Save Time With a Solid Affiliate Terms and Conditions Template

If you’re an affiliate marketer or brand that utilizes partner marketing, you know that creating and reviewing affiliate terms and conditions can be a time-consuming process. But with this handy template, you can save time and get your agreements in place quickly and easily. Here, you’ll learn all about:

• • Why you need an affiliate agreement in the first place
  • What your affiliate terms & conditions should contain
  • Tips for creating your partner agreement terms & conditions
  • How an affiliate marketing tool can help with the whole process

Why You Need a Crystal Clear Agreement With Affiliates or Other Partners

Your affiliate, partner, or influencer is someone you approve to promote your products through their own channels and with their own content. That content includes tracked affiliate links to guide traffic to your site. Then, each time a lead or sale traces back to that link, the partner earns a commission or reward.

Now, that reward is pre-determined and agreed to in advance between you and that partner. And, of course, you want to avoid any confusion, ambiguity, or, worse, disagreement down the road. So, it’s important to have your affiliate terms and conditions clearly laid out in an agreement to ensure you both fully understand each side’s responsibilities at the outset.

The agreement should be signed when you accept a new affiliate, partner, or influencer to your program. And, as your program grows and changes, you’ll need to keep this agreement updated.

Affiliate Partner Marketing Agreement Terms & Conditions

Your affiliate partner marketing agreement or contract clearly lays out the terms and conditions of your partnership. This includes things like your commission rates, contract length, and payout process and terms. It also covers your partner’s role, promotional guidelines to follow, and how to earn rewards or commissions, along with your company’s role and responsibilities in the affiliate program.

Website Linking & Promotion and Brand Usage & Advertising

Be sure to cover exactly what you expect your partners to do and not do when promoting their affiliate links to your site. This includes how affiliate links are to be obtained, what the partner can and cannot do to promote their affiliate link, where the affiliate link can and cannot be shown, and what determines an invalid affiliate link or misuse of an affiliate link.

Pay-per-Click and Coupon Guidelines

Be sure to lay out the rules around pay-per-click (PPC) advertising guidelines. These should address stipulations around trademark bidding and usage, linking to your business’ site from PPC ads or redirects, auction-style PPC program bids, and PPC campaign automation rules. It also includes coupon guidelines, like only promoting those provided by your business, how codes can or can’t be advertised, and fully disclosing full offers and expiry dates.

Monetary and Legal Requirements 

Monetary requirements should be listed in your agreement, but so should legal requirements. After all, the more you specify how your brand should be publicly presented, the more protected your reputation will be against errors and unethical marketing.

Along with legal stipulations like governing body and applicable laws by your state/jurisdiction, be sure to cover these key topics:

• Definitions of key agreement terms
• Partnership nature
• Responsibilities of your business and partner
• Brand usage/specifications
• Content standards
• Website linking and brand promotion terms
• Pay-per-click and coupon guidelines
• Affiliate tracking process & elements
• Intellectual property rights
• Privacy and disclaimer policies
• Requirements to earn reward/commission
• Reward amounts/commission rates
• Payment schedule
• Disqualifications for reward/commission & what can terminate/suspend the contract
• A confidentiality agreement
• A non-exclusivity clause for both parties

While this sounds like an exhaustive list, don’t worry, there’s no need to memorize anything or feel overwhelmed. To make your hectic business owner life just a bit easier, we’ve included and explained it all in our free affiliate terms and conditions template! Download it below (to edit, make yourself a copy).

Tips for a Smooth Partner Agreement Process

It’s easy to get bogged down with the details when creating your affiliate terms & conditions and feel overwhelmed and even frustrated by the process. It doesn’t have to be this way though.

Just take a moment, a deep breath, and a break. Then, with our handy affiliate terms and conditions template in hand, remember that some agreement sections address and reinforce similar requirements, some of which may not actually be required for your program. As well, it’s best practice to apply this template (or any other) and adapt it to your specific business, requirements, and affiliate program specifics. In the end, these things will save you time and effort.

Plus, you can simply update or expand the agreement later if you forget something. If you’re stuck on something big or unsure about your jurisdiction’s requirements, it’s always best to speak to your legal team to be sure you have the right information. And, last but not least, don’t forget you’re not alone! There are great resources to help with the process, like GrowthHero’s affiliate marketing platform.

Level-Up Your Partnerships With a Top Affiliate Marketing Tool

Once you have a comprehensive affiliate partner agreement with all the t’s crossed and i’s dotted, you’re not quite out of the woods. You’ll also save time, improve processes, build better partner relationships, and, eventually, earn more money when you use an affiliate marketing tool like GrowthHero for your affiliate partner program.

Attract Talented Affiliate Partners With GrowthHero

GrowthHero helps you create partner marketing programs with the right affiliate terms & conditions.

You’ve got all you need to manage affiliates with ideal terms and conditions using our agreement template as a start. From there, you’ll want to promote your partner program and attract top talent, and this video shows you some top tips for just that. Check it out.