Affiliate Metrics

Overview

Affiliate metrics track sales generated through TikTok's affiliate and creator programs, along with the commissions you pay. TikTok Shop has two distinct affiliate commission types -- creator commissions and partner commissions -- and Dashboardly tracks both. These commissions are operating expenses that reduce your Operating Profit.

The Affiliate Performance page uses order-level Affiliate Seller data to explain creator, collaboration, content, and product performance. It normalizes creator and partner-campaign commission into one seller-paid standard total, then shows Shop Ads separately. Profit & Loss uses signed finance transactions after settlement. Because those sources have different return and finality rules, their commission totals can legitimately differ.

Metrics

Affiliate Sales

What it shows: The total revenue from orders attributed to affiliate or creator links.
Formula: Sum of sales revenue from affiliate-attributed orders
Where you see it: Dashboard, Profit & Loss, Sales & Profit
Important notes: This is the revenue generated through the Affiliate source, not the commission expense. Affiliate orders can also overlap paid Shop Ads activity, so the remainder of total sales must not automatically be labelled organic.

Affiliate Sales Commission (Creator Commission)

What it shows: The commission paid to TikTok creators who promoted your products and drove sales.
Formula: Pulled from TikTok fee data (affiliate_commission_amount)
Where you see it: Profit & Loss (within Net Affiliate Cost), Sales & Profit
Important notes: This is an expense that reduces your profit. TikTok creators earn this commission when customers buy through their videos, livestreams, or showcase links. The commission rate is set by you when creating affiliate partnerships.

Affiliate Partner Commission

What it shows: The commission paid to affiliate partners or agencies who drove sales to your shop.
Formula: Pulled from TikTok fee data (affiliate_partner_commission_amount)
Where you see it: Profit & Loss (within Net Affiliate Cost)
Important notes: Partner commissions are separate from creator commissions. Partners are typically agencies or intermediaries in the TikTok Shop affiliate ecosystem. Both commission types are combined into Net Affiliate Cost for the Operating Profit calculation.

Affiliate Ads Commission

What it shows: Commission attributed to ad-driven affiliate sales.
Formula: Pulled from TikTok fee data (affiliate_ads_commission_amount)
Where you see it: Profit & Loss (within Net Affiliate Cost)
Important notes: This tracks commissions on sales where both an affiliate link and a paid ad were involved. It helps you understand the overlap between your affiliate and advertising channels.

Affiliate Orders / Units

What it shows: The number of orders and units sold through affiliate channels.
Formula: Count of orders and sum of units from affiliate-attributed sales
Where you see it: Profit & Loss
Important notes: These counts are broken down by commission type (creator sales vs ads-attributed) on the Profit & Loss page. They help you evaluate the volume of your affiliate program, not just the dollar value.

Affiliate Content and Shop Ads GMV

What it shows: Affiliate GMV, orders, and commission grouped by TikTok creator content ID, with the seller-paid Shop Ads commission overlay disclosed separately.
Formula: Affiliate GMV = sum(SKU price × ordered quantity); Other Affiliate GMV = Affiliate GMV − Shop Ads-attributed Affiliate GMV within the same validated Affiliate source.
Where you see it: Affiliate Performance → Creator economics and Creative performance.
Important notes: Shop Ads GMV is an exact Affiliate-order signal where TikTok reported Shop Ads commission. Other Affiliate GMV is not the same as organic GMV; it can include organic and other attribution.

Creator Creative Advertising Metrics

What it shows: GMV Max spend, ad credits, paid impressions/clicks, CTR, CPC, CPM, TikTok-attributed revenue/orders, ROAS, ACoS, and cost per order for a creator video when its Affiliate content_id matches the GMV Max creative item_id.
Where you see it: Affiliate Performance → Creator economics and Creative performance.
Important notes: TikTok reports GMV Max impressions and clicks as paid traffic, but GMV Max revenue and orders are paid + organic blended attribution. Dashboardly keeps those bases explicit and does not manufacture an exact paid/organic revenue split. When TikTok supplies a stable source caption for the exact video, Dashboardly shows it to make the creative easier to recognize and search. That caption is not a speech transcript or an inferred hook.

How These Metrics Connect

Affiliate metrics fit into the profit picture as follows:

Affiliate Sales is included in your total Revenue (it is not extra revenue)
Affiliate Sales Commission + Affiliate Ads Commission combine into Net Affiliate Cost
Net Affiliate Cost is subtracted when calculating Operating Profit

On Profit & Loss, you can expand Net Affiliate Cost to see its commission breakdown. Sales & Profit shows the same net cost for each product, and its CSV export includes a Net Affiliate Cost column.

Common Questions

Why do Affiliate Sales show as zero even though I have affiliate orders? Check whether the commissions are classified as "partner" commissions rather than "creator" commissions. TikTok has two separate commission types, and they may appear in different fields. Both are tracked by Dashboardly. If all affiliate data shows zero, your shop data may need to be re-imported to pick up the affiliate commission fields.

What is the difference between Creator and Partner commissions? Creator commissions go to individual TikTok content creators (influencers, livestreamers) who promote your products. Partner commissions go to agencies or affiliate partners who manage creator relationships. Both are expenses for you, but they flow through different TikTok systems.

Are affiliate commissions already included in Fees & Taxes? No. Affiliate commissions are tracked separately from platform Fees & Taxes. On the Profit & Loss page, you will see them as distinct line items under the Operating Profit section.

Why do my affiliate numbers seem off after a refund? TikTok may or may not return the commission, depending on when the refund happens. If TikTok returns it, the final finance data contains a positive commission reversal that offsets the original negative commission expense. If the creator or affiliate has already been paid and TikTok keeps the commission, Dashboardly keeps that finalized amount as a cost. Dashboardly follows the signed TikTok finance transactions and does not assume that every refunded order also receives a commission refund.

Why can TikTok Affiliate Center show a higher Affiliate cost? TikTok Affiliate Center can show an estimated commission based on ordered quantity or an actual commission base after returned units. Dashboardly's Net Affiliate Cost on P&L instead follows signed finance transactions after settlement credits and reversals. The two views can therefore differ even for the same dates without either being wrong. Confirm that the TikTok report uses the same date range, actual-versus-estimated basis, and settlement state before comparing them. In regions where TikTok does not make the Affiliate Orders report available to Dashboardly, the financial data alone cannot independently reproduce the Affiliate Center gross estimate one-to-one; use the exact Affiliate Center export or screenshot for that reconciliation.

How do affiliate metrics relate to Net Ad Spend? Affiliate commissions and Net Ad Spend are separate costs. Affiliate commissions are performance-based (you pay only when a sale happens), while ad spend funds TikTok Ads campaigns regardless of sales outcome. Both are deducted from profit, but at different stages -- affiliate commissions in Operating Profit and Net Ad Spend in Net Profit.