The Affiliate Marketing Strategy That Drives 40% of Sales & 8,000 Referrals for a Startup

 Founded in 2021 by Philipp Riedl and his co-founders, Vetain is a German brand making premium plant-based supplements and protein products.

The idea grew from Philipp’s own experience. As a gym-goer, he relied on whey protein, but it caused skin problems and digestive discomfort. The plant-based options he switched to were artificial-tasting, gritty, and overly processed.

He set out to make a cleaner, more enjoyable plant-based protein. Vetain’s products are free from soy, gluten, and lactose, and packaged in eco-friendly, paper-based tubes.

Why did Vetain choose affiliate marketing to enter a crowded market?

Breaking into Germany’s supplement market was hard. Giants like Abbott, Nestlé Health Science, and Glanbia held most of it, leaving little room for a new brand to build awareness and trust.

Traditional advertising was costly and their results uncertain, too risky for a startup with limited resources. Relying on paid influencer posts had the same problem: expensive and hard to measure.

Affiliate marketing solved both. Vetain would pay affiliates only when they drove sales, so every euro mapped to growth. After trying GoAffPro, Social Snowball, and Simple Affiliate, the team found UpPromote fit best.

We tried GoAffPro, Social Snowball, and Simple Affiliate. But none of them were very good… We wanted to automate a lot of things, especially the payment and commission systems with different tiers

Philipp Riedl, Founder of Vetain

With UpPromote’s automation in place, Vetain built a program that now drives 40% of their total sales. The rest of the story is how.

How does Vetain build their influencer network?

Vetain’s program rests on who the brand lets in, both the influencers they recruits directly and the ones those partners bring along.

Partner with quality influencers, not just big ones

Vetain sets a baseline of 5,000 followers, then looks past that number for high engagement, strong content, and a real connection to the supplement niche.

Follower count alone doesn’t tell the whole story. Many influencers have large audiences, but if their engagement is low or their content isn’t good, it’s not worth it

Philipp Riedl, Founder of Vetain

That vetting builds long-term partnerships. Together, Vetain’s influencers and micro-influencers generate an average of 8,000 referrals a month. Laura of talkingholistics (5.1K followers), for example, shared a yogurt-bowl recipe using Vetain protein and her discount code.

Expand the network with an MLM model

To grow further, Vetain uses UpPromote to run a Multi-Level Marketing network. Influencers who invite others become uplines, earning 10% to 20% of their downlines’ sales.

To protect quality, recruits must have at least 5,000 followers and be pre-approved by the Vetain team before joining.

We have to set some rules and let our influencers know – that the referred one must meet certain criteria… before inviting anyone, influencers should check with our team to confirm if that person is eligible to join

Philipp Riedl, Founder of Vetain

The MLM model lets the network grow through trusted referrals while keeping the same quality bar.

How does Vetain motivate affiliates to sell more?

Beyond recruiting, Vetain keeps affiliates driving sales with rewards that scale as they perform.

Reward growth with a 5-tier commission structure

Instead of a flat rate, Vetain uses UpPromote’s auto-tier commission to run a 5-tier structure. Affiliates move up automatically as their monthly sales grow.

The structure suits micro-influencers especially. They can start with smaller sales volumes and earn more as they grow.

Add performance-based bonuses

Vetain layers monthly bonuses on top of commissions for standout affiliates. An influencer who hits €15,000 in monthly sales earns a €300 bonus, rising to €500 at €30,000.

UpPromote tracks performance, applies the preset conditions, and awards bonuses only when targets are met. It then consolidates commissions and bonuses and pays influencers via PayPal on Vetain’s chosen schedule.

Auto-payouts via PayPal keep payments accurate and on time, sparing Vetain the manual calculations and admin work.

How does Vetain help affiliates start selling immediately?

Vetain also makes it easy for partners to promote from the day they join.

Personalized coupon codes

Because their partners are influencers already comfortable with coupon codes, Vetain uses UpPromote to auto-generate a unique code for each one based on preset discounts. Every new partner receives theirs on joining.

It works. UpPromote’s analytics dashboard shows that over 90% of Vetain’s referrals come through coupon codes.

Ready-made resources and onboarding

Vetain gives partners a set of marketing resources, including high-quality product images, logos, and brand guidelines, so they can build professional campaigns.

Through UpPromote’s Klaviyo integration, the team emails detailed briefings to new influencers. After onboarding, partners join a private WhatsApp group for collaboration and support.

What results has Vetain achieved with affiliate marketing?

For a startup that began with no foothold in a crowded market, the program has become a core growth engine.

Affiliate marketing now drives 40% of Vetain’s total sales, and the network generates over 8,000 referrals per month on average.

Vetain’s advice to newcomers is to use automation tools like UpPromote to streamline management, and to offer performance-based commissions and tiered rewards to keep affiliates motivated.

That mix of careful recruiting and automated rewards is what turned a startup’s tight budget into a repeatable engine for sales.