You pay partners only after the sale is tracked and approved.

Affiliate marketing turns publishers, creators, consultants and business contacts into a sales channel that costs you a commission on a confirmed order, instead of a monthly fee for attention that may never convert.

A written commission structure your margin can actually carry.
Tracking links and codes that attach a partner to a real order.
Recruitment, activation and payouts run on a fixed monthly cycle.

Book a free audit Talk to us

Gully Sales Private Limited works with small and medium businesses across India. Start with a free audit of your tracking and your current referrers.

In one paragraph

What is Affiliate Marketing Programme Services in India?

Affiliate marketing pays independent partners a commission when a sale they referred is tracked and approved. Gully Sales writes the commission terms, sets up tracking and attribution, recruits and briefs partners, supplies their creative, and reconciles approved orders to payouts every month. You add a variable-cost sales channel that costs money only after revenue arrives.

The problem

You already have affiliates. Nobody wrote anything down.

Most Indian businesses are paying referral money before they ever use the word affiliate. A consultant who recommends you to his clients. A blogger who wrote about your product two years ago and still sends visitors. A dealer's friend who forwards enquiries on WhatsApp. Money changes hands on trust, at a number nobody recorded, for orders nobody verified. It works quietly until the volume grows. Then two people claim the same customer, a partner insists he sent forty enquiries when you saw four, and there is no record anywhere that can settle it.

You will recognise it as

Two partners claim credit for the same order and you have no record that decides between them.
Commission is agreed verbally and differs for every partner, so nobody knows what the channel costs you.
You joined a network and most of the sales came from coupon hunters who were already on your checkout page.
Referred enquiries arrive on WhatsApp with no link and no code, and never connect to an order in your system.
Partners go quiet after the first month, because they were never given prices, images or a reason to continue.

What it costs the business

Margin leaks quietly. Commission is paid on cancelled, returned and duplicate orders because nothing is validated before the money leaves.
The partners you want most drift to brands that pay on a fixed date and show them a dashboard. The ones who stay are the ones you would not have chosen.
You cannot say whether the channel is profitable, so it is either ignored for a year or expanded on a hunch.

Why it persists. Affiliate work fails on administration, not on enthusiasm. It needs tracking that survives a phone call, a written commission and approval policy, a monthly reconciliation against real orders, and somebody who answers partner emails. In a small company that job belongs to nobody in particular, so the arrangement survives as a set of favours. Handing it to a network feels easier, until the override on every sale shows up on the invoice and you realise you never met the partners.

If it stays unresolved. The channel stays too small to matter and too untidy to measure. Partners who could have built a steady share of your revenue take their audience to a competitor with clearer terms, and the commission you did pay went mostly to people who intercepted buyers already on their way to you.

What changes

Your partner channel starts paying for itself, in writing.

In the first weeks

Every partner has a unique link or code, so credit for an order stops being a matter of opinion.
A written commission and approval policy that states what is payable, what is not, and on which date.

In how the work runs

A monthly cycle that repeats: validate orders, approve commission, release payment, send the report.
One dashboard partners can read themselves, which ends most of the back-and-forth on email.
Cancelled, returned and duplicate orders are removed before payout rather than argued about afterwards.

In sales and marketing

Commission becomes a variable cost that lands after revenue, not a retainer paid ahead of it.
You can see which partners bring buyers you were not already reaching, and reward those partners differently.

In what management can see

Your product appears on review pages, comparison posts and buying guides that partners maintain themselves.
That partner content keeps earning search visibility long after a paid campaign has been switched off.

Over the longer term

An active, recruited partner base becomes a distribution asset a competitor cannot copy in a quarter.
Paying accurately and on time earns you first position in whatever a partner promotes next.

Gully Sales controls the terms, the tracking, the recruitment, the creative and the monthly reconciliation. How much any partner sells depends on their audience, your offer and your price. We do not promise a revenue figure from a partner channel.

Who it is for

Affiliate marketing suits some businesses and not others.

The businesses it suits

E-commerce and direct-to-consumer brands whose website can record an order against a referral code.
Businesses already paying informal referral money that now needs documenting, controlling and costing.
Software, subscription and course businesses where a signup or trial can be tracked back to a partner.
Manufacturers and service firms whose consultants, architects, dealers or installers already recommend them.
Brands with enough gross margin to share, and a product a partner can describe honestly in one paragraph.
Companies where one person can approve valid orders and release payouts on a fixed date every month.

What usually prompts the call

Two partners have claimed the same customer and you have no way of deciding who earned the commission.
An affiliate network has approached you and you cannot tell what you would be agreeing to.
Advertising costs have risen far enough that paying only on confirmed sales now looks sensible.
You are entering a new city or category where somebody else already has the audience you want.
Referral payments have grown large enough that your accountant has started asking about the paperwork.

What Gully Sales does

The work, component by component.

Programme objective and commission economics

We decide what the programme is for — new customers, a new city, a slow-moving range, or replacing paid media spend — and then work backwards through your gross margin, existing dealer discounts and current cost of acquisition to find the commission you can pay and still earn.

Why it matters:: A commission rate copied from another industry is the fastest way to build a channel that sells well and loses money on every order.
You receive:: A programme brief with the objective, the margin working and the commission bands your business can support.
Business value:: You know before you recruit anybody what each referred order will cost you and what it will leave behind.

Partner audience and prospect map

We identify who can genuinely influence your buyer: review and comparison sites, category bloggers, YouTube reviewers, industry consultants, trade associations, complementary service providers, and the people already sending you business. Each is assessed on the audience they hold, not on their follower count.

Why it matters:: Affiliate revenue concentrates in a handful of partners. Choosing them deliberately matters far more than opening the programme to everybody.
You receive:: A ranked partner prospect list with contacts, audience notes and the approach to be used for each name.
Business value:: Recruitment starts with people whose audience is already your market, so early orders arrive from a small list.

Commission structure and programme terms

The offer to the partner, written down: commission by product or tier, what counts as a valid sale, the attribution window, exclusions, brand-name bidding rules, discount and coupon rules, approval and payment dates, notice periods and termination.

Why it matters:: Almost every affiliate dispute traces back to a term nobody agreed in advance. The document is the programme.
You receive:: A partner agreement and a plain-English terms summary, ready for your legal adviser to review.
Business value:: Disagreements are settled by reading a clause rather than by a phone call that damages a relationship.

Tracking, attribution and validation

Unique links, coupon codes and partner-specific numbers are set up, conversion events are fired on your site, and the referral is written onto the enquiry and carried into your CRM or order sheet. Offline and phone-closed orders are handled through codes and a field your team fills at booking.

Why it matters:: If a sale cannot be attributed reliably, every payout becomes a negotiation and no report can be trusted.
You receive:: A working tracking setup with a documented attribution rule and an order-level validation checklist.
Business value:: Each order carries its partner from first click to invoice, so commission is calculated rather than estimated.

Partner creative and sales kit

Partners promote what is easy to promote. We supply approved product images, banners in the sizes they use, sample posts and emails, comparison points, the claims they may and may not make, and a referral landing page built for traffic that arrives already half-convinced.

Why it matters:: A partner who has to write your copy and hunt for a product photograph will promote whoever made it easier.
You receive:: A creative kit and a referral landing page, with the partner recorded on every enquiry the page produces.
Business value:: Partners start promoting sooner, and what they publish is accurate, on-brand and legally defensible.

Recruitment, onboarding and activation

We approach the mapped partners, explain the economics, sign the agreement, issue the links, and take each partner through a first promotion. Onboarding covers payment dates, who to contact, stock and price change alerts, and what the top partners in the programme are doing.

Why it matters:: Most affiliate programmes fail at the point of activation: partners join, receive a link, and never publish anything.
You receive:: Signed partners with live links, an onboarding pack, and a first promotion completed with each of them.
Business value:: The programme starts producing tracked orders instead of a list of registrations that never became a channel.

Nurturing and partner communication

A monthly rhythm keeps partners selling: performance notes with their own numbers, new products and offers ahead of the market, seasonal briefs, tier upgrades for the ones who perform, and a direct route to someone who answers. Quiet partners are contacted individually before they are written off.

Why it matters:: Partner attention is bought again every month. Silence from you is read as a programme that has been abandoned.
You receive:: A partner communication calendar and the monthly partner update, written and sent for you.
Business value:: Active partners stay active, and a larger share of your registered list actually produces orders.

Reconciliation, payouts and reporting

Each month we match tracked orders to your sales records, remove cancellations, returns and duplicates, calculate approved commission, prepare the payout sheet against partner invoices, and report the programme's true cost against the revenue it produced.

Why it matters:: Paying on unvalidated data is how a channel that looks profitable turns out to have been losing margin all year.
You receive:: A monthly reconciliation sheet, a payout sheet ready for release, and an owner's report on programme economics.
Business value:: Commission leaves your account only against verified revenue, and you can see the effective rate you are paying.

What you will have at the end.

A programme brief stating the objective, the target partner types and the commission your margin can carry.
A partner agreement covering commission, valid sales, attribution window, exclusions, brand rules and termination.
Tracking installed on your site: unique links, coupon codes, conversion events and order-level attribution.
A ranked partner prospect list with contact details, audience notes and the approach planned for each name.
An onboarding pack explaining how the programme works, payment dates, brand rules and who to contact.
A creative kit: banners, product images, sample posts, email copy and the claims a partner may make.
A referral landing page built for partner traffic, with the referring partner recorded on every enquiry.
A monthly reconciliation sheet matching tracked orders to approved commission and released payouts.
A partner-facing report or dashboard so each partner can see their own clicks, orders and earnings.
A monthly owner's report: active partners, orders, revenue, commission cost and effective commission rate.
An anonymised sample tracking report and payout sheet, shared during the audit so you see the format first.

How it runs

The engagement, step by step.

1
Audit the referrals you already have
Before anything is designed, we list everyone already sending you business, what each has been paid, and what evidence exists that the orders were theirs. We check what your website and CRM can currently record, and test whether a referred visitor can be followed to an order at all.
You provide:
Sales records, current referral payments, website and analytics access, and the names of people already referring.
We produce:
A written audit of existing referrers, current cost, and the gaps in tracking that must be closed first.
Done when:
You can see what the informal channel already costs and what it would take to run it properly.
2
Fix the commission economics
We work through gross margin by product, existing trade discounts, return rates and your current cost per acquired customer, then set commission bands the business can sustain — including a different rate for a new customer and a repeat buyer.
You provide:
Product costs and margins, discount policy, return and cancellation rates, and current advertising costs.
We produce:
A commission model with bands by product and partner tier, and the margin left after payout.
Done when:
The rate is agreed by the owner, in writing, with the working behind it visible.
3
Set up tracking and validation
Links, codes and conversion events are configured and tested end to end, including an order that starts online and closes on the phone. The referral field is added to your CRM or order sheet, and the rule for deciding a contested order is documented.
You provide:
Website and CRM access, a test order, and the person who books orders for a walkthrough of the new field.
We produce:
A tested tracking setup, a documented attribution rule and an order validation checklist for approvals.
Done when:
A test referral can be followed from click to booked order without anyone remembering anything.
4
Write the terms and build the partner pack
The agreement, the plain-English summary, the onboarding pack and the creative kit are written, and the referral landing page is built. Brand rules, price display rules and disclosure requirements are settled here, not after a partner has published something you dislike.
You provide:
Brand assets, approved product claims, price display rules, and a legal review of the draft agreement.
We produce:
The partner agreement, terms summary, onboarding pack, creative kit and referral landing page.
Done when:
A new partner can be signed, briefed and given working links on the same day they say yes.
5
Recruit and onboard the first partners
We approach the mapped prospects in order, explain the economics, negotiate where a partner has real leverage, sign the agreement and issue links. Each new partner is taken through one promotion so the first tracked order arrives while interest is still high.
You provide:
Approval on partner selection and any negotiated rate, plus product samples or access where a partner needs them.
We produce:
Signed partners with live tracking, completed onboarding, and a first promotion run with each of them.
Done when:
A defined starting group of partners is live and at least one tracked order has passed through validation.
6
Activate, support and nurture
The programme is worked month by month: performance notes to each partner, offers and new products briefed ahead of the market, seasonal pushes, tier upgrades for performers, and individual conversations with partners who registered but never published.
You provide:
Advance notice of offers, price changes and stock positions, and a quick answer when a partner asks something.
We produce:
The monthly partner update, individual partner briefs, and a record of who is active and who has stalled.
Done when:
A growing share of registered partners is producing tracked orders rather than sitting dormant.
7
Reconcile, approve and pay
Tracked orders are matched against your sales records, cancellations and returns are deducted, duplicates and excluded traffic are removed, commission is calculated, and the payout sheet goes to you against partner invoices on the agreed date.
You provide:
The month's sales, cancellation and return data, approval of the payout sheet, and release of payment on the date.
We produce:
A reconciliation sheet, an approved commission statement per partner and a payout sheet ready for release.
Done when:
Partners are paid accurately on the published date and every rupee paid is traceable to a validated order.
8
Review, prune and widen
Each month the owner's report reads the programme against the baseline: which partners earn their commission, which traffic sources should be excluded, which products partners can actually sell, and where the next group of partners should come from.
You provide:
An hour for the monthly review, and a decision on rate changes, exclusions and the next recruitment push.
We produce:
The owner's report with the effective commission rate, partner-level economics and the next recruitment list.
Done when:
The programme is expanded on evidence, and unprofitable partners or traffic sources are closed off deliberately.

Ways to work with us

Set the terms yourself, or let us recruit and reconcile too.

Programme design and setup

The build without the running: commission model, agreement, tracking, creative kit, referral page, onboarding pack and prospect list, handed to your own team with a walkthrough so they can recruit and pay partners themselves.

Managed affiliate programme

Gully Sales runs the programme month after month — recruitment, onboarding, partner communication, creative, reconciliation and the owner's report — while your team approves valid orders and releases the payouts.

Partner recruitment sprint

For a programme that already has terms and tracking but too few active partners. We map, approach, sign and activate a defined group of new partners, and hand back the signed agreements and live links.

Programme repair and reconciliation review

For a programme paying commission it cannot verify. We audit tracking, attribution and past payouts, find where margin is leaking, tighten the terms, and rebuild the monthly reconciliation so payments match real revenue.

Why Gully Sales

What you are actually choosing when you choose us.

We start with your margin, not with a network's rate card.

The commission is derived from your own gross margin, discount structure and acquisition cost before a single partner is approached. A programme that cannot survive its own commission is not worth building.

Tracking is treated as an accounting problem.

Attribution is designed so it can be reconciled against your sales records, including orders that close on the phone. If a payout cannot be traced to a validated order, the programme is not ready to launch.

Partners are recruited by hand and judged on audience.

We approach named partners whose readers, viewers or clients are your market, rather than opening a sign-up form and hoping. A short list of active partners beats a long list of registrations.

The commercial work and the marketing work sit together.

Gully Sales writes the terms, builds the referral page, produces the partner creative and runs the reconciliation. The offer, the page and the payout stay consistent because one team is responsible for all three.

Everything is documented and handed over.

The agreement, the attribution rule, the partner list, the creative and the reconciliation format are yours. If you take the programme in-house or change agency, nothing important leaves with us.

Where it applies

The same service, in different businesses.

Industry	The situation	How it applies	Likely benefit
Direct-to-consumer brand	Advertising costs keep rising, and the brand is spending more each quarter to acquire a customer worth the same as last year.	A programme built around category reviewers, comparison pages and content sites, with new-customer commission set above repeat-buyer commission and coupon extensions excluded from attribution.	A second acquisition route whose cost is fixed as a percentage of revenue, spreading the risk carried by the ad account.
Industrial equipment manufacturer	Consultants and installers already recommend the equipment to their clients, and are thanked with occasional payments nobody documents.	Those recommenders become named partners with written terms, a referral code on every enquiry form, and commission paid on the invoiced order after commissioning.	An existing informal channel becomes measurable, defensible in an audit, and attractive enough for new recommenders to join.
Interior design and home improvement	Architects, contractors and site supervisors influence the choice of brand, but the business only finds out after the material has been specified.	A partner programme with unique codes issued to each professional, a specification-stage referral form, and commission released after delivery and payment.	The people who actually choose the brand have a documented reason to keep choosing it, and the business can see who does.
Software and subscription business	Trials arrive from blogs and consultants, but nobody can tell which writer or advisor produced a paying account.	Tracked links per partner, commission on the first paid invoice with a defined attribution window, and a partner report showing trials, conversions and earnings.	The advisors influencing purchase decisions are identified, paid on results, and supported with material worth publishing.
Education and skill training	Enrolments come through counsellors, alumni and career bloggers, and commission is negotiated separately with each of them.	One published commission table by course, codes issued per counsellor, and payout released after the fee is collected and the refund window has passed.	Enrolment partners are treated consistently, refunds no longer cause payout disputes, and the cost per enrolment becomes visible.
Hospitality and travel	Bookings arrive through local agents and travel writers at whatever commission was agreed on the phone that season.	Partner-specific booking codes and landing pages, a published rate per booking type, and commission approved after the stay is completed.	Rates stop drifting season by season, no-shows stop being paid for, and the strongest referring agents can be rewarded properly.

Direct-to-consumer brand

The situation:: Advertising costs keep rising, and the brand is spending more each quarter to acquire a customer worth the same as last year.
How it applies:: A programme built around category reviewers, comparison pages and content sites, with new-customer commission set above repeat-buyer commission and coupon extensions excluded from attribution.
Likely benefit:: A second acquisition route whose cost is fixed as a percentage of revenue, spreading the risk carried by the ad account.

Industrial equipment manufacturer

The situation:: Consultants and installers already recommend the equipment to their clients, and are thanked with occasional payments nobody documents.
How it applies:: Those recommenders become named partners with written terms, a referral code on every enquiry form, and commission paid on the invoiced order after commissioning.
Likely benefit:: An existing informal channel becomes measurable, defensible in an audit, and attractive enough for new recommenders to join.

Interior design and home improvement

The situation:: Architects, contractors and site supervisors influence the choice of brand, but the business only finds out after the material has been specified.
How it applies:: A partner programme with unique codes issued to each professional, a specification-stage referral form, and commission released after delivery and payment.
Likely benefit:: The people who actually choose the brand have a documented reason to keep choosing it, and the business can see who does.

Software and subscription business

The situation:: Trials arrive from blogs and consultants, but nobody can tell which writer or advisor produced a paying account.
How it applies:: Tracked links per partner, commission on the first paid invoice with a defined attribution window, and a partner report showing trials, conversions and earnings.
Likely benefit:: The advisors influencing purchase decisions are identified, paid on results, and supported with material worth publishing.

Education and skill training

The situation:: Enrolments come through counsellors, alumni and career bloggers, and commission is negotiated separately with each of them.
How it applies:: One published commission table by course, codes issued per counsellor, and payout released after the fee is collected and the refund window has passed.
Likely benefit:: Enrolment partners are treated consistently, refunds no longer cause payout disputes, and the cost per enrolment becomes visible.

Hospitality and travel

The situation:: Bookings arrive through local agents and travel writers at whatever commission was agreed on the phone that season.
How it applies:: Partner-specific booking codes and landing pages, a published rate per booking type, and commission approved after the stay is completed.
Likely benefit:: Rates stop drifting season by season, no-shows stop being paid for, and the strongest referring agents can be rewarded properly.

How it is measured

Baseline: Before the programme opens we record what the informal channel already produces: how many enquiries arrive from people recommending you, what you paid them last year, and how many orders arrive with no identifiable source. Conversion rate, average order value and return rate are recorded too. Later reports are read against those numbers, not against a feeling that referrals are going well.
Reporting: Clicks and tracked orders show daily in the dashboard. Partner activity is reviewed fortnightly during recruitment; reconciliation, payout and the owner's report run monthly on published dates.
Measurement period: A partner channel is judged over a period long enough to contain a full buying and returns cycle. Recruitment moves within the first weeks; revenue follows each partner's own publishing calendar.

The metrics that matter here

Reach quality: referred sessions per partner, and how they behave against your site's normal traffic.
Response rate on recruitment, and the activation rate — partners who signed and then actually published.
Marketing qualified leads produced by partners, counted separately from enquiries your own marketing created.
Cost per referred enquiry, and cost per acquired customer, compared with your paid media cost for the same buyer.
Pipeline and revenue created by partners, split between new customers and repeat buyers.
Conversion rate from referred visit to enquiry, and from enquiry to approved order.
Effective commission rate: commission approved as a percentage of the revenue it was paid against.
Programme return: margin from partner revenue set against commission plus the cost of managing the programme.
Concentration risk: the share of partner revenue coming from your largest one or two partners.

Questions buyers ask

Before you enquire, the answers you will want.

How is affiliate marketing different from paying an influencer?

An influencer is paid for the post. You agree a fee, they publish, and whatever follows is uncertain. An affiliate is paid for the outcome: a link or code records the referral, and commission is released only after the order is confirmed and not returned. The same person can be both. Affiliate terms suit partners confident their audience buys; fee-based terms suit reach you need on a particular date.

What commission rate should we offer partners?

It comes out of your margin, not out of somebody's benchmark. We work backwards from gross margin by product, the discount you already give trade buyers, and what the same customer costs you through advertising. Rates usually differ by product, by partner tier, and by whether the buyer is new or returning. Whatever is agreed goes into the agreement, with a notice period before it can change.

How do you track a sale that starts online but closes on a phone call?

The referral is captured when the visitor arrives, stored with the enquiry, and carried into your CRM or order sheet as a field your sales team can see. When the order is booked, the partner is already attached to it. Where a partner sends buyers straight to WhatsApp, a coupon code or a partner-specific number does the same job. Nothing is attributed from memory at month end.

Should we join an affiliate network or run our own programme?

A network brings volume and a ready partner base, and charges a platform fee plus an override on every sale. Your own programme takes more effort and gives you the partner relationships, the data and the terms. For most Indian small and medium businesses we start self-run on affordable tracking software with a hand-picked partner list, then consider a network once the economics are proven.

What information and internal involvement will you need from us?

Your product and price list, the gross margin you can share, website and analytics access, your CRM or order records, and the names of anyone already referring business to you. Internally one person must own approvals: someone who can confirm which orders are valid and release payouts on the agreed date. Expect a weekly call during setup and a monthly review once the programme is running.

How long does the engagement take before orders start appearing?

Setup comes first, and we do not recruit anybody until an order can be tracked from click to invoice. Partners then need time to plan a mention, write a post or brief their own clients. The earliest orders usually come from people who already knew you. The programme should be judged over a period long enough to include a full buying and returns cycle, not on its first fortnight.

What stops a partner claiming a sale we would have won anyway?

Three controls. The agreement excludes traffic that intercepts your own demand: bidding on your brand name, coupon extensions that appear at checkout, and clicks from your own advertising. Tracking separates new customers from repeat buyers, so returning customers can carry a lower rate or none. And every order passes validation before commission is approved, where duplicates and cancellations are removed.

How is the success of an affiliate programme measured?

Against the baseline recorded before it opens. We report referred traffic and its quality, recruitment response and partner activation, tracked enquiries and orders, cost per referred enquiry, revenue and pipeline created by partners, conversion rate from referred visit to approved order, and the effective commission rate. Programme return is the margin from partner revenue set against commission plus management cost.

3 more questions

What is excluded from the scope of this service?

We do not pay commission on your behalf or hold your funds; payouts are released from your own account against partner invoices. Paid media buying, campaigns to your own email database, marketplace seller operations and the legal drafting of the agreement by an advocate sit outside this work. We prepare the commercial terms and your legal adviser reviews them before you sign anything.

Can affiliate marketing work for a B2B business with long sales cycles?

Yes, in a different shape. Commission is usually paid on a qualified meeting or a closed order rather than a checkout, the partner list is short and hand-picked — consultants, system integrators, architects, trade bodies — and the attribution window allows for months between the referral and the invoice. What matters is that your CRM can hold the partner's name on the deal until it closes.

How should commission payments be invoiced and taxed?

Commission is a business expense and should be paid against an invoice from the partner rather than in cash. Treatment differs depending on whether the partner is a registered business or an individual, and payments to partners outside India carry their own rules. We build the programme so every payout has a document behind it, and your accountant confirms the treatment before the first payment cycle runs.

Talk to us

Ask us to audit what your partners are actually sending.

Bring your margin sheet and the names of anyone already sending you business. The free audit looks at what that informal channel costs you today, whether a referred order could be tracked at all, and what a documented programme would involve.

No obligation and no sales script
A reply from someone who does the work
Your details are never sold or shared

Get a free audit of how you sell, and a scored report of where the work is.

Book a free audit