Affiliate programme terms and publisher rules

Affiliate programme terms should tell a publisher how to promote an offer, what earns commission and when a recorded amount can change. Before a partner joins, set out the payable event, calculation basis, credit rule, promotion permissions, review process and payment schedule. Ensure the agreement and programme settings express the same rules.

Define the commercial offer

Name the action that may earn commission, such as an approved purchase of eligible products. State any excluded products or customer groups, the value used to calculate payment, and how discounts, delivery charges, mixed baskets and GST are treated. Record a placement fee separately from sale commission.

Explain the referral window and how competing publisher or marketing-channel claims are resolved. Say whether a voucher code changes the ordinary click-based credit rule. Credit under an attribution rule does not, by itself, make an order eligible for payment.

Affiliate Programme Terms: Key Elements and Publisher Responsibilities

Make the accepted agreement usable

Treat the terms as the agreement publishers review before joining, not just internal settings. Awin says standard terms are pre-selected for most new advertisers; review and update anything that does not reflect the programme. In Awin, manage them under Program settings > Program terms and conditions.

Keep the components distinguishable: programme terms describe how the programme runs and how partners may promote the brand. Payout details state the payment type, amount, restrictions and limits.

If using impact.com, account for the platform’s agreement layer as well as the brand’s contract proposal. impact.com states every contract requires acceptance of its Impact Master Campaign Agreement. That agreement defines the partner’s relationship with impact.com and is legally binding when agreed to.

Set promotion and customer-facing rules

List permitted channels and their conditions. Address paid search, email, social posts, voucher pages, browser tools and subpublishers where relevant. Ask partners to declare the properties and methods they intend to use, and provide a written route for exceptions or material changes.

Require accurate claims about products, prices, availability, delivery and offer limits. The ACCC says businesses must not mislead consumers by posting misleading reviews or failing to disclose when an influencer has been paid to create social media content, including with gifted products or services. Require disclosure where paid or gifted content could otherwise appear to be an organic, unpaid recommendation.

Keep the offer shown to shoppers separate from the affiliate credit rule. A voucher may work at checkout while the displaying publisher is ineligible for commission. State which codes partners may publish, the offer conditions and whether any code carries special credit treatment.

Explain review and payment

Describe the path from a recorded transaction through review to an approved or declined commission and the applicable payment schedule. Give specific grounds for changes, such as cancellation, refund, an excluded item, duplicate record or a documented breach of an active term. Explain where a publisher can see a change and how to query it.

Set the review timetable against the actual account and contract. Awin documents automatic approval after its configured validation period if a transaction remains unreviewed. On impact.com, actions can generally be modified or reversed before the contract’s locking date; payment can follow later.

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Commission Review and Payment Workflow

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Make conditions and limits explicit

State whether a payout is fixed or a percentage of a sale, and whether specified action characteristics change the default payout. impact.com contracts can use payout groups to change the default when conditions match. They can also use payout restrictions to stop an action generating a payout when a condition matches. Keep conditions understandable to publishers before they accept.

If the programme imposes a cap, define whether it limits the number of actions that can earn a payout or the total payout for a period. impact.com describes actions above a limit as Outside of Terms, with an Exceeded Action Cap status, and not payable unless the brand manually approves them. Make any such limit visible in the applicable terms, not just an internal budget rule.

Separate the stages of the agreement where they differ: impact.com identifies action locking, invoicing and payout scheduling as distinct contract details. Its documentation allows payout scheduling later than the date actions lock. Publishers should be able to tell which event controls each stage.

Pros and Cons of Fixed vs Percentage Payout Models

Manage changes

Keep a dated record of the terms each publisher accepted. When terms change, identify the effective date, affected promotions and which version governs existing orders. Follow the applicable network or partner notice requirement.

Before launch, compare the written rules with the proposed setup for a normal sale, discount, mixed basket, competing referral, cancellation and partial return. Record any rule the available controls cannot express before offering it to publishers.