Comparison, cashback, deals and voucher codes: what role in the purchase journey?

Affiliate sites are not one block. Each family steps in at a specific moment of the journey, with a different effect on the brand. Lump them together and you end up paying them the same way, when they do not deliver the same value.

Comparison sites: the choice stage

Idealo or LeDénicheur in France, Kieskeurig in the Netherlands, PriceRunner in the UK: the consumer already has a shortlist and compares listings, prices and retailers. The comparison site captures strong intent. For a considered purchase, it brings conversion and often new customers, provided the product listing is complete and the price consistent across channels.

Cashback sites: loyalty at the point of payment

iGraal, Poulpeo or Widilo in France, TopCashback and Quidco in the UK pay part of their commission back to their members. Their audience buys regularly and comes back. Cashback triggers additional purchases and tips a hesitant customer over the line. It also very often steps in on baskets that were already full.

Deal sites: visibility for the promotion

Dealabs in France, HotUKDeals in the UK: a community votes, comments and pushes the best offers up. A well-placed deal drives a spike in traffic and sales within hours. The downside: a very low price sticks in people's minds, and in their screenshots.

Voucher code sites: the last click

These sites rank on "brand + voucher code" searches. Part of their traffic comes from customers already in the checkout, who open a new tab the moment they see the "promo code" field. Their real contribution depends almost entirely on the rules the brand sets.

Where does the cannibalisation risk lie?

Cannibalisation means paying a commission on a sale that would have happened without the partner. It does not show up in a standard dashboard: tracked sales grow, total revenue stalls. Four mechanisms explain it.

• Last-click attribution. Most programmes pay the last partner clicked. The voucher code site touched at the end of the journey takes the sale built by a press review, a creator video or a paid campaign.
• Sales already won. A loyal customer who goes through their cashback portal out of habit costs a commission without bringing in any extra revenue.
• Code leakage. A code reserved for a creator or a loyalty partner turns up on dozens of sites within days. Margin falls on sales that never needed a discount.
• Price perception. A permanent discount, visible on deal and comparison sites, anchors a lower reference price. The list price loses credibility, and the premium positioning goes with it.

Which rules should you set before activating these partners?

An affiliate programme is a contract. Its rules decide who gets paid, for what and on what terms. They are configured in the platform: on Impact.com, each partner group can receive its own terms.

Commissions differentiated by partner type

A comparison site that brings customers at the choice stage should not be paid like a voucher code site that steps in at checkout. Set rates by family, and reserve the highest rates for the partners that create demand: media, creators, comparison sites.

Commissions differentiated for new customers

A new customer is worth more than an order from an existing one. Pay more for the first order, and apply a reduced rate, or none at all, to known customers. It is the most direct lever against paying for sales already won.

Cookie windows that fit

A long window protects a publisher whose reader buys two weeks after reading a review. A short window limits the capture of sales by an end-of-journey partner. Adjust the duration by family rather than applying a single rule to the whole programme.

A list of authorised codes

Define which codes each partner may publish, with which discount and which end date. Creators' named codes stay named. Any unauthorised code found on a site leads to cancellation of the related commissions, which must be written into the programme terms.

Control of brand bidding

Ban affiliates from buying the brand name as a keyword on Google Ads and Microsoft Ads, in all its variants. Without this rule, a partner buys back your own traffic and sells it to you as commission. Regular monitoring of ads on your brand searches completes the set-up.

How do you measure affiliate incrementality?

Incrementality answers a single question: how many sales did this partner create, beyond those that would have happened without it? Tracked sales alone cannot answer it. Three methods work for the budgets of growing brands.

• With-and-without tests. Pause a partner or a partner family for a set period, or in one market, and compare total sales with a control period or market. If revenue does not move, the commission was paying for sales already won.
• Share of new customers. Track, partner by partner, the proportion of first orders. A site that brings mostly existing customers calls for a renegotiation.
• The journey before the click. Analyse the touchpoints that precede the attributed sale. If a voucher code site mostly appears after a media or creator click, it closes sales more than it creates them.

Add average basket and return rate per partner to these measures. A partner that generates lots of small discounted orders is not worth the same as a comparison site that brings full baskets at list price.

How do you combine affiliate sites, media and creators?

Cashback, deal and voucher code sites convert demand. They do not create it. For a considered-purchase brand, demand is born elsewhere: in press reviews, buying guides and creator demonstrations.

Press Relations secure reviews and buying guides at Les Numériques, 01net or Frandroid in France, Tom's Guide or TechRadar in the UK, Tweakers in the Netherlands. This content carries tracked affiliate links: editorial coverage becomes measurable all the way to sales. Creator Marketing extends the story with tracked links and named codes. Affiliate sites then step in at the end of the journey, on demand that is already in place.

In this model, order matters. The deal-site offer calendar follows the press and creator calendar, not the other way round. A launch starts with coverage and reviews; promotions come later, at chosen peak moments.

The result reads in a single report: coverage, creator content and sales by partner, in one place. Brands that run these three levers with three different providers watch each of them claim the same sale.

Which warning signs should you watch for in an existing programme?

A programme launched without rules drifts fast. These signs justify an audit:

• Voucher code sites account for most tracked sales.
• The share of new customers falls while affiliate sales grow.
• Reserved codes appear on unauthorised sites.
• Affiliate ads show up on brand searches.
• The price seen on deal sites becomes the reference price consumers quote.

An audit reviews sales by partner family, the share of new customers, the journey before the click and the programme terms. It ends with a new commission grid, often more generous for media and creators, stricter for the end of the journey. To pick the right support, see our guide on how to choose an affiliate agency.

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