Seven in ten subscribers arrived through a discounted first box and fewer than half survived to the third billing cycle — and the programme paid full commission on every one of them. How the commission model was rebuilt around retention, and the account handed back 66% larger.
Subscriber acquisition was running at pace and 71% of it came through coupon and cashback partners promoting a heavily discounted first box.
Those subscribers cancelled at more than twice the rate of every other channel — 41% reached the third billing cycle — and the programme paid full commission on all of them regardless.
Paying full commission on a first order in a subscription business is how you buy churn at full price.
Two months of standing still is what it costs to change what a programme rewards.
Baseline figures reflect the account exactly as we found it in December. Retention is measured at the third billing cycle on affiliate-sourced subscribers only, cohort-matched against the pre-audit baseline rather than against the wider customer base.
In a subscription business, first-order commission rewards precisely the wrong behaviour. Moving the money to where the value actually sits meant a short-term revenue hit and a completely different partner mix coming out the other side.
Commission was split — a reduced rate on the first box and a materially larger payment released at the third billing cycle. Entry discounting was capped and voucher partners moved to a lower tier. Partners sending subscribers who stayed earned more than they had before; partners sending churn earned considerably less.
Once commission rewarded retention we could afford partners who build trust slowly. Veterinary content, trainers and genuine owners produce subscribers who stay, and they had been priced out by a model that paid the same for a discount-chaser.
Share of subscribers still active at the third billing cycle, audit against handback
Our deal with every client is the same. We grow the programme, and when you're ready to bring it back in-house we give you the tools, the software and the support to run it yourself — without any drop in revenue. And we stay available, whenever your new account manager needs us.
How the split commission is calculated, when the second payment releases and how to handle a cancellation between the two — transferred intact and ready to run.
The reporting that shows which partners send subscribers who stay. Without it, the model cannot be defended to the partners who earn less under it.
We stayed available for the partner discussions that follow a commission change, because some of them are difficult and worth getting right.
$870,000 in sales · 14,032 orders · 3.2M clicks · 32% active partners
The partners who lost money in this change were the ones we were overpaying to bring us customers who left.
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