Affiliate management

This section covers how to manage your affiliates from adding them to approving their application to ongoing relationship management.

In summary, it includes all that you need to know as regards to managing affiliates and how the app helps you to do it.

Affiliate management connects closely with commission Programs, where you define commission tiers and coupon templates.

Also, the Affiliate portal guide which shows what affiliates see after they are approved.

Managing affiliates on the app

1. Viewing the affiliates section

Navigate to Affiliates (Affiliate Management). The page has two tabs:

• Active Affiliates — approved, active affiliates
• Needs Attention — applications and accounts that need review (Needs Review, Awaiting Verification, Deactivated, Rejected)

The Active Affiliates table shows:

• Affiliate name and email
• Pending orders
• Commission rate
• To Payout (amount owed to the affiliate)

2. Approving affiliates

To approve an affiliate application:

• Go to Needs Attention on the Affiliates page
• Under Needs Review, open the affiliate’s information
• Approve or reject the application
• The affiliate receives an approval email with a link to access their Affilitrak dashboard

3. Approval settings

You also have the ability to choose how to approve your affiliates (manual or automatic approval)

• Manual Approval

With this approval method, merchants get to review and approve each application individually as mentioned previously.

This is the default approval settings.

• Automatic approval

Affiliates are automatically approved upon registration.

To set this up, navigate to Settings → New Affiliates → Toggle on Auto-approve new affiliates.

Individual affiliate details

Click on any affiliate to view their detailed profile.

The details seen on the affiliates profile on the app is as follows:

1. Profile information

• Name, email, and referral link code
• Referral link and coupon codes
• Join date

2. Performance metrics

• Total Paid Out: Sum of payouts already sent to this affiliate
• Available for Payout: Current unpaid commission balance
• Attributed Sales: Total order value attributed to this affiliate
• Date Joined: When the affiliate joined your program

If you need more context on these numbers, the Tracking & analytics guide explains the performance and order views in more detail.

3. Activity history

• Recent orders: View orders attributed to this affiliate with dates and amounts.

• Payment history: See all payouts made to this affiliate (date, amount, currency, PayPal ID when applicable).

4. Custom information

You can add a custom field to collect additional information that is not already in the app by default.

Do this by going to Settings → Registration Form → enable Affiliate registration form → Add the questions you want to collect → mark required (or not).

This will create a form on your affiliate portal so that affiliates can fill it.

This information will show up on the individual affiliate information section when the affiliate fills the form in the portal

Changing commission rates

You can set custom commission rates for individual affiliates who are not assigned to a program:

• Open the affiliate's profile.
• In the program section, set the program to None.
• A Commission Rules card appears (shown as Royalty Rules only when royalty mode is on).
• Enter the custom rate and any product/collection rules.
• Click Save.

This overrides the default rate for this specific affiliate. Affiliates assigned to a program use that program’s rates instead — change their program assignment to change their commission structure.

Suspending/deactivating affiliates

To temporarily suspend an affiliate:

• Open the affiliate's profile.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page.
• Click the "Deactivate affiliate" button.

Suspended affiliates cannot generate new sales, but the existing commissions remain.

Deleting affiliates

To permanently remove an affiliate:

• Open the affiliate's profile.
• Scroll to the bottom of the page.
• Click "Delete".
• Confirm the deletion.

This action cannot be undone.

Communicating with affiliates

Email notifications

Affilitrak automatically sends emails to your affiliates on a regular basis.

For example, your affiliates will automatically receive emails for:

• Application approval.
• New referrals.
• New sales and commissions earned.
• Payout processing.
• Monthly reports.
• Invite to Login.

You can also configure these email settings when you go to Settings > Email Notifications.

Organizing affiliates

View and organize affiliates in different orders at Affiliates > Sort by:.

• Name (A-Z): View affiliates based on their name from A to Z.
• Name (Z-A): View affiliates based on their name from Z to A.
• Newest first: View affiliates from newest to oldest.
• Oldest first: View affiliates from oldest to newest.
• Earnings (High to low): Sort by unpaid balance (To Payout), highest first.
• Earnings (Low to high): Sort by unpaid balance (To Payout), lowest first.

Best practices

1. Recruiting quality affiliates

• Look for engaged audiences: Prioritize affiliates with active, engaged followers over large but inactive audiences.

• Check brand alignment: Ensure potential affiliates align with your brand values and target market.

• Review their content: Look at their website or social media to assess content quality.

• Ask questions: Require applicants to answer questions about how they plan to promote your products.

2. Keeping affiliates active

• Regular communication: Send monthly updates with tips, new products, and promotional ideas.
• Provide resources: Keep your marketing materials fresh and up-to-date.
• Recognize achievement: Acknowledge top performers and milestone achievements.
• Offer support: Be responsive to questions and provide help when needed.

3. Maintaining program quality

• Review sales patterns: Investigate unusually high conversion rates or return rates.
• Update terms regularly: Keep your program terms current and communicate changes clearly.
• Handle issues promptly: Address problems or disputes quickly and fairly.