Common Affiliate Mistakes in B2B SaaS (and How to Avoid Them)

Before he built Reditus, our founder Joran Hofman promoted more than 80 SaaS programs as an affiliate. The mistakes below are about picking programs, about content and about tracking. Each one costs you commission, and each one is avoidable.

1. Judging a program on its percentage alone

A percentage means nothing without the price it applies to. 40% of a $10 plan earns you $4 a month; 20% of a $200 plan earns you $40. Work out what one referred customer earns you: average monthly deal size × commission % × number of months.

Then run Joran's ten-dollar test: you want to earn roughly $10 or more for every payment the customer makes. Below that, a blog post or a newsletter slot is rarely worth your effort, even though the commission comes back every month. Every program page in the Reditus marketplace shows the average monthly deal size, the commission and how long it's paid, with a calculator, so you can do the math before you apply.

A high price isn't automatically better either. High-ticket software usually has a long sales cycle, so it takes a long time before you know whether your traffic converts.

2. Assuming lifetime commission always pays more

Lifetime looks great on paper. But a commission only pays while the customer keeps paying, so churn decides what lifetime is worth. 36 months at a product with low churn can earn you more than lifetime at a new tool whose customers leave before month 12. In Joran's experience, lifetime offers also tend to come from early-stage companies that have to work harder to recruit affiliates.

Do your own check before you commit: how long has the company been around, do its customers stay, and would you still recommend it in two years?

3. Promoting a product you don't use, or a site that won't convert

Readers notice when you haven't used the tool. Use the product before you write about it. Joran's advice to SaaS companies is to give affiliates a free account or a discount so they become real users, so it's fair to ask for one.

Check the other half too: your traffic has to turn into signups and then into paying customers, or you earn nothing. Experienced affiliates can tell almost instantly whether a site will convert. Is the offer clear, can you find the pricing, is there a trial or a demo? If the site doesn't convert, a generous commission won't help you.

4. Publishing generic, AI-written or inaccurate content

When Reditus ran a content campaign for its own affiliate program, we accepted 25 published articles in about six weeks, and several had to go back first. Some forgot the affiliate link. Some were fully AI-generated. Some made claims about Reditus that weren't true.

Programs review content before they pay a bonus, and AI-written text that adds nothing new won't rank. Write from your own experience, check the facts against the company's resources (we built chat.getreditus.com so affiliates can draft accurate content about Reditus), and read your piece once more for the link. More in our guide to affiliate content strategies.

5. Using one link for everything

If the same link sits in your blog, your newsletter and your LinkedIn profile, you can't tell which channel brings the customers. Add a sub ID per channel or per placement, and you see which one performs. Then spend more time on what works and drop what doesn't.

Keep your slug stable as well. You can change it yourself in your dashboard, but after a change only the new link works: clicks on old links are no longer credited, so you would have to update everything you published.

6. Assuming every customer you influence is credited to you

Credit follows clear rules. Knowing them helps you get paid:

• The last click before signup wins. If someone clicks your link and later another affiliate's link, the other affiliate gets the referral. Once the person has signed up, the referral stays with whoever had it, also if the customer churns and comes back later.
• Each program sets its own cookie window, shown on its page; new programs on Reditus start at 60 days. A signup after the window has passed isn't credited.
• The cookie sits in the browser where your link was clicked, so we can't promise credit when someone clicks on their phone and signs up on a laptop.
• A link beats a coupon code: the link is recorded at signup, a coupon only at purchase.
• If a client or friend signs up without your link, import the referral as a request the SaaS company accepts or rejects.

7. Ignoring the program's rules

Each program sets its own rules, and its page in the marketplace shows them, including whether paid ads are allowed. Programs can automatically reject referrals that come from Google paid ads, or that share your IP address or email address, and mark them as potential fraud. So running ads where the program doesn't allow them, or signing up through your own link, can easily earn you nothing. A company can also remove affiliates who break its rules.

8. Expecting fast results, and quitting early

With an existing audience, first revenue typically comes within 1 to 3 months. Without one it takes longer, because your content has to rank and readers have to get to know you first.

Results are also concentrated. Across three B2B SaaS affiliate programs we analysed, covering more than 10,000 affiliate-months, the top 20% of active affiliates produced between 80 and 87% of program revenue. In over 90% of affiliate-months, the affiliate produced no paid referral at all.

So a quiet month is normal, and patience pays: every paying customer you add keeps earning for the program's commission period, so month 12 can look very different from month 2. Top affiliates in the Reditus network earn $60+ per click.

A quick checklist

• Run the ten-dollar test before you apply.
• Use the product, and check that the site converts.
• Write from your own experience and check the facts.
• Use a sub ID per channel.
• Read the program's rules, paid ads included.
• Add a payout method in your payment settings: PayPal, Wise or IBAN bank transfer to a European bank account. Without one, we can't pay you.
• Give a program a few months before you judge it.

Read next: how recurring commissions work and how to get more out of Reditus as an affiliate.