📋 Real Programmes · Real Data · Real Findings

This Is What an Expert Audit
Actually Looks Like.

Five real affiliate programmes. Five brutally honest expert audits. Every issue found, quantified, and prioritised — this is what AME delivers automatically, for every client, every week.

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All audits anonymised. Client data redacted. Findings, numbers and issues are real.

5
Real programmes audited below
$661K+
Revenue under management across all 5
$372K
In frozen or at-risk unpaid commissions found
50.4
Average health score out of 100
100%
Had critical issues they didn't know about
What You're Looking At

Every programme below thought
they were doing fine.

These are real audit reports generated by AME across five different niches and markets. Revenue was coming in. Nobody had flagged a crisis. AME found the leaks, the frozen commissions, the broken trust signals, the misfired tracking, the commission tiers that existed on paper but not in the system — and turned every finding into a prioritised task list with exact instructions.

👙
Lingerie · US Market · 99 days live
A 99-day programme paying every publisher the same 3% — including the influencer network it publicly promises 25%.
Within the first 99 days, AME identified a tracking system leaking commission to the brand's own marketing channels, a commission structure that exists in the description but not in the platform, and a partner mix dominated by the wrong publisher types. The programme is generating revenue despite itself.
51 / 100
Health Index
51.28
Health score / 100
$110,615
Revenue · 99 days
38%
Active publishers (bench: 60%)
3%
Rate paid to ALL publishers
25%
Rate publicly promised to influencers
16
Transactions with no affiliate click
Findings
Tracking pixel firing on non-affiliate sales
The server-to-server tracking pixel is firing on SMS marketing, military discount, employee, outlet, birthday and direct-mail sales — all without an affiliate click cookie. 16 of the most recently inspected transactions carried brand-owned voucher codes and were attributed to the affiliate channel with zero publisher involvement.
Commission paid incorrectly on own-channel sales
Commission promise not delivered at system level
The programme description publicly states "3% default and up to 25% for content and influencers." The welcome email repeats that promise. The platform contains one commission group — Default, at 3%. Every publisher, including the largest US influencer network, earns the same rate. No Content tier, no Influencer tier, no Bonus Manager rule, no Basket-Value rule exists.
1 of 4 promised tiers deployed
Wrong partner types dominating, right ones underpaid
Coupon, cashback, sub-network and browser-extension publishers make up 22.7% of active partners (54 of 236). The brand wants to prioritise content and influencer channels — but those are the publishers being paid the same 3% as everyone else. The Opportunity Marketplace has zero offers logged, blocking premium publisher discovery entirely.
No influencer or content differentiation in place
De-duplication promised against 8 channels — not configured
Programme Terms claim de-duplication against eight other marketing channels. The platform has no de-duplication rules set. This is why the affiliate pixel is firing on SMS and direct-mail conversions — there is no system to prevent it.
Legal exposure on commission disputes
Priority Task List
CriticalRemove brand-owned voucher codes from server-to-server pixel trigger — all brand-owned codes must be excluded from affiliate attribution to stop non-affiliate sales claiming commission
CriticalCreate a Content commission tier at 12–15% and an Influencer tier at 20–25%. Move the largest US influencer network off the 3% default rate immediately
CriticalConfigure de-duplication rules across all 8 channels named in Programme Terms — currently the platform has zero rules despite the legal commitment
HighAdd Bonus Manager rules for basket-value thresholds — the plan includes this tool and it has zero rules configured. Tiered incentives at £50, £100 and £200+ baskets would immediately increase average order value
HighLog at least 3 active offers in the Opportunity Marketplace — currently empty, which blocks sub-network and premium publisher discovery and recruitment
HighBuild a Commission by Assist rule to reward upper-funnel publishers for assisted conversions — currently only last-click publishers benefit, which structurally undervalues content and editorial partners
MediumAudit the 54 coupon and cashback active publishers — review performance against margin targets and determine which should be moved to a lower commission group or declined
Commission Structure
Default rate (all publishers)3%
Influencer rate promised25% → paying 3%
Content rate promisedNot deployed
Bonus Manager rules0 configured
Commission by Assist rules0 configured
Basket-value rules0 configured
Publisher Mix (236 active)
Coupon / cashback / sub-network22.7% (54 publishers)
Largest US influencer networkActive — on 3% default
Content / editorial publishersUnderpaid vs promise
Opportunity Marketplace offers0 logged
Activation rate38% (bench: 60%+)
Tracking Diagnosis
Transactions inspected16 recent
Without affiliate click cookieAll 16
Brand voucher codes firing pixelSMS, military, employee, b-day
De-duplication rules active0 of 8 channels
Server-to-server statusLeaking
💎
Jewellery · US Market · 22 months live
Validation frozen. $368,107 in commissions stuck. Average payment time 157 days. Programme terms blank since launch.
At 22 months, this programme has been running long enough that every structural problem has compounded. The credit limit is exceeded, validation is frozen, publishers cannot be paid, and the programme terms that would protect the brand legally have been blank for the entire duration of the programme. AME found it all in one audit.
51 / 100
Health Index
51.14
Health score / 100
$368,107
Commissions frozen/pending
1,865
Transactions stuck in pending
157 days
Avg payment time (bench: 60)
0 of 6
Programme terms tabs complete
FROZEN
Validation status
Findings
Validation completely frozen — credit limit exceeded
1,865 commissions worth $368,107.31 are sitting in pending. The platform banner reads: "Transaction validation is temporarily paused while we wait for an invoice payment." Every publisher in the programme is aware their commissions are not moving. The conversion rate has stalled at 0.95% and EPC is $0.10.
Publishers cannot be paid — active exodus risk
Programme terms blank for 22 months
Every structured tab in Programme Terms has been blank since 21 May 2024 — PPC (17 questions), Transaction (13 questions), Branding, Commission protection (5 fields), Notice Periods, Publishers, and De-Duplication (8 channels). The brand has been operating with zero written legal protection for the entire lifespan of the programme.
Zero legal protection against any publisher dispute
Product feed mapped to wrong category for 22 months
The product feed is mapped to vertical 'Fashion' — not 'Jewellery'. Last modified 2 months prior to audit. No enhanced feed. No search engine feed. Every shopping publisher and comparison site in the programme has been receiving wrong category data since launch, silently suppressing discovery and relevance.
Shopping publishers operating on wrong product data
Voucher codes in wrong record types — leakage risk
Active offers include a brand-inappropriate code, two placeholder expiry dates (2029 and 2035), and a voucher code embedded inside a Promotion record rather than a Voucher record — creating leakage risk. A second code referenced in live Mother's Day creative is missing from My Offers entirely.
Live creative pointing to untracked code
Auto-validation set to 62 days — compounds payment delays
With average payment time already at 157 days and validation frozen, the 62-day auto-validation period is a further compounding factor. Industry standard is 30 days. Every day a transaction sits unvalidated is another day a publisher waits — and another data point that signals unreliability.
62-day auto-validation vs 30-day benchmark
Priority Task List
CriticalPay the overdue invoice immediately to unfreeze validation — 1,865 transactions worth $368,107 are blocked and every active publisher can see the payment banner on the programme profile
CriticalReduce auto-validation period from 62 days to 30 days as a minimum signal of intent to publishers — this can be done immediately without resolving the invoice
CriticalComplete all 6 Programme Terms tabs — PPC, Transaction, Branding, Commission protection, Notice Periods and De-Duplication. The brand has zero written protection for 22 months of commissions
CriticalRemap product feed from 'Fashion' to 'Jewellery', refresh all category mappings, and submit an enhanced feed for shopping publishers — current feed has been wrong for the entire programme lifetime
HighMove the Mother's Day creative voucher code from a Promotion record into a Voucher record to remove leakage risk — the code is live in creative but untracked in the system
HighAudit all 7 active offers — remove the brand-inappropriate code name, replace the 2029 and 2035 placeholder expiry dates with real promotional windows
HighReview the 720-publisher base quality — the join velocity is high but the mix is thin (Instagram handles, sub-networks). Create a publisher quality scoring process to separate real traffic from noise
MediumBuild a publisher communication plan to address the payment crisis transparently — proactively messaging active publishers before they raise disputes reduces escalation risk significantly
Payment & Validation
Validation statusFROZEN
Pending commissions$368,107 (1,865 txns)
Average payment time157 days (bench: 60)
Auto-validation period62 days (bench: 30)
Conversion rate0.95% (declining)
EPC$0.10
Programme Terms Status
PPC (17 questions)Blank since May 2024
Transactions (13 questions)Blank since May 2024
BrandingBlank since May 2024
Commission protection (5 fields)Blank since May 2024
De-duplication (8 channels)Blank since May 2024
Total tabs complete0 of 6
Product Feed & Offers
Feed categoryFashion (should be Jewellery)
Last feed update2 months stale
Enhanced feedNot submitted
Active offers7 (2 with placeholder expiry)
Code in wrong record type1 live code
Code missing from My Offers1 in live creative
🌿
Home & Garden · German Market · 200 days live
82,738 clicks. 14 sales. The commission structure promised to publishers exists only in the description — 98.9% are on the wrong rate.
A high-ticket German home and garden brand, 200 days live, with a tracking system that works, publishers finding their way in, and sales of EUR 6,000 to EUR 22,000 recorded. By every surface metric, operational. By every commercial metric, a programme paying for infrastructure it hasn't turned on.
42 / 100
Health Index
42
Health score / 100
82,738
Clicks year to date
14
Total transactions YTD
4
Daily active publishers
98.9%
Publishers on wrong rate
€-909
Account balance (overdrawn)
Findings
Conversion collapse hidden behind click volume
82,738 clicks produced 14 transactions. One large content sub-network drove 21,252 clicks and converted 2 sales — a 0.009% conversion rate. The click numbers look healthy in a dashboard headline view. AME flagged the underlying conversion crisis that those numbers were concealing.
0.009% conversion from largest traffic source
Commission differentiation exists in writing, not in the system
The programme description promises base 3%, voucher 4%, content/influencer 7–8%. The platform has one commission group: DEFAULT at 3%. 364 of 368 publishers (98.9%) sit on it. Two publishers are on the Influencer template, four on the Voucher template. Bonus Manager, Commission by Basket Value, and Commission by Assist all have zero rules.
98.9% of publishers on default — differentiation not deployed
Brand paying commission against its own terms
12 of 14 year-to-date transactions carry voucher codes not registered in My Offers. Programme Terms state only registered codes are commissionable. The brand is paying commission on transactions that — under its own published rules — are not commissionable. No one had spotted it.
12 of 14 transactions technically non-commissionable
Overdrawn account visible to every partner considering joining
The account shows EUR -909.68 balance, a credit limit exceeded warning, and average payment time of 68 days against a 30-day benchmark. This is the exact data a sub-network or premium publisher screens before deciding whether to onboard. With 357 of 368 publishers still inactive, the arrears flag is the most visible recruitment-blocking signal in the account.
Arrears flag blocking sub-network recruitment
Programme Terms and platform configuration in conflict
Terms commit to a 60-day cookie and 45-day validation. Platform is configured at 90 days and 60 days respectively. Terms exclude cashback at launch — six cashback publishers are joined and active. The legal document and the technical configuration don't match.
Terms and platform config in direct conflict
Priority Task List
CriticalClear the EUR -909.68 overdrawn balance and set up direct debit — the arrears flag on the account overview is visible to every sub-network and premium publisher evaluating the programme before joining
CriticalRegister all active voucher codes in My Offers immediately — 12 of 14 YTD transactions carry unregistered codes, making them technically non-commissionable under the brand's own Programme Terms
CriticalCreate Voucher (4%) and Content/Influencer (7–8%) commission groups and migrate publishers — 364 of 368 are on the wrong rate and the differentiation promised has not been deployed
HighInvestigate the large content sub-network traffic urgently — 21,252 clicks converting at 0.009% strongly indicates low-quality, incentivised or bot traffic. Pause or decline if quality cannot be verified
HighAlign Programme Terms with platform configuration — cookie duration, validation period and cashback exclusion are all in conflict between the legal document and the live setup
HighReduce validation period from 60 to 30–45 days to align with the 45-day commitment in Programme Terms and to reduce the payment timeline that is already above benchmark at 68 days
MediumBuild a publisher activation programme for the 357 dormant publishers — segment by type, send targeted reactivation with the correct commission offer for each publisher category
Commission Structure
Default rate3%
Voucher rate (promised)4% → 364 on 3%
Content/influencer (promised)7–8% → not deployed
Publishers on promised rate1.1% (4 of 368)
Bonus Manager rules0
Basket-value rules0
Traffic & Conversion
Total clicks YTD82,738
Total sales YTD14
Top sub-network clicks21,252
Top sub-network sales2 (0.009%)
Daily active publishers4
Dormant publishers357 of 368
Account Health
Account balanceEUR -909.68
Avg payment time68 days (bench: 30)
Validation period60 days (Terms: 45)
Cookie window90 days (Terms: 60)
Cashback publishers joined6 (Terms: excluded)
Unregistered codes paid12 of 14 transactions
🕊️
Wall Art · US Market · 7 months live
The programme profile simultaneously promises "Payments: Always on time" and displays a live overdue invoice banner. Every publisher sees both.
Seven months in, this programme is operationally functional — revenue is coming in, tracking works, publishers are transacting. The crisis is structural: a broken trust signal visible to every publisher, a commission system that labels 96% of publishers as Top Performers but pays them the default rate, and 67% of all revenue sitting in a single partnership.
54 / 100
Health Index
54
Health score / 100
$50,633
Revenue YTD
24.1%
Active publishers (bench: 60%)
126 days
Avg payment time (bench: 60)
67%
Revenue from single partner
$4,043
Unpaid invoice — live on profile
Findings
Live trust contradiction visible to every publisher
The programme profile carries a live banner: "Your account has overdue invoices and insufficient funds." Directly below, the programme description states: "Payments: Always on time." Average payment time is 126 days. Every publisher reading the profile sees the promise and its refutation simultaneously. This is the first thing AME flagged.
Brand-protection and commercial exposure combined
Commission group tagging completely disconnected from payment
1,146 of 1,193 publishers (96%) are tagged with a "12% Top Performer" template. The Commission Group Performance report shows 100% of 976 year-to-date sales paid at the default 10% rate. The brand believes it is paying differentiated commission and has labelled publishers accordingly. The system is paying default to everyone. The brand doesn't know.
1,146 publishers labelled Top Performer — all on default rate
67% revenue dependency on a single mobile-PPC partner
One partner — a mobile-PPC publisher with 92% smartphone traffic and a five-minute average click-to-sale latency from search engine source — produces $33,868 of year-to-date revenue. That is 67% of the entire programme. Top-3 reaches 80%. Top-10 reaches 96%. Loss of this one partner would collapse programme revenue by two-thirds within 30 days.
Programme collapses if one partner leaves
Household-name partners approved and completely dormant
Major US cashback, deals, coupon, shopping and affiliate data publishers are all approved with click traffic — and zero sales. These are the partners that would immediately reduce the concentration risk. They're in the programme. Nobody has activated them. No outreach, no offer, no incentive exists in the account.
Top-tier partners approved — zero activation effort
Recruitment built on tier promises that aren't delivered
The programme actively recruits publishers with messaging referencing "up to 17% commission tiers." The April 2026 invoice of $4,043 is unpaid — four times the largest previous monthly invoice — indicating the funding model has not scaled with growth. 905 publishers are dormant. The recruitment promise and the operational reality are entirely disconnected.
7 of 9 programme terms tabs blank
Priority Task List
CriticalPay the $4,043 overdue invoice immediately to remove the live banner from the programme profile — this is the first thing every publisher sees and it directly contradicts the payment promise in the description
CriticalFix Commission Group configuration — open Commission Manager, verify that the 12% Top Performer group is correctly set as the active commission rule, and run a test transaction to confirm the right rate is being applied
CriticalLaunch an activation campaign for the dormant household-name cashback and deals publishers — personal outreach with an exclusive offer, targeted at the top 5 by audience size, to immediately begin reducing 67% single-partner dependency
HighComplete 7 of the 9 blank Programme Terms tabs — the brand has been recruiting and transacting for 7 months with no PPC rules, no branding guidelines, no de-duplication rules and no legal protection
HighBuild a publisher concentration risk response plan — identify 10 additional publishers capable of producing $5K+ monthly and begin a structured recruitment and activation plan for each
HighSet up Bonus Manager rules to protect and incentivise the single mobile-PPC partner — exclusive bonuses, performance tiers and a formal relationship give the brand leverage if that partner is approached by a competitor
MediumUpdate the programme description to remove the "Payments: Always on time" claim until the invoice is cleared and payment times are below benchmark — the contradiction is a brand-credibility exposure
Revenue Concentration
Top 1 partner revenue share67% ($33,868)
Top 3 partners revenue share80%
Top 10 partners revenue share96%
Top partner traffic typeMobile-PPC (92% smartphone)
Click-to-sale latency (top partner)5 minutes
Programme collapse risk30 days if top partner leaves
Commission System
Publishers tagged Top Performer1,146 of 1,193 (96%)
Top Performer rate (tagged)12%
Rate actually paid (all sales)10% default
Recruitment promiseUp to 17%
Tiers actually deployed0 — all on default
Unpaid April invoice$4,043
Publisher Base
Total publishers1,193
Active publishers288 (24.1%)
Dormant publishers905 (75.9%)
Major cashback partners (dormant)Multiple — zero sales
Programme terms tabs complete2 of 9
Active publisher benchmark60%
✨
Shapewear · US Market · 7 months live
905 publishers joined and doing nothing. Recruiting with "up to 17% tiers" — the platform pays 10% to everyone.
Same programme age, same market, same structural problems — but in a different niche with different commercial stakes. 75.9% of the publisher base is fully dormant. The commission tiers used in recruitment messaging do not exist in the system. And a single mobile partner holds two-thirds of all programme revenue with no retention strategy in place.
54 / 100
Health Index
54
Health score / 100
905
Dormant publishers (of 1,193)
0
Commission tiers deployed (of 3 promised)
67%
Revenue from single partner
92%
Top partner smartphone traffic
126 days
Avg payment time (bench: 60)
Findings
Recruitment messaging built on commission tiers that don't exist
The programme actively recruits publishers with a promise of "up to 17% commission tiers." The platform has one commission group — Default — at 10%. Every publisher who joined on the basis of that promise has been on the wrong rate since day one. This is a brand credibility issue and a potential dispute liability across 1,193 publishers.
Every publisher misled from recruitment
905 publishers joined — zero activation programme
75.9% of the publisher base has never generated a sale. Household-name US cashback partners, deals publishers, coupon networks and shopping publishers are approved, in the programme, and producing zero revenue. No welcome sequence, no activation offer, no personal outreach programme exists in the account. The publishers are there. Nobody is working them.
905 dormant partners — no activation in place
Single mobile partner risk with no retention strategy
One mobile-PPC partner with 92% smartphone traffic and a five-minute average click-to-sale latency from search produces 67% of all revenue. Top-3 reaches 80%. Top-10 reaches 96%. There is no Bonus Manager rule, no exclusive incentive, no account management relationship and no written retention plan protecting this concentration. One competitor conversation ends the programme.
No plan B — 30-day collapse risk
Programme Terms blank — 7 of 9 tabs empty
Seven months of transactions, publisher relationships and brand commitments with no PPC rules, no branding guidelines, no de-duplication rules and no commission floor protections written down. The programme has been operating on a verbal and informal basis. Any publisher dispute goes to arbitration with no programme terms to reference.
7 of 9 terms tabs blank
Payment time 126 days — double the benchmark
Average payment time of 126 days against a 60-day sector benchmark. This compounds the dormancy problem — publishers who transact wait over four months to see payment, which reduces trust and repeat activity. Combined with the recruitment messaging issue, the programme is simultaneously over-promising and under-delivering at every touchpoint.
126-day payment time suppressing publisher repeat activity
Priority Task List
CriticalBuild and deploy the 3 commission tiers promised in recruitment messaging — create Starter, Performance and Top Tier groups with the rates advertised, and migrate all 1,193 publishers into the correct group immediately
CriticalLaunch a structured publisher activation programme for the 905 dormant publishers — segment by publisher type, create a tailored reactivation message for each segment, and set a 30-day activation target
CriticalBuild a Bonus Manager retention strategy for the single mobile-PPC partner — exclusive performance bonuses, quarterly review cadence and a formal written relationship that gives the brand leverage before any competitor approach
HighContact the top 5 dormant household-name cashback and deals publishers with a direct, personalised activation offer — these are the exact partners needed to diversify the 67% concentration risk
HighComplete the 7 blank Programme Terms tabs — 7 months of publisher relationships and commission commitments are legally unprotected. PPC rules and de-duplication are the highest priority
HighSet up a publisher recruitment diversification plan — identify 10 content, editorial and review publishers capable of producing $3K+ monthly and begin outreach with the corrected commission offer
MediumReview and update all recruitment-facing programme materials to reflect actual commission rates — remove or caveat all "up to 17%" references until the tiers are live and verified in the system
Publisher Base
Total publishers1,193
Active (transacting)288 (24.1%)
Dormant905 (75.9%)
Activation benchmark60%+
Publisher activation programmeDoes not exist
Welcome sequenceNot configured
Commission & Terms
Tiers promised in recruitment3 (up to 17%)
Tiers deployed in platform0
Current rate (all publishers)10% default
Bonus Manager rules0
Programme Terms tabs blank7 of 9
Avg payment time126 days (bench: 60)
Concentration Risk
Top partner revenue share67%
Top 3 revenue share80%
Top partner traffic typeMobile-PPC
Smartphone traffic share92%
Click-to-sale latency5 minutes
Retention strategy in placeNone

Your programme has issues
you don't know about yet.

Every single programme above was operational and generating revenue when AME ran the audit. Every single one had critical issues the team hadn't spotted. AME finds them automatically — every day, not just once.

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