What separates a good affiliate manager from a great one

Every programme advertises a dedicated affiliate manager. Few explain what that manager is actually allowed to approve without escalation.

In our annual survey, affiliates ranked 'can approve a custom deal within one week' above every other attribute, including response speed and market knowledge.

The best managers we track share three habits: they send unprompted performance summaries, they disclose bad news early, and they know their own retention numbers by cohort.

Ask a prospective manager what their worst-performing geo is. The answer tells you more about the programme than any media kit.