Heuristic: Top affiliates usually drive most of the revenue. The long tail often does almost nothing.
Recommendation: Create a VIP tier with higher commission for the top performers to motivate them to push harder.
3 Common Affiliate Payment Models
1. Pay Per Sale (PPS)
The standard model
The merchant pays a percentage or flat fee only after a customer buys something.
Best for: E‑commerce stores (for example, Amazon Associates).Example: You pay a blogger 10% for every $50 pair of shoes they sell.
2. Pay Per Lead (PPL)
The sign‑up model
The merchant pays for a qualified lead or sign‑up, even if the person has not bought anything yet. The goal is to fill the sales pipeline.
Best for: Service businesses, SaaS, finance companies.Example: A software company pays $5 for every user who signs up for a free trial.
3. Pay Per Click (PPC)
The traffic model
The merchant pays for every visitor who clicks through to their website, even if the visitor leaves immediately. This is less common in modern affiliate programs because it is high risk for the merchant.
Best for: Large brands focused on reach and brand awareness rather than direct sales.Example: A brand pays $0.10 for every visitor a partner sends to their landing page.
The Challenge: Fraud and Brand Bidding
Sometimes affiliates "cheat" by bidding on your brand name in search ads to take credit for traffic you would have received anyway.
Optimization: Monitor affiliate traffic sources. If an affiliate has a strange spike in traffic with weak performance, investigate.
Red Flags to Watch
1. The Coupon Sniper
Scenario: An affiliate shows an unrealistically high conversion rate (for example, 90%).Investigation: Look at "time to purchase." If the click happens only a few seconds before checkout, the user was likely already going to buy.What is happening: The user is already in checkout, sees a promo code box, searches for "[Brand] coupon," clicks an affiliate link, and completes the purchase. The affiliate steals credit for the sale.Action: Ban the affiliate or reduce their commission to 0%.2. The Bot Farm
Scenario: An affiliate sends thousands of clicks but generates almost no sign‑ups or sales.What is happening: They are sending bot or very low‑quality traffic to inflate their numbers.Action: Block the affiliate and exclude their traffic from your reports.