late in the journey, which is exactly where credit and causation diverge most.
It depends on where the partners you need already are. Networks give reach, established partner supply and consumolidated tracking, at the cost of fees and less control over terms. A self-hosted platform gives lower variable cost and full control, but partner recruitment becomes your job. For most brands the answer is a network first, then selective direct relationships with the partners that prove incremental.
There is no single correct rate, and a flat catalogue-wide percentage is usually the wrong answer. Rates should follow contribution margin and partner role: a content partner introducing new customers earns differently from a cashback portal appearing at checkout. Tiered and performance-based structures let the programme pay more for what it actually needs.
No. We charge a management fee. Taking a cut of commission would reward total programme volume, including the non-incremental volume our job is to remove — the incentive would point the wrong way.
Tell us whether a programme already exists, which network it runs on and what your margin looks like. We'll talk about where commission is currently going and what would change first.
