Write these affiliate programme terms before you pay

If you run the brand, the commitment is a set of fields you can test on an order: the value commission is calculated on, which click is credited, how long that click can still count, and when the amount becomes final.

Write the four fields before anyone is approved

Awin and impact.com document the programme fields on their own platforms. Write the commission base, the cookie window, the de-duplication rule and the lock before you approve a partner. Advertising disclosure and tax still depend on where you and the partner operate.

Publisher pages answer a different question

A publisher needs a link, a rate and a payout threshold. You need the fields those pages assume the merchant has already written.

Awin's guide to campaign terms is written for publishers, and it lists what merchants publish on the transactions tab: whether VAT, delivery charges or service fees are included in the commissionable value, which products or categories are excluded, and which reasons can justify a declined commission. Returns and failed credit checks are the examples it gives. The de-duplication tab lists channels such as brand and generic PPC, display, email and other affiliate networks. A separate PPC tab covers whether brand bidding is allowed.

impact.com's contract guide for partners describes fields the brand controls. The default payout can be a fixed amount or a percentage of the sale. Payout groups change that default under set conditions. A payout restriction stops an action generating a payout when a characteristic matches. Actions above a cap are not payable unless the brand approves them manually. Action locking is the period, in days and months, after an action is tracked, during which the brand can modify or reverse it.

The cookie window is stored in that same contract record. impact.com's contract history detail report shows event types, cookie windows and action locking periods. It gives no typical length.

Platform choice, and whether the order record can enforce these fields, sits in How to judge an affiliate platform from the order record.

A copied rate leaves the base undefined

Until the base says whether VAT, delivery and service fees are in, and which products are out, the percentage has nothing to multiply. A rate taken from another programme leaves those choices unwritten.

Discounts are a gap. Awin's terms guide does not say whether a discount code comes off the commissionable value. Leave it unwritten and two readings of the same order can both claim to follow the programme.

A zero rate copied from one platform to another sits unresolved between two Awin pages. Awin Gold Standard for advertisers sets advertiser accreditation criteria, not an industry rule. It says the advertiser must award commissions for all legitimate, confirmed transactions, and that there should be "no zero value commission groups, products, or customer categories." The terms guide still lists excluded products and categories as something merchants publish. These pages do not say whether an exclusion is treated as a zero-value group. If you want the accreditation, ask Awin before you use either mechanism to keep a low-margin line out of the bill.

impact.com documents a separate mechanism. A payout restriction can stop a payout when an action matches a condition. Read the contract on the network you use before you copy a zero-commission category from another platform.

The same commission cash, read against contribution

Every figure in this order is invented, so the arithmetic can be checked. Nothing here is a rate, a margin or a result from Awin or impact.com. The premises taken from the documents are that commissionable value has defined fields, and that the payout can be a percentage of the sale or a fixed amount.

The rule used only in this example: commissionable value is the product price after discount, excluding VAT and excluding delivery. Product price excluding VAT is £100. The discount is £20. Delivery is £8 and stays out of the base. Commissionable value is £80.

Contribution, here, means that £80 minus an invented product cost of £45 and invented variable costs of £11 for fulfilment and payment. Contribution before commission is £24. That definition is this article's, not a network field.

A 12% payout on £80 is £9.60. That cash is 12% of the commissionable value and 40% of the £24 contribution. A fixed £10 payout, the other shape impact.com allows, is 12.5% of the same base and just under 42% of the same contribution.

Read "the sale" more loosely and the same 12% produces a different bill. Ignore the discount and it is £12. Add the £8 delivery, so the base is £108, and it is £12.96, which is 54% of the £24 contribution.

Cookie window sits beside the lock

The cookie window is how long after a click a sale can still be credited to that partner. Locking is how long after the tracked action the brand can still change the commission. impact.com stores both on the contract. A sale inside the cookie window can still be reversed later, if the reversal is before the locking date and the reason is one you have published. Changing the cookie window leaves the lock where it is. Write both numbers before a partner can accept them.

Credit one partner, and say which click loses

Awin's de-duplication page says: "De-duplication ensures that only one partner is credited for a sale, preventing multiple commissions for the same transaction." It also says you must include the policy in the programme terms and conditions, where partners can read it. Gold Standard adds that the policy must follow Awin's best-practice guidelines and be published on the profile. Those are accreditation criteria. The same page says brand PPC is a common way for customers to return to a website, and that de-duplicating against it can discredit affiliate contributions and deter partners from promoting the programme. Awin gives that as a warning, without a count of how many partners apply.

Automatic handling is conditional. Awin says its tracking de-duplicates provided you are not running partner activity on another affiliate network. On two networks, the written policy has to cover the overlap. The automatic handling described on that page stops at the second network.

The help page's own example de-duplicates against generic PPC, still credits partners for brand PPC, and attributes the sale to the last referrer. A separate illustration on that page says an advertiser de-duplicating across all online channels may offer higher commission rates to compensate for the stricter policy.

Hotic UK's de-duplication tab is one advertiser's terms. Sales are de-duplicated on a last-click-wins basis across all paid channels. Commission is only paid if the publisher is the last paid click and no brand search ad was the final touchpoint. The advertiser does not pay commission if its internal email was the final referring source. The help-page example would still have credited a partner on brand PPC. These terms would not. Whether that lost credit is acceptable is a margin decision. Gold Standard requires the published policy to follow Awin's best-practice guidelines, so check that requirement before you copy this brand PPC refusal.

Brand bidding is a separate line. The PPC tab says whether partners may bid on the brand. Paying commission when your own brand ad was the last click is a different decision, and Hotic UK's terms refuse that payment.

There is a technical fallback if the source never arrives. Awin's channel parameter docs say the parameter is the channel deemed to be the last-click referrer, and that typically only paid channels are included in the logic. If source information is not available, aw should always be the fallback value. A fair reading is that the partner can still be credited when the source is missing. The docs do not report a test of that outcome. A promise to refuse commission when email or brand search was last depends on that source arriving.

Last-click credit across paid channels sits next to the wider attribution problem. How to judge campaigns when attribution fragments covers the measurement side. The programme still needs the credit rule in the terms.

Count the hold from the last day of the month

On impact.com's action life cycle page, pending actions can be modified or reversed within the locking period. After the locking date they are locked and treated as approved, and the commission amount due is final. Awin Gold Standard for advertisers requires the advertiser to validate all transactions within the contracted validation period. The validation period is typically 28 days, but this depends on the programme.

impact.com's Net 45 funding page ties the pending month to returns: it gives you time to modify or reverse actions, for example if an order is returned. Its January sequence, locking at the end of February and paying on 15 March, is a template example, not a recommendation. For an order placed on 31 January, the end of February is 28 days later, or 29 in a leap year.

A second page, on matching template terms to finance settings, gives example Net 45 wording and says the example is focused on a typical retail programme. It says action locking should be set to a recommended value that aligns with your return window, so you have time to process payment reversals. The lock and the funding date are separate settings. A funding date does not keep a returned order reversible.

The Net 45 January template locks at the end of February. A 30-day returns window counted from 31 January ends on 2 March in a non-leap year and on 1 March in a leap year, after that lock. The commission is then final, so the reversal for that last-day order is closed on this template.

If your schedule runs from month end, test an order placed on the last day of the month, then add the days a refund takes to appear in the system you reverse from. A returns window that ends on the lock date is still late if the refund posts the next morning.

Clearing comes after the lock

Locking date, in impact.com's invoice guide for partners, is the date the action was finalised and can no longer be modified or reversed.

The invoice guide's example uses a different contract. The page describes locking as 15 days after month end and payout as 10 days after locking, and it states that an April action locks on 16 May and is paid into the partner account on 27 May. Those May dates are the page's stated figures. Counting 15 days from the end of April, or 10 days from 16 May, does not produce them.

Partners are not paid until the account is funded. The Net 45 page says they will be directed to contact you about pending payouts. Funding after the lock means the figure is one you can no longer reverse. It also means the partner is waiting on the transfer after the action has been approved.

impact.com's Net 30 funding page describes a forecast generated before actions lock. It may not perfectly reflect what you owe if you have an aggressive modification or reversal policy. The page lists that approach as optimal for locking periods shorter than 30 days. Frequent reversals make the early figure the one that can overstate the final bill, including on a lock under 30 days.

Name the decline reasons in the terms

Publish the reasons before anyone is approved. Awin treats them as part of the transactions terms. Returns and failed credit checks are the examples on the page. Add a de-duplication loss if that is how you refuse credit.

The lines these sources give you to publish:

• Commission base: VAT, delivery and service fees in or out, products and categories excluded, and whether a discount reduces the base. The discount line is yours. The sources do not settle it.
• Payout: a percentage of that base or a fixed amount, any payout group, restriction or cap, and that the brand approves actions over the cap or they are not payable.
• Cookie window and locking period, as two fields.
• De-duplication by channel, including other affiliate networks, brand and generic PPC, display and email, and the fallback you will send when the source is missing. Awin's docs tell you to send aw in that case. Partners need to be able to read the policy.
• Whether brand bidding is allowed.
• Decline reasons, and the date after which you will not use them.
• A lock that covers the returns window, including the time refunds take to post, tested on a last-day-of-month order. The funding date is a separate setting.