Affiliate programs for research suppliers that pay only on paid orders

Attribute on the order, not the payment

Attribution should be decided when the order is placed, and stored on the order. It then does not matter how the buyer pays.

• Referral links carry a code and set a first-touch cookie for a window you choose, commonly 30 days.
• Buyers can also enter a code at checkout.
• Orders from other systems (a separate store or a wholesale quote) can carry the code through your API.
• The code, the affiliate and any buyer discount are written onto the order.

Decide in advance what happens when a buyer has a link cookie from one affiliate and types another's code. First touch and last touch are both defensible. Writing the rule down matters more than which one you pick.

Earn commission when the order is paid

A commission should be created at the moment an order becomes fully paid, not when it is placed. Otherwise unpaid and abandoned orders inflate every affiliate's balance.

A refund window of around 14 days before commissions are approved removes most of the back-and-forth.

Discounts without giving away margin

• Apply buyer discounts on the product subtotal only, never on shipping or service fees.
• Cap discounts, for example at 20 percent for most affiliates, so a code shared widely cannot wipe out margin.
• Block self-referral: an affiliate buying with their own email earns nothing.
• Compute the discount on your server. Never trust a discount amount sent from a browser.

Payouts

1. Once a month, total each affiliate's approved commissions.
2. Net any amounts owed back from refunds after a previous payout.
3. Pay by the method the affiliate chose, and record the payment reference.
4. Export the month's commissions to CSV for your books.

Affiliate content is your content

Posts, captions and videos made by affiliates to promote your products are judged as if you wrote them. They are also where risky wording most often appears, because affiliates write for consumers by habit.

• Give affiliates approved copy to use, checked against your wording rules.
• Make your rules part of the affiliate agreement: no claims about effects in people, no amounts to take, no before-and-after content.
• Review affiliate posts that link to you, and pause affiliates who do not follow the rules.

Run approved copy through the wording checker before you hand it out, and see writing research-use-only product pages for the wording standard.

What affiliates should see

• Their link and code.
• Clicks and paid orders, without customer names or details.
• Pending, approved and paid commissions.
• Payout history.
• Approved marketing copy.

Choosing affiliates

• Favour people who write for other businesses and researchers over consumer influencers.
• Read what they already publish before you approve them. Their existing posts show how they will write about you.
• Start with a small group on the same terms and add more once the rules are working.
• Agree the rules in writing before the first link goes out.

One more habit worth keeping

Pay on a fixed schedule, such as the fifteenth of each month for commissions that cleared the refund window in the month before. A predictable date means fewer messages asking when payment is coming, and it gives you a regular moment to review each affiliate's posts and numbers before money leaves the account. Keep a record of every payout with the method and reference used. Many affiliates value a reliable payment date more than a slightly higher rate.

Reporting affiliates will trust

Affiliates stay when they can see their own numbers. Give each one a page showing clicks, orders placed, orders paid, commission pending, commission approved and payouts made, with the reason any commission was reversed. Do not show buyer names or contact details: an order number and date are enough.

Most disputes with affiliates come from a gap between what they expected and what they were paid. A clear record of each order and its status closes that gap before it becomes an argument, and saves you from answering the same question by message every week.

Launching the program

1. Write the terms and the commission rate, and decide how long a referral lasts after a click.
2. Set the buyer discount per code and a cap, so no code can take a product below your floor.
3. Invite five to ten affiliates you have checked, all on the same terms.
4. Give each one a link, a code and a short approved description of your store they can reuse.
5. Review their first posts before paying the first commission.
6. After two months, compare paid orders, refund rates and new-buyer share, then decide whether to widen the program.

A slow start gives you time to find the weak points in your rules with people who are easy to talk to, before you have fifty affiliates reading them differently.

Terms every affiliate should agree to

• Products are sold for research use only, and posts must say so.
• No statements about effects in people or how to use a product.
• No bidding on your brand name in paid search.
• Commission is earned on paid orders and reversed on refunds within your refund window.
• You may end the arrangement if the rules are broken, with unpaid commission forfeited.

Spotting abuse early

Most programs meet the same few problems. Coupon codes leak onto discount sites and earn commission on buyers who would have ordered anyway. Affiliates place orders for themselves or friends. A single affiliate suddenly sends many small orders that are later refunded.

Watch three numbers per affiliate each month: paid orders, refund rate, and the share of their orders from new buyers. A code that suddenly earns on existing customers has usually leaked.

Doing it in Purity

Purity attributes affiliates on its own orders through links, codes at checkout and the API, so Zelle, bank and crypto sales all count. Commission is created only when an order is fully paid, reversed or taken back on refund, and approved after the refund window. Affiliates get a portal with their link, clicks, paid orders, earnings and approved copy that has passed the wording check. See it on a demo.