The dormant affiliate problem
Affiliate programs follow a steep power law: a handful of partners drive most of the revenue, and the majority sign up, grab a link and never promote. It is widely reported across the industry that most approved affiliates - often 80% or more - never drive a single sale.
Each of those partners already passed your approval process. They know your brand and they have an audience. Waking up even a small share of them is usually far cheaper than recruiting new ones.
Monthly leak = (Approved - Active) x Reactivation rate x Revenue per active affiliate
How to recover the leak
- Segment by time since last activity - 14, 30 and 60+ days dark need different messages. Our free Dormant Affiliate Finder does this from a CSV.
- Remove friction - ready-made creatives, swipe copy and a deep-link generator.
- Give a reason to act now - a time-limited commission bump or bonus for the first sale.
- Talk to the top 10% personally - a short call beats any automated sequence.
Frequently asked questions
What is a normal affiliate activation rate?
Many programs see only 10-20% of approved affiliates generating sales in a given quarter. Above 25% is strong.
How is "active" defined?
This calculator treats an affiliate as active if they drove at least one sale in the last 90 days. Use whatever definition your network reports.