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Capabilities / Affiliate & Partnership Programs

Affiliate programs designed by people who publish on the other side.

We sit on both sides of the affiliate table.

Step 1 of 2

How can we help you get found?

What do you need help with?

Next: name, email and budget. That’s it.

We operate publishing properties that earn commissions from major networks, and we build programs for brands that want publishers sending them customers. That means we know what makes a publisher say yes, what a fair payout looks like, and how to tell real incremental revenue from coupon-site leakage.

What is included

Deliverables, not adjectives.

  1. Program design.

    Commission structure, cookie windows, attribution rules, publisher tiers, creative kit and terms that protect margin.

  2. Network and platform setup.

    Impact, CJ, Awin, Rakuten, Partnerize, Everflow or an in-house tracking platform, with postbacks and server-side conversion tracking verified end to end.

  3. Publisher recruiting.

    Target lists built from real referral data, outreach in a voice publishers respond to, onboarding and activation sequences.

  4. Incrementality and fraud controls.

    Baseline testing, coupon and cookie-stuffing rules, and reporting that separates new revenue from revenue you would have had anyway.

  5. Program operations.

    Monthly publisher communications, payout approvals, creative refreshes and quarterly program reviews.

Who this is for

  • Consumer brands with a product publishers can recommend
  • Lead-based businesses in lending, insurance, telehealth and home services
  • Companies that have an affiliate program on paper and no one running it

Platforms

  • Impact.com
  • CJ
  • Awin
  • Rakuten
  • Partnerize
  • Everflow
  • Amazon Associates
Perspectives

Reading on affiliate & partnership programs.

All perspectives
  1. Affiliate Postback URL Setup: Server-to-Server Tracking That Holds.

    Affiliate Programs · 9 min read

    Browser pixels get blocked and double fire. A postback fires from your server when the order is real, carrying the click id that ties it to the affiliate. Here is how we wire it on both sides of a program.

    View
  2. How to Hire an Affiliate Marketing Agency.

    Affiliate Programs · 10 min read

    Most affiliate programs fail at the build, not the launch. Here is what a real program includes and how to tell whether an agency can deliver it.

    View
  3. How to Launch an Affiliate Program for an Established Brand.

    Affiliate Programs · 18 min read

    You already have a paid-media machine and rising acquisition costs to match. An affiliate program is the rare channel where you set the price of a customer before you pay for one, here is how to stand it up so it actually moves the P&L.

    View
  4. Affiliate Networks vs. Platforms vs. In-House: How a Growing Brand Should Run Its Program.

    Affiliate Programs · 16 min read

    The tech is the easy part. How you run the program, and who runs it, is what actually decides your return. A straight-talking framework for marketing leaders past the starter phase.

    View
  5. How to Recruit Affiliates Who Actually Drive Revenue.

    Affiliate Programs · 16 min read

    Most affiliate programs measure success by partner count. The ones that move the P&L measure it by how few partners do the work, and how well those partners are activated.

    View
Questions

About affiliate & partnership programs.

Which affiliate network should we use?
It depends on who you want to recruit. Large content publishers live on Impact and CJ; performance and lead-gen publishers tend toward Everflow and direct deals. We recommend after looking at where your competitors' traffic actually comes from.
How do you know the affiliate revenue is incremental?
We baseline before launch, restrict coupon and cashback publishers by default, and run holdout tests where volume allows. The report you get shows new customers and revenue by publisher, not just tracked clicks.
Work with us

Let us look at your affiliate & partnership programs first.

Send a short brief. We will come back within one business day with what we would fix first and what it would take.

t@theoryroad.com

Step 1 of 2

How can we help you get found?

What do you need help with?

Next: name, email and budget. That’s it.