You've locked your commission budget. Affiliates can see the money is there. Job done?
Not quite.
Escrow settles whether the money EXISTS. Your terms settle when it MOVES. Write those vaguely and you've put all the doubt straight back.
Here are three rules that take ten minutes and save you a lot of arguments.
The 3 rules
1. Name the event
State the single thing that counts as a conversion. One event, one sentence.
- Good: "A paid plan still active on day 30."
- Bad: "A quality signup."
Nobody can argue with the first one. Everybody will argue with the second.
2. Name what gets rejected
If lapsed trials, duplicate accounts or incentivized traffic don't count, write that down.
Rejected conversions don't draw down your escrow. Affiliates should know that BEFORE they send traffic, not after their dashboard and your records disagree.
3. Be straight about the balance
Not planning to top up? Say so.
Affiliates will watch the balance fall either way. Telling them first is what earns you the next campaign.
A template you can copy
A conversion is: [one event, with any number or deadline]
It does not count if: [the two or three rejections that matter]
Budget: [amount locked]. Top-ups: [planned / not planned].Three lines. That's a clearer set of terms than most programs ever publish.
Final thoughts
Affiliates don't need your terms to be generous. They need them to be clear.
Say exactly what you'll pay for, say what you won't, and say how long the budget will last. The good affiliates will take it from there.
