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Create Template Terms

Published on: Fri, 21 Apr, 2023 at 4:16 AM | Updated on: Wed, 7 May, 2025 at 11:12 PM

Your Template Terms form the contract for your business relationship with partners. They contain all of your conditions—like your payout rates—and partners who are satisfied with the terms can either apply to your program, or you can send them your terms directly via impact.com. When a partner applies to your program or accepts the terms you sent them, your template terms become a legally binding contract between you and the partner.

Note: This article serves as a simplified guide for creating new template terms. If you have a special use case or if you need additional help with creating your template terms, reach out to your CSM or contact support.

Create a template term

From the left navigation menu, select [Engage] → Contracts → Template Terms.
In the upper-right corner, select Create Template Term.

Refer to the Template term fields reference below for help with completing each field.

Template term fields reference

Field	Description
Name	Enter a descriptive name for your template terms. This name will be visible to partners.
Labels	Optionally, add labels to your template terms that make it easier to search for by keyword. Partners won't see these labels.
Template	To populate your new template terms with pre-existing template terms, [Toggle on] Use terms from an existing Template Term, select your terms from the [Drop-down menu], and select Populate terms. You can then make modifications as needed. impact.com highly recommends using this option to create modified versions of existing terms for specific partners.
Currency	Use the [Drop-down menu] to select the currency in which you want to pay out for this template term.
Event Type	Use the [Drop-down menu] to select your event type and configure its payout settings—refer to the Event type fields reference below for help. You can add multiple event types.
Credit Group	Select a credit group that best describes how you want to attribute certain partners.
Custom Terms	Optionally, use the [Drop-down menu] to select custom terms to add to your template term—refer to the Custom terms settings section below for help.

Event type fields reference

Important: If you (or one of your account users) set up template term rules, some of the options below may be locked to a global setting.

Event type	Description
Default Payout	This is the default payout if no payout groups, adjustments, restrictions, or performance bonuses apply to the action. This is also the payout that partners will see at the top of your template term. Percentage payout per order/item sale amount pays the partner a percentage of the sale—either of the whole order or on a per-item basis. Fixed payout per order/item pays the partner a fixed payout for the order amount or for the items in an action.
Payout Groups	[Toggle on] to pay out different amounts based on specified conditions being met. You can create multiple payout groups, but note: Customized payout groups work best when they’re mutually exclusive, so if payout groups have overlapping conditions, place the more specific criteria first, and the more general criteria last. E.g.: Payout groups will apply their changes at the same level as the default payout i.e., if you set the default payout at the order level and have a payout group where `Item SKU is 8432195`, anytime that SKU appears in an order, the entire order will be affected. (See the payout group's Payout column to see exactly how the payout will change if the group is applied.) Commas in your payout group criteria will separate the two criteria. The first rule below will be interpreted as Item Category is ACME OR Anvils. Use quotation marks as done in the second rule below to combine the criteria to mean Item Category is ACME AND Anvils. impact.com supports .csv and .xlsx files to import your payout groups. You can also export your created payout groups to a .csv or .xlsx file using the export button. [Toggle on] to specify group limits on payable items. This will limit the number of payable actions for group-specific conditions. If impact.com cannot find a payout group applicable to the action, the Default Payout will apply.
Payout Adjustments	[Toggle on] to adjust the payout rate when specified conditions are met. If an action meets the requirements for multiple payout adjustments, those adjustments will all apply to the current payout on the adjusted amount. Example: If you have a $100 sale and the payout group matches at 2% (a $2 payout) the payout adjustment (50%) will apply then, making the payout $3. If two further adjustments of +50% and +100% were applied, they would apply on the adjusted amount. So in this case the $3 plus 50% ($1.50) = $4.50 plus 100% ($4.50) = $9 which will be the final payout amount. Example: Here is an example of a payout adjustment rule when selecting Export: This is what a .csv file would contain: `Adjustment Type,Rules,Adjustment Value,Bonus INCREASE,[CURRENCY IS USD],0, INCREASE_ORDER_FIXED,[ITEM_CATEGORY CONTAINS banana],10,` Payout adjustments apply to all of the rules within a payout group simultaneously. If you're uncertain about how these work, reach out to your CSM or contact support. To learn how to create payout adjustments and payout groups, refer to Step 4: Update your payouts in Configure Customer Status Mapping.
Performance Bonus	[Toggle on] to add a performance bonus to your template terms that incentivizes partners to meet specific goals or conditions for either increased payouts or additional bonus payouts. See Performance Bonuses FAQs to learn more.
Payout Restrictions	[Toggle on] to specify any conditions that should generate no payout. Use the [AND] to add additional conditions for a single restriction (i.e., both conditions must be met for the restriction to apply). Select [Add] Add another restriction to add a new payout restriction, separate from your first one.
Limits	[Toggle on] to specify limits for the number of clicks or payout amount permitted within a certain timeframe to ensure you stay on budget.
Payout Scheduling	Input how long after actions lock partners will be paid. This setting is very important, and is tied to your account funding! Refer to this guide for common funding strategies and the associated payout scheduling settings to use.
Action Locking	Use the fields and dropdowns to set your action locking period. This setting is very important, and is tied to your account funding! Refer to this guide for common funding strategies and the associated action locking settings to use.
Credit Policy	For most brands, this option is set to Last Click, meaning the partner that drove the last click to a completed action receives the credit (and payout). Reach out to your CSM for help configuring this for more specific use cases.
Referral Window	Set the window of time in which a partner can still receive credit for an action. E.g., if a partner drove a click to your web store but the customer hasn't yet purchased anything, the referral window starts. If the customer leaves but returns to your site within the referral window and purchases something (i.e., completes an action or "converts"), the partner will receive credit for driving that action.

Advanced settings

Select show advanced settings to view and configure advanced settings. For help creating custom terms, see Add Custom Terms to Your Contracts.

Warning: impact.com strongly recommends discussing with your CSM (or contacting support) before changing these settings.

Setting	Description
Change Notice Period	Configure the number of days in advance that partners will receive notice before custom term changes take effect.
Reversal Policy	Configure how much of the payout you can recover if you decide to reverse an action. impact.com's recommended default is Advertiser Returns 100% max monthly returns, so you can recover 100% of your payout in the event of an order return, cancellation, or fraud.
Action Limit	Define the maximum number of actions for which partners can be paid out within a specified period. E.g., you can choose to only pay out for the first 5000 actions every quarter.
Spend Limit	Define the maximum payout a partner can receive within a specified period. E.g., you can choose to pay out a max of $5000 every quarter. (The currency used will match the currency you chose in the Currency field above.)
Minimum Earnings	A guaranteed minimum payout to the partner for each click. When enabled, you can input the minimum EPC (earnings per click) a partner should receive per month. This is useful to partners who want to evaluate their marketing costs against your program's expected return. If a partner's total action payout is less than the total number of clicks multiplied by the guaranteed minimum cost per click, the partner will receive a payout for the difference.
Placement Fees	Optionally, input a fixed fee that partners will receive upon meeting a specified requirement, e.g., situating your ad in a premium space on their site. The system allows you to set one-time or recurring fees. There are 4 payout types for placement fees: Upon acceptance of template terms: Placement fees are locked and cleared based on the configured event type locking and payment scheduling terms. If there are multiple dates, we choose the one furthest in the future. When the first action is completed: Placement fees are locked and cleared according to the event date of the first completed action within a term. Monthly placement fees: The monthly placement fee is calculated "trailing" on the 1st of the following month. A valid contract must be in effect at the beginning of the month for which the fee is calculated. If the contract concludes within the month, then the fee is calculated pro-rated. One-time fee when the partnership starts: Placement fees are locked and cleared based on the start of the partnership.
Tracking Pixel	Toggle whether partners can place their own piggyback pixels on your confirmation pages. (For partners to benefit from this setting, you must already be using pixel tracking so that they can piggyback off of it.)
Data Center Clicks	Toggle whether you want clicks originating from data centers to be considered valid for CPC payout.

Save your template terms.

Alternatively, Save and Send To Partners. See the Save and send template terms reference below for more information.

Save and send template terms reference

Field	Description
Media Partners	Use the search field to find partners to whom you want to send your template terms. Alternatively, use the dropdown to manually create a bulk list, or use the option to upload a CSV or Excel file with partner info. Any email addresses you include without a Partner ID (i.e., partners not on impact.com) will receive a link to create an account with impact.com so they can view your template terms.
Contract Dates	Select the start date for these template terms and choose whether the contract is ongoing or temporary. If temporary, select whether or not to fallback to another template term upon expiration.
Approval Options	Choose whether these template terms will: Replace: i.e., override any existing contract the partner may have with you. Propose: i.e., allow the partner to remain on their existing contract with you and have the option to approve, reject, or counter the new template terms. Optionally, if you already have ads prepared and uploaded to impact.com, select [Toggle on] Send an ad with this proposal for faster media partner integration, then select Lookup to find the ads you want to send.
Comments	Optionally, add a comment that partners will see when they review your template terms.

Create a template term

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