Affiliate & partnerships agencies, reviewed and ranked

Affiliate programs and partner channels. Scored hardest on the question the category avoids: is any of this incremental, and who is policing it?

15 evaluated, of which we would put 14 in front of a client and cut 1.

The channel can grow while buying demand you already had

Affiliate pays commission on claimed conversions. A coupon site or browser extension that intercepts a customer already on their way to checkout will report that sale as theirs. The program looks like it is growing; the business is just paying a toll. This is the defining risk of the category and it is why incrementality carries so much weight here.

Ask what they do about coupon and loyalty extensions

Specifically: how they monitor extension-driven last-click attribution, whether they enforce against trademark bidding, and how they vet publishers. A firm with a written policy on all three is doing the unglamorous work. Silence on the question is itself the answer.

Look past the coupon tier

Coupon and cashback publishers are the easiest to recruit and the least incremental. Content publishers, review sites, newsletters and genuine referral partners take real work to land. A roster that is entirely the former tells you how the program will perform once you look closely.

Watch the fee model against the incentive

Being paid a percentage of affiliate revenue is normal and not disqualifying. But a firm paid that way, which also has no stated position on incrementality, is being paid more the more credit the channel claims — whether or not the channel caused anything. Where we found that combination, the record names it.

Make sure you own the program

Whose name is on the network account, who owns the publisher relationships, and what transfers at exit. A program you cannot take with you is not a channel you own; it is one you rent, and the rent is renegotiated at renewal.

Evaluated

And the ones we cut, so you can judge the rest

Named, with the reason and the sources.