Offer brief: agree the rules before buying traffic

“Quality traffic, paid on results” leaves too much open to interpretation. A publisher may deliver exactly what an advertisement promises while the advertiser expects a different customer. Before buying traffic, agree a short brief with rules both sides can verify. It complements the contract and offer settings; it does not replace them.

Define an observable result

For every payable event, record its name, the moment it occurs, the system of record and the identifier both parties can use to locate it. Separate registration, a qualified enquiry, a first payment and a repeat purchase. If only new customers qualify, define an existing customer and the duplicate-checking window.

“Poor-quality lead” is not a useful rejection rule on its own. List specific reasons and the evidence needed: an excluded region, a duplicate within the agreed window or a reversed transaction. Missing evidence should trigger a clarification, not an arbitrary change of terms.

Complete seven sections

1. Product and audience: what is being offered, eligible countries, languages and restrictions.
2. Sources: permitted platforms and formats; address brand bidding, email, incentives and sub-affiliates separately. Resolve ambiguous cases in writing.
3. Assets: approved advertisements, the landing page and the person responsible for keeping claims current.
4. Event and rate: payable action, currency, exclusions, hold and reversal rules. Distinguish publisher compensation from advertiser cost and platform fees.
5. Volume limits: the period, time zone, stop procedure and treatment of events received before the stop but confirmed later.
6. Review: response deadline, rejection reasons and a safe method for exchanging identifiers.
7. Changes: version number, effective time and acknowledgement by the other party.

Test ambiguous situations

Educational example: search traffic is allowed, but brand bidding is not. “Search is permitted” is insufficient. The brief needs the protected names, treatment of misspellings and a process for approving disputed queries. This is a suggested operating practice, not a universal rule for every offer.

Ask the advertiser and publisher to independently describe three situations: a normal event, a duplicate and a confirmation after the campaign stops. If their answers differ, the offer is not ready. The acceptance criterion is a shared decision for each situation and a named contact for exceptions.

Keep a history when rules change

Retain the previous version and its approval date. Before changing a rate or acceptance criterion, agree which events use the new version: based on click time, registration time or another specified event. Do not silently rewrite past terms. If the panel has no version history, use a shared document and approval log; this is not a claim that AffiliateCore provides that feature.

At the first review, measure the share of rejections with an understandable reason and count unresolved disagreements per version. More disputes are a reason to clarify the brief before increasing volume, not automatic evidence of fraudulent traffic.

Continue with preparing an affiliate programme launch.