How To Start an Affiliate Program in 2025

Ready for your brand to increase sales through affiliate marketing? Learn how to start an affiliate program in 11 steps.

Consumers aren’t listening to ads—they’re listening to each other. Shoppers increasingly prioritize reviews and recommendations when making purchase decisions. As a result, more and more businesses are turning to affiliate programs, either alongside or as an alternative to conventional ads.

“Today’s modern consumer spends more time reviewing and comparing multiple products before making a buying decision than ever before, and they’re seeking authenticity and trust to guide their purchasing decisions,” says Jerrid Grim, head of publisher marketing at affiliate platform impact.com. Grim cites a 2024 survey in which 86% of consumers said recommendations and reviews are important in their purchase decisions, while only 2% said traditional ads were important.

Affiliate marketing allows brands to partner with creators whose audiences trust them for honest product reviews and recommendations. This beginner’s guide explains how to start an affiliate program for your business, from setting goals to managing partners.

What is an affiliate marketing program?

An affiliate marketing program is a reward-based system in which content creators, influencers, and other partners promote your products in exchange for a commission on the sales they generate. Affiliates drive traffic to your online store through referral links, also known as affiliate links, that they share on their websites or content channels.

Affiliate links are unique to each partner, ensuring affiliates are accurately paid and allowing brands to track their return on investment (ROI). Brands can also choose to offer affiliate-specific customer discounts through affiliate links to further incentivize purchases.

How do affiliate programs work?

In an affiliate program, a business partners with creators or affiliate marketers who promote its products. When an affiliate successfully refers a customer, the business pays them a commission.

This process is tracked through customized affiliate links that attribute sales to the associated affiliate. Affiliate links have cookie durations that determine how long a customer has to make a purchase from the link for it to be credited to the affiliate.

Affiliate marketing is a cost-effective strategy for advertisers because it drives brand awareness while requiring brands to pay commissions only on completed sales. This differs from traditional types of marketing, like TV ads, in which the business pays upfront.

Affiliate programs are also a tried-and-true way for publishers—including bloggers, social media influencers, and review sites—to make money online. When properly executed, it’s a win-win for everyone involved.

🌟 What makes a great affiliate program? Here are the commission rates and payout details of the best affiliate programs to help you plan your own.

What’s the purpose of an affiliate program?

Affiliate programs facilitate reciprocal partnerships between brands and marketers. Marketers earn commissions by referring customers, while brands gain access to new audiences through a cost-effective pay-per-sale model.

For the ecommerce brand Moonboon, which sells functional and sustainable sleep accessories for babies, affiliate partners have driven more than $1 million in sales. This represents roughly 10% of the business’s monthly net sales and delivers an impressive 6.5 times return on investment (ROI).

Moonboon runs its affiliate marketing program through Shopify Collabs, a platform that enables the company to easily connect with vetted creators and manage partnerships in one place.

Is affiliate marketing right for your business?

Affiliate marketing could be particularly beneficial if you operate in a highly competitive industry, where potential customers are likely to compare multiple products. One of the best ways to determine if an affiliate program is right for your business is to see if competitors in your industry use them as part of their business strategy.

“Consumers no longer look to traditional ads when they want to know more about a product,” says Grim from impact.com. “Instead, they turn to their communities—they seek out product reviews, shop comparison sites, and listen to the voices of the real people sharing real experiences, like influencers and friends and family.” If your competitors frequently show up in these places, they’re likely using affiliate links to incentivize these conversations—and you should seriously consider launching your own program.

While affiliate marketing can be a great way for many businesses to generate sales and brand awareness, it may not be right for every business. For example, if you have small profit margins, affiliate marketing may not be feasible. Affiliate programs require commissions attractive enough to justify the affiliate’s time and effort. With limited profit margins, it could be difficult to pay a desirable commission while turning a profit.

How to start an affiliate program in 11 steps

1. Set goals for your affiliate program
2. Choose an affiliate marketing tool
3. Recruit affiliates
4. Vet creators
5. Onboard affiliates
6. Set commission tiers
7. Set cookie durations
8. Decide on a gifting strategy
9. Create affiliate links
10. Create promotions
11. Manage affiliate relationships

Starting a successful affiliate program involves finding creators, setting commission rates, and more. Here’s how to do it:

1. Set clear goals for your affiliate program

Before you start building your affiliate marketing program, set measurable goals for what success looks like. The three key performance indicators Grim suggests tracking are ROI, order value, and conversion rate.

Keep in mind that your business’s specific goals will depend on a number of factors. “Benchmarks for each of these metrics can vary widely depending on the product, the consumer, and where the promotion is happening,” says Grim. That said, here are a few industry standards to help guide you:

Return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment (ROI) shows you how much money you’ve earned compared to the amount you’ve spent on a particular business activity. “We hear frequently from brands that the number one thing they care about with regards to affiliate marketing is ROI,” says Lizzy Masotta, a senior product lead at Shopify who works on Shopify Collabs. “Basically, you want to constantly monitor the return based on the commissions you’re paying.”

For marketing and advertising activities like affiliate marketing, ROI is sometimes called return on ad spend (ROAS). “In general, a 4:1 return on ad spend is considered a solid benchmark for advertising,” says Grim.

With Collabs, you can track affiliate sales, commission payouts, and gifted products directly from your Shopify admin. This makes calculating your ROI straightforward: simply add up these expenses and compare them to your total affiliate-driven sales. You can also filter this information by specific time periods to evaluate performance.

Conversion rate

Conversion rate refers to the number of people who click on an affiliate’s link and then complete a purchase. A good affiliate marketing conversion rate is 1% to 3%, according to Grim.

“This may sound like a small number, but compare that to display ads, where only one in every 1,000 people who see an ad even click on it, and then an even smaller fraction of those clicks lead to a purchase,” Grim explains.

Tracking conversion rates for individual creators can help you gauge the success of your affiliates. To see this data in Collabs, navigate to Connections and click on a creator’s name. You’ll see conversion rate in the affiliate’s performance section.

Order value

Tracking the number of orders and total sales value a creator generates can help you evaluate how successful your affiliates are at generating sales (and encouraging higher ticket purchases). Monitoring this metric also makes it easy to compare the success of your various affiliates.

You can find the total number of orders made through a creator’s links or discount codes by going to Connections > [creator’s name] > Collab performance.

2. Choose an affiliate marketing tool

Affiliate marketing software can help you find top creators, set commission rates, and manage payouts—all in one place. Shopify Collabs is free for Shopify users and includes all the features you’ll need to run a high-performing affiliate program. It’s an affiliate network and affiliate management app in one.

Using a tool like Shopify Collabs allows you to organize and manage partnerships from a single hub, saving you time and streamlining your affiliate program. When choosing an affiliate marketing tool, look for one that integrates with your ecommerce platform and provides analytics that help you track and improve your affiliate program’s performance.

If you’re on Shopify, you can set up Shopify Collabs for free by installing the Collabs app from the Shopify App Store. Once installed, you can access Collabs from your Shopify admin by going to Settings> Apps and sales channels > Collabs.

3. Recruit affiliates

Source: Shopify

There are several ways to find great affiliate partners. You could search for creators on social media and reach out to them directly, encourage them to apply to your affiliate program through your website using a tool like Shopify Forms, or use a platform like Shopify Collabs to connect with vetted talent.

You can also combine these approaches. The makeup brand BareMinerals, for example, uses Shopify Collabs while also accepting affiliate applications directly through its website.

Source: BareMinerals

If you’re using Shopify Collabs, you have a few options for finding affiliate partners:

• Open access. This option allows any vetted creator on Shopify Collabs to immediately start promoting your products, no approval necessary. You set your commission rate, and creators can automatically generate affiliate links.

• Recruiting. This feature lets you search Shopify Collabs’ extensive database of vetted creators. You can sort by area of expertise, location, and follower count, then reach out directly to establish partnerships.

• Invitations. You can invite creators to join you on Shopify Collabs, allowing you to manage all partnerships from a single platform.

• Applications. Creators on Shopify Collabs can apply to your affiliate program. You can customize your application with targeted questions to ensure you find the right fit.

4. Vet creators

Whether you decide to reach out to creators directly or solicit applications, prioritize audience engagement when choosing which creators to partner with.

“Follower count should not be the main metric you look at for recruiting,” Masotta says. “There should be a minimum audience size—probably around a few thousand—and then beyond that, it’s really about seeing if there’s authentic, genuine engagement with the creator, and that they resonate and have some expertise in the space of your product or your brand.” If you’re using Shopify Collabs, you can see engagement metrics right from your Collabs dashboard.

5. Onboard affiliates

Once you’ve recruited your affiliates, provide them with clear brand guidelines and make sure they understand the legal requirements of affiliate marketing so that your brand maintains affiliate marketing compliance. For example, they must disclose when links earn them a commission (as per the Federal Trade Commission), and they can’t promote your products with misleading information.

As you run your affiliate marketing program, you’ll want to keep an eye on affiliates to ensure they are remaining compliant with the law. This includes checking for unusually high conversion rates, which could signify credit card fraud.

6. Set commission tiers

Setting commission rates for affiliates involves balancing your profit margin with offering enough incentive for your partners to actively promote your products. This will likely mean offering different commissions to different partners based on their experience and performance.

Masotta recommends creating three commission tiers. For example, your bronze tier might earn a 5% commission, your silver tier 10%, and your gold tier 20%. (You can name your tiers whatever you want.) If you’re unsure of where to slot someone, know that you can always move them through the tiers. “If you’re new to working with them, you can always start them at your lowest level and then promote them through the levels as you build more trust and see more continued performance from them,” says Masotta.

Source: Shopify

You can set up tiers in the Programs section of your Collabs dashboard. This is also where you’ll set customer discounts, which represent the savings customers receive when they purchase through an affiliate’s link.

Once your tiers are created, you’ll see them under the Programs tab. Note that Collabs users set discount and commission rates at 10% on average.

7. Set cookie durations

Source: Shopify

Cookie duration, or link attribution time, is the amount of time after a customer clicks on an affiliate link that a purchase can be credited to the affiliate. Typical windows are 30 days, 60 days, and 90 days.

8. Decide on a gifting strategy

Source: Shopify

You’ll likely want to gift products to creators so they can authentically recommend them to their audience. “You can think about your gifting strategy as the process of a creator getting to know your brand better before they promote it,” says Masotta.

There are several approaches to influencer gifting, but Masotta recommends always presenting creators with options. “The most successful gifting strategies we see involve giving the creator some element of choice, because something is going to resonate more with them or their audience or be more authentic for them,” says Masotta.

Shopify Collabs lets you present creators with a mini online storefront where they can select products. Alternatively, you can offer them discount codes—such as 90% off any product—or provide a fixed amount, like $100, to spend in your store.

Offering these options gives creators the experience of navigating your store and comparing your products, which can help them learn about your offerings and figure out what they like. This, in turn, leads to more authentic and effective promotions.

You can see the gifts you’ve given an affiliate by clicking on the creator’s name under the Performance section of your Collabs dashboard.

9. Create affiliate links

Source: Shopify

Now that your creators have tried your products, you can create affiliate links for the items they plan to promote. If you’re offering them a commission on your entire inventory, you can create a link for your whole store. These links let you attribute sales to each creator, so you’ll want to generate unique ones for every affiliate.

To maintain branding consistency, consider using a standardized link format. For example, maybe you use “mystore.com/creatorname.” This also makes affiliate links easier for customers to remember.

10. Create promotions

In addition to moving creators through a tiered commission structure, Masotta suggests that brands run time-bound promotions as part of their affiliate marketing strategy. “It’s just a more targeted way to continue to engage your creators and get them talking about your products,” says Masotta.

These campaigns should incentivize affiliates to promote your products. You could do that by offering a higher commission rate or by incorporating higher customer discounts (like a 15% off code). Customer discounts can make it easier for affiliates to generate sales and, in turn, earn more commissions.

Here’s an example of an affiliate code for the luxury blanket brand Minky Couture. When a customer uses this creator’s code, they’ll receive 50% off their order.

Source: TikTok

11. Manage affiliate relationships

Now that you’ve established your affiliate marketing program, make sure to keep your affiliates engaged. “They are partners, after all!” Grim says. “Don’t forget to celebrate your partners’ success. A little recognition goes a long way in boosting morale and fostering a sense of camaraderie.”

This means keeping an eye on metrics like conversion rates and total orders generated by individual affiliates.

“I think it’s very important that you monitor your top creators,” says Masotta. “If there is a creator who’s very high-performing for you, it’s probably a good idea to retain that creator and make sure you can continue to give them the incentives they deserve, so they keep promoting for your brand accordingly.”

Incentives could come in the form of financial bonuses like higher commission rates (another benefit to using a tiered system), individualized promotions, or gifting bonuses like early access to new product releases. You might also collaborate with top creators on marketing materials like sponsored posts.

Ready to start an affiliate marketing program?

Now that you have the tools to start an affiliate program and create an affiliate program for your Shopify store, you’re ready to get started. Head over to the Shopify App Store to find the Shopify Collabs app, a free affiliate marketing platform for Shopify users.

How to start an affiliate program FAQ

How can I create an affiliate program?

You can create a successful affiliate marketing program by following these steps:

• Set goals for your affiliate program.

• Choose an affiliate marketing tool.

• Recruit affiliates.

• Choose the right products.

• Determine commission rates.

• Set cookie durations.

• Decide on a gifting strategy.

• Create promotions.

• Manage affiliate relationships.

• Track and measure performance.

What’s the difference between a referral and an affiliate?

Referral marketing involves rewarding customers when they invite friends and family to try your product or service. A referral program doesn’t require participants to have a platform like a blog or social media following. Affiliate marketing refers to third-party brand ambassadors who promote your products and send customers to your business in exchange for a commission.

What is a good strategy for recruiting affiliates?

Here are some strategies for recruiting affiliates:

• Join an affiliate network like Shopify Collabs.

• Promote your affiliate marketing program on your website.

• Promote your program on social media platforms.