Affiliate Program Terms Checklist: Questions Brands Should Resolve

Identify the parties and permitted activity

State who operates the program, who may participate, and how approval works. Define the eligible territories, channels, products, and conversion events. A fictional online course company may accept educational bloggers while limiting paid search on its brand name. That policy needs to be explicit rather than inferred from a banner. Check that the policy matches your platform settings and that customer-facing promotions can actually comply with it.

Describe commission and validation

Specify the calculation basis, any rate categories, conditions for approval, and treatment of cancellations or partial refunds. Explain whether shipping and tax are excluded. Describe when activity is reviewed and who makes validation decisions. Avoid presenting an estimate as an unconditional payout promise. Your finance and operations teams should test a sample transaction through the written rules so they can identify ambiguity before it creates a disagreement with a partner.

Address assets, claims, and disclosures

Describe permitted uses of logos, product images, trademarks, and supplied marketing copy. Explain where partners must avoid unsupported claims and how material commercial relationships should be disclosed. FTC guidance is relevant for US endorsements, while other markets may have additional requirements. Specify a process for withdrawing outdated assets. A terms document should not grant broad image rights if the business does not hold those rights in the first place.

Set clear boundaries for discounts and traffic

Resolve how partners may obtain and publish coupon codes, whether browser extensions are accepted, and whether email or paid advertising requires additional approval. Explain policies on misleading redirects, fabricated offers, and artificial activity. Be specific about prohibited conduct without assuming every unusual traffic pattern is misconduct. The enforcement process should give the team a way to investigate evidence and preserve relevant records rather than relying on an undefined right to reject anything.

Explain disputes and changes

Describe the contact route for missing transactions and the information needed to investigate. Specify notice, termination, and amendment processes with professional review. Decide what happens to eligible activity already generated when a relationship ends. Keep dated versions available internally. Abruptly changing a rule without knowing which version applied to a transaction makes support and reconciliation harder, even when the business believes the new policy is reasonable.

Make the practical summary match the agreement

Publish a readable program summary beside the full terms. Use examples to explain common cases, but label the agreement as authoritative where appropriate. Have legal, finance, technical, and partner-management owners review the same final version. Record who approved it and when it takes effect. Update recruitment emails and onboarding guides at the same time, because inconsistent documents can undermine carefully drafted terms long before a formal dispute arises.

Frequently asked questions