Running two affiliate platforms at once?
Here's how to not make a mess of it.
Not uncommon for DTC brands to run two affiliate platforms at the same time.
Social Snowball for creators. Impact for publishers.
Each platform has its strengths. That's not the debate today.
Today it's about the two ways to handle it. The good way, and the bad way.
The bad way
No clear plan for what type of partner belongs on which platform.
No clear communication to incoming affiliates about where they should go.
Internal chaos between departments where leads get lost because nobody has a proper delegation plan. Growth owns one platform. Partnerships owns the other. Nobody talks.
Affiliates fall through the cracks.
The good way
It starts with one decision, made before you recruit a single partner: who goes where?
Write it down. Literally document the rule internally. "Creators go here. Publishers go there." No ambiguity.
Brief your whole team on it. Anyone touching affiliate needs to know the split and respect it.
Then, and this is the part most brands skip: communicate it clearly to the affiliate themselves.
Don't assume they'll figure it out. Tell them exactly where to sign up and why. The moment they land on your partner page, it should be obvious.
What this looks like in practice
Huel does this well.
(Quick note: if you visit the URL outside of the US, Huel might tell you the page isn't working. Just change your country to US at the top of their site, then scroll to the footer and click "Partnerships" to get there manually.)
Their partner page at huel.com/partnerships does one thing: it immediately asks the visitor "Tell us how you'd like to collaborate." and gives them three options.
👉 Influencers & Creators
👉 Podcasters
👉 Media & Press
That's it. No walls of text. No one-size-fits-all signup form. You click the button that matches who you are and get taken to the right program from there.
No affiliate ends up in the wrong place. No affiliate manager has to have an awkward conversation with an affiliate who signed up on the wrong platform.
The routing happens before they even apply.
(Of course, you will still have people that even with the clearest explanation and UX end up in the wrong place. But that’s life.)
That level of clarity is what you're building toward. And it doesn't require a fancy tech setup. It requires a clear internal decision, a page that reflects it, and a team that's aligned on who owns what.
Does your brand (or a client you work with) currently run more than one affiliate platform?
That's it for this week!
If you (plan to) use this setup and want a second pair of eyes, just hit reply.
Want to see what I've covered previously? You can find all my past posts in the archives.
Talk soon,
Jani Gysels