Campaign idea

The Affiliate Program

Creators, consultants and super-fans earn a commission per registration. You only pay for results.

What it is

An affiliate programme is refer & earn with money instead of perks, opened up to people who are not attending. Creators, consultants, trainers and community leaders in your space promote the event and take a cut of each ticket they sell.

The appeal is the risk profile. Unlike ads, you spend nothing until a registration exists, which makes it the easiest channel to justify to a finance team.

When to run it: Before the event
Who does the sharing: Partners, Attendees
What it's for: Registrations
Effort: Medium effort

Timing: Open 3-4 months out so affiliates can plan their content.

Why it works

Pure pay-for-performance - no upfront spend, no wasted impressions.
Affiliates promote in their own voice, which converts better than your ad copy.
It reaches audiences you have no other route into.
Good affiliates compound across editions once they have made money once.

How to run it

1
Set a commission that is worth someone's time
Too small and nobody bothers. Benchmark it against what you pay per registration on paid ads - you can afford to be generous.
2
Recruit deliberately
Look for people with a relevant audience and a track record of recommending things. Past speakers and past top referrers are the obvious first list.
3
Give them a full asset pack
Links, creatives, captions, a landing page with their name on it. Treat them like a channel, not a favour.
4
Show live earnings
A dashboard where they can see registrations and payout to date. Visibility is what keeps them posting.
5
Set clear rules
No bidding on your brand terms, no discount-code sites, a defined cookie window. Write it down before launch.