Big brands post better affiliate numbers than small ones. Better conversion, faster recruitment, higher volume. Everyone treats it as a fact about affiliate programs. It’s mostly a fact about brand equity. A large share of what converts in a big brand’s program is demand the brand already created: someone searching the brand name plus “coupon,” an extension firing at a checkout the customer reached on their own, a cashback partner appearing after the decision was made. Some of it breaks program terms. Most of it doesn’t. Either way, it’s the brand paying commission to reacquire customers it already had. Which is why big-brand programs look healthiest right up until someone asks what’s incremental.