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Agreements and terms

Affiliate marketing

Also called affiliate advertising, partner marketing, referral marketing, performance-based marketing.

Short answer

Affiliate marketing is marketing in which a store pays an external partner – an affiliate – commission for a measurable action, most often a sale. The store only pays once the action has happened, and it is tied to the partner through a tracked link.

Definition of Affiliate marketing.

Affiliate marketing means a store lets partners recommend its products and only pays for the result. The affiliate shares a link with their own code, the click is recorded, and if the customer buys within the attribution window, the affiliate earns commission on the order. A network or platform between the parties handles tracking, reporting and payout.

It is the direction of payment that sets the model apart from paid advertising: the store does not pay for impressions or clicks, but for a sale that has already happened. Affiliate marketing is therefore not a channel but a payment model on top of channels such as search, newsletters, video and social media – and a form of performance marketing.

The customer does not feel the model in the price. The commission comes out of the store's margin and is not added to the price, so an affiliate link does not make the product more expensive.

Affiliate marketing vs. paid advertising

AspectAffiliate marketingPaid advertising
When you payafter the sale is approvedper impression or click, regardless of result
What you pay fora resultexposure or traffic
Who carries the riskthe affiliatethe store
What you controlrate, terms and who is let inmessage, budget and audience in detail
Scales withmore partners and better termsa bigger budget

Paid advertising gives control and speed in exchange for risk; affiliate marketing gives predictable unit costs in exchange for less control over where and how the product is talked about.

At Affilyflow

Affiliate marketing in practice

On Affilyflow, the commission rate and attribution window are locked at the moment of the click, and the same order can never count twice. The store sets its total price per sale: the network fee is 20 % of it, and the affiliate gets the 80 % – exactly the rate the program shows.

Frequently asked questions

What is affiliate marketing?

Affiliate marketing is marketing in which a store pays a partner commission for a measurable action – typically a sale – that the partner has generated through a tracked link. The store only pays once the sale has happened, not for impressions or clicks.

How does affiliate marketing work?

An affiliate shares a link with their own code. When a visitor clicks, the click is recorded with an ID, and if they buy within the attribution window, the store's system sends the conversion back with that ID. Commission is calculated on the order value and paid out once the sale is approved.

Is affiliate marketing legal in Denmark?

Yes. Affiliate links are ordinary marketing, but they are commercial and must be recognisable as such to the reader, under the Danish Marketing Practices Act (markedsføringsloven) and the guidance of the Danish Consumer Ombudsman (Forbrugerombudsmanden). The income is taxable, and if cookies are used for tracking beyond what is strictly necessary, consent is required.

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