Sub Affiliates in CAKE

Jeff Olliver

Modified on: Sat, 20 Jun, 2026 at 8:28 PM

This article will cover the following:

What Is a Sub Affiliate?
How Sub Affiliate Tracking Works
Viewing Sub Affiliate Performance
Payout Structures
Managing and Adding Sub Affiliates

What Is a Sub Affiliate?

A sub affiliate is a publisher you recruit and manage under your own affiliate account. Instead of joining an advertiser's program directly, sub affiliates run traffic through you — the primary affiliate — and you take responsibility for their performance, compliance, and payouts.

Sub affiliate relationships are common for:

Media buying agencies managing multiple in-house traffic sources.
Affiliate networks that white-label campaigns for their own publishers.
Experienced affiliates who mentor and manage newer publishers.

Note:
Sub affiliates are sometimes called "sub publishers" or "tier-2 affiliates" depending on your network. In CAKE, the platform refers to them as sub affiliates throughout the interface.

How Sub Affiliate Tracking Works

CAKE uses sub IDs — small pieces of extra information appended to your tracking link — to identify which sub affiliate sent a conversion.

You receive a tracking link from the advertiser or network for the offer you're running.

You append a sub ID to that link identifying the sub affiliate — for example, adding ?s1=publisher42 to your URL. Each sub affiliate gets a different value.

The sub affiliate runs traffic to their version of the link. When a user clicks, CAKE records the sub ID alongside the click.

A conversion fires. CAKE ties the conversion back to your account as the primary affiliate and records the sub ID.

Reports populate in your dashboard, broken out by sub ID so you can analyze each sub affiliate's contribution.

CAKE supports multiple sub ID slots — commonly S1 through S5 — so you can pass several pieces of identifying information at once: sub affiliate ID, ad placement, creative version, and more.

Caution:
Sub ID values are passed as plain text in the URL. Never place sensitive personal data (full names, email addresses, payment details) in a sub ID field. Use internal codes or numeric identifiers instead.

Viewing Sub Affiliate Performance

The Sub Affiliate Report

Go to Reports in your affiliate portal and open the Sub Affiliate Report. It lists every sub ID that has recorded at least one click or conversion within your selected date range, with clicks, conversions, CVR, revenue, and payout for each sub affiliate. You can filter by offer, date range, or specific sub ID values.

Offer-Level Breakdown

If you're running multiple offers, break down performance by offer and then by sub ID within each offer — useful when a sub affiliate is running traffic across several campaigns.

Tip:
Set your reporting date range to match your payout period before exporting. This makes reconciliation much easier and helps you catch discrepancies before you process payments to your sub affiliates.

Payout Structures

When a sub affiliate drives a conversion, the money flows: advertiser pays the network → network pays you (the primary affiliate) → you pay your sub affiliate. CAKE tracks the top of this chain — your earnings. The portion you pass down is managed outside CAKE.

Payout Model	How It Works	Common Use Case
Fixed split	Pay the sub affiliate a fixed % of every conversion payout (e.g. 70% to them, 30% to you).	Long-term publisher relationships with predictable performance.
Flat rate per conversion	Pay a set dollar amount per conversion regardless of your own payout rate.	Standardizing payouts across many sub affiliates on different offers.
Tiered rate	Sub affiliate earns more per conversion once they hit a volume threshold.	Incentivizing high-volume publishers to scale up.
Negotiated rate	Payout agreed individually with each sub affiliate.	Premium publishers who command higher rates.

Caution:
CAKE does not process payments to your sub affiliates automatically. You use the sub ID reporting to determine what each sub affiliate earned, then pay them according to your own agreement. Document your payment schedule and terms clearly in writing with each sub affiliate.

Managing and Adding Sub Affiliates

Click Add Sub Affiliate or Invite. Enter the publisher's name, email address, and contact details.

Assign a unique sub ID or let CAKE generate one automatically. Note this ID — you'll need it to build their tracking link.

If your network requires approval, the sub affiliate will remain pending until approved by you or a network admin.

Once approved, build the sub affiliate's tracking link by appending their sub ID to your primary affiliate link and share it with them.

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.