Guide
Strategy
Brands
Setting up an affiliate program means choosing a setup type (open network, your own app, or a curated platform), setting the commission structure and any cap, deciding the attribution window, building a recruitment brief, recruiting your first affiliates, and agreeing payout terms — in that order. Most brands skip the recruitment brief and then wonder why affiliates aren't actively promoting.
Setting up an affiliate program means deciding where it will run (an open network, an app inside your own store, or a curated invitation through an influencer platform), setting the commission structure and any cap, deciding the attribution window, building a recruitment brief for new affiliates, recruiting your first participants, and agreeing payout terms — in that order. This article walks through the full sequence, from decision to launch.
It assumes you already understand the mechanics behind a single affiliate sale — cookie, click, attribution. If not, start with affiliate influencer marketing: how the model works, which this guide builds directly on.
There are three basic ways to run an affiliate program. The choice determines how much you have to build yourself, and how much control you keep over who becomes an affiliate for your brand.
| Setup type | How it works | Best for |
|---|---|---|
| Open affiliate network (e.g. Awin, Partner-ads, Adtraction) | Anyone can apply to become a publisher with the network; the network runs tracking, approval and payouts, and takes a fee for it | Broad, scalable distribution without recruiting and approving every affiliate yourself |
| Direct program via an app in your own store (e.g. a Shopify app such as UpPromote, Refersion or GoAffPro) | You install an app that handles tracking, commission and payouts without an external network in between | Brands that want to avoid a network's platform fee and control approval themselves |
| Platform-managed, curated program (e.g. via an influencer marketing platform) | You invite specific creators into an affiliate track, often with reusable commission templates and a built-in tracking link or discount code per creator | Brands already running curated influencer relationships who want to add a performance option for them |
All three setups run on the same underlying mechanic — a cookie set on click, attribution within a window — covered in affiliate influencer marketing: how the model works. The difference is who builds and runs the technical infrastructure, and how much control you keep over who gets into the program. If you choose the app-based route, what that app's own "integration" with your store actually does — and how that compares to a platform's Klaviyo or CRM connection — is covered in does an influencer marketing platform integrate with Shopify, Klaviyo and your CRM.
Set commission from your own contribution margin, not from what another brand offers — see the full worked-through logic in how much commission should influencers get. Most open affiliate programs pay pure pay-per-sale/CPS commission, because it's the only one of the three outcome models (sale, click or lead) that doesn't require you to verify a click or lead yourself as genuine — see pay per sale, per click or per lead for why.
If you sell a subscription or a subscribe-and-save product, you also need to decide whether commission applies to the first order only, or whether the affiliate is also paid on renewals — and if so, under what cap. See recurring commission structures for subscription and DTC brands for the four cap structures and the maths behind them. Decide this before launch — changing commission retroactively for already-enrolled affiliates damages trust in the program immediately.
The attribution window — how long after a click an affiliate is still credited for a sale — needs to be fixed and written down before you open sign-ups, not decided as you go. The general industry standard is around 30 days, according to affiliate network Awin's own documentation, but your own contribution margin and sales cycle should determine whether a shorter or longer window makes sense for your specific product.
Choose an open network or an app, and the technical infrastructure (link, cookie, reporting) comes built in as part of the setup. Choose a platform-managed, curated setup, and you need to make sure each affiliate gets their own unique tracking link or code — never a shared code across several profiles, because that makes it impossible to tell who actually drove a given sale.
According to Shopify's own guide to setting up an affiliate program, a recruitment brief (an "affiliate welcome kit") should include, at minimum, the affiliate's own tracking link, a short overview of your best-selling products, any discount codes the affiliate is allowed to offer their followers, and at least two or three approved promotional images in standard sizes — ready to use before recruitment starts, not assembled piecemeal as affiliates ask for it.
The brief should also make explicit what's expected of the affiliate, and what the affiliate can expect from you in return — the same logic as a standard influencer contract, just in a lighter form suited to an open program. See what to put in an influencer contract for the points worth carrying over into an affiliate agreement: usage rights to the material you provide, and when and how commission is paid. Also write the disclosure requirement directly into the brief — see influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU — because commission earned through an affiliate link triggers a disclosure obligation exactly the same way a paid collaboration does.
Most programs start in two places: existing, satisfied customers who already know and use the product unprompted, and niche creators in the category who don't yet have a paid relationship with the brand. An open network also gives you access to the network's own pool of publishers without having to source them one by one.
Targeting the Danish market specifically, the three networks active in Denmark each have their own pool and profile — see affiliate influencer marketing in Denmark for which network tends to suit which type of brand, plus the Danish tax and VAT rules a Danish affiliate has to handle themselves.
According to several independent Shopify-focused sources, most self-service affiliate programs pay monthly, often with a minimum payout threshold and a net-30 practice — commission is paid roughly 30 days after the qualifying sale, partly to allow time for returns. Write these terms down before you recruit, so an affiliate doesn't discover the payout timeline only when their first commission comes due. That 30-day gap exists precisely to let a validation period run its course before money is paid out; see commission clawbacks: what happens when a customer returns the product for how that mechanism works, and what happens on the rarer occasions a commission has already been paid before a return comes in.
Two compliance points are easy to miss at launch: disclosure (covered in step 4) and, if you're recruiting Danish affiliates, the Danish VAT threshold of DKK 50,000 over 12 months, which applies whether the income arrives as cash commission or gifted products valued at market price — see the full worked example in affiliate influencer marketing in Denmark.
IF you want to scale broadly and have limited time to recruit and approve every affiliate yourself → an open network is the fastest route to volume.
IF you already have a functioning online store and want to avoid a network's platform fee → a direct app-based setup gives more control at a lower running cost at low to moderate volume.
IF you already run curated influencer relationships and want to give selected creators a performance option alongside → a platform-managed, invitation-based setup fits best, because it builds directly on relationships you already have.
IF the product is a subscription → decide the cap structure for recurring commission before launch, not after the first renewals have already happened.
IF you can't verify yourself whether a click or lead is genuine → stick to pay-per-sale commission regardless of setup type.
The figures below are hypothetical and for illustration only — not data from a Make Influence customer.
Assume a brand expects 150 tracked orders in the first quarter of a new affiliate program, an average order value of DKK 450, and an agreed commission of 12%.
At this volume, the app route is DKK 720 cheaper in isolation. But the network also delivered access to a larger, already-existing pool of affiliates the brand would otherwise have had to spend time sourcing itself — that time has a cost too, it just doesn't show up on this invoice. Account for both before choosing on the visible fee alone.
Make Influence doesn't run an open affiliate program through any of the three setups covered here. Our model is curated: the brand, or Make Influence on the brand's behalf, selects and briefs each individual creator, rather than leaving an open program to free sign-up. That's why we don't have a direct recommendation on which network or app to pick — but the discipline in steps 2 and 4 above, setting commission from your own contribution margin and writing expectations down before anyone signs up, is exactly the same discipline we apply in every curated deal we set up ourselves.
No. An app-based setup in your own store, or a platform-managed, invitation-based setup, are both fully valid alternatives — the choice depends on how much control and how broad a reach you want.
The technical setup (an app or a network application) can often be ready in under a day according to several Shopify-focused sources. What actually takes time is steps 2 and 4 above — setting a commission your contribution margin can genuinely support, and building a brief that's ready to send out.
No, and generally you shouldn't. A proven, selling profile can reasonably earn a higher rate than a brand-new, untested affiliate — see how much commission should influencers get for how to set the rate from your own numbers.
An affiliate program is open — in principle, anyone can sign up without prior contact from the brand. Make Influence's model is curated: the brand selects and briefs each profile in advance. See affiliate influencer marketing: how the model works for the full comparison.
Yes. Commission earned through an affiliate link is a paid benefit regardless of channel, and triggers the same disclosure obligation as a standard paid collaboration. See influencer marketing disclosure rules in Denmark and the EU.
Then you need to decide whether commission applies to the first order only, or whether the affiliate also earns on renewals, and under what cap — see recurring commission structures for subscription and DTC brands for the four structures and the maths behind them.
Not directly. They're creator commerce apps with their own built-in shopping audience, not a network, app or platform-managed program you set up and run yourself. See LTK, ShopMy and creator commerce apps for how they compare to the three setup paths above.
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