Affiliate marketing where you pay for results
Affiliate marketing is the only channel where you pay after the sale. That makes it attractive, and it is also why it attracts people gaming it.
Give people a relevant reason to return and take the next step.
- Known audience
- Timely message
- Meaningful response
Relevance matters more than the size of the list.
How does affiliate marketing work?
Partners promote you and earn commission on sales they generate, tracked by a unique link. You pay for outcomes rather than exposure, so the risk sits with the affiliate rather than with you.
Where programmes go wrong
Paying full commission to affiliates who added nothing. Coupon sites that intercept people already about to buy, and browser extensions that claim credit at the last click, are the two biggest sources of wasted commission.
Managing that means attribution rules that reward partners who genuinely introduce new customers, and monitoring for the patterns that indicate someone is harvesting rather than selling.
Enough that good affiliates choose you over a competitor, which usually means five to twenty percent depending on your margins and category. Too low and nobody promotes you, too high and the channel is unprofitable.