To run an affiliate program for your app, you decide what you pay partners for, give each partner a tracked link or code, match sales back to that partner, and pay them on a fixed schedule. The hard part for apps is tracking: subscriptions bought through the App Store or Google Play are difficult to tie to an affiliate, while purchases on the web through a checkout like Stripe are much easier to track.
This guide is for app owners. If you want to join an app's affiliate program as a promoter, start with that app's own partner page instead.
Decide what you pay for before you recruit anyone. For subscription apps, paying for paid conversions is usually safest, because installs and free sign-ups are easy to inflate and often never turn into revenue.
Base the commission on what you actually keep. The App Store and Google Play take their fee first, so a commission on the full price costs more than it looks. Our guide to in-app purchases for app owners explains the store fees.
On a website, tracking is simple. The affiliate link carries an ID, the visitor buys in the same browser session, and the affiliate tool matches the payment to the click. Tools connected to Stripe credit the affiliate automatically, including renewals and refunds, as Tapfiliate's Stripe guide explains.
Apps break this chain. The user taps a link, installs from the App Store or Google Play, and may subscribe days later. By then the browser session is gone, and the store receipt shows that a purchase happened but not who sent the buyer, as App Developer Magazine describes. The stores also share little customer data: neither offers an easy customer export, while Stripe offers exports and webhooks (Audiorista help center).
There are three ways around this. Send affiliate traffic to a web checkout, where tracking works as normal. Give each affiliate a unique offer or promo code and count redemptions per code. Or use a mobile attribution tool with deferred deep links, which carries the referral through the install.
For web sales, affiliate tools such as Rewardful, Tapfiliate and FirstPromoter connect to Stripe, create affiliate links, track one-off and recurring commissions, and give partners a dashboard. For in-app sales, mobile measurement tools such as Branch and AppsFlyer handle deep links and install attribution. With only a handful of partners, a spreadsheet and unique codes can be enough to start.
Pay on a fixed schedule, usually monthly, and only for payments past your refund window. Show each partner how their commission was calculated. Many affiliate tools calculate the amounts and either pay out directly or export a payout list you pay by PayPal or bank transfer. Collect the tax details your country requires before the first payment.
Audiorista has no built-in affiliate tracking, so you run the program with your own tools. What Audiorista gives you is a choice of where people pay. Your iOS and Android apps sell subscriptions through the App Store and Google Play, managed through RevenueCat. Your web app can sell through Stripe, which web affiliate tools work with.
If you already sell memberships on your own website, run the affiliate program there and use Audiorista's Membership API to unlock the content in the app for people who bought on your site. Tracking stays on the web, and members still get the full app. Read more about membership apps and how to balance free and premium content so affiliates have something worth sending people to.
It is an arrangement where an app owner pays outside partners a commission for the paying users they bring in. Partners share a tracked link or code, and the app owner pays them on a set schedule.
Choose what you pay for, decide how you will track sales, write short terms and recruit a small first group of partners. Add tools as the program grows.
Yes, but tracking is harder because the store does not tell you who referred the buyer. Unique codes and attribution tools help, and a web checkout is usually the most reliable option.
No. You run affiliates with a third-party tool, usually on web purchases through Stripe or on your own website combined with Audiorista's Membership API.
Want a branded app where members can subscribe in the app and on the web? See how Audiorista works for exclusive content apps.
