An affiliate marketing agreement is the contract that defines the working relationship between your business and the affiliates promoting it. It spells out commission terms, brand and link rules, tracking, and what happens when things go wrong. Without one, you’re trusting your brand to people you’ve never met with no shared rulebook.
This article walks through what belongs in an affiliate agreement and gives you a free template to start from. First, a quick distinction matters: affiliate agreements are different from customer referral terms or partner agreements, and getting that right up front saves you from copying the wrong document.
Download our free affiliate agreement template
To help you clarify your affiliate program’s terms and conditions, we’ve created an editable affiliate program agreement template (also called an affiliate marketing agreement template or affiliate marketing contract template) that’s free for you to download. Use this as a foundation, and fill in the details specific to your brand and program.
What is an affiliate marketing agreement (affiliate marketing contract)?
An affiliate marketing agreement (also called an affiliate agreement or affiliate marketing contract) is a contract between a brand and an individual or company that promotes the brand in exchange for commission. It details the responsibilities and obligations of each party, the commission structure, the length of the contract, and the legal stipulations governing the relationship.
An affiliate is an approved content creator — a blogger, business website owner, or social media influencer — who posts tracked affiliate links to your products on their own channels. Every time a sale or qualified lead is traced back to that link, the affiliate earns a commission. Affiliates are independent contractors, not employees, and they don’t have a say in the terms of the agreement. The brand writes the contract; the affiliate accepts and signs.
Affiliate vs. customer referral vs. partner: pick the right agreement
“Referral marketing,” “affiliate marketing,” and “partner marketing” get used interchangeably, but they describe structurally different relationships — and the agreement for one barely applies to another. Before you copy a template, make sure you’re in the right category.
| Program type | Who’s promoting | Relationship | What the agreement looks like |
|---|---|---|---|
| Affiliate | Content creators, publishers, influencers | Commercial partner, commission-based, often gated by application | Full contractor agreement (this article) |
| Customer referral | Existing customers | Fan introducing a friend | Lightweight terms-and-conditions page, not a signed contract |
| Partner / reseller | Other businesses, agencies | Formal commercial relationship, often co-selling or revenue share | Distinct partnership or reseller agreement |
The differences come from the relationship, not the legal language. An affiliate is essentially a contractor doing paid promotion through their own audience, so the agreement reads like a contractor agreement: application criteria, brand usage rules, commission terms, fraud clauses, termination.
A customer referring a friend isn’t a contractor. They’re a fan giving a recommendation, and a multi-page legal document is the wrong instrument for that. Partner agreements sit closer to affiliate but typically involve deeper commercial commitments and need their own document.
If you’re running an affiliate program, the rest of this article is for you. If you landed here looking for customer referral terms or affiliate vs. partner distinctions, start there instead.
Why do you need an affiliate program agreement?
The agreement makes both sides’ obligations concrete and gives you something to point to when an affiliate breaks the rules. If affiliate fraud occurs — cookie stuffing, fake clicks, brand misuse — you can cite the specific clauses that prohibit it and dismiss the affiliate without a dispute. Running a program without an agreement leaves you trusting people you’ve never met with no shared rulebook to enforce.
Every new affiliate you accept signs the same master agreement, so you only manage one document. You’ll keep a copy of each affiliate’s signature and effective date for your records.
14 sections to include in your affiliate agreement
The affiliate marketing agreement should include the affiliate’s role, the promotional guidelines an affiliate should follow, and how to earn commission. It should also lay out your company’s role, responsibilities, and the commission you offer in the affiliate program.
Free Download: Make writing up your agreement easier with our affiliate agreement template!
Our affiliate program agreement template outlines 14 vital sections to cover in your agreement:
1. Definitions
Define the terms used throughout the document: company, affiliate, affiliate application, website, affiliate program, and anything else specific to your business. Clear definitions at the start prevent misunderstandings later. List them, keep them tight, and move on.
2. Nature of the partnership
Establish that the affiliate is an independent contractor, not an employee. This exempts you from providing employee benefits required by governing law and clarifies that the affiliate operates their own business while promoting yours.
3. Application and acceptance into the program
Cover the requirements an individual or company must meet to be accepted into your affiliate program. Some programs require a minimum follower count or monthly traffic; others care more about voice and audience fit. Lay out the ideal affiliate partner profile for your brand, what your evaluation process looks like, any waiting periods, and what notifications applicants can expect.
4. How the affiliate program works
This section provides an overall description of your affiliate program. It includes everything an affiliate needs to know in relation to your business, from how your affiliates will get links to the specific products, to how they will receive their earned commission after a sale.
Add any requirements an affiliate needs to meet when publishing the links, which sales qualify for commission and which don’t, and how often you will pay out their commission.
5. Non-exclusivity clause
Most affiliates are not in an exclusive relationship with your company. Many times, an affiliate will publish an article with multiple product reviews or comparisons, and include your affiliate link along with several other companies. Since affiliates earn from commission, it’s important for them to be able to promote other businesses’ products.
6. Responsibilities of the affiliate and the business
As with all contracts, it’s important to list down the responsibilities of all parties involved. When you and your affiliates know who should be doing what, your marketing program can run smoothly and bring in more sales for your business.
7. Commission and payment terms
This is the most important section for affiliates. Cover affiliate commission rates, how affiliates earn them, when they get paid, and which purchases don’t qualify. Include:
Cover the following in this section:
- How does an affiliate become eligible for commission?
- What must be done for an affiliate to earn a commission?
- Do you count purchases, qualified leads, or clicks? (Note that clicks are not the best option as they make you more vulnerable to fraud.)
- What are the commission rates available, and are they subject to change?
- If they are, include the due process for the re-negotiation.
- Are there bonus offers available when affiliates meet certain conditions, such as permanent commission boosts or one-time extra payouts?
- How long is an affiliate eligible for a commission after someone clicks on an affiliate link?
- What fraudulent actions would make a purchase ineligible for commission?
- What requirements must be completed before an affiliate receives their payout (i.e., submitting tax and bank account information)?
8. Link promotion
This section covers all rules for link promotions in the affiliate relationship, including, but not limited to:
- What affiliates can and can’t do to promote their affiliate link
- Where the affiliate link can and can’t be displayed
- What counts as misuse of the affiliate link, such as using adware, cookie-stuffing, popups, etc.
9. Brand promotion
This section covers all rules for how an affiliate can promote your brand and use your trademarked assets, including, but not limited to:
- Rules affiliates must follow when using your brand or trade names
- Messaging guidelines for presenting your product
- Acceptable types of advertising an affiliate can use for this particular purpose
- Intellectual property rights guidelines: What logos, service marks, slogans, domain names, and product names are the property of your brand?
- Any proprietary rights or restrictions to using your brand’s property, and consequences of this unauthorized use (You can also include best practices for non-infringement to help guide your affiliates)
- Any restrictions on the affiliate’s use of the company’s promotional material
10. Affiliate tracking
Explain how your tracking works and how it monitors the affiliate’s performance and payment status. Will you use an affiliate management software program or a third-party affiliate network? Do you use commission tracking cookies to automatically award commission for every sale?
Be clear about which system feeds the data and what affiliates can see.
11. Confidentiality agreement
When working with affiliates, your company might need to share confidential information not available to the public. For example, this can include customer lists, supplier information, or upcoming products that aren’t launched yet. To ensure confidentiality with affiliates, you need to explicitly mark any business, financial, or customer information as proprietary.
Conversely, an affiliate may also share confidential information with your company, especially regarding their previous experience, current followers and audience, and promotional strategies.
12. Termination or suspension
How long does your affiliate marketing agreement last? Under what circumstances would an affiliate contract be prematurely terminated or suspended? What happens when there are changes to the affiliate agreement?
This section should also include what cases call for a suspension of the contract, as well as what happens after the termination of this agreement, specifically to any pending commission payment or affiliate accounts.
13. Legal stipulations
Cover the following legal terms in this section:
- Any applicable laws by the state governing the transaction
- The governing body used in arbitration in the event of a lawsuit
- Requirements for compliance with FTC endorsement guidelines
- Procedure in case of a default or breach of this agreement
- Dispute resolution procedure if a trial is not needed
- Licenses required by the business and affiliate and who will own them
- An indemnification clause to protect either party from liability caused by the actions of the other and consequential damages (i.e., data loss, service interruptions). Any clarifications of the limitation of liability.
- A severability clause, where necessary
14. Signatures
Finally, include space for your business and the affiliate to sign and date the agreement. The agreement will become a binding legal contract between your business and the affiliate once signed.
If you’re using Referral Rock, anyone who joins your affiliate program automatically agrees to its terms and conditions. No need to wait on affiliates’ signatures; just send them the agreement or terms and conditions page, and give them a link to register for the program.Â
Send the agreement, then run the program
A signed agreement isn’t the program. It’s the rulebook the program runs on. Once you have one in place, the work shifts to recruiting affiliates, tracking links, paying commissions, and keeping the relationship clear over time.
If your agreement runs long, add an FAQ alongside it so affiliates can find the most-asked terms quickly. And as with any business contract, run yours past a lawyer for jurisdiction-specific language.
Referral Rock software lets you launch and scale your affiliate program, with full control over your affiliate relationships.
