Software and platforms
Affiliate agreement
The terms of a programme where somebody promotes a product through tracked links and is paid on results. Because attribution is done by software, the drafting is largely about the tracking rules: cookie windows, last-click, what happens to a refunded order, and how disputes are settled. The other half is conduct — what claims may be made, whether the affiliate may bid on the brand's own search terms, and what disclosure the affiliate must give its audience, which in several places is required by advertising rules rather than by the contract.
- In the catalogue
- Software and platforms
- Where it can live
- Any of the 184 governing laws
Who uses one
- Companies running an affiliate or creator programme.
- Publishers, creators and content sites earning on referred sales.
- Businesses formalising an arrangement that started as a discount code.
What you are deciding
- How a sale is attributed, and over what window
- The commission rate, and what it is calculated on
- What happens to commission on refunds and chargebacks
- When and how payments are made
- What promotion methods are allowed and prohibited
- Whether brand search terms may be bid on
- What disclosure the affiliate has to give its audience
- What ends an account, and what happens to unpaid commission
Blanks you leave stay blank and wait in the room. Nothing is filled in from a guess.
The sections a draft usually has
- 1Joining the programme
- 2Tracking and attribution
- 3Commission
- 4Payment terms
- 5Permitted promotion
- 6Prohibited practices
- 7Disclosure obligations
- 8Use of brand assets
- 9Suspension and termination
- 10Changes to the programme
A general outline, not a required one. What turns up in a draft follows what you described. A contract is written in the order a contract is read.
What people call it
The names this kind of paper goes by. They are here because people search for them. They also filter the catalogue. They are not a wordlist the door matches. At the composer you describe the deal in your own words instead.
- affiliate agreement
- affiliate program terms
- publisher agreement
- influencer affiliate contract
- performance marketing agreement
- partner link agreement
Questions people ask
- Do affiliates have to disclose that links are paid?
- In many jurisdictions advertising rules require it, and platforms often require it too. The obligation comes from regulators rather than from the agreement, though the agreement usually restates it.
- How is commission usually attributed?
- Most programmes use last click within a defined window, recorded by the tracking system. Papers of this kind name the system and say its records decide, because otherwise every close call is a dispute.
- Can a programme change its rates?
- Agreements of this kind commonly allow changes on notice, and say whether pending commissions are affected. That notice period is what makes the programme worth relying on.
General answers about the document. Not advice about your situation. Not written about any one country.
Where it lives
A contract names the legal system it is governed by. That is a separate decision from which paper it is. You pick it at the door, from any of the 184 units in Governing law, including England and Wales, Delaware, California and New York.
You do not start from this page. Describe the deal in one sentence at the door. Read the draft back in plain language, in the order a contract is read.
Start it at the door →Related kinds