If your affiliate program is live but growth feels stuck, this is more common than you think.
What’s usually going wrong looks like this:
1. Your program isn’t visible to the affiliates who matter.
2. Applications come from poor-fit partners like coupon farms, inactive creators, or tiny audiences.
3. You’re not speaking to enough proven affiliates to generate momentum.
At the core, the mistake is passive acquisition.
Most brands launch on platforms like Impact, ShareASale, or Refersion, then sit back and hope affiliates discover them.
Top affiliates don’t browse marketplaces. They work with brands that approach them directly and clearly explain the upside.
The fastest way to scale is outbound affiliate recruitment.
Here’s the execution playbook:
1. Build a target list by reviewing competitor affiliates, browsing network leaderboards, and auditing creators on YouTube, X, or blogs already selling adjacent products.
2. Send direct outreach that’s specific and human. Refer to their content, explain the audience fit, and open a dialogue rather than pitching links and commissions.
3. Prioritize live conversations with your best prospects. Use calls to align on audience needs, positioning, and test offers like custom links, elevated payouts, or dedicated pages.
4. Systemize follow-ups. High performers are busy and rarely respond on the first touch.
This turns affiliates into partners, not traffic sources. You deliberately recruit people aligned with your buyer, co-create promotions that convert, and remove randomness from revenue.
If you want predictable results, stop waiting for applications.
Start researching daily, sending intentional outreach, and treating affiliate growth like sales.
The next affiliate that changes your program’s trajectory probably won’t apply on their own.
They’re waiting for a clear, confident message from you.
I can share exactly how we recruit affiliates to scale a DTC brand. Book a free strategy call here and let’s talk.
On that note, quick shoutout to a partner executing this strategy exceptionally well right now. Results follow consistent, disciplined execution.
Brand Spotlight:
Who They Are & Why It Works
Som Sleep is a drink powder that promises to relax you, reduce feelings of stress, and help you fall asleep. It also enhances the quality of your sleep and can help re-establish a healthy sleep-wake cycle.
Performance & Fit
+22% average monthly growth in affiliate-attributed revenue
3x–7x ROAS maintained across all channels
80% of total revenue, driven by nine top affiliates
These results positioned the brand among the most efficient emerging DTC programs in its category.
How To Partner
Reply to this email, and I’ll connect you with the brand.
Content resource for the week:
Let me share a couple of my favourite content pieces to improve your affiliate marketing strategy and overall business.
Affiliate Spotlight:
Who They Are & Why It Works
M3dia Buy is a native advertising and media buying agency that specializes in generating 100,000 to 1 million+ monthly clicks from high-intent readers on premium news and content sites.
Performance & Best Fit
M3dia Buy has delivered over $10M in revenue for clients through precise targeting and relentless testing. Top campaigns include 1M+ monthly clicks and up to 5,000 leads per day, with costs as low as $5–8 per lead compared to $40+ on Google.
Best fit for insurance, eCommerce, and performance-driven brands seeking to scale lead generation or sales through native ads on major outlets like MSN, Yahoo, and other high-traffic publishers.
How To Partner
M3dia Buy offers campaigns on a per-lead or cost-per-click model, reducing upfront risk for advertisers.
Reply to this email to explore Q4 placements with M3dia Buy.
Your Question & My Answer:
What does the technical setup inside Squaredance involve before launching an affiliate offer?
A: It requires configuring the offer’s tracking infrastructure, including click attribution, conversion events, and payout logic within the Squaredance platform. This setup typically includes pixel installation, parameter mapping, and comprehensive pre-launch testing to ensure accurate data flow from the first click to the final conversion.
That’s it for this issue. If you want intros to any of our partners, reply today and I’ll connect you personally.
And if you have any questions for me, feel free to ask.
I read all of the emails. (Even the spammy ones!:)
Thank you for reading till the end.
Talk soon,
Fred