The complete cost of operating an affiliate program including all direct and indirect expenses: publisher commissions + network override fees + network platform fees + affiliate management labor (in-house FTE or agency) + creative production + product seeding + publisher bonuses and flat fees. Contrast with "commission cost only" (what most programs report to finance). Fully-loaded cost is typically 15-25% of affiliate-attributed GMV for established programs — substantially higher than the commission rate alone. Why it matters: commission-only cost reporting overstates affiliate ROI, misleads resource allocation decisions, and fails to hold up to CFO or finance team scrutiny. Best practice: establish a fully-loaded cost methodology once and apply it consistently quarter-over-quarter for comparable ROI reporting.
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