Designing commission structures that protect margin

Percentage vs. flat, tiers, cookie windows, new-vs-returning rates. Set the rate off your gross margin, not a competitor's headline number, so commissions buy growth instead of eating it.

Commission structure is the single biggest lever in an affiliate program: get it wrong and you either can't recruit good partners, or you pay full commission on sales you'd have made anyway.

The right commission comes from your own gross margin, not a competitor's headline rate. AI can compute your maximum affordable commission and lay out the tiers; your affiliate platform (Refersion, Tapfiliate, UpPromote) is what enforces the rate, cookie window, and payout cap.

In this lesson

Fastest path: one prompt, end to end
Or do it in 5 steps
Worked example: max affordable commission

What you'll learn

Find your max affordable commission from margin
Pick percentage or flat
Add tiers that reward your best partners
Set the cookie window to your buying cycle
Pay more for new customers than returning ones