What you do during the first 30 days of launching your creator affiliate program sets the tone for your brand’s long-term success across shopping destinations like Amazon, Walmart, and Shopify.

Creator partnerships take time and investment to build, but the first 30 days are all about building the foundation and establishing the habits that drive performance. While it’s easy to assume that the top-performing ecommerce brands use sophisticated tactics, the truth is many are simply doing the right things consistently.

Here’s a practical guide with the essential activities to help you launch a strategic creator affiliate program, build early momentum, and lay the foundation for a program that scales.

Want the full 90-day roadmap? Watch the Your First 90 Days on Levanta session →

Days 1 to 30: Build the Foundation

Success on Levanta during the first 30 days belongs to the brands that give creators a clear reason to partner with their brand and an easy path to get started.

Complete a profile on Levanta

For creators to quickly activate, your program should be easy to navigate and engage with. Your first step should be completing a brand profile on Levanta. Explain clearly what products you sell, who you sell to, and why a creator’s audience would care. On your profile, be sure to add strong product details, clear imagery, and proof points like ratings, reviews, category traction, or customer use cases.

Activate lead products

Once your profile is complete, activate the strongest products to lead your affiliate program. The first products you launch will influence which creators join, how well traffic converts, and how fast you optimize results based on performance data.

It’s essential to start with products that creators can promote with confidence. Prioritize products with the following attributes:

• Strong customer demand and reliable conversion
• High ratings and reviews to establish trust
• Sufficient inventory to last the holiday season
• Margins that support competitive commissions

Ensure that your lead products also have optimized product pages across wherever you sell, whether that’s Amazon, Walmart or your brand’s direct-to-consumer storefront.

Set a competitive commission strategy

Creators evaluate brands when choosing who to partner with, so your offer should feel worth their time. Having a competitive commission strategy only motivates creators and protects your margins. It’s important to also consider their potential impact and think beyond first-order economics when fleshing out this strategy.

If you’re struggling to determine the commission strategy for your program, consider using Levanta’s free commission calculator and reading this breakdown on how to set competitive affiliate commission rates.

Connect to Amazon, Shopify or Walmart

Complete your activation on Levanta by connecting the relevant channels you sell on, whether that’s Amazon Marketplaces, Creator Connections, Shopify or Walmart. Brands that activate across all three marketplaces encourage more ways to earn creator attention and grow shopper demand. To ensure your account is fully configured, read this detailed setup guide in the Knowledge Center here.

Start recruiting creators daily

Get started recruiting creators and affiliates as soon as possible. The longer you wait, the longer it takes your program to be profitable. Best practice is to max out your daily invites with personalized outreach.

A creator invite should include:

Outreach can and most likely will vary, but it should always have a clear, compelling reason to consider the opportunity. Remember, responses are more likely when a creator feels like a message is the beginning of a 1:1 partnership, not a generic blast.

Check out these ready-to-use invite templates for each stage of the creator relationship in our Creator Outreach Swipe File.

Treat applications as active interest

If creators have applied to participate in your program, treat applications as active interest and review applicants daily for fit, quality, category relevance, and brand safety. Also, respond in a timely manner. If you’ve approved their application, follow-up with a warm welcome email with clear next steps on how to get started.

Upload deals and enable samples

When creators see that you have active and upcoming deals, promotions, campaigns, or new product launches, they are encouraged to partner with you and post sooner. If samples are available and your internal process is ready for it, use Levanta’s sampling tool. 

By Day 30, the foundation to your creator affiliate programs should be solid and complete with a live brand profile, launched products, connected marketplaces, and a first wave of creator outreach already underway.

Your 30-Day Checklist:

By Day 30, you should have completed the following activities on Levanta:

Building Momentum Beyond Day 30

These activities mark the beginnings of an active program on Levanta. Your foundation is in place with recruitment in progress alongside a live product and commission strategy. From there, the focus moves to building momentum by expanding your creator network, strengthening relationships, testing incentives, and acting on performance insights.

Ready for the next steps?

Watch Your First 90 Days on Levanta: Done, Right for the full 30-, 60-, and 90-day framework.

FAQ

Q: How often should I recruit creators during the first days on Levanta?
It’s recommended to maximize daily invites on Levanta and personalize outreach to increase response times and creator activation. It’s important to get started recruiting quickly to drive profit and program momentum.  

Q: What commission rate should I offer creators?
Recommended commission rates vary by vertical and product category. However, they should be based on your individual unit economics, customer lifetime value, and the creator partner type you want to attract. Levanta gives ecommerce brands the ability to set flexible commissions across products and creators, so you can adjust accordingly based on performance and contribution. See how to set competitive affiliate commission rates for a complete breakdown.

Q: Which products should I launch first?
Lead with your strongest products first, not your entire catalog. Your initial choices play a critical role in influencing creator interest, conversion, and what you can learn from early performance indicators. Be sure to prioritize products based on customer demand, conversion reliability, trust indicators, and profit margins.

Q: Should I send creators free product samples?
Send free product samples if they’re available and if your team has the capacity and internal process ready to support the lift. See the Levanta Knowledge Hub for a step-by-step guide on managing product samples in Levanta.

Q: What should I do after my first 30 days on Levanta?
The first 30 days on Levanta are about building the proper foundation for long-term success with profile setup, product selection, recruitment, onboarding, and activations. The next phase includes follow-up communications, expanding partner recruitment, leveraging incentives, building relationships, and acting on reporting. Watch Your First 90 Days on Levanta: Done, Right for the full 30-, 60-, and 90-day framework.