Create your affiliate program step by step

The creation wizard walks you through opening your affiliate program in three steps. It starts by analysing your website to pre-fill most of the details: all you have to do is review, correct and launch.

Opening the creation wizard

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1. In the sidebar, open Manage programs.
2. At the top of the list, click Add new. On mobile, use the round button at the bottom right of the screen.
3. The Create a new program screen appears: the wizard has started.

If this is your very first program, you do not have to look for anything: the wizard opens automatically right after you sign up, under the heading Your affiliate program starts here. The steps are exactly the same as the ones described below.

The starting point: analysing your website

The wizard first asks for one thing only: your website address. Type it into the field, then click Analyze my site. There is no need to type https://, Affilae adds it for you.

Affilae then reads the public pages of your website, exactly as a visitor would, while an animation keeps you posted (“Our AI is analyzing your content…”, “Identifying your target audience…”). It takes a few seconds, usually less than a minute.

Here is what the analysis extracts and copies into the following steps:

• your program name and your logo;
• the main category and the secondary categories of your business;
• the country you target and its matching currency;
• a short description and a long description of your brand, written in the first person plural;
• the audience profiles, main objectives and content types that fit your business;
• the social networks found on your website;
• your business model, which is used to suggest the right commission rule type on the last step.

None of this is set in stone: every suggestion stays editable screen by screen, and a badge at the top of the page reminds you that the content was pre-filled and is waiting for your approval.

Step 1 of 3: your program details

This screen is called Create your program. It gathers the identity of your program, the one your future affiliates will see.

The required fields:

• Program name: the name affiliates will recognise you by. Usually your brand.
• Main category: your business sector, picked from the list.
• Countries: the countries you sell in.
• Main currency: the currency you pay commissions in.
• Short description: your pitch in one or two sentences, 200 characters maximum. A counter shows where you stand.

The optional fields, which you can also fill in later from the program settings:

• Your program logo: 1 MB maximum. Above that, the message “The logo is too large (1 MB maximum).” appears. Without a logo, the wizard simply shows “No logo”.
• Secondary category: one or more categories on top of the main one.
• Other currencies (optional): useful if you pay commissions in several currencies.
• Long description: your detailed presentation, 2,000 characters maximum.

Then click Continue.

Step 2 of 3: your audience targeting

This step describes who you sell to. It feeds Match AI, the engine that connects your program with affiliates whose audience looks like yours.

Targeting is the only mandatory part of the screen. Select 1 to 3 audience profiles, bearing in mind that the order matters: the first one you pick is your priority target. The available profiles are Students, Young professionals, Young couples (no children), Young parents, Established family, Affluent (upper middle class), Forty-somethings in transition, Active 50+, Active seniors and Digitally savvy retirees. Once three profiles are ticked, the others become inactive.

The rest of the screen is optional, but strongly recommended:

• Main objectives: Sales & ROI, Visibility & Influence or Traffic & Acquisition. You can tick several.
• Content types: Editorial, Influence, Deals, Comparison, Email and Display & Networks. These are the affiliate formats you want to work with.
• Detected social networks: seven free-text fields (Instagram, TikTok, YouTube, Facebook, X, LinkedIn, Pinterest). Fill in the ones the analysis did not find.

Click Continue.

Step 3 of 3: your first commission rule

On the Set up your commissions screen you create a single rule, the one that covers the bulk of your business. All the others come afterwards, with no limit on their number.

• Rule type: Sales (you pay a percentage or an amount on every order), Leads (you pay for a form, a sign-up, a quote request) or Clicks (you pay for the traffic sent). Affilae preselects the most likely type based on your website.
• Rule name: pre-filled with All sales, All leads or All clicks depending on the type. This name will appear in your statistics.
• Currency: carried over from step 1.
• Cookie lifetime: how long a sale stays attributed to the affiliate after the click. 45 days by default. This field disappears if you choose Clicks.
• Commission rate: the suggested value is 10% for a sale, 1 currency unit for a lead and 0.2 for a click. For sales, a selector next to the field lets you switch between a percentage and a fixed amount.

Finally, click Launch my program.

What happens right after creation

Your program is created immediately, with the Enabled status. There is no draft and no prior approval from Affilae before tracking can start. Two settings are applied by default and stay editable: manual affiliate validation (no affiliate joins your program without your approval) and a default commission group.

From there, two scenarios:

• You came from the program list: you land straight on Program settings.
• It was your first program: a Program created successfully! screen appears, then Affilae suggests where to start, Activate tracking or Recruit your affiliates.

In both cases the logical order is the same: install tracking first, then recruit.

The Program settings page and its three tabs

This page is your program’s control panel. The Manage button in each section opens the matching form.

• Settings: three blocks. Global Settings (website address, geotargeting, attribution mode, session duration, affiliate validation, currencies, payment threshold, program manager), Program communication (marketplace links, access code, categories, countries, social networks) and Match AI Configuration (objectives, personas, interests). This is where you refine everything the wizard pre-filled.
• Commission Rules: the Add a rule button, plus commission groups, capping and custom remuneration per affiliate group.
• Tracking: the scripts to install on your website, either through an Affilae plugin (WooCommerce, PrestaShop, Shopify and so on), a custom script, a server-to-server postback or the API. This step is essential before you recruit.

Why use the wizard rather than typing everything in

• You start from a program that is already largely pre-filled, with presentation copy written for you.
• You cannot forget a structural field: the wizard refuses to move on without the essentials.
• Targeting filled in from the start lets Match AI suggest relevant affiliates right away.
• Your program is operational in about ten minutes, tracking aside.

Best practices

• Proofread the generated descriptions. They read well, but they can invent a positioning or miss your key selling point. This text will be read by your future affiliates.
• Take care with targeting. Three well-chosen profiles beat one profile that is too broad: this is the raw material of Match AI.
• Keep your first rule simple. One clear general rule, then specific rules later, is easier to read than an elaborate setup on day one.
• Check the cookie lifetime against your buying cycle: a few days are enough for an impulse purchase, 45 days or more make sense for a considered basket.
• Add a logo before opening your program: a program with no visual inspires less confidence.

Three concrete examples

A baby products store on Shopify. Rule type Sales, 8% commission, 30-day cookie. Targeting: Young parents first, then Young couples (no children). Content types Editorial and Influence, to work with parenting blogs and Instagram creators.

An invoicing software sold by subscription. Rule type Sales with a fixed amount per subscription signed, and a 60-day cookie to absorb a long decision cycle. Targeting Young professionals and Affluent (upper middle class), content types Comparison and Editorial, to appear on software comparison sites.

An insurance broker. Rule type Leads: you pay for every completed quote request, for example 12 EUR per form. Targeting Established family and Active 50+, objective Traffic & Acquisition, content types Comparison and Email.

Related articles

• Configuring commission rules
• Affilae tracking fundamentals
• Testing click and conversion tracking
• Listing your program on the marketplace
• Quickly add an affiliate to your program