How To Start an Affiliate Program (2026 Guide)

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To start an affiliate program, choose a tracking tool, set commission rates, recruit partners, and track the sales they generate.

When you recruit creators and publishers to review products in your category, it can put your business in front of shoppers who are comparing their options. In a 2026 Goodfirms report, 97% of 552 business professionals surveyed said online reviews had a moderate or very strong impact on consumer buying decisions.

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

How to start an affiliate program: Quick glance

Starting an affiliate program involves 11 steps:

• Set clear goals for your affiliate program
• Choose an affiliate marketing tool
• Recruit affiliates
• Vet creators
• Onboard affiliates
• Set commission tiers
• Set cookie durations
• Decide on a gifting strategy
• Create affiliate links
• Create promotions
• Manage affiliate relationships

What is an affiliate marketing program?

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

How do affiliate programs work?

An affiliate program tracks referrals and pays partners through four steps:

1. Tracked link. Your business gives each affiliate a unique affiliate link to share in their content.
2. Click. A shopper clicks the link and visits your store. Your software records the referral, typically by storing a cookie in their browser.
3. Cookie window. Your program sets how long after the click a purchase can qualify for commission, such as 30 days.
4. Attributed sale. The shopper buys within that window, and your software credits the qualifying sale according to your program’s attribution rules.

In this model, you pay commissions on qualifying sales. This differs from traditional types of marketing, like TV advertising, where you pay for ad placements 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.

What’s the purpose of an affiliate program?

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

It’s different from traditional advertising because you pay commissions only when customers purchase via your affiliate links, 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, which reflects 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.”

Start an affiliate program in 11 steps

Starting a successful affiliate program involves finding creators relevant to your niche 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: return on investment (ROI), conversion rate, and order value.

Return on investment (ROI)

Return on investment 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.

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.

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 tracks referrals, calculates commissions, and reports sales by partner. Some platforms also offer marketplaces where you can find affiliates.

To limit upfront tool costs, compare free plans and transaction fees before committing to a subscription. Shopify Collabs is free to install on all Shopify plans except Starter and Retail. You pay affiliate commissions plus a 2.9% processing fee on automatic commission payments.

To set up Collabs:

1. Install the app. Open Apps > Collabs in your Shopify admin and select Get started.
2. Complete your profile. Add your product category, target audience, and preferred creator countries. Describe your partnership offer and verify your contact email before sending invitations.
3. Create your program. Go to Programs > Create invite program. Set your commission rate, affiliate link destination, and any customer discount, then click Create.

Collabs tracks affiliate sales and processes commission payments through your Shopify bill. Third-party options include Affiliatly, Refersion, and Tapfiliate for tracking and managing affiliates. Impact.com, the platform Jerrid works with, also offers partner discovery. PartnerStack is for software businesses running B2B affiliate marketing programs.

Compare each tool’s store integrations, reporting, and total fees against your expected sales volume.

3. Recruit affiliates

Recruit affiliates through direct outreach to creators whose audiences match your customer profile and an application page on your website.

Keep reviewing prospects after launch. In Modash’s 2026 survey of influencer marketers running affiliate programs, nearly half said they were always looking for new affiliates.

If you already work with influencers, invite them to your affiliate program. They already know your products and have experience presenting them to their audiences.

Shopify Collabs has three recruitment options:

• Direct invitations. Search the Recruiting section by keyword, location, or social platform. Send selected creators an email invitation with your commission offer and any product gift.
• Website applications. Publish a branded application page on your store and add questions about prospective partners. Review applications in Collabs and send offers to approved creators.
• Open access. Set a commission rate for all products or selected collections. Eligible Collabs creators can automatically generate affiliate links and begin promoting. This option currently covers creators in the US, the UK, and Canada.

For additional prospects, explore affiliate networks like Awin or UpPromote’s marketplace. Review potential partners’ content and audiences before inviting them to your program.

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

Give affiliates a welcome pack with brand guidelines, approved product claims, marketing assets, and instructions for using their tracking links.

Put the terms of your partnership in a written affiliate agreement covering:

• Promotion rules. Approved channels, brand usage, and restrictions on paid advertising.
• Commissions and attribution. Rates, qualifying purchases, cookie windows, and rules for crediting sales.
• Payments. Payout schedules and how returns, cancellations, and suspected fraud affect commissions.
• Content and termination. Disclosure requirements, permission to reuse affiliate content, and how either party can end the partnership.

Follow the FTC’s Endorsement Guides by requiring clear, conspicuous disclosures of affiliate relationships near recommendations and links. Train partners to make truthful product claims, review their content regularly, and address missing disclosures or misleading statements.

6. Set commission tiers

Set commission rates your margins can cover, then define the sales targets required to move into higher tiers. Lizzy recommends three tiers, with new partners joining at the lowest rate and progressing as their performance improves.

Choose whether your commission model rewards individual purchases or ongoing customer revenue:

• One-time commissions. Pay once for each qualifying purchase. This suits individual product sales or a fixed reward for acquiring a subscription customer.
• Recurring commissions. Pay on qualifying subscription renewals for the period specified in your agreement. This suits subscription businesses whose ongoing margins can cover repeat payouts.

State how returns affect commissions and when payouts occur. Align the commission approval period with your return window so refunded orders can be excluded before payment.

7. Set cookie durations

Your commission rate sets how much affiliates earn. Cookie duration decides how long after a tracked click a purchase can qualify for commission.

Review the time between customers’ first tracked visits and purchases in your analytics. Compare windows such as 30, 60, or 90 days against that buying cycle. Products that customers research for weeks call for longer windows than items they usually buy on their first visit.

Record the window in your affiliate agreement, along with how you assign credit when a shopper clicks multiple affiliates’ links before purchasing.

8. Decide on a gifting strategy

You might want to gift products to creators so they can authentically recommend those products 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 through your affiliate software so each partner’s referrals can be tracked:

1. Choose the destination. Link to the product or collection the affiliate plans to promote. For a storewide offer, you can link to your homepage.
2. Generate a unique link for each affiliate. Your software assigns tracking information that identifies the referring partner. Give affiliates their generated links to share.
3. Standardize the format. Follow a consistent pattern, such as mystore.com/creatorname. In Shopify Collabs, go to Settings > Affiliates, select Personalized links, and save. Preserve tracking parameters when customizing or redirecting URLs.
4. Test the complete path. Open the link in a fresh browser session and confirm the destination and any checkout discount. Follow your app’s testing instructions to complete a purchase, then verify that the order and correct commission appear under the intended affiliate.

If your store uses a custom storefront, enter its domain under Settings > Affiliates > Storefront domain in Collabs.

Confirm that the storefront sends page-view events to Shopify, processes URL redirects, and implements the /discount route for automatic discounts. Check an order’s conversion details to confirm that Shopify recorded the journey from your custom storefront.

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

In Modash’s 2026 Affiliate Marketing Survey, 60% of surveyed influencer marketers running affiliate programs said their biggest challenge is keeping affiliates active. Send partners upcoming promotion dates and check in when their posting or referrals slow down.

“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.”

Build these tasks into your regular program reviews to assess performance and prevent affiliate abuse:

• Monitor performance. Compare traffic, conversion rates, sales, and returns by affiliate. Account for commissions and product costs when assessing profitability. Shopify Collabs reports visits, sales, and conversion rates for individual creators.
• Retain top partners. Offer higher commission tiers, individualized promotions, or early product access to affiliates who consistently generate profitable sales. Ask which products perform best with their audiences before planning the next campaign.
• Check for self-referrals. Review purchases affiliates make through their own links or codes. Compare flagged orders with affiliate records, then apply your agreement’s rules when deciding whether commissions qualify.
• Watch for coupon leakage. Search for affiliate codes on coupon sites and investigate redemption spikes that appear unrelated to the partner’s promotional activity. Discuss leaks with the affiliate before replacing codes so they can update their content.
• Review claims and disclosures. Check affiliate content against approved product claims and the FTC’s Endorsement Guides. Request prompt corrections to misleading statements or missing disclosures, and address repeated violations under your agreement.

Is affiliate marketing right for your business?

Affiliate marketing is for businesses whose customers read reviews, watch demonstrations, or compare products 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 describes shoppers using affiliate links to compare prices and research products across multiple partners before purchasing. For your program, look for publishers and creators who cover the comparisons and questions customers raise before buying your products.

Check whether customer recommendations already bring your store new buyers. In Shopify’s Q4 2025 survey of 500 merchants, 53% named word of mouth as their most common first-year growth strategy. If referrals generate sales for your business, customers who create content for an audience that matches your target market could be your first affiliate recruits.

To assess your affiliate marketing business case, calculate the profit left on a typical order at different commission rates. Include product costs, fulfillment, customer discounts, and program fees, then compare the rates you can afford with those offered by similar brands.

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.