Ask who they are, where they will promote you, who their audience is, and how they plan to do it. Add a checkbox for each rule you care about and one open question. Keep it under ten fields. Every extra question loses applicants, so keep only the ones you would act on.
An application form has two jobs that pull in opposite directions. It needs to keep out people who will hurt the program, and it needs to feel painless to the people you most want. Every question you add helps the first job and hurts the second. The skill is knowing which questions earn their place.
A useful test for each field: if the answer was "bad," would you decline? If the answer was "great," would you do something differently, such as call them first? If neither is true, the field is decoration.
Which basics belong on every form?
The identity block is short. Name, email, and the business or brand they represent. If your payouts depend on a legal entity, ask whether they are an individual or a company, because it changes who you are dealing with, even if you collect tax details later and not on this form. Tax forms belong to the payment step, and tax questions are worth taking to an accountant.
Add the country. It helps with regional rules and tells you whether anything unusual applies before you approve. Ask for one public link, a site, a LinkedIn page or a social profile, so you can confirm that a real person stands behind the application.
Which questions tell you if they will actually sell?
This is where the form earns its keep. Three questions do most of the work.
How do you plan to promote us? Offer a multi-select for channels (email, content, events, direct introductions, paid ads, social) so it is quick to answer, and add a free-text box beneath. The multi-select gives you something sortable. The text box tells you whether the person has thought about it. "I will post it everywhere" and "I send a monthly note to about 300 clinic owners and I would mention you in the March issue" are different applicants.
Who is your audience? You want to know whether their people are your buyers. A short free-text answer is enough. You are looking for overlap with the customers you already close.
How big is it? Ask for a rough size, and make clear it is not a pass or fail. A consultant with 15 clients who trust them may outsell a newsletter with 15,000 casual readers. Use the size to decide how much attention to give, not whether to accept.
Should the form include rule checkboxes?
Yes, if you have rules that matter. A checkbox next to a plain sentence, such as "I will not bid on the company's brand name in paid search," creates a clear moment where the applicant has read the rule. It is not a substitute for signed program terms, which are a separate step. Think of the checkbox as a preview that filters out people who object to the basics before you invest time. We cover the longer document in how to write program terms partners will actually read.
Pick the rules that cause real trouble: brand-term bidding, unsolicited email, misleading claims, using your logo in ways you have not approved. Four checkboxes is plenty. Ten becomes noise. Whether specific promotional practices need disclosure under advertising rules is a question for a lawyer, not for the form.
Which questions should you leave off?
Cut anything that feels like a job application: references, long bios, "why do you want to join?" essays. The partners you want are busy, and they will close the tab.
Be careful with income and revenue questions. They feel invasive and rarely change a decision. Skip the fields where you would not act on the answer, and skip anything you could learn from a public profile in thirty seconds.
Avoid collecting sensitive personal data you do not need. Every field you store is something you are responsible for protecting.
A short, good form, field by field
A form for a B2B software program might be eight fields: name, email, company or brand, country, one public link, channels (multi-select), a free-text "how would you introduce us to your audience?", and two checkboxes for the rules you care most about. That takes about three minutes.
If you run several programs, give each its own form. A referral program for existing customers should not ask the same questions as one for agencies. In Affiliate Tabs, each program has its own application form, and you review applications in a queue where you can approve or decline one at a time or in bulk. See the product page for the full tour.
How do you use the answers?
Decide your approval rule before the first application arrives, even if it is only a short list. For example: approve anyone with a real public presence who agrees to the rules; fast-track anyone whose audience clearly matches your buyers; decline duplicates, people who skip the rules, and anyone whose answers read as copied text.
Then use the answers in your first message. "You mentioned you send a monthly note to clinic owners" turns an automated welcome into a conversation, and it is the start of the onboarding that decides who stays active. That first fortnight is covered in what should happen in a partner's first 14 days.
Review your form after the first thirty applications. Look at which answers actually predicted who sent a lead. Drop the questions that never separated anyone, and keep the ones that did.
Common questions
- How many questions should a partner application have?
- Under ten fields for most programs. If you cannot say what you would do with an answer, remove the question. Long forms lose the good applicants first, because they have the most options and the least patience.
- Should I require a website or social profile?
- Ask for one, but do not require a website. Many strong referral partners are consultants or accountants who promote by email and phone and have only a LinkedIn profile. A link to some public presence is enough to check the person is real.
- Do I need an application at all?
- Not for a low-risk product. If bad promotion could hurt your reputation, or you sell in a regulated area, an application is worth the friction because it lets you decline people before they have your brand in their hands.
- What should I do when I decline an applicant?
- Tell them, briefly and politely, and give a reason when you can. A silent decline looks like a lost email. A short note keeps the door open for applicants who might fit better later.