How to build an affiliate application form with tracking links

Turn affiliate signups into trackable referrals

In this guide, you’ll build a single affiliate application form that your partners fill out once. Your team reviews submissions in the same form, approves affiliates with admin-only fields, and automatically sends each approved partner a unique tracking link.

You’ll use fields, variables, and email automations inside Formaloo, no external tools or extra forms needed.

📘 Learn more: Create your first form, app, or portal in a flash

Why this helps

• Centralized affiliate onboarding – Collect all affiliate details (company, channel, audience, payout preference) in one consistent application form instead of scattered emails.
• Built-in review & approval – Use admin-only fields to score and approve applicants without creating a second reviewer form.
• Automatic tracking link delivery – Approved affiliates receive a personalized tracking link via email, generated from the form data and variables.
• Performance-ready data – Every affiliate code and tracking link is stored in your responses, ready for filtering, exports, and dashboards.
• Scales with your program – As you add more affiliates, you can expand to portals and dashboards that show top-performing partners and campaign summaries.

📘 Learn more: What is logic in Formaloo

Step 1 – Create your affiliate application form

You can start from scratch or use a template from our Template Gallery (for example, Partnership inquiry form template), or you can use Magic Create.

1. From your workspace, click + New → Form.
2. Or open the Template Gallery and search for keywords like “partnership application”.
3. To use Magic Create, try a prompt like:

“Affiliate program application form with company info, channels, audience details, commission preferences, and terms consent.”

1. Add core applicant fields, for example:
   • Applicant name and business name
   • Email and website / main profile URL
   • Country and primary promotion channels
   • Audience size / niche
   • Short pitch: “Why do you want to join our affiliate program?”
   • Checkbox for terms & conditions (required)

💡 Tip: Keep the form focused on information you actually use to approve partners, shorter, relevant applications convert more qualified affiliates.

📘 Learn more: Form editor and field types

Step 2 – Add internal review fields as admin-only

Next, prepare fields your internal team will use to review and approve affiliates. These won’t be visible to applicants.

1. In the form editor, add a new section (e.g. “Internal review”).
2. Add fields such as:
   • Application status (Dropdown: New, Under review, Approved, Rejected)
   • Fit score (1–5) or “Priority level”
   • Reviewer notes (long text)
   • Assigned account manager (Dropdown or text)
3. Mark this section or its fields as admin-only, so applicants never see them in the public form view.
4. Your workflow becomes:
   • Applicant submits.
   • Your team opens the submission, fills in review fields, and updates status.

💡 Tip: Use clear status values (New → Under review → Approved/Rejected) so you can later filter and build dashboards for each step of the affiliate pipeline.

📘 Learn more: Customize your form/app layout and design

Step 3 – Create an affiliate code field for each approved partner

To generate a unique tracking link later, you first need an affiliate code for each approved applicant.

1. Add a short text field called, for example, “Affiliate code (internal)”.
2. Set it as admin-only.
3. Decide how you’ll format codes, for instance:
   • FIRSTNAME10
   • AFF-00123
   • YT-CHANNEL-NAME
4. When reviewing a new application:
   • If you approve the applicant, fill in the affiliate code field and set Application status = Approved.
   • If you reject, leave the code empty and set status to Rejected.

This approach keeps code generation under your control while still allowing automation once a status changes.

💡 Tip: Keep your affiliate code short and readable, this helps if partners ever need to share it manually.

📘 Learn more: How to edit and delete responses

Step 4 – Build a tracking link using variables and formulas

Now you’ll generate a full tracking URL from the base landing page + each affiliate’s unique code.

Example target URL pattern:
https://your-landing-page.com/?ref=AFFILIATE_CODE

4.1 Decide on your base landing URL

• Choose the page that affiliates will promote, e.g. your main signup page or product landing.
• Copy the URL, for example: https://yourbrand.com/signup.

4.2 Create a variable to build the tracking link

1. Go to your form’s Settings → Variables.
2. Create a new variable (type: formula or text, depending on your setup), e.g. affiliate_tracking_link.
3. Use a formula that combines your base URL with the affiliate code field. Conceptually, it will:
   • Start with https://yourbrand.com/signup?ref=
   • Append the value of your affiliate code field (e.g. @field_affiliate_code).
4. Save the variable. For every submission, the variable will store that affiliate’s personal tracking URL.

💡 Tip: If you change your landing page in the future, update only the base URL inside the variable instead of editing all email templates and flows.

📘 Learn more: How to use a variable with a formula

Step 5 – Automatically send tracking links to approved affiliates

Once you have a tracking link variable, you’ll email it automatically whenever an application is approved.

5.1 Create a custom email template

1. Open your form, go to apps & integrations/ Emails.
2. Create a custom email template for approved affiliates.
3. In the email body, include:
   • A welcome sentence.
   • Their code and tracking link, using variables, for example:
     • “Your affiliate code: @field_affiliate_code”
     • “Your tracking link: @var_affiliate_tracking_link”
4. Add any program information: payment schedule, dashboards, or next steps.

📘 Learn more: How to create and send custom email templates

5.2 Trigger the email when status changes to “Approved”

To avoid sending tracking links before review, you’ll use On Update logic or conditional email notifications.

1. Go to Settings → Logic.
2. Add a new rule (On Update / conditional notification):
   • Condition: If Application status = Approved AND Affiliate code is not empty.
   • Action: Send the approved affiliate email template to the applicant’s email field.
3. Save your logic.

Now, whenever your team updates a record to Approved and fills the affiliate code, the system automatically sends the tracking link email.

💡 Tip: Add a second rule for Rejected status to send a polite decline email without any tracking link.

📘 Learn more: How to send and receive conditional email notifications

Step 6 – Track affiliate performance in responses & dashboards

Every submission now contains:

• Application info
• Internal status & reviewer notes
• Affiliate code
• Tracking link variable

You can track and analyze affiliates directly in Formaloo.

1. Go to the Responses page of your form.
2. Show columns for Application status, Affiliate code, and Tracking link.
3. Use filters to see only:
   • Approved affiliates
   • Pending applications
   • High-priority partners
4. Save different views (e.g. “Approved affiliates,” “Under review,” “Top priority”) for your team.

💡 Tip: Add simple charts (e.g. by status, by country, by source) to see how many affiliates you have and where they come from.

📘 Learn more:

• How to view your form responses
• How to sort and filter your submissions data

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Pro tips for affiliate programs in Formaloo

💡 Pro Tip 1 – Use variables to personalize emails by channel
Add a field like “Primary promotion channel” (e.g. Blog, YouTube, Instagram). Then, use logic + variables to slightly adjust your welcome email copy based on this answer—giving channel-specific ideas and CTAs.
📘 Learn more: What are variables, why and how to use them

💡 Pro Tip 2 – Build a simple dashboard of approved affiliates
Create a page in your app/portal with a table block filtered to show only Application status = Approved. Share it internally so marketing or finance can quickly see active affiliates and their details.
📘 Learn more: How to showcase charts based on form responses

💡 Pro Tip 3 – Offer approved affiliates a portal later
When you’re ready, you can build a portal where logged-in affiliates see their profile and past submissions (for example, to request updated assets or change payout details).
📘 Learn more: How to create a portal and manage users’ access

Real-world example (case study)

A SaaS company running a growing affiliate program wanted to:

• Standardize applications
• Avoid manual back-and-forth for tracking links
• Keep their marketing and finance team aligned

They built a single Affiliate Application form in Formaloo:

1. Applicants filled in their business details, audience, and promotion plans.
2. The marketing team reviewed submissions in the Responses view, adding an Affiliate code and setting Application status.
3. When status changed to Approved, an On Update rule triggered an email that included:
   • The affiliate’s code
   • Their personal tracking link variable
   • Payout terms and a link to an internal resource folder

Within a few weeks, they had:

• A centralized list of all affiliates
• Automatic tracking link delivery (no manual copy-paste emails)
• Filtered views showing which affiliates were approved, pending, or inactive

📈 See more examples: Build personalized and time-saving flows with logic and automation

FAQ

1. Can I auto-generate random affiliate codes instead of typing them manually?

Right now, the most reliable pattern is to generate or define your affiliate codes yourself (e.g. using a naming convention) and store them in an admin-only field. You can then use variables and logic to build tracking links and trigger emails automatically when you update the submission.
❓ Learn more: How to add advanced logic to your form

2. Can I send different emails to approved vs. rejected applicants?

Yes. Create separate email templates (for example “Affiliate approved” and “Affiliate declined”), then use conditional or On Update logic based on the Application status field to send the correct template.
🔒 Learn more: How to send and receive email notifications

3. How do I include the tracking link inside the email body?

Use a variable (for example @var_affiliate_tracking_link) inside your email template body. The variable combines your base URL and affiliate code and is replaced with the correct tracking link for each submission.
🛠️ Learn more: How to dynamically pull form data into custom emails, PDFs, and AI prompts

4. Can affiliates see or edit their application later?

You can allow affiliates to view or edit their submissions if you use a portal and enable those options on the responses table. This is optional and recommended when you want affiliates to update their details over time.
🧩 Learn more: How to let users view and edit their own data in your portal

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Wrap-up – From applications to active affiliates

You’ve set up a full affiliate onboarding flow in a single Formaloo form:

• Applicants submit their details.
• Your team reviews and approves them using admin-only fields.
• A variable-generated tracking link is sent automatically via email when they are approved.
• All codes and links remain stored for future reporting and dashboards.

From here, your next step can be to create a portal page or dashboard where your internal team—or even affiliates themselves—can see relevant data and updates.

🎉 Learn more: Build personalized and time-saving flows with logic and automation

Last updated November 2025.

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