When to run an affiliate marketing selection checklist for England

What to take away

Start with the rules that can stop a deal

Selection is a risk exercise before it is a features exercise. Two platforms can look identical on commission logic and carry very different legal exposure.

Begin with disclosure. CAP Code rule 2.1 requires that marketing communications are obviously identifiable as such, and the ASA advice for businesses explains how this applies to affiliate creative your partners publish. If a platform cannot enforce disclosure, that is a fail.

Next, check the wider regulation picture. The Business regulation overview on GOV.UK lists the rules touching trading, consumer protection and record keeping. The UK GDPR and Data Protection Act 2018 govern personal data, the Privacy and Electronic Communications Regulations 2003 cover electronic marketing, and the Consumer Protection from Unfair Trading Regulations 2008 ban misleading actions.

Score each item below as pass, partial or fail before you move to commercial terms. UK-facing networks include Awin, Webgains and Tradedoubler, while Partnerize and Impact are common platform options.

The affiliate marketing selection checklist

Typical UK network contracts use 30 to 90 days' written notice for termination, with 30 days common for campaign-level opt-outs. Accounting records are normally kept for six years from the end of the financial year under the Companies Act 2006, while personal data must be kept only as long as necessary under the UK GDPR.

For a fuller view of how these score against each other, the comparison framework in affiliate marketing reviews and comparison methods for 2027 is worth reading before you shortlist.

Benchmark reporting against commerce media norms

The IAB Commerce Centre of Excellence publishes commerce media standards. Use them to judge whether a platform can break down performance by publisher, placement and creative type. Ask for one month of sample reporting from a comparable advertiser, anonymised if needed, and read the columns, not the summary slide.

Score the shortlist with weights, then check the market

Give each platform a score out of five for every checklist line, then weight the lines that matter to your channel mix. A programme with heavy content publisher spend should weight disclosure enforcement higher than a voucher-led programme would.

Here is a worked example for a content-led programme. Weights are percentages; scores are out of five.

Platform A wins on the weighted total, even though Platform B scores higher on tracking integrity and pricing transparency. The weighted result makes the trade-off visible.

Once the scores are in, check them against the wider market. A shortlist built from memory is rarely the strongest, and affiliate marketing best providers in England shows whether you have missed a credible option.

Keep the scoring sheet: it becomes your defence when someone asks why the cheaper platform was rejected.

Common questions

How many platforms should the checklist cover?

Three to five is workable. Fewer than three and you are not really comparing; more than five and the scoring becomes shallow. Include at least one option you have not used before.

Should legal review happen before or after scoring?

Score first, then send the top two to legal. Scoring filters out platforms that cannot meet basic disclosure and data requirements, which saves legal time on options that were never viable.

How often should the checklist be refreshed?

Review it annually, and again whenever advertising guidance or data rules change. Stale criteria quietly bias your next decision.

What if two platforms score the same?

Go back to the weighted lines and check your assumptions. A tie usually means a criterion is doing no work, or that you have not tested reporting quality with real sample data.