Partnership marketing

Borrowing an audience is the cheapest reach available and the easiest to do badly.

Affiliates sit next to this rather than inside it: they are a paid channel with commercial terms, their own mechanics and their own fraud controls. revenue:referral-programs covers them.

Evaluating a partner

Fit matters more than size. The test is overlap of audience with non-overlap of offering: they serve the same people, and you do not compete for the same budget.

Check before committing:

• Audience overlap — same buyer, or merely same industry? Same industry is not enough.
• Engagement over follower count. A small responsive audience beats a large indifferent one, and follower counts are the easiest number to inflate.
• Their audience's trust in them. You are borrowing that, and you can spend it.
• What they get. A partnership that only serves you does not get executed, whatever was agreed.