How Sensit Haptics Drives Up to 20% of Direct Sales with UpPromote

Sensit Haptics is a young German company building haptic feedback systems for sim racing, accessories that translate the physical sensations of a real race car into a simulator.

The catch: you have to feel the product to understand it. No product page can reproduce what it’s like to sense understeer through your seat.

That single reality shapes how the brand sells. Instead of leaning on conventional ads, Sensit Haptics leans on people its audience already trusts, and its affiliate program has become a meaningful slice of revenue.

How does Sensit Haptics sell a product you have to feel to understand?

Sensit Haptics operates in what Titus calls “a niche of the niche.” Its buyers are serious sim racers who won’t spend on gear they can’t first trust.

Because the product can’t be experienced online, the brand works closely with content creators, key opinion leaders, and real racing drivers, voices that know the scene and whose opinions the audience respects.

You need to feel it to know what it’s about. And people can’t feel it when they’re just on our website.

Titus Konrad, Senior Strategic Growth Manager at Sensit Haptics

Affiliate links became the natural vehicle for that trust. When a respected creator or driver vouches for the product, their audience follows, and Sensit Haptics generates a steady stream of traffic through those links.

Why does Sensit Haptics pay 20% commission in a 3–5% industry?

Most brands in Sensit Haptics’ category pay affiliates 3% to 5%. Sensit Haptics pays 20%, knowingly among the highest in the industry.

It’s a deliberate bet. To break into a small, skeptical scene, the brand chose to invest margin upfront and get on people’s radar.

In the beginning, you’ve got to invest some money — in this case, invest in some more margin to get on people’s radar.

Titus Konrad, Senior Strategic Growth Manager at Sensit Haptics

On premium bundles that run over $1,000, a 20% cut is substantial. Titus is candid that the rate will step down over time, with plans to introduce per-product commission rates by the end of the year so more expensive, resold items don’t erode margin.

Just as important is how they pay: only on performance. Affiliates aren’t paid upfront. They earn when they sell.

We don’t usually pay them upfront. So we just say, hey, if you like it, you can invest your own time, and we will pay you if you sell anything.

Titus Konrad, Senior Strategic Growth Manager at Sensit Haptics

That structure keeps the program efficient, the brand only spends commission when an affiliate brings in real revenue.

How does Sensit Haptics recruit and support its affiliates?

Titus comes from deep inside the sim racing scene, and recruitment runs on those connections. Bigger creators often reach out on their own to test the product, and Titus also does outbound research to find voices in corners of the market he doesn’t know yet.

The rule is simple: try the product, and you get a link.

Everyone who tests our product gets an affiliate link. There’s no questions asked.

Titus Konrad, Senior Strategic Growth Manager at Sensit Haptics

Sensit Haptics’ affiliate list spans several kinds of partners. Most are content creators on YouTube, Twitch, Instagram, and TikTok. But the program also includes sim centers, physical venues where visitors drive rigs and can order through a posted QR code and affiliate link, as well as real racing drivers and active members of niche forums.

On the customer side, a separate referral program lets buyers refer friends in exchange for store credit rather than cash. One customer alone referred around 30 sales.

When new affiliates come on board and receive samples, Titus often gets on a call to explain the product in detail, so partners know exactly what to look for and can speak about it with confidence. Some prefer to go it alone, and that’s fine too.

How does Sensit Haptics use UpPromote?

Sensit Haptics keeps its UpPromote setup lean: two programs, one for affiliates and one for customer referrals.

Where the brand goes further is data. UpPromote built custom API access for Sensit Haptics, and the team pulls that data into its own analytics dashboard, tracking weekly click trends, spotting when a creator is more or less active, and calculating its own conversion rates.

You did some custom stuff for us, which works very good. We can extract the data via API. That’s the thing I requested, and it worked out.

Titus Konrad, Senior Strategic Growth Manager at Sensit Haptics

That data also lets the team cross-check the numbers creators report from platforms like YouTube against the clicks UpPromote actually tracks, a level of verification that matters when affiliates drive a large share of sales.

What results has Sensit Haptics seen?

Affiliate marketing has become a core revenue channel for Sensit Haptics. In some months, it drives up to 20% of the brand’s direct-to-consumer revenue.

The rest increasingly comes from organic word of mouth rather than paid ads, as the product earns a reputation in the scene.

The program stays deliberately focused, around 60 affiliates, proving that reach in a niche depends on the right partners, not the largest list.

The word of mouth spreads like a wildfire sometimes. And when you’re at this point, you can scale stuff like that back.

Titus Konrad, Senior Strategic Growth Manager at Sensit Haptics

For a brand selling a product that has to be felt to be believed, trusted voices have turned out to be the most effective sales channel of all.