Most guides to running an influencer affiliate programme assume you have a marketing team, a budget, and an influencer platform that costs £300 a month. If you're a small brand doing under £10K a month, none of that applies to you.
Here's the version that actually works at your scale.
What "affiliate programme" means at small scale
Forget the enterprise version. At small scale, an affiliate programme is this: you give a handful of creators unique tracking links, they promote your product, and you pay them a commission on every sale they generate. That's it.
No contracts department. No influencer management platform. No minimum spend. Just tracked links, real sales data, and a bank transfer when the numbers add up.
Why micro-influencers work better for this
Creators with 2,000 to 50,000 followers tend to have audiences that actually listen to them. Their engagement rates are higher, their recommendations carry more weight, and their followers trust them because they haven't yet become walking billboards.
The maths works differently too. A creator with 5,000 engaged followers who converts at 2% will outsell a creator with 200,000 followers who converts at 0.1%. You'll pay less upfront (or nothing upfront if it's commission-only) and get better results per pound spent.
The problem has always been tracking. How do you know which creator drove which sale? That's where most small brands give up and go back to discount codes, which come with their own problems.
Setting it up in an afternoon
Here's the practical version, start to finish.
Pick your creators. Start with 3 to 5. Look for people who already talk about products like yours, whose audience matches your customer profile, and who respond to DMs. Don't overthink this. You're not signing lifetime deals. You're testing.
Create a unique link for each one. Use an attribution tool like LinkOwl to generate a tracked link per creator. Each link points to your product page but carries the creator's identity, so when someone clicks through and buys, you know exactly who sent them.
Set your commission. Common ranges for small brands: 10-20% of the sale price. If your margins are tight, go lower. If you need creators to say yes, go higher. Some brands offer a flat fee per sale instead of a percentage, which is simpler to calculate and easier for creators to understand. Pick whatever works and be upfront about it.
Send the links out. Give each creator their link, tell them the commission rate, and let them know you'll share their sales data regularly. That transparency matters. Creators who can see their own numbers stay motivated.
Track and pay. Check your dashboard weekly. At the end of each month (or whatever cycle you agree on), add up each creator's sales and pay them. Bank transfer, PayPal, whatever you both prefer.
What to tell creators when you reach out
Keep it short. Something like:
"Hey, I run [brand]. I've seen you post about [related topic] and your audience seems like a great fit. I'd love to set up an affiliate deal — I'll give you a unique tracking link, and you earn [X%] on every sale it generates. No upfront commitment, no posting requirements. Interested?"
Most micro-influencers are used to getting free products or flat fees for posts. An ongoing commission deal is appealing because it means recurring income for them, not just a one-off payment. Frame it that way.
The discount code problem
Plenty of brands skip tracking links and use discount codes instead. "Use code SARAH15 for 15% off." Simple enough, right?
The issue is that discount codes leak. They get shared on coupon sites, passed around in group chats, and used by people who never saw Sarah's content. You end up attributing sales to Sarah that she had nothing to do with, and you lose margin on every one.
Tracking links don't have this problem. The attribution happens through the click, not a typed-in code. If someone Googles your brand and buys directly, that sale doesn't get wrongly credited to a creator. You can still offer discounts if you want to — just don't rely on the discount code as your attribution method.
Scaling from 5 to 20
Once you've found 2 or 3 creators who consistently drive sales, the model proves itself. Scaling means finding more creators who look like your top performers and giving them the same deal.
A few things change as you grow:
Tiered commissions. Your top performers earn a higher rate. This rewards results and gives newer creators something to work toward.
Monthly reporting. Send each creator a quick summary of their clicks, sales, and earnings. Takes five minutes if your tracking tool has a dashboard, and it keeps everyone engaged.
Minimum payout thresholds. Below a certain amount (say £20), roll the commission over to next month. Saves you from processing dozens of tiny payments.
Content guidelines. Not scripts — guidelines. Tell creators what messaging works (based on your actual sales data) and let them interpret it in their own voice. The whole point of micro-influencers is authenticity. Don't kill it with a brand deck.
What this costs
If you're using a pay-per-sale tracking tool, your costs are: the creator's commission (10-20% of each sale) plus a small attribution fee (a few pence per tracked sale with something like LinkOwl). No monthly platform fees, no setup costs, no minimum spend.
Compare that to a managed influencer platform at £200-500 a month, where you're paying whether or not anyone sells anything. At small scale, pay-per-sale wins on every metric that matters.
Common mistakes
Picking creators by follower count. A creator with 3,000 followers in your exact niche will outsell one with 100,000 followers in a vaguely related space. Relevance beats reach.
Not sharing data. Creators who can't see their own performance lose interest. Give them access to their numbers.
Overcomplicating the deal. "You get 12% on first purchases, 8% on repeat purchases, 15% if they buy within 48 hours..." Just pick a flat rate and keep it clean.
Expecting instant results. Affiliate programmes compound over time. A creator's first post might generate 2 sales. Their fifth post, once their audience recognises your brand, might generate 20. Give it at least 2 to 3 months before deciding if it works.
When to graduate to something bigger
If you've got 20+ active affiliates generating consistent revenue, you might outgrow the spreadsheet-and-tracking-links approach. That's a good problem. At that point, look at dedicated affiliate management tools.
But most small brands never need to get there. Five to ten reliable micro-influencers, each with a tracked link and a fair commission, can drive meaningful revenue without any of the complexity.
Start with three creators this week. Give them links. See what happens. The data will tell you everything you need to know about where to go next.