Understanding your affiliate metrics

Are you participating in the YouTube Affiliate Program and want to get a clearer picture of your earnings? This article will guide you through tracking your affiliate performance directly from YouTube Analytics. Learn how to understand key metrics to optimize your affiliate marketing strategy and increase your earnings.

How to access affiliate metrics

You can access your affiliate metrics from YouTube Studio in two ways:

Sign in to YouTube Studio.
Select the Analytics tab from the left.
Proceed to tap on Revenue.
In the Revenue tab, click on the Affiliate program button.
Select See more.

Alternatively, you can view your affiliate analytics by

Navigating to the Earn tab from the left.
Proceed to tap on Shopping.
Under the “How you’re doing” section, you can select See more.

Key metrics explained

Here are the key metrics you'll want to focus on within YouTube Analytics to understand your affiliate performance:

Estimated Revenue:
- What it is: This is the estimated revenue you've earned from qualifying affiliate sales within the observed time period. Note that this is an estimate and pending final approval. Estimated revenue amount is subject to change due to returns and cancellations.
- What it tells you: This gives you a general sense of how much money your affiliate efforts are generating.
Total Sales:
- What it is: The total number of sales attributed to your affiliate links.
- What it tells you: This helps you understand how effectively you're converting clicks into actual purchases.

Note: Sales are measured at basket-level (all products included in the transaction), and not only at a tagged level (your product tagged).

Orders:
- What it is: The total number of orders attributed to your affiliate links. An order may contain multiple items.
- What it tells you: This metric shows how many orders have been made as a result of your shopping tag.
Product Clicks:
- What it is: The number of times viewers clicked on your affiliate links.
- What it tells you: This indicates the level of interest in the products you're tagging.

Commissions Explained

Understanding how commissions are tracked and finalized is key to seeing your earnings from YouTube Affiliate links. Commissions can be reviewed in 3 different stages: Pending Commissions, Estimated Revenue, and Approved Commissions.

Note: The data you see for Pending, Estimated, and Approved revenue is always tied to the specific timeframe you've selected in your analytics, reflecting the status earnings had within that period. Estimated revenue is calculated by subtracting returned products from your pending commissions.

Pending Commissions: Think of these as initial earnings recorded when a viewer clicks your affiliate link and makes a purchase. These commissions are "pending" because they haven't yet been confirmed by the merchant. The timeframe for pending commissions to become approved commissions can vary based on when the viewer initially clicked your link (this is determined by the merchant's attribution window). The "pending commissions" you see reflect all such potential earnings within the selected timeframe.

Note: Pending commissions reflect a snapshot of potential earnings at the time of sale. This amount remains the same even when the commissions are later approved or paid.

Estimated Revenue: This is an estimate of what you might ultimately earn. It's calculated by taking your pending commissions earned from purchases in the selected period and subtracting the value of any products purchased through your links that have been returned. This gives you a clearer picture of your potential net earnings from recent activity. Keep in mind that the initial purchase might have occurred from a click made even before this window.
Approved Commissions: These are the commissions that have been reviewed and officially confirmed by the merchant during the selected timeframe. This approval process happens after a merchant lock-in period, which is a timeframe (typically 30-90 days) that allows for returns and validation of the sale. The approved commissions you see in a selected period are from purchases that happened before the selected timeframe, due to these typical lock-in periods.

Note: Approved commissions can include revenue from sales occurred, prior to the selected timeframe.

The total approved commission earned within a specific month will then be included in your next payment cycle.

How Shopping earnings are processed

Note: Earnings are typically finalized and reflected in your account within a 2-3 month timeframe. This allows for thorough processing, accommodation of returns, and completion of administrative procedures.

Getting clarity on your earnings

To understand your earnings data effectively, remember that there's a typical 2-3 month delay before commissions are finalized as "Approved." The data you see for Pending, Estimated, and Approved revenue is always tied to the specific timeframe you've selected in your analytics, reflecting the status earnings had within that period.

For example, if you're viewing a broad period like "Last Year," the pending revenue shown includes all earnings that were generated and had a status of "Pending" during that entire time. It's important to understand that this view shows the status as it was in that period, not necessarily their current processing or payment status today. Those earnings shown as Pending within the past timeframe would then typically move through the approval process (becoming "Approved") 2-3 months after they were generated.

Note: The 'snapshot' you see here, hence the 'pending commission' that has been approved or even paid would still show as 'pending commission' based on the selected timeframe, not subtracted or moved to 'approved.’

For actionable insights into your recent performance, focus on shorter timeframes like the last 7 or 30 days. In contrast, the "Approved" commissions you see usually reflect sales that occurred 2-3 months prior.

Regularly analyzing your data across different timeframes and looking at product-level performance within those ranges will provide a clearer picture of your earnings trends and help you optimize your strategies.

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