An affiliate program is commission at scale. Instead of negotiating with each creator, the brand publishes terms and lets anyone who qualifies join. The rates are public and vary a lot by category and by what the brand is buying. Amazon’s program pays fixed rates by product category, from 10 % on Luxury Beauty to 3 % on Beauty, Pet Products and Toys, and 1 % on Grocery and Health & Personal Care (Amazon). Shopify pays up to $150 per qualified referral (Shopify). HubSpot pays 30 % monthly recurring for up to a year (HubSpot). Marketplace sellers do the same: one standard rate for any creator who promotes the product through an open collaboration (TikTok).
Commission-based UGC is an affiliate program with a video attached. The difference is that the brand briefs the content, often ships product, and may add a base fee or run the video as an ad.
Example. A direct skincare brand opens an affiliate program at 15 % of sales with a 30-day window. Two hundred creators join over a year. Twenty of them produce 80 % of the sales. The brand offers those twenty a per-video base and a share of ad spend on top. Example numbers, not a benchmark.
When brands use it. The pain this answers: “We use one tool for UGC, another for affiliates and a third for ads.” Programs suit brands with a store they control, a product people rebuy, and enough margin for a public rate. They are a funnel for finding the creators worth a direct deal.
The creator’s view. A public program is the floor, not the ceiling. The terms to read are the rate, the base it applies to, the window, the payout schedule and any cap. A creator who sells consistently can ask for a private rate above the public one.
On HourlyUGC. Hourly, per video, commission (a share of sales or of ad spend), CPM and samples run in the same campaign, so the affiliate side and the ads side are one program.