If you are building a brand in Singapore or creating content as a publisher, affiliate marketing can be a practical way to drive incremental sales and diversify income. This guide cuts out the hype. You will get clear definitions, what is legal in Singapore, how payouts work, realistic earnings, and how to set up a programme that tracks accurately and prevents fraud.
What affiliate marketing is, in plain terms
Affiliate marketing is a performance arrangement where a publisher promotes a brand’s product and gets paid when a predefined action happens. The action could be a sale, a qualified lead, or a free trial sign-up. Tracking happens through unique links, promo codes, first party pixels, or server-to-server postbacks.
For brands, it is an efficient channel because you pay for outcomes, not just clicks. For creators and publishers, it is a way to monetise audiences without building your own product.
Is affiliate marketing legal in Singapore?
Yes. Affiliate marketing is legal in Singapore when you follow advertising and data protection laws.
- Disclosure: If you are a publisher or creator, disclose paid promotion or affiliate relationships clearly and near the affiliate link. Phrases like “This post contains affiliate links. If you buy, I may earn a commission” are acceptable. Do not hide disclosures in footers or vague pages.
- Truth in advertising: Claims about features, pricing, or health outcomes must be accurate and not misleading under the Consumer Protection (Fair Trading) Act.
- PDPA basics: If you collect or process personal data, you must comply with the Personal Data Protection Act. Obtain consent for data collection, state the purpose, secure the data, and allow withdrawal of consent. For brands, ensure your affiliate platform and partners handle data according to PDPA, including data transfer safeguards if data leaves Singapore.
- Platform policies: If you promote on Meta, Google, TikTok, or marketplaces, follow their advertising rules and affiliate policies.
What are affiliate marketing services?
Affiliate marketing services cover the planning, tech setup, partner recruitment, and ongoing optimisation needed to run a programme. Typical components include:
- Programme design: Commission structure, cookie or attribution window, allowed traffic sources, and approval rules.
- Tracking and attribution: Link generation, promo codes, pixel or server-to-server tracking, and deduplication against other channels.
- Publisher onboarding: Vetting partners, creating briefs, and supplying creative assets and product feeds.
- Compliance and fraud control: Click spamming checks, conversion anomalies, voucher misuse, and brand bidding rules.
- Optimisation and reporting: Incrementality analysis, cohort LTV, and payout tuning by partner type.
WE Interactive, a social media and performance agency in SEA, offers affiliate marketing services inside an integrated performance stack, which lets you tie affiliate outcomes to paid media, CRM, and analytics for full-funnel clarity.
How do affiliate marketers get paid, and the three common models
Payouts depend on the action you want to incentivise.
- CPA, cost per acquisition: A fixed commission per completed purchase. Example: S$18 per paid subscription or 8 percent of the cart for retail.
- CPL, cost per lead: A fixed amount for a qualified lead, often defined by form completeness or verification. Example: S$10 per lead that passes phone verification.
- Revenue share, RevShare: A percentage of revenue over a period. Common for SaaS, gaming, and high LTV products. Example: 20 percent of net revenue for the first 3 months.
Other variants include CPC for content syndication, tiered commissions for top partners, and bonuses for new customer acquisition.
What are the types of affiliate marketing in practice?
You will see three practical “types,” based on how close the publisher is to the purchase:
- Unattached: The affiliate has no direct connection to the brand or audience. Often runs paid traffic to an offer. Useful for volume, higher risk for compliance.
- Related: The affiliate covers the topic but does not personally use the product. Think niche blogs or comparison sites.
- Involved: The affiliate uses and endorses the product with personal experience and deeper content. Best for conversion and trust.
Most programmes mix partner types, then weight commissions and rules accordingly.
How much can you make, realistically?
- New creator in a broad niche: S$100 to S$500 per month within 3 to 6 months with consistent content and a few converting posts.
- Niche content site with 10,000 to 30,000 monthly visits: S$500 to S$3,000 per month, depending on product price, placement, and seasonality.
- High intent comparison or review site: S$3,000 to S$15,000 per month once rankings and email capture mature.
- Top performing financial or B2B SaaS affiliates: S$10,000 plus per month, but this requires authority content, SEO, and strong email or community funnels.
Highest paying affiliate niches tend to be finance, B2B SaaS, web hosting, and enterprise software, where RevShare or high CPA rates reflect strong LTV. Consumer electronics and luxury can also pay well when AOV is high, but returns and attribution rules can reduce net commissions.
Can you start affiliate marketing without money?
Yes, but expect time investment. You can start with free platforms like a social profile, a basic blog on a low-cost CMS, or YouTube or TikTok. Your “cost” is content creation, distribution, and patience. Paid tools for SEO, ads, or newsletter platforms accelerate results, but you can begin without them.
How to start affiliate marketing in Singapore, step by step
For publishers and creators:
- Pick a niche with monetisable intent. Look for products people compare or research before buying.
- Map keywords and content. Focus on comparisons, how-tos, and problem-solution guides.
- Join programmes. Start with brand direct programmes plus reputable networks.
- Build trust content. Use screenshots, demos, and honest pros and cons.
- Place links clearly. Use buttons near CTAs, comparison tables, and contextual deep links.
- Track results. Use UTM parameters, promo codes, and unique links per placement.
- Comply with PDPA and disclosure rules. Add visible disclosures and a privacy notice.
For brands:
- Define economics. Set CPA or RevShare that supports CAC targets and LTV.
- Choose tech. Decide on an affiliate network or in-house platform with reliable tracking, server-to-server options, and deduplication against paid search and social.
- Create your partner pack. Include brand guidelines, product feed, coupons, landing pages, and messaging guardrails.
- Onboard and vet. Approve publishers that align with your brand, and decline those using prohibited tactics like brand bidding or misleading prelanders.
- Set rules and alerts. Cookie window, geo, allowed traffic, and fraud thresholds.
- Integrate analytics. Pass transaction IDs to your analytics stack and CRM for LTV and cohort reporting.
- Optimise monthly. Adjust rates by partner type, launch seasonal promos, supply fresh creatives, and test landing pages for conversion lift.
Starter template, partner brief outline:
- Who we are and target audience
- Product USPs and top 3 converting angles
- Commission, cookie window, and bonus tiers
- Allowed channels, disallowed tactics, and brand terms
- Creative assets and links to top landing pages
- Contact and approval turnaround times
DIY network vs agency managed
- DIY or network managed: Lower fees and fast setup, but you handle recruitment, fraud checks, attribution conflicts, and creative refreshes. Works if you have internal bandwidth and a clear offer.
- Agency managed: Higher service cost, but you gain media planning, partner relationships, multi channel attribution, testing velocity, and compliance guardrails. Better if you want affiliate integrated with paid social,search, email, and CRM.
Tracking accuracy and fraud prevention, the essentials
- Implement server-to-server postbacks in addition to client side pixels to reduce losses from ad blockers and iOS privacy prompts.
- Use last touch plus rules for brand search deduplication to stop cannibalisation.
- Monitor anomalies: Click to conversion time, high click volumes with low unique users, sudden voucher spikes, or unusual geo patterns.
- Require proof of content for coupon partners, and use code ownership to trace misuse.
- Review refunds and chargebacks monthly, and claw back commissions according to policy.
How WE Interactive helps brands and creators in SEA
WE Interactive integrates affiliate into the broader performance mix. The agency designs programmes that align payout models to CAC and LTV goals, sets up tracking with server-to-server where possible, and connects outcomes to CRM journeys and email nurturing. You can also layer affiliate with paid social, search, and programmatic for lift tests and incrementality analysis. If you need your affiliate channel to sit next to your analytics, media buying, and automation, talk to us.
If you are revamping your funnel, you may also benefit from marketing automation or email marketing to convert referred traffic that does not buy on the first visit.
Optional internal resources that complement affiliate
- If content and SEO drive your affiliate traffic, consider a long term partner in a seo agency to help scale evergreen rankings.
- Converting affiliate clicks requires solid landing pages. A capable website design agency can tighten UX, speed, and A/B testing.
- If you plan to expand your paid media mix alongside affiliate, explore performance marketing service for cross channel attribution and ROAS control.
Note: Each link appears once, uses the exact anchor text provided, and fits where it adds value.
Summary and next steps
Affiliate marketing in Singapore is legal when you disclose clearly and respect PDPA. Payout models include CPA, CPL, and RevShare, and earnings depend on niche, intent, and execution. You can start without money, but sustainable results come from consistent content, data driven tracking, and disciplined compliance. Brands that treat affiliate as part of a performance system, not a one off tactic, see better ROI.
If you want an affiliate channel that integrates with your media mix, CRM, and analytics, WE Interactive can help you design the programme, recruit partners, track accurately, and optimise for measurable ROI.