This article will cover the following:
What Are Affiliate Tiers?
Affiliate tiers let you group publishers into performance or trust levels — such as Gold, Silver, and Bronze — and apply consistent rules across the entire group at once. Instead of configuring payout rates and offer permissions one affiliate at a time, you define a tier once and it applies to every affiliate assigned to it.
- Rewarding top performers with higher default payouts.
- Restricting new or unverified affiliates to a limited set of offers.
- Separating traffic source types by the compliance rules they follow.
- Automatically granting offer access to all affiliates in a tier when a new offer is created.
Creating and Assigning Tiers
- Go to Settings → Affiliate Tiers and click Add Tier.
- Give the tier a descriptive name (e.g., "Premier Partners" or "New Affiliates").
- Configure default settings for the tier — which offers are visible, what default payout structure they receive.
- Assign affiliates to the tier by editing their individual account records and selecting the appropriate tier from the dropdown.
- Click Save.
Tip:
When you add a new offer and make it available to a tier, every affiliate in that tier automatically gains access — no individual configuration needed.
When you add a new offer and make it available to a tier, every affiliate in that tier automatically gains access — no individual configuration needed.
Setting Individual Payout Overrides
Even within a tier, you can set a custom payout for a specific affiliate on a specific offer. This is useful for negotiated rates with premium publishers.
- Open the affiliate's profile and navigate to the Offer Access tab.
- Find the offer you want to adjust and click the edit icon next to it.
- Enter the custom payout amount and payout type.
- Click Save. This custom rate will now apply only to this affiliate on this offer, leaving the tier default unchanged for everyone else.
Note:
Custom affiliate-level payouts always take priority over the offer's default payout and any tier-level payout. If you update the tier's default payout later, affiliates with custom rates are not affected.
Custom affiliate-level payouts always take priority over the offer's default payout and any tier-level payout. If you update the tier's default payout later, affiliates with custom rates are not affected.
Best Practices
- Start simple. Create 2–3 tiers that reflect your actual affiliate quality distribution before adding more.
- Document your tier criteria. Affiliates will ask why they're in a certain tier. Having clear, written criteria makes the conversation easier.
- Review tier assignments quarterly. High-performing affiliates should move up; inactive or low-quality affiliates should move down.
- Use tiers for compliance, not just payouts. Restrict unverified affiliates to low-risk offers until they've proven their traffic quality.
If you have any questions, please reach out to your dedicated CAKE Client Success Manager/Account Manager or contact the CAKE Support Team at support@getCAKE.com.