Also known as:Sub-Affiliate Program, Two-Tier Affiliate Program, Master IB Program, Override Program, Affiliate Network Tier
What is Multi-Tier Affiliate Program?
A Multi-Tier Affiliate Program rewards a partner for two things: the clients they refer directly, and the clients referred by the sub-affiliates they recruit. Each recruited layer generates an override commission that flows up to the partner above it, turning a solo referral effort into a revenue-sharing network.
The most common structure is two-tier. You earn your full rate on your own referred clients (Tier 1), plus a smaller override — often 5% to 15% of the sub-affiliate's earnings — on everything your recruited sub-affiliates produce (Tier 2). In retail brokerage this same idea appears as the Master IB model, where a Master IB sits above a network of sub-IBs and takes an override on their combined trading volume.
Key takeaways
You earn on your clients plus a cut of your recruits' earnings.
Tier-2 overrides typically run 5%–15% of the sub-affiliate's commission.
The Master IB model is the brokerage version of the same structure.
Overrides only pay when sub-affiliates produce real volume — width without activity earns nothing.
Most legit programs cap depth at two tiers to stay clear of pyramid optics.
Here is the math with round numbers. Suppose you recruit five sub-affiliates who each generate $2,000 a month in commissions, and your override is 10%. That is 5 × $2,000 × 10% = $1,000 of monthly override income on top of your own direct earnings — income you did not have to generate a single lead for. Scale to twenty productive sub-affiliates and the override becomes the larger half of your business.
Multi-tier structures are attractive because the override is largely passive once the network is built, but they only work when sub-affiliates are genuinely productive. A wide network of inactive recruits pays nothing.
How it works
The affiliate platform assigns each partner a unique referral link for recruiting clients and a second mechanism for recruiting sub-affiliates. When a sub-affiliate signs up under your link, the system tags the parent-child relationship. From then on, a percentage of the sub-affiliate's earned commission is credited to you automatically as an override, calculated at each payout cycle.
Most brokers cap the depth at two tiers to keep the model transparent and to avoid the appearance of a pyramid scheme, where recruitment rather than real product volume drives earnings. The legitimising factor is that every dollar of override traces back to actual client trading activity, not to recruitment fees. Overrides are paid from the broker's margin, so brokers size the Tier-2 rate carefully to keep the whole chain profitable.
1
Get your two link types
Obtain a client referral link and a separate sub-affiliate recruitment link from the partner portal.
2
Recruit sub-affiliates
Target people with audiences you lack — other creators, regional partners, or niche traders — not random sign-ups.
3
Onboard and train them
Share creatives, offers, and conversion playbooks so recruits produce real volume quickly.
4
Earn the override
Collect your Tier-2 percentage on every sub-affiliate's commissions automatically each payout cycle.
5
Prune and reinvest
Drop inactive recruits from your attention and double down on the few who drive most of the network's volume.
Why it matters for partnership: Multi-tier turns a linear income model into a compounding one. By recruiting and training a handful of strong sub-affiliates, you earn overrides on their volume without sourcing every lead yourself, which diversifies income and builds an asset you can grow.
Formula
Override Income = Sum of (Sub-Affiliate Commission x Tier-2 Override Rate)
Real World Example
A trading educator becomes a Master IB with a broker that pays a 10% override. She recruits eight sub-IBs from her course community; five stay active and together generate $18,000 in monthly IB commissions. Her override is 10% × $18,000 = $1,800 per month, earned on top of her own directly referred clients — with no additional lead cost once the sub-IBs were trained.
Single-tier vs multi-tier
Feature
Single-Tier
Multi-Tier
Income source
Only your direct referrals
Your referrals plus sub-affiliate overrides
Scalability
Linear — capped by your own reach
Compounding — grows with the network
Effort profile
Ongoing lead generation
Front-loaded recruiting, then more passive
Main risk
Your own traffic drying up
Recruiting inactive sub-affiliates
Pro Tip
Recruit for reach you do not already have — a regional partner, a language community, a niche you cannot serve — rather than cloning your own audience, so your sub-affiliates add new volume instead of cannibalising your direct referrals.
Common Pitfalls
Chasing a wide roster of recruits over a small trained one, so most sub-affiliates stay inactive, the override stays negligible, and you have effectively given away margin for nothing.
FAQ
How is this different from a pyramid scheme?
A pyramid scheme pays for recruitment itself; a multi-tier affiliate program pays overrides only on real client trading volume. If earnings can exist without any underlying product activity, treat it as a red flag.
What is a typical Tier-2 override rate?
Commonly 5% to 15% of the sub-affiliate's earned commission, though Master IB deals vary and are often negotiated based on the volume the network drives.
How many tiers do most programs pay?
Two is the norm in retail brokerage. Deeper chains are rare because they complicate accounting and start to resemble a pyramid structure that regulators scrutinise.
Do I earn on the sub-affiliate's clients or their commissions?
Almost always a percentage of the sub-affiliate's commissions, not a separate slice of their clients' trading. The override is calculated on what they already earned.
Can a broker cut my override later?
Rates can change with contract terms, so get your override rate and any minimum term in writing. Established Master IBs negotiate protection against unilateral cuts.
Should I train my sub-affiliates or just recruit widely?
Train. Five productive, well-supported sub-affiliates almost always out-earn dozens of untrained recruits, because overrides depend entirely on the volume they actually generate.
How performance affiliates and media buyers should evaluate broker partner programs for tracking, payout speed, and volume-scaled deals — not just the headline CPA.
A breakdown of how override commissions work for Master IBs, how to evaluate a broker's override rate, and the mistakes that quietly erode second-tier income.
Commission rate stops being the deciding factor once you're managing sub-IBs at scale — this guide covers the back-office infrastructure a broker needs: tier depth, API …
A practical guide to evaluating broker onboarding infrastructure - KYC speed, attribution, and bulk-signup tooling - before you route a large trading community through it.
A practical breakdown of the deal terms that matter when you run a Discord or Telegram trading community: revenue share vs CPA, sub-IB overrides, and bulk-onboarding …
