What does a customer from affiliates cost, compared with ads?
The cost of a customer from affiliates is everything you pay or give away for those sales, divided by the number of first-time buyers they sent. Commission is only one line of that sum.
Your customer acquisition cost, or CAC, is the total cost of winning one customer. Shopify's guide says to divide acquisition costs for a period by the new customers who bought in it, and to count first-time customers only (Shopify, 29 July 2024, checked 9 November 2026).
Below is the formula, what Shopify brands pay in commission, what published ad figures look like, and a made-up example you can rerun with your own numbers.
What goes into the cost of an affiliate customer?
Shopify's guide says CAC covers marketing spend of all kinds, from ad fees to software and content. It also counts staff and contract time, plus the discounts and offers used to win customers (Shopify, 29 July 2024, checked 9 November 2026). Applied to affiliates, the list looks like this:
- Commission on each sale they send.
- Discount codes the customer uses. A 10% code costs you 10% of the order.
- Free product you send to creators, plus what it cost to ship.
- Software that tracks sales and pays affiliates.
- Your time, or a manager's pay, for finding and managing them. See what an affiliate manager costs.
Then divide by new customers only. A sale from someone who already bought from you did not win a customer. It still costs commission unless your terms say otherwise. So commission paid on repeat buyers adds cost that a new-customer divisor hides.
What do Shopify brands pay in commission?
Commission is a big line. We read the public affiliate pages of 168 Shopify brands on 23 October 2026, and 137 of them name a base rate. The base rate is the lowest rate a program promises. The median is the middle value: half the programs pay less and half pay more. Ours was 10%, and the middle half sat between 8% and 15%.
The table turns each category's median into dollars on one made-up $75 order. It sets that beside the median Meta ads CAC for brands whose orders run $50 to $100. The ad figures come from Lebesgue, an ads analytics vendor. They are medians across ecommerce stores in its own dataset (Lebesgue, 7 September 2026, checked 9 November 2026). The page gives no sample size or date range.
| Category (our names) | Median base rate | Commission per order (not per customer) | Meta median CAC per new customer, $50 to $100 orders |
|---|---|---|---|
| Beauty and skincare | 15% | $11.25 | $31.19 (Beauty and Wellness) |
| Fitness and sports | 10% | $7.50 | $25.22 (Fitness and Outdoors) |
| Fashion and apparel | 10% | $7.50 | $18.60 (Fashion) |
| Food and drink (only 8 rates, a small sample) | 10% | $7.50 | $17.87 (Food, Beverage and Pet) |
| Home and garden | 10% | $7.50 | $17.75 (Home and Lifestyle) |
Our rates are from the commission rates data page. The ad figures are Lebesgue's. The category pairs are our best match, and the two sets use different names.
Two limits matter. Our rates are what pages promise, not what brands pay. And 18% of the programs we read show only an "up to" rate. The ad figures are per new customer, while commission is per order, so the columns are not like for like.
What do published ad figures say?
Treat every ad benchmark as directional. Both come from ad analytics or ad management sellers. Lebesgue publishes a different median for each order-size band, so use the band that matches your own average order.
A second source takes a different view. An agency publishes a median Meta cost per purchase of $49.04 across 15 direct-to-consumer brands it manages, from July 2025 to June 2026. The range ran from $6.63 to $195.17 (Top Growth Marketing, checked 9 November 2026). The page says the accounts all sit with one agency, so they are not an industry average. It also says the figures use Meta's own attribution, which means Meta decides which sales its ads get credit for, and the spread mostly reflects price.
The agency figure is higher than Lebesgue's $17.75 to $31.19. The two measure different things. Cost per purchase counts repeat buyers too. Cost per new customer counts first-time buyers only. Brand mix and prices differ.
How does a worked example look?
Here is a made-up month. Say your average order is $75 and you pay 10%. Twenty first-time customers buy through affiliates.
| Line | How we got it | Cost |
|---|---|---|
| Commission | 20 orders at $7.50 | $150 |
| Discount code | 20 orders at 10% off, $7.50 each | $150 |
| Free product | 5 gifts at $15 each | $75 |
| Software | A flat monthly fee, made up | $49 |
| Total | $424 |
Split $424 across the twenty first-time buyers and each costs $21.20. Drop the discount code and it falls to $13.70. Count commission alone and it is $7.50.
That $21.20 sits inside the Lebesgue range for these order sizes, which runs from $17.75 to $31.19 for the five categories above. Home, food and fashion medians sit below $21.20. Beauty and fitness medians sit above it. Counting everything, affiliates land in the same range as ads. Counting commission alone makes them look far cheaper.
The sum leaves out your time. It also leaves out the Collabs payout fee covered below, which applies only if you use Collabs payouts. Add both if they apply to you.
Where do the two channels differ in how you pay?
Ads charge you up front. You pay for the click or the impression whether anyone buys. Affiliates cost money only when a sale happens, so a program that sends nothing costs close to nothing. That is the main trade.
Timing differs too. A holding period is the wait before a sale's commission is charged. On Shopify Collabs, the default is 30 days, and you can set it from 1 to 90 days. Shopify adds the commission to your next bill after the hold ends (Shopify Help Center, checked 9 November 2026). So you may have the sale's cash long before the commission leaves.
Collabs also charges a processing fee. The page says there is a 2.9% fee on every automatic commission payment, and it appears on your Shopify bill. Its own example, a 10% commission on a $100 sale, shows a 29 cent fee. Add it to your sum if you use Collabs payouts.
Volume is the other difference. You can raise ad spend tomorrow. Affiliate sales depend on how many people promote you. See how many affiliates a Shopify brand should recruit.
How do you keep the number honest?
Four habits keep the sum honest.
- Count first-time buyers only. Split new from returning customers in your orders.
- Watch for sales you already had. A shopper at checkout who finds a code on a coupon site was already buying. Our guide on coupon sites shows how to stop paying for them.
- Cap the code. A code that gives the customer 10% and the affiliate 10% takes 20% of the order.
- Set the rate from profit. The method is in what a Shopify program should pay.
Shopify's guide says a CLV to CAC ratio of 3:1 to 5:1 means your acquisition strategy is working efficiently (Shopify, 29 July 2024, checked 9 November 2026). CLV, customer lifetime value, is what a customer spends with you over time. Treat that ratio as a rule of thumb, not a law.
To compare pay per click with pay per sale, read CPA, CPC and CPS. To tag and measure each channel, read how to measure influencer marketing ROI. For the full path from click to payout, read how the money flows in Shopify affiliate marketing. For tools that track the sales, see affiliate tracking software for Shopify.
Where RecruitAffiliates.ai fits
The cost sum only helps if affiliates exist. RecruitAffiliates.ai finds the people already covering shops like yours: websites, blogs, review sites, newsletters, podcasts, YouTube channels, and Instagram and TikTok creators. Each one comes with the page that shows it, so you can judge the fit.
It looks for each person's email and checks what it finds. AI drafts a personal first email, you approve it, and it sends from your own inbox. It doesn't pay anyone or track sales, so you still need an affiliate tool for that. See the Shopify page for the steps.
Launch is $79 a month for one brand, with a 7-day free trial and no card.
Frequently asked questions
What is a good customer acquisition cost for a Shopify store?
It depends on your order size and margin. Lebesgue's Meta medians for $50 to $100 orders run from $17.75 to $31.19 by category, and they differ again for other order sizes. Check your own number against your profit per order and your lifetime value, not against one benchmark.
Is affiliate marketing cheaper than ads?
Commission alone is lower per order than the ad figures above, but that compares an order with a customer. Once you add discount codes, free product and software, the gap can close. The upside is that you pay mainly when a sale happens.
Do I pay commission on repeat customers?
That depends on your terms. Decide it before you recruit, and write it down. Your CAC sum counts first-time customers only, so repeat orders belong in a different line.
What does Shopify Collabs charge?
The Shopify Help Center says there is a 2.9% processing fee on every automatic commission payment. Shopify can change its terms, so check the page before you rely on it.
How long until I pay the commission?
On Collabs, the holding period defaults to 30 days, and you can set it from 1 to 90 days. Other tools set their own rules.
Sources
- Shopify, Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC): Calculate and Reduce It, 29 July 2024, checked 9 November 2026
- Lebesgue, Meta Ads Benchmarks by industry and AOV, 7 September 2026, checked 9 November 2026
- Top Growth Marketing, Meta Ads Benchmarks for DTC Ecommerce, checked 9 November 2026
- Shopify Help Center, paying creators on Collabs, checked 9 November 2026
- Our read of 168 public Shopify affiliate programs, 23 October 2026: method, limits and aggregates