What to Prepare Before Launching Your First Affiliate Campaign

A campaign works best when payments, products and lead capture are already in place. Run through this short checklist before you create your first campaign.

Core Requirements

1. Connect a payment provider. Product sales are tracked through Stripe, so connect it first under Payments > Integrations.
2. List your products. Add the products you want affiliates to sell in a funnel, a website or an online store. Affiliates can only earn product commissions on items that exist in the campaign source.
3. Set up lead capture, if you pay for leads. Place a form, survey or calendar as a component inside a funnel or website page.
4. Connect PayPal Business, if you want automated payouts. This is optional, but it makes paying affiliates much faster. You can always pay manually instead.

Optional but Helpful

• Add a branded domain under Settings > Business Profile > Branded Domain so referral links show your own web address instead of the default one.
• Decide your commission model in advance: percentage or flat fee, one-time or recurring, per lead or per sale.
• Choose a payout term that matches your refund window (see the payouts articles).
• Prepare a welcome email and any promotional images for the media library.

Why a Campaign Might Start Paused

A new campaign is saved as paused when Stripe is not connected or when no affiliates have been added yet. Fix those two items and publish again to turn it live.

Good to know: Do a test purchase with your own affiliate link before telling anyone the program is open.