What happens to ongoing traffic if I change the rate?

Nothing. The commission rate and type are copied onto the click row the second someone clicks, and the copy is what the conversion uses. A change today applies to the clicks that come after the change. The dashboard always lets you raise the rate, but only lower it once every 30 days, and all affiliates who have joined are notified of the change.

Can I forbid affiliates from bidding on my brand name in Google Ads?

Yes. You choose the paid search rule: allowed, not on your brand name, or not at all – and the rule is shown to affiliates on your program page. It is not a technical block, but we measure it on every click: a click from a Google Ads or Microsoft Ads advert carries a click ID we can see. We cannot see the search term – if you only forbid your brand name, Affilyflow assesses those ad clicks itself. Breaches are shown in your dashboard, and a certain breach earns no commission when the rule watch enforces the rules.

Can I run several programs with different terms?

No. The dashboard edits one program per store. The database can do more, but the interface cannot, and we do not describe anything you cannot click your way to.

For stores

You set the terms – the click remembers them.

An affiliate program is an agreement between two parties who never meet. That is why it matters where the agreement lives: the terms that mean money are copied onto the click itself and cannot be rewritten afterwards.

Create a store account See what others offer

3 models: percentage of the sale, fixed per sale or fixed per lead
14–90 days: cookie window, locked on the click
24 payments: recurring commission on subscriptions – or lifetime

Model

Choose the model your business can carry.

The choice is the first one you make, and it changes the rest of the setup – including the language in the dashboard. A lead program talks about leads and payouts, not revenue, because there is no order value to calculate percentages of.

The terms selector

Setup demo

Turn the dials. The panel below says what the setup means for an affiliate.

Payment model

Your total price per sale20%

→ the affiliate gets 16% · network fee 4%

Cookie window

The purchase on day 52 does not count for the affiliate. The 45 day window was copied onto the click, and the click’s age is measured by our server’s timestamp – not by anything the browser tells us. If you extend the window, it only applies to the clicks that come afterwards.

Recurring commission on subscriptions

Commission on each of the first 12 payments. The cap is locked at the sale: if you lower it afterwards, it only applies to new sales.

Seen from the affiliate’s side

The affiliate sees 16% in the program and gets exactly that of the order. The network fee of 4% is part of your total price of 20% and is not deducted from the affiliate’s rate.

Example: An order of DKK 1,000: DKK 200 in total for you – DKK 160 to the affiliate and DKK 40 in network fee.

The rate is copied onto the click
The window is decided on our server
Can be raised at any time · lowered once every 30 days

This is a setup demo, not an estimate of earnings. What a program actually yields depends on traffic and conversion – and no slider can show that.

Percentage of the sale

The commission follows the size of the order. Suits web shops where the basket varies. In the industry the model is called CPS.

Fixed amount per sale

The same commission regardless of order value. Suits you when your products are in the same price range, or when you want a predictable unit price per new customer.

Fixed amount per lead

You pay for a sign-up instead of a purchase – CPL. Suits services, quote requests and trial periods, and requires no code: you give the address of your thank-you page.

Recurring on subscriptions

Commission on every payment instead of only the first. You set the cap: 6, 12 or 24 payments – or lifetime. The core of recurring commission.

The rate

The rate is locked the moment someone clicks.

You enter what the affiliate should get, or your total price per sale – the other number and the split follow straight away: the network fee is 20% of the price, and the affiliate gets the 80%. A total price of 20% gives the affiliate 16%, and 4% is network fee. You see the split before you save.

The affiliate only sees their own rate, and it is exactly what they get – the fee is part of your total price and is not deducted from their commission. If the program shows 16%, it is 16% they can count on. You both read the same number and mean the same thing, which removes the most common source of mistrust between store and affiliate.

The mechanics

Rate lock: the copy on the click is the truth

The commission rate and commission type are written onto the click row the second someone clicks, and the conversion is settled according to the copy. Traffic that has already been sent therefore cannot be hit by a rate change. The dashboard always lets you raise the commission and only lower it once every 30 days; if you change the rate, cookie window or model, all affiliates who have joined get a notification – and an email, if they have asked for one, in their own language.

Attribution

The window is the number of days during which a purchase still counts for the affiliate who sent the click. You choose between 14, 30, 45, 60 and 90 days.

A short window is cheaper; a long window makes the program more attractive, because the affiliate gets the credit for purchases that mature slowly. What the choice means for your business is covered under start an affiliate program – here it is about what the setting does to a click.

The mechanics

The window is locked on the click and decided on our server

The cookie days are copied onto the click row together with the rate, and the click’s age is measured by our server’s timestamp – not by anything the browser tells us. The client cannot lie about how old a click is. It also means that an extension only applies to new clicks: the ones already made keep working on their original window.

The reality in the browser

The whole window on desktop and Android – around 7 days in Safari

The window you choose is the longest a purchase can count. How long the click actually survives is decided by the browser: on desktop and Android it lasts the whole window, while Safari and iPhone cut cookies set from JavaScript down to around 7 days. We therefore store the click ID both as a cookie and in localStorage, but we do not promise more than the browser gives. That applies to every affiliate network – and the whole mechanism is in the guide to affiliate tracking.

The model is last click: the conversion belongs to the click ID it carries, and the commission is never split between several affiliates. We do neither fingerprinting nor identity graphs. The whole journey from click to recorded sale is in the guide to affiliate tracking and attribution.

Subscriptions

The commitment on a subscription is locked at the sale.

If you sell subscriptions, you can pay for the customer instead of for the order. The cap you set applies per sale – not per renewal.

If you lower or switch off the recurring commission, it only applies to new sales. Subscriptions that are already running keep paying on the terms they were sold on. An ongoing agreement cannot be cut back afterwards – that is the whole basis for anyone daring to build an article around your product rather than around this week’s offer.

Details

Renewals, duplicates and VAT

Renewals are not affected by the cookie window; by definition they happen long after the click. The same invoice can never count as two sales, and the same order ID can never count twice on your program. Commission is calculated excluding VAT, so you do not pay a share of what you pass on to the tax authorities anyway. If the customer cancels, it is recorded, so your expected cost is accurate rather than optimistic.

Ground rules

Write the rules before anyone joins.

The rules are on your program page, where affiliates read them before they join. The system enforces some of them for you; the rest you have to follow up on yourself. Here is the difference.

You switch marketing channels on and off – SEO, blog, Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, Pinterest and email. It is not a polite request: an affiliate cannot create a link for a channel you have switched off. Alongside are free-text guidelines, a choice about discount codes, which you can switch off entirely for the program, and two fixed rules: paid search (allowed, not on your brand name, or not at all) and coupon and cashback sites (allowed or not). You also set the approval period – 30, 45, 60 or 90 days, typically your return period – and it is locked on every sale. If you tighten a rule, it only applies 14 days after you saved it, so affiliates have time to adjust; if you relax one, it applies straight away.

Be precise here

Paid search is not a block – but it is measured

The choice about paid search and coupon sites is shown to affiliates as rules they must follow. They are not a technical block, but we measure them on every click: ad clicks from Google Ads and Microsoft Ads and referrals from known coupon and cashback sites. We cannot see the search term, so Affilyflow assesses an ad click itself in a program that only forbids the brand name. Breaches are shown in your dashboard, and a certain breach earns no commission when the rule watch enforces the rules.

There is no application queue. Every affiliate in the network can join and start straight away, and we do not call it anything other than what it is. In return, you can block an affiliate with a reason and a confirmation: the block is enforced in the database and therefore also catches renewals of subscriptions the affiliate brought in earlier.

Terms on this page

The full affiliate glossary explains the rest.

Questions

What people actually ask.

What happens to ongoing traffic if I change the rate?: Nothing. The rate and type are copied onto the click row the second someone clicks, and the copy is what the conversion uses. A change today applies to the clicks that come after it. The dashboard always lets you raise the rate, but only lower it once every 30 days – and all affiliates who have joined are notified.
Can I forbid affiliates from bidding on my brand name in Google Ads?: Yes. You choose the paid search rule: allowed, not on your brand name, or not at all – and the rule is shown to affiliates before they join. It is not a technical block, but we measure it on every click: a click from a Google Ads or Microsoft Ads advert carries a click ID we can see. We cannot see the search term – if you only forbid your brand name, Affilyflow assesses those ad clicks itself. Breaches are shown in your dashboard, and a certain breach earns no commission when the rule watch enforces the rules. The glossary explains both brand bidding and negative keywords, if you want to write the rule sharply.
Can I run several programs with different terms?: No. The dashboard edits one program per store. The database can do more, but the interface cannot – and we do not describe anything you cannot click your way to.

Read on

Where to next

Documentation and further reading

Next step

Set terms you can stand by for a year.

A rate you lower after two months costs more trust than it saves. Create the account, adjust the starter program to your business, and see what the money does afterwards.

Create a store account Read about approval