How To Start an Affiliate Program: Guide (2026)

Far more than consumers listen to ads, they listen to each other. In a 2026 report from Goodfirms, 97% of consumers said reviews shape their purchase decisions. Just 11% are “very trusting” of ads, according to Marketing Week reports. That gap is exactly what affiliate marketing taps into. 

Affiliate marketing is a performance-based partnership model where your business pays creators, bloggers, or other publishers a commission each time they refer a sale. Instead of upfront spending on ads, you pay when you get results.

This guide covers how to start an affiliate program for your business—including setting commission structures and recruiting partners to tracking performance and scaling.

How to start an affiliate program: Quick glance

Starting an affiliate program involves 11 steps:

1. Set clear 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

What is an affiliate marketing program?

An affiliate marketing program is a reward-based system where creators and publishers promote your products through tracked links, then earn a commission on sales they generate. 

Brands can monitor each partner’s performance and ROI through these unique referral links, which affiliates share across their websites and content channels.

Businesses can also offer affiliate-specific customer discounts through these links to further incentivize purchases.

How do affiliate programs work?

In an affiliate program, a business partners with creators or affiliate marketers who promote their 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 brands pay commissions only on completed sales. This differs from traditional types of marketing, like TV ads, in which the business pays upfront.

“In my perspective, if you have a product that can be talked about in publications, if you’re not on an affiliate platform, you are completely losing out on really maximizing all the press opportunities for the brand,” says Lauren Kleinman, founder of Dreamday and The Quality Edit, in a Shopify Masters episode.

Start an affiliate program in 11 steps

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

1. Set clear goals for your affiliate program

Set measurable goals for what success looks like. Jerrid Grim, head of publisher marketing at affiliate platform impact.com, recommends tracking three key performance indicators: ROI, conversion rate, and order value.

“Benchmarks for each of these metrics can vary widely depending on the product, the consumer, and where the promotion is happening,” says Jerrid.

Focus on the direction of travel rather than hitting a specific number early on, especially for ROI. A program trending upward over its first few months is a better sign than any single benchmark. 

That said, here are a few industry standards to help guide your expectations:

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. “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 Jerrid.

With affiliate software, you can track affiliate sales, commission payouts, and gifted products directly from one 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. Jerrid puts a typical range at 1% to 3%, though rates shift based on product category, price point, and how closely an affiliate’s audience matches your customer profile.

“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,” Jerrid says. 

Rather than benchmarking against industry averages, track your own program’s conversion rate from launch and focus on moving that number consistently upward.

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). Use this metric to compare the success of your various affiliates.

2. Choose an affiliate marketing tool

Affiliate marketing software falls into two categories: in-house tools built into your ecommerce platform, and third-party affiliate networks that connect you with a wider pool of publishers.

Shopify store owners can start with Shopify Collabs, which lets you recruit creators, manage partnerships, and automate commission payouts directly from your Shopify admin. 

For store owners who want access to a broader publisher base, third-party networks include impact.com (the platform Jerrid works with) as well as Affiliatly, Refersion, and Tapfiliate. Each network varies in its merchant mix, commission structures, and reporting tools, so the right fit depends on your product category and the type of affiliates you want to reach.

Whichever route you take, look for a platform that integrates with your ecommerce store and gives you the analytics to track performance over time. 

3. Recruit affiliates

There are two ways to recruit affiliates for your new program: proactive outreach to creators you identify yourself, and passive recruitment through an open application process on your website. Modash’s Affiliate Marketing 2026 report found most brands are always looking for new affiliates.

For proactive outreach, search for creators on social media whose audiences match your customer profile and contact them directly. 

For inbound applications, Shopify Collabs lets you invite creators to your program. 

Affiliate platforms like UpPromote can supplement both tracks by connecting you with vetted publishers already active in your category.

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,” Lizzy says. “There should be a minimum audience size—probably around a few thousand. 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 brand.”

5. Onboard affiliates

Once you’ve recruited affiliates, set them up with everything they need before they start promoting. A structured onboarding process gives partners a clear picture of what’s expected from day one.

Provide affiliates with a welcome document covering your brand guidelines, approved messaging, and any restrictions on how your products can be described or positioned. Include ready-to-use marketing assets so partners can start creating content without waiting on your team. 

Set out your terms and conditions in writing before affiliates begin, too. These should cover approved promotion methods (paid ads, organic content, email), brand usage rules, commission structures, and payment schedules to set clear expectations upfront.

“[The most surprising part] I would say [is] communication with your affiliates and really helping them understand if they are trying to use it as a sales channel—as a lot of our hairdressers are,” says Hillary Markenson, president of Reverie, in a Shopify Masters interview. “They’re artists. They don’t come with a sales background or they’re not necessarily interested in that aspect of the business, so you really have to teach them how to use the channel to their advantage.”

Compliance is a separate but equally important requirement. Affiliates must disclose when links earn them a commission, per Federal Trade Commission guidelines, and they can’t promote your products with misleading claims. 

Building compliance checks into your regular program management can also protect your brand’s reputation and reduce misconduct and fraud. Monitor conversion rates for unusual spikes, which can indicate credit card fraud, and review affiliate content periodically to confirm it stays within your brand and legal guidelines.

6. Set commission tiers

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

Lizzy recommends creating three commission tiers. Your bronze tier might earn a 5% commission, your silver tier 10%, and your gold tier 20%. If you’re unsure where to slot someone, 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 Lizzy.

Before your program goes live, you should also decide on payment terms. Most affiliate programs operate on net-30 or net-60 schedules, meaning affiliates are paid 30 or 60 days after a sale is confirmed. The slight delay is there to account for returns, chargebacks, and fraud. 

If you’re paying out commissions before the return window closes, you risk paying out on sales that don’t end up going through. Net-60 terms give you more protection on higher-ticket products or in categories with higher return rates. 

Whichever schedule you choose, state it clearly in your affiliate terms and conditions so affiliate partners know when to expect payment.

7. Set cookie durations

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, 60, and 90 days.

Set your attribution period in line with how long customers usually take to buy. A 30-day window suits products with short buying cycles, like everyday essentials where 52% of customers only use two or three channels to research. A 60- or 90-day window is more appropriate for higher-ticket or considered purchases, such as furniture or electronics, where 41% of shoppers use four or more channels for research.

Setting the window too short risks underpaying affiliates who drove the original discovery but didn’t get credit because the customer took time to decide. Setting it too long can make attribution harder to manage, particularly if customers interact with multiple affiliates before converting. 

Match your cookie duration to your average sales cycle. If you’re unsure, check your store’s analytics to see how many days typically pass between a customer’s first visit and their first purchase.

8. Decide on a gifting strategy

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

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

Some affiliate tools let 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.

9. Create affiliate links

Create affiliate links for the items your affiliates 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, use a standardized link format. For example, you might use “mystore.com/creatorname.” 

10. Create promotions

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

For example, you could offer a higher commission rate or incorporate higher customer discounts (like a 15% off code). Customer discounts can make it easier for affiliates to generate sales because they cater to the 60% of US consumers who use digital coupons—and in turn, help affiliates 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 receive 50% off their order:

11. Manage affiliate relationships

Modash’s Affiliate Marketing Survey 2026 found that keeping affiliates active and engaged is the biggest challenge faced by marketers.

“I think it’s important that you monitor your top creators,” says Lizzy. “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 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.

What’s the purpose of an affiliate program?

Affiliate programs are a reciprocal arrangement: marketers earn commissions by referring customers, while brands get access to new audiences through a pay-per-sale model where spend is tied directly to results. 

It’s a different model to traditional advertising because you only pay out when someone clicks or buys, so you’re not committed upfront regardless of the outcome. According to eMarketer, affiliate marketing will drive $1 in every $7 in US ecommerce sales in 2026, reflecting how reliably the channel converts spend into measurable revenue.

For Moonboon, which sells functional and sustainable sleep accessories for babies, affiliate partners have driven more than $1 million in sales. That represents roughly 10% of the business’s monthly net sales and a 6.5 times return on investment.

“Shopify Collabs has simplified profiling and signing of new creators,” says Robert V. S. Preuss, brand director at Moonboon. “The intuitive dashboard gives us a seamless overview of the affiliate program and general sales tracking. We are crazy about the simplicity of the tool and work on the platform daily. It is an incredible tool that helps us grow and scale our tactical lower funnel work with creators who are passionate about our brand and products.”

Is affiliate marketing right for your business?

Affiliate marketing is a strong fit for businesses where customers research before buying. "Consumers no longer look to traditional ads when they want to know more about a product,” says Jerrid. “Instead, they turn to their communities, seeking out product reviews, shopping comparison sites, and listening to the voices of real people sharing real experiences, like influencers, friends, and family."

Impact.com’s 2025 Industry Benchmark Report found that affiliate links now function as research tools as much as purchase drivers, with shoppers using them to compare prices and build product knowledge across multiple partners before converting. 

But to make affiliate marketing worthwhile, it requires enough of a margin between the cost and selling price to fund a commission. If there isn’t enough room, it’s hard to offer competitive commission that’s meaningful to partners without cutting into your returns. Before settling on a program structure, run your margins against typical commission rates in your category to make sure the numbers work.

Ready to start an affiliate marketing program?

Start small. Pick two or three affiliates whose audiences match your customer profile, set clear goals for what you want the program to achieve, and make sure your commission rates are competitive enough to attract partners worth working with. Use the data from those early partnerships to understand what’s working before expanding your roster.