For many growing brands, affiliate marketing is a great acquisition channel, but when it comes down to managing its operations, it quickly becomes a mess. Manual tracking, coupon code abuse, and juggling too many tools make it hard to scale or see real results.

Those were the challenges that Buoy, a hydration brand, faced until they switched to Social Snowball.

By consolidating their manual affiliate processes into a streamlined and automated system, the brand was able to turn it into a reliable, trackable growth channel.

In just 12 months, they saw:

• $400K+ in affiliate-attributed revenue
• CPA under $20—half the cost of paid ads
• 80% less time spent managing affiliates

“There hasn't been a single moment in the last year where I thought, ‘I wonder what else is out there.” Social Snowball just works!”

Claire Erwin, Director of Community Growth at Buoy

Not sure how to get started with affiliate marketing? Read about how you can start an affiliate program for your ecommerce business.

About the brand

Buoy is a health-first hydration brand designed for people who need more than just water. From managing chronic conditions to daily wellness, their doctor-formulated drops turn any drink into an electrolyte boost without sugar, calories, or junk.

Challenges: Manual systems and missed revenue

Before Buoy found Social Snowball, their affiliate program was chaotic. What should’ve been a high-leverage growth engine had become a time sink, slowing the team down and limiting results.

Here are the issues they face with their existing processes:

Too many tools but no real system

At one point, Buoy was running three separate affiliate programs, with no central dashboard and no clear ownership. Tracking performance, managing links, or even logging in was a hassle.

“We had three different affiliate programs running at one time, and no one knew how to sign in to either one.”

Manual work took up more than half of the day

Affiliate tasks weren’t just messy—they were overwhelming. From spotting loyal customers online to manually creating codes and links, it was all done by hand.

“It was taking 80% of my time… now it’s one sixth maybe of my role.”

With no automation or scalable workflow, Buoy’s community manager had little time left for content, campaigns, or long-term growth.

No way to tap into organic momentum

Even though customers were naturally sharing Buoy online, the brand had no structured way to invite them into a formal program. Superfans and repeat buyers often slipped through the cracks.

Unreliable data from coupon code abuse

Many top-converting affiliates turned out to be coupon code sites, not real brand advocates. Without control mechanisms, Buoy struggled to trust their affiliate performance data.

“We’re really trying… when we find one [bad actor], we generally ban them and send an email. We want people who are sharing their personal experience.”

While Buoy had demand, they had no system to leverage it effectively. Their affiliate program was growing, but without structure, it came with friction, fraud, and wasted effort.

Solution: Turning word-of-mouth into a scalable affiliate engine

Once Buoy switched to Social Snowball, they finally had the structure to match their organic momentum. What was once a disjointed, manual mess became a streamlined system that fueled reliable revenue growth and freed up the team to focus on higher-impact work.

Here’s how they made it happen:

Step 1: Consolidated all affiliate tools into one dashboard

Social Snowball unified everything—onboarding, tracking, commissions, and gifting—inside Social Snowball’s centralized dashboard. This gave the team real control over the program and a single source of truth.

“Social Snowball let us prove really fast that this was going to work for us. We could just see that month over month.”

Step 2: Automated payouts and eliminated manual work

Buoy integrated Tremendous for automated affiliate payouts, replacing a process that once took up 80% of their time.

Now, payouts were made without requiring spreadsheets or manual chasing. Occasional hiccups aside, the system was reliable and scalable.

“Way better than doing it manually… before, this was 80% of my job.”

Step 3: Incentivized creators with tiered commissions

To keep affiliates engaged, Buoy introduced an automated tiered commission structure:

• Entry-level affiliates start at 20%.
• Top performers can earn up to 35%.
• Movement through tiers is based on real sales milestones.

This not only rewarded performance but encouraged long-term participation and growth.

Step 4: Created a positive first touchpoint with gifting

Affiliates joining at higher tiers receive a free welcome gift, letting them experience the product and share it authentically.

Buoy also gives affiliates early access to product launches, so they can create content and provide feedback ahead of time. This helps the brand generate high-quality UGC and deepen its community ties.

Step 5: Used Safelinks to block code abuse

Buoy struggled with coupon code leaks from non-affiliated websites. To fix this, they enabled Safelinks, a Social Snowball feature that secures codes and protects attribution.

While it came with a small learning curve for customers, the upside meant cleaner data and more accurate affiliate performance.

“Customers were like, ‘I entered this code and now it’s not working’—so we had to explain how Safelinks work. It was a shift, but it gave us more control.”

Results: $400K revenue and 80% less manual work

With a structured, centralized affiliate system in place, Buoy turned affiliate marketing into a high-performing acquisition channel, driving both revenue and operational efficiency.

Here’s what they achieved in just 12 months with Social Snowball:

• $400,000+ in affiliate-attributed revenue, powered by returning customers and organic fans
• CPA under $20, even with some code leakage—half the cost of Buoy’s paid ads
• 80% reduction in manual affiliate work, giving the team back critical time to focus on creative growth

The shift changed how the brand operated. Affiliate management, which once took up most of the community manager’s day, now requires only a fraction of the time. That freed the team up to focus on product launches, deeper creator partnerships, and better content strategy.

“When I'm stuck, I either fix it in seconds or message support, and it’s solved. I’ve never had a bad experience with Social Snowball.”

Buoy also saw their affiliate community evolve into a content engine. Affiliates regularly create authentic UGC (user-generated content), which the brand repurposes for paid campaigns and uses to identify creators for long-term collaborations.

“We could see really fast that this was going to work. Month over month, it just kept growing.”

Ready to turn word-of-mouth into real revenue?

Affiliate marketing has the potential to be one of the most efficient growth channels, but only if you have the right systems to support it.

Without the right infrastructure, brands end up wasting time on manual work, dealing with coupon abuse, and struggling to scale what can be a streamlined and powerful acquisition engine.

With tools like Social Snowball, you can fix that. From automating onboarding and payouts to customizable rewards and fraud protection, you can build an affiliate program that works at scale.