An affiliate agreement is the contract between a brand (advertiser) and an affiliate (publisher) that defines how the partnership works: what the affiliate is paid for and how much, when payment is made, which promotion methods are allowed, and what happens when rules are broken. Most programs use standard terms accepted at sign-up, with individual deals added as amendments.
Key clauses
| Clause | What it covers |
|---|---|
| Commission structure | CPA, RevShare or hybrid terms, qualification baselines, negative carryover |
| Tracking and attribution | Cookie duration, attribution model, whose records prevail |
| Payment terms | Hold period, net terms, minimum payout, currency, methods |
| Prohibited actions | Brand bidding, cookie stuffing, self-referral, incentivized or spam traffic |
| Compliance | Ad disclosures, advertising and responsible-gambling rules, data protection |
| Reversals and clawbacks | Valid reasons and time limits |
| Termination | Notice period, treatment of earned and future commissions |
Example
Example prohibited-actions clause: "Affiliate shall not use pop-ups, hidden iframes or any method that sets a tracking cookie without a user's click. Commissions generated in breach of this clause will be reversed, and Brand may terminate this Agreement immediately."
Why it matters
The agreement is what makes fraud rules enforceable: without written terms, reversing commissions for brand bidding or cookie stuffing turns into a negotiation. It also passes regulatory duties down the chain. In the US, the FTC expects affiliates to clearly disclose their relationship with the brand and expects advertisers to have reasonable programs to train and monitor their affiliate networks.
For affiliates, the termination clause deserves the closest reading, because it decides whether lifetime RevShare continues after either side ends the relationship.
MassPartner includes AI-assisted contract generation with prohibited-actions clauses, e-signatures and version history. A full sample is in the affiliate agreement template.
Related: brand bidding, commission reversal, net terms, cookie stuffing.