Choosing the Right Partner Model

Choosing a partner model isn't picking a commission number in isolation. It's aligning three things — who your partners are, how you reward them, and how you attribute their installs — with how your app actually reaches merchants. Get those three in sync and the program runs itself; leave them mismatched and it stalls.

Start from your best partner type

Work backwards from who drives installs. If agencies are your channel, design for them: recurring revenue share (they value long-term client relationships), direct App Store links, and manual attribution for installs done inside client builds. If it's creators and affiliates, lean into tracked links and a strong first-touch reward. If it's your own customers, keep it dead simple — one link, one clear reward.

Match reward to effort and margin

The reward has to be worth the partner's effort and survivable for you. An agency won't move for a $10 one-time bounty; a thin-margin app can't afford lifetime revenue share on every store. See the commission and revenue-share chapters for the detail — the model-level point is that the reward is a lever you tune against partner motivation and your own economics, not a fixed constant.

Let attribution shape the model

This is the step app founders skip. If your best partners install apps for clients directly, a link-only model will under-credit them and they'll drift away. Choose a model your attribution can actually support end to end — including manual assignment for off-link referrals.

Keep the first version simple

One partner type to focus on, one commission model you can afford, one or two attribution methods. Add complexity — tiers, custom terms, multiple partner tracks — only once the simple version is working and you have partners to justify it.