Should I launch an affiliate program for my AI product?

Get the economics right first. Affiliates typically expect 20-30% commission, often recurring for SaaS, so confirm your LTV and margins can absorb it without going underwater, especially with refunds and churn. Decide the structure: flat vs. tiered, one-time vs. recurring, and the cookie window. The biggest risk is high churn, paying recurring commissions on customers who cancel in month two destroys the math, so only launch on a product with proven retention.

Choose tooling by stage. Rewardful and FirstPromoter are simple and affordable for early SaaS (clean Stripe integration, automated tracking and payouts); PartnerStack suits larger programs with managed partner networks. Then recruit deliberately: target creators, newsletters, and reviewers already in your niche, and use AI to research and personalize outreach. Give partners a real enablement kit, swipe copy, banners, demo videos, AI can produce these fast, because affiliates promote whatever's easiest to promote well.

Be honest about the work. An affiliate program is a channel you manage, not passive growth, recruiting, enablement, fraud monitoring, and payouts all take time, and a handful of engaged partners usually drive most results. Watch for self-referrals and low-quality traffic. If you don't yet have product-market fit, skip it; affiliates magnify an existing engine, they don't build one.