Sample case study for demonstration. This engagement is illustrative: the scenario is typical of the work Axoria does, and the results are described without figures until verified client data is published.
The situation
A B2B SaaS company selling project management software to small agencies had reached the point where paid search and content were producing steady but slowing growth. Leadership wanted an affiliate program, but a previous attempt through a self-serve network had produced a handful of coupon-site signups and a support headache, and had been quietly shut down.
They asked Axoria to design, launch and run an affiliate program that would bring in new customers rather than discount existing demand.
The challenge
Subscription businesses face specific affiliate problems. A commission on free trials rewards volume regardless of conversion; one on first payment ignores churn; recurring revenue share is attractive to partners but hard to forecast and easy to abuse. And without exclusions, the highest-volume partners are usually coupon sites intercepting customers already at the checkout. The brief was a program whose economics held up at scale and whose partners reached buyers the company was not already reaching.
Research and analysis
We started with the unit economics. Using billing cohort data, we modelled customer lifetime value by plan and acquisition source, then worked out the maximum commission the company could pay per paying customer while keeping affiliate CAC within its payback target. That ceiling was fixed before a single partner was approached.
Next we mapped the publisher landscape: software review platforms, comparison sites, agency-focused newsletters and YouTube channels, consultants who recommend tools to clients, and adjacent SaaS products with overlapping customers. Each was scored on audience fit, likely incrementality and effort; coupon and loyalty sites went into a separate tier with restricted terms.
Strategy
Commission model
A hybrid structure: a fixed payment on first paid conversion after a validation period, plus a capped recurring share for content and referral partners, priced under the LTV ceiling for each plan tier.
Partner tiers
Content, review and referral partners recruited first with hands-on onboarding; coupon and deal sites admitted later on reduced terms, with a last-click rule that excluded them when the customer arrived from another partner or a brand search.
Controls from day one
Postback tracking with sub-IDs, a validation window before payout, trademark bidding prohibited in the terms, and fraud monitoring designed in rather than added after the first bad payout.
The trade-off was slower early growth: recruiting content partners one by one takes longer than opening a network listing, but the first cohort set the standard for everything that followed.
Execution
Optimization
Monthly optimisation focused on partner quality rather than partner count. Partners whose customers churned early moved to fixed-fee terms; those whose customers retained well received more placement support and a higher recurring share. Sub-ID data showed which review-site placements converted, which informed what the client paid for. Fraud monitoring caught a few self-referral and cookie-stuffing attempts early; these were reversed and the partners removed before payout. Ongoing program management settled into a cadence of recruitment, activation, review and pruning.
Results (illustrative)
Figures are withheld until verified, client-approved data is published. Measured from the partnership platform and the billing system, the movements typical of a launch like this are:
- Active partners: a partner base built steadily through direct recruitment, with a high proportion of partners actually producing traffic, unlike open-network programs where most never activate.
- Affiliate-sourced trials: trials from the channel growing month on month, converting to paid at a rate comparable to the company’s own content traffic.
- Incremental share: the majority of affiliate-attributed customers arriving from content and referral partners rather than coupon sites, which is the measure that mattered most to the finance team.
What we learned
- Price the commission before you recruit. An LTV-based ceiling stopped the program buying customers at a loss and gave negotiations a clear boundary.
- Validate on payment, not signup. Postback tracking tied to billing removed the incentive for low-quality trial volume from the start.
- Recruit for incrementality. The slower route of direct recruitment produced partners who reached new buyers, which is what a SaaS affiliate program is for.
- Affiliate belongs in the mix, not on the side. Reporting affiliate CAC alongside paid channels in the performance marketing dashboard made it a budget line, not an experiment.