An affiliate program turns external media buyers and webmasters into your sales force — but only if the offer is worth their risk. This page explains what to prepare before launch, how to structure payouts and rules so serious buyers take you seriously, and how to get your first partners, including through Mobadly's buying team and network.
You submit the offer with vertical, GEOs, payout model and KPI definition.
Both sides confirm in writing what is billable, what is capped and what is prohibited.
A capped pilot on agreed sources with postback verification.
Sources and creatives are filtered by your approval data, not just conversion counts.
Volume grows only on cohorts that meet the agreed KPI.
Affiliates evaluate your program in minutes, and they evaluate it on hard facts. You need: a tracking platform with reliable postbacks (Keitaro, Everflow, Affise, TUNE, CAKE, Binom, RedTrack or your own — buyers trust offers they can measure); a defined billable event with validation rules a buyer can verify; payout levels grounded in your unit economics; a hold period you can actually honor; creative assets and clear rules on what may and may not be promoted; and someone who answers partner questions within a business day. The offer brief template on this site walks through every field a professional buyer expects to see. Programs that launch without these basics attract only the partners you do not want.
Your payout is your product pitch to buyers: it must beat their alternative uses of the same traffic. Work backwards from unit economics — what a validated conversion is worth to you, minus your target margin, minus a realistic fraud and rejection buffer — rather than copying competitor numbers you cannot verify. Then write the rules buyers actually read: exact billable event and attribution window, validation criteria and hold period, caps and how they change, prohibited traffic types (incentivized, brand bidding, misleading pre-landers — whatever applies), and GEO restrictions. Ambiguous rules do not protect you; they just delay disputes to payday. Specific, enforced rules attract professionals and repel fraud.
New programs have a cold-start problem: the best buyers work with proven offers. The practical paths: managed buying partners like Mobadly, who run your offer against agreed KPIs with their own sources; affiliate networks, where your offer is listed to many webmasters at once; and direct outreach to buyers and webmasters in your vertical. Each path has a role: managed partners give you accountable volume quickly, networks give breadth over time, direct relationships give the best long-term economics. What does not work is listing an underprepared offer everywhere and waiting — serious buyers ignore it, and incentivized-traffic sellers find it.
You do not have to choose one model forever, but you should choose where to start. An open program maximizes reach and minimizes your control: anyone can apply, and policing traffic quality becomes your daily job. A managed partner relationship — like working with Mobadly — gives you one accountable buyer with agreed KPIs, caps and reporting. Most mature advertisers run both: a managed layer for controlled volume and an open layer for long-tail reach. If you are launching now, start where accountability is built in: submit your offer, agree KPI terms, run a capped pilot — then decide how much openness your operations can handle.
Programs die from neglect, not from competition. The operating rhythm that keeps them alive: weekly reconciliation of conversions against validation, fast and predictable payouts (nothing kills partner trust faster than late money), per-source quality reviews with partners who care about quality, and periodic payout reviews as your economics and the market move. Communicate changes before they happen — a buyer who learns about a cap cut from a rejection message leaves, and tells others. If you work with Mobadly, this operating layer — reporting, reconciliation, source filtering — is part of the engagement rather than your overhead.
Reports, postbacks and disputed conversions are handled against written KPI terms and logs on both sides. Payout models, schedules and hold periods are agreed individually per offer and confirmed in writing before traffic starts.
Tracking with reliable postbacks, a defined billable event with validation rules, payouts grounded in unit economics, a hold period you can honor, creative assets and rules, and responsive partner support. The offer brief template lists everything professional buyers expect.
High enough to beat your buyers' alternative use of the same traffic, and sustainable against your unit economics. Work backwards from what a validated conversion is worth to you — we assess feasibility per offer in the brief rather than quoting generic market rates.
They solve different problems. Networks give breadth with limited control; managed partners give accountable volume with agreed KPIs. Most mature advertisers run both, starting with the managed layer while operations are new.
With a measurable offer: reliable tracking, clear validation, realistic payouts, predictable payments and fast answers. Serious buyers ignore programs that are vague on any of these — and the ones who do not ignore them are usually not the ones you want.
Exact billable event and attribution window, validation criteria and hold, caps and how they change, prohibited traffic types, GEO restrictions, and the dispute process. Specific rules attract professionals; ambiguous ones invite disputes.
With a managed partner, a capped pilot can start once tracking and KPI terms are agreed. Open-program volume builds over weeks and months as partners test and scale. Nobody honest promises instant volume on a new offer.
Postback deduplication, per-source quality scoring, reconciliation against your validation data, enforced rules, and cutting sources that fail approval. Managed partners handle this as part of the engagement; open programs need it as your daily operation.
Submit the brief: vertical, GEOs, payout model, KPI definition, tracking platform. We assess fit and economics, agree KPI terms in writing, and run a capped pilot before any scale. Terms are individual — we do not publish standard rates.
Short brief — we reply through your messenger.