What are commissioning rules?
Commissioning rules in the Hotmart Affiliate Program are the criteria that the system uses to assign the commission to Affiliate “A” or “B”, in cases where more than one Affiliate has recommended the product to the same customer.
For example, a user does a search and clicks on a banner for a particular website. At this point, the user is in the initial stages of the purchase cycle and has the first contact with the product. They might even buy it, but they will possibly leave the site and visit other pages before deciding.
However, in hours, days, or even weeks that same user is more likely to buy the product and after seeing a Promotional Link (Hotlink) from another Affiliate, makes the purchase.
That's where Hotmart's tracking technology comes in. It allows different assignment rules to be defined by the Content Producer to commission their Affiliates. Each rule has its characteristics and consequences. We’ll explain below!
Which Affiliate should receive the commission?
Cookies
Cookies are the way that platforms identify which affiliate link the buyer has used. Hotmart cookies have the duration defined by the creator of the product, and can vary from 60, 90, 180 days to evergreen with models of Last Click, First Click, and Multi Clicks.
Three ways to assign commissioning
Last Click
It is also known as “Last Cookie Counts” or “Last Click Counts”.
This is the standard rule of Hotmart and also the most common of affiliate programs. This rule is the most used for evergreen products, which are those products that are available on a regular basis and tend to have more linear growth. This rule assigns the commission to the Affiliate who referred the customer most recently, that is, the last Affiliate link the customer clicked on.
Main benefit: this rule allows Affiliates to offer special bonuses to their customers who, in turn, have the possibility to choose who they want to buy from.
This is fair for the buyer, who maintains the power to choose who they want to purchase the product from and, at the same time, this model encourages healthy competition among Affiliates, who will always try to promote the offer that is most appealing for the customer.
First Click
Also known as "First Cookie Counts" or "First Click Counts", this rule is not as common as the other attribution alternatives, as it favors the Affiliate who took the customer to the seller's website for the first time. However, it is a strategy widely used for launch products.
In this option, if the customer returns via the link of another Affiliate, this second Affiliate will not receive commissioning. The first one, who originally presented the offer, will get the commissioning.
Main benefit: it favors Affiliates who generate more leads while preventing the end customer from choosing who they want to buy the product from.
It is common that, in large product launches, Affiliates offer bonuses to customers, encouraging them to buy through their link.
As the customer will always be assigned to the first link, they will not be able to change Affiliate to obtain a bonus that interests them most, which can generate dissatisfaction and, consequently, increase in the volume of Customer Support work for the Producer.
Multi Click
In this modality, a commission from a sale can be shared with more than one Affiliate. This situation would occur in cases where the same buyer clicked on more than one Affiliate Promotional Link (HotLink). This way, the commission will always be divided between the first and the last Affiliate that promoted the product through their respective Promotional Links (HotLinks).
Main benefit: this system favors less competitive Affiliates or beginners. It sets up a better distribution of commissioning so that more people receive commissions - however, there is less return per sale.
In practice, the cases where this would happen are few. However, in some niches - especially in launches - this situation can occur more frequently.
It is important to remember that, in order for the Producer to be able to select the Multi click system, the product must not have Affiliates already linked to it or already created any coupons. Once Multi click is selected, it’s not possible to return to other systems.
Setting up the commissioning rule for your product
- Access your Hotmart account through the link: https://www.hotmart.com/login
- In the side menu, select Products
- Click I'm a Producer
- Choose the product you are going to configure the commissioning rule for
- In the product's internal menu, on the left side, click on Affiliate Program
- Now click on Settings and choose one of the three commissioning assignment options.
Remembering that, if you choose all Affiliates or only previously approved Affiliates, you can select and fill in some preferences such as Commissioning, Promotion, and Advanced.
- Finally, click Save
Do you want to learn more about this subject?
How to attract Affiliates with a Multi Click commission product
How does HotLeads track commissions?