Affiliate marketing is the only channel where you pay only for results — sales, leads or actions. We design, launch and manage affiliate programmes that recruit the right partners, incentivise quality over quantity, and build a sustainable channel that grows your revenue without growing your ad spend.
Affiliate marketing is a performance-based channel where you pay third-party publishers — affiliates — a commission only when they deliver a defined outcome: a sale, a lead, a sign-up or another agreed action. You set the commission structure; they do the marketing. If they do not deliver, you pay nothing.
A well-run affiliate programme is one of the most capital-efficient customer acquisition channels available. Unlike PPC, you are not paying per click regardless of conversion. Unlike social media, reach does not depend on your organic following. Affiliates do the distribution work; you pay only when it results in revenue.
The complexity lies in programme design, publisher recruitment and ongoing management. A poorly structured programme attracts low-quality publishers, drives voucher-only traffic that cannibalises existing sales, or creates compliance and fraud exposure. We build programmes that attract quality partners and deliver genuinely incremental revenue.
Unlike every other paid channel, affiliate marketing is purely performance-based. You define what a conversion is worth; affiliates only earn when they deliver it. There is no wasted spend on impressions, clicks or awareness that does not convert — making it one of the most capital-efficient channels available.
A mature affiliate programme can drive significant revenue without a proportional increase in your marketing team or ad budget. Once the infrastructure is in place, each new quality publisher added to the programme expands revenue potential without expanding cost — commission is only paid when sales occur.
Affiliate networks give you access to thousands of publishers — from cashback and voucher sites to content bloggers, comparison sites and email newsletters. This distribution network would take years to build independently. A single programme can activate hundreds of publishers simultaneously, reaching audiences across every stage of the funnel.
When structured correctly with proper attribution and publisher tiering, affiliate drives genuinely incremental revenue — customers who would not have been acquired through your other channels. Commission is capped as a percentage of revenue, meaning your cost-of-sale remains predictable regardless of campaign scale.
The best affiliate relationships develop into genuine long-term partnerships — content publishers who feature your brand consistently, deal aggregators who prioritise your offers, and loyalty sites who drive repeat purchase. These relationships compound in value over time, delivering progressively better placement and coverage.
Affiliate networks provide complete transaction-level reporting — every sale is tracked to the publisher that drove it, with full visibility of the customer journey, device type and conversion path. This level of attribution data is more granular than most other digital channels and enables precise optimisation of commission rates and publisher mix.
We design the commission structure that attracts quality publishers without sacrificing margin — tiered commissions by publisher type, product category and customer value. We model the economics carefully: what commission rate makes the programme attractive to the publishers you want whilst keeping cost-of-sale within your target margins? This foundation determines everything.
We recommend the right network or networks for your business based on your sector, publisher targets and technical infrastructure. We are certified partners with Awin, CJ Affiliate, Impact, Rakuten and Partnerize. Setup includes tracking implementation, network configuration, product feed optimisation and testing — ensuring tracking is robust before any publishers go live.
We proactively recruit the publishers that are right for your programme — not simply approving every application. Using our publisher relationships and network access, we identify and approach high-quality content publishers, comparison sites, cashback platforms and specialist affiliates who reach your target customers. Quality of publishers is more important than quantity.
We produce the creative assets publishers need — banners, product feeds, deep-link libraries, promotional copy and seasonal creative. Publisher onboarding includes briefing on your brand guidelines, commission structure, promotional restrictions and compliance requirements. Well-briefed publishers produce better content and drive higher-quality traffic.
Affiliate compliance — ensuring publishers are not bidding on your brand terms, misrepresenting your offers, or breaching coupon code restrictions — requires active monitoring. We audit publisher activity regularly and take swift action on violations. Fraud detection tools monitor for cookie stuffing, click injection and other fraudulent activity that inflates commission costs without delivering genuine sales.
Once live, we continuously optimise the publisher mix — increasing commissions for top performers, developing exclusive promotions for high-potential publishers and retiring poor-quality affiliates. Regular publisher communications, dedicated account management for top partners and performance-based incentives ensure your programme remains a priority for the affiliates that matter most.
We work across all major affiliate networks and with all publisher types — matching the right network and publisher mix to your business model, sector and target audience.
A complete affiliate programme — from strategy and technical setup through publisher recruitment, creative assets, compliance monitoring and ongoing optimisation — managed entirely by our team.
We provide full transparency on programme performance through a shared Looker Studio dashboard updated in real time, monthly reporting calls and quarterly strategy reviews that assess publisher mix, commission structure and incremental revenue contribution.
Product-level commission structures, seasonal promotional programmes and cashback/voucher site partnerships that drive incremental sales without cannibalising existing revenue — the core use case for affiliate marketing.
Lead-generation affiliate programmes for insurance, loans, credit cards and investment products — structured with strict compliance controls and FCA-compliant promotional guidelines built into every publisher agreement.
Commission-based programmes for hotels, tour operators and travel services — leveraging travel bloggers, comparison engines and loyalty platforms to drive bookings through a trusted network of specialist publishers.
Recurring commission structures for subscription products — aligning publisher incentives with customer lifetime value rather than initial conversion, driving quality sign-ups with strong retention profiles.
Full programme design and technical launch on your chosen network — ready to start recruiting publishers from day one.
Ongoing programme management — publisher recruitment, compliance monitoring, optimisation and reporting included every month.
For established brands wanting a fully performance-aligned arrangement — our fee scales with programme revenue. Enquire for details.
All prices ex-VAT. Network fees and publisher commissions are additional. Free affiliate programme audit available for existing programmes.
Network selection depends on your sector, publisher targets and technical infrastructure. Awin is the largest UK network with the broadest publisher base and is often the default choice for UK retail and e-commerce. CJ Affiliate (Commission Junction) has strong coverage in finance and technology. Impact is preferred for SaaS and subscription products with its flexible contract structures and superior attribution tools. Rakuten is strong in fashion and luxury. We assess your requirements during onboarding and recommend the right network — or networks, as some programmes benefit from a multi-network approach. We handle network negotiations, setup and ongoing account management regardless of which you choose.
Incremental attribution is the central challenge in affiliate marketing — ensuring you are paying commission on sales that would not have happened without the affiliate's contribution, rather than on sales already driven by your SEO, PPC or email. We address this through several mechanisms: excluding branded PPC bidding by publishers (enforced through BrandVerity monitoring), de-duplication rules that prevent affiliates from claiming last-click credit over other channels, publisher tiering that limits or excludes pure voucher-code affiliates, and basket-level validation to prevent attribution on transactions using internal promotional codes. Properly managed, affiliate should deliver genuinely additive revenue.
Commission rates need to balance two things: being attractive enough to recruit and motivate quality publishers, whilst keeping cost-of-sale within your target margins. Typical retail commission rates range from 3–15% of sale value depending on product margin, average order value and competitive landscape. We model your programme economics before launch — taking into account your gross margin, target customer acquisition cost and competitor commission benchmarks — and recommend a tiered structure that rewards performance whilst protecting profitability. We also advise on network override rates (higher commissions for specific placements or periods) to secure premium publisher positioning.
A new programme can typically be live on network within 4–6 weeks of project kickoff — covering programme strategy, commission design, network setup, tracking implementation and QA, creative production and initial publisher outreach. The timeline depends on the speed of your technical team in implementing the tracking pixel and product feed. Publisher recruitment is an ongoing process: a programme typically has its first active publishers within 2–4 weeks of going live, with the publisher base growing progressively over the first 3–6 months as the programme builds a track record that makes it easier to attract premium publishers.
Yes — we offer affiliate programme audits for existing programmes and frequently take over management of programmes that have underperformed under previous management. Common issues we find include: commission rates that are uncompetitive or misstructured, poor-quality publisher mix (too many voucher sites, insufficient content publishers), weak or outdated creative assets, tracking issues causing under- or over-attribution, compliance failures (brand bidding, misleading content), and lack of proactive publisher development. A programme audit typically takes 2–3 weeks and results in a prioritised action plan with clear revenue impact projections.
All major affiliate networks have updated their tracking infrastructure to comply with UK GDPR and the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations. Tracking now includes server-side and cookieless options that maintain attribution accuracy without relying solely on browser cookies. We implement tracking in a compliant configuration from the outset, ensure your cookie consent implementation does not inadvertently block affiliate tracking, and advise on the incremental impact of consent rates on your programme's attribution accuracy. This is a technically complex area and getting it right from the start avoids significant attribution discrepancy issues down the line.
Affiliate and PPC complement each other — affiliate covers publisher placements you cannot reach through paid ads, whilst PPC captures high-intent searchers directly.
PPCLearn more →A clear channel strategy determines whether affiliate is right for your business and how it should be prioritised alongside other performance channels.
StrategyLearn more →A high-converting e-commerce site maximises the value of every affiliate referral — our dev team ensures tracking, product feeds and landing pages are fully optimised.
E-CommerceLearn more →