Most mature programmes are not broken. They are leaking, and the leaks rarely show up on the network dashboard. Work through these ten checks and note every answer you are unsure of. Those are usually where the money is.
- Partner mix: what share of revenue comes from voucher and cashback sites compared with content and review partners?
- New customers: do you know which partners bring first-time buyers?
- Commission by type: do content partners earn more than partners who catch existing demand?
- Duplicate payments: could two partners be paid for the same sale?
- Tracking: are all products, currencies and checkout paths tracking correctly, including mobile and app?
- Deep links: are partners sending traffic to the right product pages, or only the homepage?
- Dormant partners: how many approved partners have not sent a sale in 90 days?
- Review and comparison: are you present on the sites your buyers read before they decide?
- Terms and brand protection: are brand bidding, code sharing and claims rules written down and enforced?
- Reporting: does your leadership team see partner revenue, new customer share and incrementality every month?
How to read your score
If you answered confidently on eight or more, your programme is in good shape and ready to scale. Between five and seven, there is revenue sitting in the structure of the programme. Fewer than five, fix the foundations before spending anything on recruitment.
Want a second pair of eyes? Our free programme audit runs these checks and several hundred more, and sends you the findings within 48 hours.