Question 1

What's the difference between affiliate and referral programs?

Accepted Answer

Referral programs reward existing customers for referring friends. Affiliate programs pay anyone (bloggers, influencers) for driving sales. Referrals are warmer leads; affiliates can scale further.

Question 2

How much should I pay affiliates/referrers?

Accepted Answer

Typically 10-30% of first payment or first year value. Higher for competitive spaces. Consider LTV—a $50 reward for a $500 LTV customer makes sense. Test what motivates action.

Question 3

Should I give cash rewards or credits?

Accepted Answer

Cash is more universally appealing. Credits work if your product is subscription-based and referrers are customers. Offer choice when possible. Cash converts better for affiliates.

Question 4

Which affiliate software should I use?

Accepted Answer

Rewardful: SaaS-focused, Stripe integration. FirstPromoter: full-featured, affordable. PartnerStack: enterprise-grade. Viral Loops: referral-focused templates. Choose based on scale and payment provider.

Question 5

How do I recruit affiliates?

Accepted Answer

Ask happy customers first. Reach out to complementary products. Industry bloggers and creators. Partner directories. Make it easy to join—low friction signup process.

Question 6

How do I prevent affiliate fraud?

Accepted Answer

Require quality applications. Monitor for suspicious patterns. Use fraud detection in your tool. Cookie duration limits. Clawback provisions for refunds. Most fraud is obvious.

Question 7

What makes a referral program successful?

Accepted Answer

Simple to understand, easy to share, worthwhile reward, timely payouts. Promote it actively—most customers don't know programs exist. Follow up with referrers.

Question 8

How long should cookie duration be?

Accepted Answer

30-90 days is typical for SaaS. Longer for high-consideration purchases. Balance between fair attribution and limiting stale claims. Industry standard is 30 days.

Question 9

Should I approve affiliates or auto-accept?

Accepted Answer

Manual approval for curated program (brand protection). Auto-accept for volume and growth. Hybrid: auto-accept but monitor. Quality programs usually review applications.

Question 10

How do I provide assets to affiliates?

Accepted Answer

Dedicated portal with: banners, logos, email templates, social copy, product screenshots, demo videos. Make promotion easy. Update assets regularly.

Question 11

What's a good affiliate conversion rate?

Accepted Answer

Highly variable: 1-5% for cold traffic, 10-30% for warm referrals. Focus on quality of affiliates over quantity. A few engaged affiliates beat hundreds of inactive ones.

Question 12

How do I pay international affiliates?

Accepted Answer

PayPal is universal but takes fees. Wise for bank transfers. Some platforms (Rewardful) handle payouts. Minimum payout thresholds reduce admin overhead.

Question 13

Should I offer one-time or recurring commissions?

Accepted Answer

Recurring motivates ongoing promotion and customer success focus. One-time is simpler to manage. SaaS with subscriptions often does recurring for 6-12 months or lifetime.

Question 14

How do I promote my referral program?

Accepted Answer

Email after positive experience (NPS 9-10). In-app prompts. Account settings page. Customer success touchpoints. Social media. The ask matters—many customers will refer if asked.

Question 15

When should I launch an affiliate program?

Accepted Answer

After product-market fit. You need satisfied customers to refer. Don't launch too early—bad product + affiliates = negative word of mouth at scale.

I need to launch a referral or affiliate program

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