Terms and Conditions Must-Have's In Your Affiliate Program 

Let’s be honest, not everyone is the most trustworthy in this Industry, especially online and ensuring that conditions and terms are set in your program is key. After all, if you’re product based, you’re giving them out to affiliate marketers, and some have a rep to taking and not providing any results! 

 

Don’t panic! Having the right terms and conditions necessary within your Affiliate program contracts will ensure the safety of your revenue. 

 

Before we get into the terms and conditions, understanding how to properly research influencers and their analytics is a big component. Next post I will be breaking down the analytics of a research influencer profile and what to look for, but for now, here are a few researching programs that are reliable from 2022 statistics that you can use. 

 

1.     trendHERO

2.     Creator.co

3.     HypeAuditor

4.     PitchBox

5.     Upfluence

 

 

 

You don’t want hefty fines for your business! The Federal Trade Commission(FTC) is a United States Government Agency that puts out regulations businesses need to follow. Affiliates must disclose that they receive compensation for promoting your products or a post. That is why you’ll see influencers hashtag #ad or write ad on the post. It’s important you add this in the contract for affiliates to understand their tasks when promoting to adhere to FTC Guidelines.

 

 

It is your business! That means you choose who you see fit to represent your brand, including make the choice to cut an affiliate out of your program. It’s important to state that if the affiliate fails to comply with promoting guidelines that you have the authority to suspend them from your affiliate program. If any situation happens where an affiliate did something inappropriate or out of guidelines, you’re protected from any lawsuits from the affiliate you removed. Be sure to document all final commission transactions for proof should a situation as such arises. Here are a few examples of unacceptable behavior within the program.

 

·      Fraudulent Transactions

·      Spam

·      Failing to disclose partnering relationship which is a FTC violation

·      Misleading ads about the product and or company

·      Any behavior against the promotion guidelines that the affiliate agreed to

 

 

I think it’s safe to say, now days, people don’t like to read and a lot of your affiliates most likely will not read through everything. Include a quick bullet point summary of policies and terms and state to read in more detail below or above, however you want layout your contract. Here are some briefs you can include in your summary:

 

·       Acceptable content affiliates can associate with your branding guidelines 

·       FTC compliance regulations

·       Termination behaviors 

·       Expectations from affiliates within your program 

 

 

This is SO very important and a crucial section to your affiliates program contract. Especially if specific behaviors and representation can alter consumers away from your product. In my opinion, the more detail the better. Do not feel hesitant to state type of clothing as well because that is also important. Here are some rules I’ve come by in affiliates programs to get an idea of how to layout what works for your brand and or company. 

 

·      No nudity, semi-nudity or provocative clothing 

·      No political statements in caption copy and verbal audio within a video 

·      No negative banter or verbiage about competition or other brands (this one is important as

Instagram and Facebook ads guidelines states you cannot speak negative on competition or a negative situation) if you choose to turn the content from your affiliate into an ad. 

  

If you have a skincare product or a product that does require to show some skin or semi-nudity, be sure to add that the product requires a bathing suite, showing some skin etc and by signing below (add an initial line or signature line right after) for affiliate to sign they agree and are aware of those terms. 

 

 

This is a section you’ll be adding in your media guideline after the affiliates have signed and agreed to the terms and contract. However, adding a bit of this section in your contract is going to be helpful should any issues arise in future you can state that the affiliate agreed to the content creation terms when signing the agreement. 

 

For this section, be sure to add the number of creatives the affiliates should be producing, how many ads they’ll be needing to promote, how many times a week and or any other points following your affiliate marketing plan. 

 

 

Adding in when they’ll be paid commission, how and what to expect is important to add in. For example, if they do not receive commission until after ten sales, that’s important to add in so your affiliates don’t expect anything else and give you any issues in regard to payment terms. 

 

 

Your trademark, business, patents, etc. are yours, hard earned and don’t deserve to be stolen. Be sure to add within your terms and conditions contract any information that is highly confidential and may not be shared with outsiders and or consumers and or competition. Doing so will result in legal action and be sure to provide the county name of where the legal action will be filed and conducted in. No one wants to deal with out of state legal actions and it will repel any interests that are even slightly thinking of getting into this program to play spy and copy any of your brand secrets. 

 

 

 

Overall I’d say the more you details you state within your terms and condition contract, the less trouble you’re likely to run in when it comes to affiliates. In my experience, the more details and boundaries, again the more it repels those untrustworthy affiliates trying to sneak in and cause trouble or replicate your product. My two cents is that transparency is key, and it's much better to be proactive than reactive in this case. The overall health and success of your program depends on it! 

 

 

 

Looking to launch and grow your own program in 2023? Allow my team to help through options from done-with-you coaching, to training, to done-for-you management services. Schedule a call today!