DTC · Footwear
Affiliate commissions were being paid on sales the brand already owned.
This marketing & margin audit identified $44k in wasted annual spend in a DTC / Ecommerce business, evidenced, senior reviewed, and delivered in 5 days.
The business
A direct to consumer footwear brand ran a large affiliate and influencer program, paying commission on any sale that carried a partner’s link or discount code. The channel reported strong, growing revenue and was treated as one of the most cost effective in the mix, so the question of whether those sales were genuinely driven by partners was rarely asked.
What triggered the audit
Affiliate revenue kept climbing while blended margin didn’t follow, the classic sign of commissions paid on demand you already own. The audit tested how many affiliate attributed sales were genuinely incremental versus purchases from customers who arrived through branded search, direct or organic and simply picked up a code on the way to checkout.
What the audit found
A large share of affiliate commissions were being paid on sales the brand would have made anyway. Coupon and cashback partners in particular sit at the very bottom of the funnel, so a customer who already intended to buy, arriving via branded search, email or direct, would find a code at checkout, and the affiliate would claim the sale and the commission. The last click affiliate model rewarded whoever touched the customer last rather than whoever created the demand, so those partners were effectively taxing the brand’s own organic and branded traffic. Because the channel’s headline revenue looked strong, the nonincremental commissions stayed invisible. Netted out, roughly $44k a year was flowing to partners for purchases that needed no incentive at all.
What we changed
Deranked coupon and cashback partners in the attribution model, so commissions stop being paid on customers who arrive through branded search, direct and organic channels and simply pick up a code.
Set commission rules that reward genuinely incremental, top of funnel referrals that introduce new customers, rather than last click code drops at the checkout.
Tightened code eligibility and exclusions so branded search visitors and returning customers can’t trigger an affiliate payout they didn’t actually drive.
Instrumented incrementality across the program, so each partner’s value is measured on demand genuinely created rather than sales merely intercepted at the end.
The result
The outcomes were measured for three months after a 90 day implementation period. The published chart shows commissions on nonincremental sales falling from about 29% to about 2%, a 27 percentage point decrease. The incrementality review treated branded search, email or direct demand intercepted at checkout as demand the affiliate did not create. $44k a year recovered by paying partners only for demand they genuinely create, an annual figure equal to 7× the $5,950 Audit + Sprint fee. For any brand running affiliates, the leak is structural: last click rewards whoever touches the customer last, so coupon partners quietly tax your own branded and organic traffic. If you’ve never tested affiliate incrementality, you may be paying commission on sales you already own, and it grows with the program. A fixed fee audit separates created demand from intercepted demand in days, before the channel scales the waste.
From kickoff to signed off findings: 5 days.
What the client said
$44k a year of wasted spend cut in 5 days
Commissions paid on sales you already owned: ~29% → ~2%
“Affiliate revenue kept climbing and margin didn't. Victoria tested incrementality and coupon partners were collecting commission on customers who arrived through branded search and direct. We now pay for demand partners actually create.”
Victoria MillerSenior Auditor · signed this audit off