Is ambassador marketing the same as referral or affiliate marketing?

By Tom Bogaert · Reviewed on
Part of: Creator marketing

No, though they often get lumped together. Affiliate marketing pays a commission per sale through a code or link; referral marketing rewards a customer who brings in another customer. Both measure one thing: the transaction. Ambassador marketing measures something else: whether someone keeps showing your brand over a longer period, including on days when nothing sells.

The confusion comes from the fact that many ambassador programmes have an affiliate layer: a code with a 10 to 20% commission. That's a compensation model, not a definition. An ambassador with a code is still an ambassador; an affiliate with no relationship to the brand is still an affiliate, however often their code gets used.

Sunday Squad Ambassadors is not an affiliate programme. The squad gets product and a fee per round, not per sale, and that's deliberate: an athlete paid per sale starts selling, and an athlete who sells is no longer believed in their club. If you want to add a code to measure, that's possible as an extra; it's never the reason someone takes part. Does creator marketing work without cash?, and what a brand ambassador programme is.

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What is ambassador marketing?

Ambassador marketing is marketing through people who already use your brand and keep showing it, longer than one campaign. Classically that's one face on a yearly contract; Sunday Squad Ambassadors is a squad of 10 or 25 sportfluencers who carry on in rounds after a collab, chosen on what they did.Read the full answer →

How do you measure the results of an ambassador programme?

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What if a sportfluencer doesn't post (on time)?

We carry that risk. Curation up front, agreements in the briefing, follow-up during the posting window and back-ups from the same pool — plus an honest completion rate afterwards: how many of the 25 actually delivered.Read how the three layers of risk management work in practice →
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