How do I set up and manage my Affiliate Program?

Hotmart’s Affiliate Program allows other people to promote your products in exchange for a commission on completed sales. With it, you can expand the reach of your offers and rely on affiliates to promote your products across different channels.

In addition to activating the program, you can also configure affiliation rules, automatic approvals, promotional materials, affiliate bonuses, and automatic affiliation cancellation.

In this article, you’ll learn how to manage these settings within the platform.

How do I set up my affiliate program?

The Affiliate Program lets you define how affiliates can promote your product, as well as configure commission rules, promotion, automations, and affiliation cancellation.

To access the program settings:

1. Log in to your Hotmart account using this link: https://app.hotmart.com/.
2. In the left-side menu, click Tools > Show all.
3. Search for the Affiliate Program tool.
4. Select the product you want to make available for affiliation and click Continue.
5. Click Settings.

Next, learn how to configure each step of the affiliate program.

❯ Affiliation Rule

Under Affiliation rule, choose how affiliates can promote your product:

• All Affiliates will be able to promote the product : any user can automatically affiliate with the product.
• Only previously approved Affiliates will be able to promote the product: the creator will need to manually approve each request.
• I won’t allow affiliates: the product will not have an active affiliate program.

Important: by default, all products are created with the I won’t allow affiliates option enabled.

❯ Commissioning

Click Commissioning to define the affiliates’ commission percentage.

At this step, Hotmart will automatically display a simulation of the amounts received by the creator and the affiliate according to the configured commission.

Under Commissioning Rule, choose how the commission will be assigned:

• Last click: the commission will be assigned to the last affiliate who received the buyer’s click.
• First click: the commission will be assigned to the first affiliate who received the buyer’s click.
• Multi-click: the commission may be shared between the first and last affiliates who received the buyer’s click.

Important: the Multiple clicks option will only be available if the product does not yet have active affiliates and does not use discount coupons.

Hotmart has a commissioning system based on the affiliate promotion level, called Global Affiliations. In this promotion, you can enable or disable it.

❯ Promotion

In the Promotion tab, choose whether you want the product to appear in Hotmart’s Affiliate Marketplace.

You can also configure tags, affiliate program description, and promotion rules.

In this space, we recommend informing the desired affiliate profile, product differentiators, promotion rules, and best practices expected from affiliates.

❯ Advanced

In the Advanced tab, you can configure additional program features.

Cookies

Define how long the commission can be assigned to the affiliate after the buyer’s click. The period can vary between 60 days, 90 days, 180 days, or forever.

This means that even if the buyer completes the purchase days or weeks later, the commission may still be assigned to the affiliate responsible for the access.

Affiliate bonus

Allows affiliates to offer their own bonuses to buyers, such as ebooks, infographics, interviews, and extra materials.

Affiliation type

Defines whether the program will accept individual affiliates, business affiliates, or both.

Coproductions

When this option is enabled, cocreators can also affiliate with the product.

❯ Automation Rules

In the Automation Rules tab, you can configure automatic approvals and cancellations based on criteria defined by you and Hotmart.

The available criteria include:

• affiliate badges;
• legal nature;
• use of eNotas;
• sales performance.

Automatic Cancellation

Under Automatic Cancellation, you can configure rules to automatically remove low-performing affiliates.

The period is configured in days, with a minimum of 90 days, and already considers at least one sale as the default criterion.

Before automatic removal, Hotmart may send notifications encouraging the affiliate to resume promoting the product.

To finish the configuration, click Save.

 

How do I make promotional materials available to my affiliates?

The Promotional Materials tool allows you to make images, videos, email templates, and other content available that affiliates can use to promote your product.

With this, you can standardize affiliate program communication and make the product promotion process easier.

To access promotional materials:

1. Log in to your Hotmart account using this link: https://app.hotmart.com/.
2. In the left-side menu, click Tools > See all.
3. Search for the Affiliate Program tool.
4. Select the product you want to make available for affiliation and click Continue.
5. Click Promotional Material.

In this area, you can add banners, videos, email copy, images, and other support content for affiliates.

Next, learn how to configure each type of material.

❯ Configuring banners and images

To add banners and images:

1. Select the corresponding template.
2. Fill in the material title.
3. Enter the image URL.

When you enter the URL, the image will be loaded automatically on the platform.

Important:

• the image must be hosted on an external service, such as Google Drive, Imgur, or Dropbox;
• the image link must be public;
• the URL must end with formats such as .jpg or .png.

Example:

https://meuservico.com/imagem.jpg

❯ Configuring videos

To add videos to promotional materials, use the content’s embedded link.

On YouTube, for example:

1. Open the desired video.
2. Click Share.
3. Select Embed.
4. Copy the available link.

This will be the link used in the promotional material.

❯ Configuring text and support content

You can also add email copy and other support content to help affiliates promote the product.

These materials can help standardize communication and make campaigns run by affiliates easier.

After configuring the desired material, click Add.

Done! The materials will be available for affiliates to use when promoting the product.

 

How do I manage my affiliation requests?

According to the rules configured in your affiliate program, you may receive affiliation requests for your products and manage them directly through the platform.

To access Affiliate Management:

1. Log in to your Hotmart account using this link: https://app.hotmart.com/.
2. In the left-side menu, click Partnerships > Affiliates.

When you access Affiliate Management, you’ll find different tabs to track and manage your affiliations.

Next, learn what you can do in each area.

❯ Affiliate Management

In the General tab, you can view all details about your affiliates, the products they participate in, and each producer’s affiliation date.

In addition, you can identify affiliates according to:

• product;
• affiliation status;
• special commission conditions;
• affiliate legal nature.

After finding the desired affiliate, click the three dots next to their name and select Details. You can also access this information by clicking directly on the affiliate’s name.

In the details area, you’ll be able to:

• send messages to the affiliate;
• view which products the affiliate is linked to.

By clicking the three dots again, you’ll also be able to:

• edit commission;
• cancel affiliation;
• enable buyer details for affiliates.

When buyer details are enabled, affiliates will be able to view some information about buyers who used their Promotion Links, also known as HotLinks, and completed a purchase, such as location and email.

This information can support campaigns, relationship strategies, and actions such as upsell or downsell.

❯ Tracking performance and reports

On the Affiliate Management page, shortcuts to Affiliate Chat and Affiliate Reports are also available.

In addition, you can track the performance of the affiliates who sold the most in the last 3 months, viewing information such as affiliate name, number of products with sales, and the total number of sales made.

❯ Approving or rejecting affiliation requests

In the Requests tab, you can approve or reject affiliation requests sent for your products.

In this area, you can also view the affiliate’s name, check the legal nature, identify the requested product, approve or reject affiliation requests, and use filters by badges, affiliate name, or request date.

 

How do I automatically approve affiliates?

If you selected the "Only previously approved affiliates can promote the product" option in your affiliate program, you can automate the affiliate approval process through automation rules.

With this configuration, the platform can automatically approve affiliates who meet the criteria defined by you.

To configure automatic approval:

1. Log in to your Hotmart account using this link: https://app.hotmart.com/.
2. In the left-side menu, click Tools > See all.
3. Search for the Affiliate Program tool.
4. Select the desired product and click Continue.
5. Click the Settings tab.
6. Under Automation Rules, select the desired criteria.
7. Click Save to apply the changes.

❯ Criteria available for automatic approval

Currently, you can configure automatic approval based on the following criteria:

• Affiliate Badges: considers the badges already earned by the affiliate within the platform.
• Affiliate legal nature: available for Brazilian affiliates, it allows affiliates to be approved according to their registered legal nature.
• Affiliate uses eNotas: considers affiliates who use eNotas, the invoice issuance system integrated with Hotmart and available only in Brazil.

Important: for automatic approval to take place, the affiliate must meet all configured criteria simultaneously.

 

 

How do I set up automatic affiliation cancellation?

If you selected the "Only previously approved affiliates can promote the product" or "All affiliates can promote the product" options in your affiliate program, you can automate affiliation cancellation based on affiliate performance.

With this configuration, affiliates who do not make sales within the defined period can be automatically removed from the program.

To configure automatic cancellation:

1. Log in to your Hotmart account using this link: https://app.hotmart.com/.
2. In the left-side menu, click Tools > See all.
3. Search for the Affiliate Program tool.
4. Select the desired product and click Continue.
5. Click the Settings tab.
6. Under Automatic Cancellation, define the period without sales for the affiliate to be automatically removed.
7. Click Save to apply the changes.

❯ Important information about automatic cancellation

• The minimum configurable period is 90 days.
• The configuration already considers, by default, a minimum of one sale.
• Before automatic cancellation, Hotmart may send notifications encouraging the affiliate to resume promoting the product.

For affiliates approved again in the program, the performance analysis considers the affiliate’s entire sales history for that product, not just the most recent affiliation.

If the affiliate still does not meet the configured criteria, they will have 7 days to make sales before being automatically removed again.

 

Frequently Asked Questions

❯ Can I deactivate the Affiliate Program later?

Yes. The creator can change the Affiliate Program settings at any time.

❯ What’s the difference between manual and automatic approval?

In manual approval, the creator reviews each affiliation request individually. In automatic approval, affiliates who meet the configured criteria are approved automatically by the platform.

❯ Does automatic cancellation remove affiliates immediately?

No. Before automatic removal, Hotmart sends notifications encouraging the affiliate to resume promoting the product.

❯ Are promotional materials available to all affiliates?

This depends on the rules configured in the Affiliate Program and the type of affiliation chosen for the product.

❯ Can I change the affiliates’ commission later?

Yes. The commission can be adjusted later in the Affiliate Program settings.However, the change will take effect after a 3-day period.