Your First Launch with an Affiliate Network: A Checklist Before the First Click

Switching a campaign on takes five minutes. Getting ready for a first launch with a new network usually takes a couple of days of messages, and the questions in them barely change: which traffic is allowed, what gets counted, who checks the postback and when you will talk about the results. Answer them up front and the chat with your manager fits into a few messages. Here is the order we suggest.

One test, one question#

‘Try a new offer’ is an intention, not a test. A test sounds more like this: ‘Find out whether native ads on Android in Brazil bring registrations on this landing page.’ That one sentence names the source, the GEO, the device and the action you are watching.

Change one thing at a time. If the creative, the pre-landing page and the GEO are all new in the first run, the result will not tell you what worked. Agree on budget and duration with your manager separately: there is no standard figure that fits every team.

Traffic in detail, not in one word#

Write down the countries, languages, devices and sources. If you have three sources, describe three, not ‘social’. A platform name says nothing about the format: a cold-audience ad, a creator’s post and a click from an app are three different journeys with their own rules.

Ask which combinations are already approved for the offer and which are still being discussed. Approval for Chile does not carry over to Peru, and approval for search ads does not cover push. Show your manager the creative and the page the user lands on, so they see the whole journey rather than just the entry point.

What counts as a result#

‘Registration’, ‘deposit’ and ‘approval’ mean slightly different things at different networks and advertisers. Compare definitions before launch. Write down three things: where the final status comes from, how discrepancies are investigated and whom to contact when the numbers do not match.

If some terms are still being settled, mark them as such. Access to the dashboard is not the same as an agreed launch: seeing an offer in the list does not mean your traffic is approved for it. Keep the terms in one dated document so both sides read the same version.

A technical test before any spend#

Run a test conversion before the main traffic. Click your own link and check that the right page opens, the event reaches the dashboard and shows up in the report. Note the time of the check with its time zone and the test ID: with those, troubleshooting takes minutes.

One common trap in Affise: Goal title and Goal value are separate fields. The title is the label a person sees in the report. The value is what the system uses to recognise the event when data is passed. A tidy label in the interface does not prove the value is set up correctly. After the test it should be clear what was checked, what worked and what still needs fixing.

Who is on call#

Each side needs one person who owns the launch. Agree on the channel, the hours you are both reachable and how to stop traffic quickly if something breaks. If the person who makes decisions is not the one writing the messages, add them to the chat from the start.

Decide in advance who may change the link, creative, source or GEO, and where those changes are logged. Otherwise one side is reviewing yesterday’s version of the campaign while the other is already looking at today’s.

A date for the first review#

The calendar needs a review call as well as a start date. Agree which data each side will bring and for what period.

At the review, sort everything into three groups: technical failures, questions about the data and conclusions about the traffic and offer combination itself. A small volume hides a lot, so say that out loud rather than draw conclusions the data cannot support. Finish by writing down what stays as it is, what you will test separately and what you are putting off for now.

The list before launch#

• GEO, source and format are agreed.

• The creative, page and link have been checked.

• Both sides read the target event and reconciliation process the same way.

• The test conversion went through and open questions are written down.

• Owners and a communication channel are in place.

• The first review is in the calendar.

None of this needs a long document; a short brief without ambiguous wording is enough. If you are getting to know JUS, start with three things: your source, your GEO and the question you want to answer.