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Remote
Full time
Negotiable
Remote
Full time
Negotiable
Remote
Full time
Negotiable
Remote
Full time
Negotiable
Remote
Full time
500+
INB Team
January 14, 2026
In the nutra vertical, most affiliates obsess over approval rates and CPL. But what if we told you that these surface-level metrics are hiding the real story behind your traffic quality? While everyone chases the same basic numbers, top-tier affiliates and networks are tracking seven critical metrics that reveal the true performance of their campaigns.
Yurii Abramchuk, Team Lead of Affiliate Department at INB.bio, has spent years analyzing traffic patterns across different GEOs. In this deep-dive article, he shares the metrics that most affiliates ignore, and exactly how to use them to scale profitable nutra campaigns.
“Most affiliates stop at approval rate,” says Yurii. “But that’s like judging a book by its cover. Real traffic quality reveals itself in layers, and if you’re not tracking all seven metrics, you’re leaving money on the table.”
Before we dive into the seven metrics, let’s address the elephant in the room: why do so many affiliates fail despite having “good” approval rates?
The answer is simple: approval rate doesn’t equal profit.
You can have 25% approval but lose money if your trash rate is high, your buyout is low, or your traffic stability collapses after week one. Traditional metrics give you a snapshot. These seven metrics give you the full picture.
What it is: The percentage of leads that get confirmed by the call center and move forward in the sales funnel.
Why everyone tracks it: It’s the most visible indicator of whether your traffic matches the offer.
Why most people get it wrong: They look at approval rate in isolation.
Yurii explains: “Approval rate is your starting point, not your finish line. A 20% approval rate means nothing without context. You need to analyze it across three dimensions: by partner, by GEO, and by time period.”
What it is: The percentage of leads that are technically invalid, duplicates, wrong numbers, or otherwise unusable before they even reach the call center.
Why it matters: Trash rate directly impacts approval rate, call center efficiency, and overall campaign profitability.
“Trash rate is the metric that separates professional affiliates from amateurs,” says Yurii. “A 30% trash rate means you’re burning through call center resources on leads that never had a chance.”
What it is: The percentage of approved leads that actually complete the purchase (receive and pay for the product).
Why it’s critical: This is where theory meets practice. Approval rate tells you the call center confirmed interest. Buyout rate tells you the customer actually wanted the product.
“Buyout rate separates real results from vanity metrics,” Yurii emphasizes. “I’ve seen campaigns with 30% approval and 40% buyout crush campaigns with 35% approval and 20% buyout. The latter is just wasting everyone’s time.”
What it is: A comprehensive financial metric that accounts for all costs and all revenue, showing true campaign profitability.
Why it’s ignored: Most affiliates stop at ROI or ROAS without factoring in all the variables specific to nutra.
“ROMI is where amateurs realize they’re not actually profitable,” says Yurii. “You can have great CPL, solid approval, decent buyout and still lose money if you’re not tracking the complete picture.”
What it is: The consistency of your key metrics (approval, trash, buyout) over time.
Why it’s critical: Anyone can deliver one good week. Stable performance is what builds long-term partnerships and unlocks premium payouts.
“We prioritize partners who maintain quality over time,” says Yurii. “A partner who delivers 22-25% approval and high buyouts rate for three months straight gets better offers than someone who spikes to 30% then crashes to 15%.”
What it is: A detailed breakdown of WHY leads get rejected or cancelled, categorized by root cause.
Why it matters: Understanding the structure of failures tells you exactly where to optimize, on your side or the network’s side.
“Most affiliates just see ‘rejected’ and move on,” Yurii explains. “But if 40% of rejections are ‘wrong number’ and 40% are ‘not interested,’ those are two completely different problems requiring completely different solutions.”
Yurii shares a case study: We had a partner in Tunisia with 18% approval. Rejection analysis showed:
The language barrier pointed to audience targeting issues. Wrong number indicated form validation problems. Not interested suggested creative-to-product misalignment.
We fixed the language targeting, implemented phone validation on the landing page, and adjusted the creative to set better expectations. Approval jumped to 26% in two weeks.
What it is: An evaluation of how quickly and effectively an affiliate responds to feedback, adapts to changes, and communicates issues.
Why it matters: Technical metrics measure traffic. Behavioral metrics measure the affiliate’s ability to improve and scale.
“We track partner behavior as closely as we track traffic quality,” says Yurii. “An affiliate who responds to feedback within 24 hours and makes adjustments immediately is worth 10× more than someone with slightly better initial numbers but zero communication.”
Most affiliates think: “My traffic speaks for itself.”
But networks think: “We have 100 affiliates. We’ll invest time and resources in those who are easy to work with and eager to improve.”
Yurii puts it bluntly: “I’ve cut profitable partners because they were impossible to work with. And I’ve given struggling partners premium offers because I knew they’d execute feedback flawlessly. Long-term, the latter always outperforms.”
Networks evaluate partners across multiple dimensions.
| Dimension | Excellent | Good | Acceptable | Problem |
| Communication Speed | Responds within 4 hours | Responds within 24 hours | Responds within 48 hours | Takes 3+ days or ghosts |
| Feedback Implementation | Makes changes within 24-48 hours | Makes changes within 1 week | Makes changes within 2 weeks | Ignores feedback or argues |
| Transparency | Shares traffic sources, targeting, creatives proactively | Answers questions honestly when asked | Provides minimal information | Secretive, vague, or misleading |
| Proactivity | Reports issues before the network notices | Flags problems when they happen | Responds when network reaches out | Waits until metrics crater |
| Collaboration | Proposes solutions, not just problems | Works with network to diagnose issues | Follows instructions when given | Blames network for everything |
Now that you understand all seven metrics, here’s how to track them in a unified dashboard.
| Metric | Target | Current | Status |
| Approval Rate | 20-25% | 23% | ✅ Healthy |
| Trash Rate | <10% | 8% | ✅ Healthy |
| Buyout Rate | 35-45% | 38% | ⚠️ Monitor |
| ROMI | >50% | 67% | ✅ Healthy |
| Stability (CV) | <15% | 12% | ✅ Healthy |
| Top Rejection Reason | Explain reasons | N/A | N/A |
| Partner Behavior Score | >85 | 92 | ✅ Excellent |
Yurii summarizes the philosophy: “At INB.bio, we’ve done 100+ successful launches across 15 countries. Every single one taught us the same lesson: traffic quality beats traffic volume every time.“
“Most affiliates treat traffic like a slot machine,” Yurii concludes. “They pour money in and hope for the best. The 1% who actually build sustainable six-figure businesses treat traffic with a real marketing approach where you study your audience and deliver the ad that is actually useful for the audience. They measure everything, test hypotheses, and optimize relentlessly.”
INB.bio works with serious affiliates who value quality over quantity. If you’re ready to:
Become an INB.bio partner now to boost your profits!
