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 Configuring a Tier
1
Go to Settings > Affiliate Tiers and click Add Tier.
2
Give the tier a descriptive name that reflects the performance level or affiliate type it represents — for example, "Premier Partners" or "New Affiliates".
3
Configure default settings for the tier: which offers are visible to all members, and what default payout structure they receive.
4
Click Save.
Tip:
Keep tier names meaningful to your team. Names like "Tier 1, Tier 2" become confusing quickly. Names like "Vetted Publishers" or "Trial Partners" communicate the intent at a glance.
Keep tier names meaningful to your team. Names like "Tier 1, Tier 2" become confusing quickly. Names like "Vetted Publishers" or "Trial Partners" communicate the intent at a glance.
Assigning Affiliates to a Tier
1
Open the affiliate's account record and click Edit.
2
Find the Tier dropdown and select the appropriate tier.
3
Click Save. The affiliate now inherits all default settings associated with that tier.
Note:
Each affiliate can only belong to one tier at a time. Moving an affiliate to a different tier updates their inherited settings immediately but does not change any custom payout overrides that have already been set at the affiliate-offer level.
Each affiliate can only belong to one tier at a time. Moving an affiliate to a different tier updates their inherited settings immediately but does not change any custom payout overrides that have already been set at the affiliate-offer level.
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 — the custom rate takes priority over both the offer default and the tier default.
1
Open the affiliate's profile and navigate to the Offer Access tab.
2
Find the offer you want to adjust and click the edit icon next to it.
3
Enter the custom payout amount and payout type.
4
Click Save. This rate now applies only to this affiliate on this offer.
Caution:
Custom affiliate-level payouts always take priority over offer defaults and tier defaults. If you update the tier's default payout later, affiliates with custom rates are not affected.
Custom affiliate-level payouts always take priority over offer defaults and tier defaults. If you update the tier's default payout later, affiliates with custom rates are not affected.
Tier Strategy Tips
- Start simple. Two or three tiers covering the quality range of your network is enough to start. Add more only when you have a clear need.
- Document your tier criteria. Affiliates will ask why they're in a certain tier — clear, written criteria make that conversation straightforward.
- Review tier assignments quarterly. High performers should move up; inactive or low-quality affiliates should move down.
- Use tiers for compliance, not just payouts. Restricting unverified affiliates to low-risk offers until they've proven their traffic quality is one of the most practical applications of the tier system.
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.