Summary
Voucher sites are the classic argument in every affiliate programme: the customer was going to buy anyway, so am I paying commission for nothing? The honest answer: some of those sales would have happened without the publisher, some would not. If you exclude voucher sites, you often lose the whole sale to a competitor. If you pay full commission, you probably overpay. The strategy in between: 50% of your regular commission for voucher publishers. This article explains it in simple steps with a worked example.
1. The problem in one sentence
A customer has a basket in your shop, opens a new tab, searches for a discount code, lands on a voucher site, clicks and buys. The publisher gets the full commission. The question: would you have made the sale without them?
This question is as old as affiliate marketing. It has never had a clean answer, and that is down to the customer, not to you.
2. Why the question cannot be settled
Only the customer decides whether to buy. Roughly, there are three types:
- The buyer anyway. They would have ordered without a code.
- The quitter. They abandon the purchase if they cannot find a code.
- The deal hunter. They are not looking for you at all, only for the best offer on a product. They buy wherever they get a working code fastest. That can be you, or just as easily your competitor.
With a single order you cannot see which type it was. So the fair rule of thumb is: the sale is roughly half down to the customer and half down to the publisher. This is an estimate from our practice, not a measured industry figure.
3. Strategy 1: exclude voucher sites
It sounds like saving money: no voucher sites, no commission. In practice the sum often does not work out.
The publisher does not disappear; they simply promote other shops. The customer keeps looking for a discount, finds one at a competitor and buys there. That matches our experience at selecdoo.
You lose more than one sale. You lose the customer record. A new customer joins your newsletter and buys again over the years without you paying commission again. If they buy from the competitor, that competitor builds its business with them.
4. Strategy 2: pay full commission
This is the comfortable option, but it has a problem too. Some of those customers were yours anyway. For those sales you pay the full price for a service the publisher delivered only in part.
5. Strategy 3: 50% of your regular commission
If the question cannot be settled, the commission should reflect exactly that: a voucher publisher can claim only about half of the sale, so they get half of the commission.
Worked example (simplified, for illustration): your basket is €70 and your regular commission is 10%.
| Strategy | Commission per sale | What happens to the customer |
|---|---|---|
| Exclude | €0.00 | The publisher often promotes the competition. The sale and customer record can end up there. |
| Full commission | €7.00 | The customer stays with you, but you also pay for sales that were safe anyway. |
| Half commission | €3.50 | The customer stays with you, the publisher stays motivated, and you pay only for the share they contribute. |
With 100 voucher sales of €70 each, that is €350 instead of €700 in commission. You keep €350 without losing the publisher.
6. Why this is fair to both sides
- The shop gets the sale and the customer record that might otherwise have gone to a competitor. It pays half and keeps the publisher on its side.
- The publisher has put work into their site, reach and visibility. That is still paid, just at the level they can really claim.
7. How to put it into practice
- Decide which publishers count as voucher sites.
- Set 50% of your regular commission for this group.
- Say it openly: they stay in the programme, with a fair share.
- After a few weeks, check whether revenue and new customers stay stable.
Conclusion
You can never answer with certainty whether you overpay voucher publishers, because in the end the customer decides. Excluding them risks sales and new customers going to the competition. Full commission probably pays too much. Half commission is the fair middle way: you stay visible, you secure the customer and you pay only for the share the publisher contributes.