Handbook · Diagnostics
How do you audit a stagnating partner program?
Stagnation rarely has a single cause, but almost always a dominant one. A structured audit separates technical causes from structural and economic ones before budget flows into measures that miss the problem.
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Why the order decides the outcome
Most audits start with the publisher mix because it is visible. But if tracking loses sales or deduplicates incorrectly, every mix looks wrong and every derived action points the wrong way. So verify the data first, then structure, then economics, then process.
The six audit fields
- 1. Tracking and deduplication – Test orders across every relevant path, cookie duration, server-side tracking and consent effects.
- 2. Data quality and attribution – Do network and shop numbers match? How large is the gap, and is it stable or growing?
- 3. Publisher mix – Distribution across content, voucher, cashback, loyalty, retargeting, influencer — and concentration on top partners.
- 4. Activation – How many registered partners are actually active, and how long from joining to first sale?
- 5. Economics and EPC – Full cost of sale plus EPC compared with competing programs targeting the same publishers.
- 6. Operations – Approval times, response times, feed freshness, creatives and program description.
Who this page is for
- Programs with a flat revenue curve – Same numbers for months with no visible cause.
- Advertisers after a migration – After a shop or network change, the cause is usually technical, not structural.
- Teams before a budget decision – You need to know whether more budget can work at all.
How an audit runs
Typically two to four weeks, depending on data availability.
- 1. Data and access – Network data for 12–24 months, shop data, tracking setup and contract terms.
- 2. Technical verification – Test orders, reconciliation of counting logic and assessment of the gap.
- 3. Structural analysis – Segmentation by publisher type, cohorts, activation curve and new-customer share.
- 4. Findings and priorities – A rating per field with rationale, effort and expected impact — no more than five actions for the first 90 days.
Diagnosis first, action second
The most expensive affiliate mistakes come from acting without diagnosis: higher commissions on a tracking problem, new partners on an activation problem, a network switch on a process problem. The grid above prevents exactly that.
Frequently asked questions about affiliate audits
- How long does an affiliate audit take?
- Two to four weeks. The biggest factor is data provisioning, not the analysis itself.
- What data is needed?
- Network reports for 12–24 months, shop revenue for the same period, tracking documentation, commission structure and network terms.
- How do I spot a tracking problem without an audit?
- A growing gap between network and shop numbers, sales without matching clicks, and a drop that coincides exactly with a shop or consent update.