“The greatest enemy of knowledge is not ignorance, it is the illusion of knowledge.”
— Stephen Hawking
Last week we jumped on a Discovery Call with a potential new direct-to-consumer client doing $25 million a year in revenue online.
They’d hit a plateau. Facebook and Google costs were spiraling. CACs were rising. Nothing was working like it used to.
And the first thing the founder said when we joined the call was:
“You can prove me wrong, but I think affiliate is a scam.”
Ouch.
That’s the hole we have to dig ourselves out of.
And honestly, I get it.
Because in a lot of cases… he’s not entirely wrong.
There are lazy agencies. There are affiliate managers who don’t know better.
There are programs leaking money, paying the wrong partners, or running blind with bad tracking.
It’s not the channel that’s broken — it’s the execution.
Affiliate isn’t a scam. It’s just been managed like one.
So today, let’s talk about how to fix it.
What You’ll Get in Chaos to Grow
• The 5 ways affiliate programs quietly lose money
• Why “lazy” management is killing your brand’s trust in the channel
• How to clean up the mess and take control of CAC again
• Why the right agency partner makes all the difference
From the Trenches: Where It All Goes Wrong
1. Tracking Blind Spots
Most brands haven’t QA’d their affiliate tracking in months (or years).
Pixels break. APIs misfire. Platforms undercount conversions by 10–20%.
That’s not fraud — that’s neglect.
2. Duplicate Commissions
When you’re running multiple partners — influencers, coupons, retargeting — they often all get credit for the same sale.
That’s like paying three waiters for one meal.
3. Inactive Partners Still “Active”
Half your roster might not have sent traffic in 90 days. But they’re still in your reports, your outreach, and your payroll.
4. Overpaying Underperformers
Legacy deals and sweetheart commissions that haven’t been touched since 2022? They’re draining budget without delivering value.
5. Underutilized High-Performers
The good affiliates — the ones that drive growth — often want to do more. But nobody’s asking.
The Real Problem: Lazy Management = Bad Reputation
Here’s the truth no one says out loud:
Affiliate marketing doesn’t have a strategy problem. It has a people problem.
Most agencies set programs on autopilot.
They recycle the same partner lists, run the same campaigns, and hide behind dashboards.
That’s what gives affiliate a bad name.
But when you actually manage it — when you track properly, commission fairly, and motivate strategically — affiliate becomes one of the most controllable CAC levers in marketing.
Your Weekly Chaos Challenge
If you’re skeptical about affiliate, ask yourself:
Do I actually have a broken channel, or do I just have an unmanaged one?
Pull your partner list.
Check your tracking.
Ask your agency to show you what’s been built, not just what’s been reported.
What We Do at Chief of Chaos
We clean up the chaos.
Our team runs Affiliate Program Audits to:
- Fix tracking blind spots
- Eliminate redundant commissions
- Re-activate dormant partners
- Re-tier commissions for profitability
- Find hidden growth opportunities hiding in plain sight
We do it in 48–72 hours.
And every time, we find real money brands didn’t know they were losing.
Affiliate isn’t a scam.
It’s just been mismanaged.
We’re here to prove that it can — and should — be your most efficient growth engine.
Final Thought
The problem isn’t affiliate. It’s the chaos around it.
You can’t control what Facebook charges or how Google changes its algorithm next week.
But you can control how your partnerships are built, measured, and managed.
That’s how you stop wasting money — and start winning again.
—Matt Frary
Chief of Chaos
