The percentage of affiliate-sourced purchases made by customers who have not previously purchased from the brand. High-value metric for affiliate program quality assessment: programs where 70-80%+ of affiliate purchases are from new customers are creating genuine customer acquisition; programs where most affiliate purchases come from existing customers are primarily channel-shifting existing customer demand (generating commission on purchases that would have occurred anyway through email, direct, or search). Measurement: compare affiliate-attributed customer email list against existing customer database; new match rate = new customer rate. Industry benchmark: healthy programs achieve 50-70%+ new customer rate; programs relying heavily on coupon/cashback publishers see lower new customer rates (existing customers use affiliate-sourced codes); programs built on content publishers see higher new customer rates (content introduces new customers to the brand).
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