Q4 Top Tips Series
This Q4, we asked members of our Client Services Team to share their top tip for helping advertisers maximise performance during the peak trading season. We first challenged them to deliver their advice in just 30 seconds (see video above), but we know many brands will want to dive a little deeper.
That’s why we’ve asked the team to expand on their insights in a series of blog articles like this one. Here’s Tip #2 from our Q4 Top Tips series, brought to you by Edge Team Lead Ana Castro. Read on to discover why Ana is such a firm believer in the benefits of brands using dynamic commissioning to impact their affiliate performance this Q4.
Leverage Dynamic Commissioning to Make Your Budget Work Smarter
Q4 Top Tip by Ana Castro, Edge Team Lead at Webgains
Q4 is the busiest and most competitive trading period of the year, especially for brands running affiliate programs. One of the most effective ways to ensure success for your program, is by leveraging dynamic commissioning. At Webgains, our tool for this is Smart Commissions, designed to give you total flexibility and control over how you reward your publishers.
‘At Webgains, our commissioning is Smart Commissions, designed to give you total flexibility and control over how you reward your publishers’
Peak Trading Requires Peak Performance
During peak trading, a blanket approach to commissions often leads to either overspending on unnecessary incentives or underspending where budgets could have the biggest impact. Dynamic commissioning solves this by letting you target exactly where your budget should work hardest.
With Webgains Smart Commissions you can:
- Increase commission rates for specific products, ranges, or categories.
- Incentivise publishers to focus on overstocked or high-priority items.
- Protect your margins by avoiding across-the-board commission increases.
- Offer tailored incentives for individual partners or campaigns.
- Differentiate between new and returning customers with separate commission setups.
This flexibility ensures that you drive the right sales at the right time, without eroding profitability.
Tiered Commissions: Adding an Extra Incentive
Another powerful feature is tiered commissions, where publishers unlock higher rates or bonuses as they reach certain sales, revenue, or commission thresholds. This gamified approach motivates publishers to push harder to hit achievable goals, making your program more attractive to them while driving incremental sales for you.
Setting this up in Webgains is simple: within Commission Events, you can select the Tier incentive option, define your conditions, and add commission or bonus payments. Publishers will climb through the tiers step by step, with each achievement unlocking the next reward.
‘This gamified approach motivates publishers to push harder to hit achievable goals’
How Webgains Smart Commissions Works
Our Smart Commissions tool has been designed to make setting up and managing these advanced schemes as seamless as possible. You can create either percentage-based or fixed commissions, and schedule them across multiple time periods — perfect for running short-term Q4 promos or staggered campaigns.
You can also build highly targeted schemes by combining a wide range of criteria, including:
- Customer type (new, existing, or custom)
- Product SKUs, names, categories, or custom product types
- Publisher or groups of publishers
- Publisher source or channel type
- Custom data
These rules can be used individually or combined in cascading layers with prioritisation, giving you full control over your strategy.
Real Examples in Action (Source: Webgains Knowledge Hub)
- Offer Publisher X an increased 10% commission for new customer orders of Product Y, valid only from 01/09/26 – 14/09/26.
- Reward Publishers X, Y, and Z with a fixed £10 commission for all sales in a certain category, regardless of customer type.
- Schedule a recurring campaign where Publisher X receives 20% commission every other week for purchases made by existing customers.
All of this is tracked and managed in a clear, easy-to-use interface, with filtering options by date, status, customer type, product, category, or site. You’ll always have complete visibility over your Active, Scheduled, Draft, or Expired schemes.
‘With affiliates as your ally, Q4 becomes an opportunity not just to sell, but to sell more‘
We’re continuing to evolve the tool. Even more functionalities for Smart Commissions are set to be released in 2026, giving Webgains clients even greater flexibility and control. Until then, our latest Product Update for Summer 2025 can be found here.
If you’d like to add dynamic commissioning to your affiliate strategy and grow your sales through Q4, please email hello@webgains.com or complete this form to get started with Webgains.
