IB Guides - Commissions & Deals
What Brokers Look For When Approving New IBs and Affiliates
Learn what a forex IB approval involves: the checks brokers run, red flags, and how to get better terms as an IB or affiliate.
Many rejected applications are not rejected because the applicant is a bad marketer. They are rejected because the broker cannot tell what the traffic is, where it comes from or whether it can be promoted safely. Understanding how forex IB approval works from the broker's side lets you fix those gaps before you apply. This guide covers what partner and compliance teams check, how to describe your traffic honestly, which red flags cause rejections, and how to move from standard terms to better ones.
It is written for introducing brokers and affiliate marketers who already have some audience and want to be treated as a serious partner rather than an unknown quantity.
Why brokers vet partners before they approve them
A broker is legally and commercially responsible for how it is promoted. If an affiliate runs misleading ads, targets the wrong audience or sends low-quality leads, the damage lands on the broker: complaints, wasted acquisition spend and, in the worst cases, regulatory attention. Approval is the broker's main control over that risk.
There is a commercial side too. Brokers pay for qualified deposits, so they want partners whose traffic converts into clients who fund accounts and keep trading. A partner who sends volume without quality costs more than they earn.
So when a partner team reads your application, it is asking two questions. Is this partner safe to be associated with? And is this traffic likely to be worth the payout? Everything below feeds one of those two questions.
What goes into a strong application
A thin application forces the reviewer to guess, and guesses tend to go against you. Give them what they need to say yes quickly.
Who you are: your name or company name, country of residence or registration, and a working email and messaging handle. If you operate through a company, say so and be ready to provide registration details.
Your channels: the exact URLs, channel names or profiles where you will promote. Not "social media", but the actual links.
Your traffic sources: how people reach those channels, such as organic search, a mailing list, a community, paid media or influencer content.
Your target GEOs: the countries and languages you intend to promote in.
Your experience: what you have promoted before, in which verticals, and for how long.
Your plan: what you want to run with this broker and the type of audience it is aimed at.
Keep it factual and specific. A short, accurate application with real links beats a long one full of adjectives.
How to describe your traffic sources honestly
Reviewers read applications for a living and vague or inflated descriptions stand out. Honesty is also the safer route, because brokers can compare what you declared with what their tracking later shows.
Say what the source actually is
If most of your visitors come from search, say that and name the type of content that attracts them. If your audience is a Telegram group, say how it was built. If you run paid ads, state the platforms and whether you send traffic to your own landing page or directly to the broker.
Separate what you own from what you rent
An owned audience, such as an email list or a community that has followed you for a while, tells a broker something different from rented traffic bought per click. Both can be acceptable, but they carry different risk and you should not blur them. Describing paid traffic as "organic" is a quick way to lose trust.
Be realistic about volume
You do not need to promise large numbers. Brokers generally prefer a partner who says they will start small and scale than one who forecasts volume they cannot deliver. Overstated projections make reviewers suspicious rather than impressed.
Do not hide what you plan to do
If you intend to use pop-ups, push notifications, native ads or lead generation forms, say so. Surprises discovered after launch are treated far more harshly than methods declared up front. If you plan paid media, read our guide to running compliant paid ads for forex and CFD offers before you describe your approach.
The checks a broker's partner and compliance team run
Practices differ between brokers, but most reviews cover the same ground. Knowing the list helps you prepare answers before they are asked.
Traffic source and channel review
The team looks at your website, social profiles or community and asks whether the content is appropriate for financial products. They check whether the channel is established, whether the audience looks real and whether the tone is responsible. A site with no history, copied content or nothing but offers for brokers will draw questions.
GEO mix
Brokers can only accept clients from certain countries, and each broker has its own list of markets it wants, restricts or will not serve at all. If your declared GEOs do not match what the broker can accept, the application stalls. This is why matching a partner to the right broker matters as much as the quality of the traffic.
Past promotional content
Reviewers often look at what you have published before. Posts that suggest guaranteed profits, show lifestyle imagery tied to trading results or downplay risk are a problem, because the broker would be associated with them. Financial promotion rules in many jurisdictions require fair, balanced and clearly identified marketing, and brokers expect partners to respect that.
Disclosures
Do your channels make it clear that you are paid when people sign up? Is there a visible risk warning? Do your terms and privacy pages exist? These are simple to fix and easy for a reviewer to check.
Partner identity and business details
Brokers carry out know-your-customer style checks on partners, especially where they pay a company or send funds across borders. Expect to provide identification or business registration details and payment information that matches the name on the account. Mismatched names can cause delays.
Incentivised and cashback traffic
Many brokers restrict or ban traffic that is attracted by rebates, bonuses or cashback offers, because the clients it produces often behave differently. If your model includes rebates, say so clearly and ask whether it is permitted rather than assuming it is.
Brand bidding
Bidding on a broker's own name in search ads is widely restricted. Treat it as off limits unless the broker explicitly allows it in writing.
Previous terminations
If you have been removed from another programme, be ready to explain why. An undisclosed termination that comes to light later can end the relationship. A candid explanation, with what you changed afterwards, is a far better position.
This article is general information, not legal advice. Rules on financial promotion, licensing and client eligibility vary between countries, so check your own obligations or take professional advice before you promote.
Red flags that get a forex IB approval request rejected
Most rejections trace back to a short list of problems. Check yourself against it before submitting.
No working channel, or a channel that is empty, brand new or unrelated to finance.
Vague answers such as "various sources" or "worldwide" when asked where traffic comes from.
Promotion of profit guarantees, "signals that never lose" or similar claims on any past or current channel.
A focus on recruiting other affiliates or sub-partners rather than on acquiring genuine clients.
Target GEOs the broker cannot accept, or an obvious mismatch between your language and your stated markets.
Reliance on incentives, bonuses or cashback without saying so.
Plans to bid on brand terms or imitate the broker's website.
Inconsistent identity details, such as different names across the application, the website and the payment account.
An unexplained history of terminations or complaints.
Pressure for special terms before any traffic has been sent.
Any one of these can be enough on its own. Several together almost always are.
How to present yourself so you are approved on better terms
Presentation does not replace quality, but it shapes how your quality is read. Think of the application as a short briefing for someone who has to defend the decision internally.
Lead with what is verifiable
Put your strongest, checkable facts first: how long your channel has existed, the content you publish and the audience it serves. Link to real pages. If you have a track record with other programmes, mention it and offer to share references.
Show that you understand the product and the rules
One sentence on how you handle risk warnings and disclosures tells a reviewer more than a paragraph of enthusiasm. If you already understand how IB payments work, mention the model you want and why. Be clear on the difference between being paid per qualified deposit and being paid on client activity.
Match the offer to the audience
A partner who says "I run a Spanish-language education channel and want a broker that accepts that market" is easier to place than one who asks for the highest payout available. Choosing a broker that suits your audience also improves your later results, which is where better terms come from. Our checklist for choosing a forex broker to partner with covers this from your side of the table.
Use a network where it helps
A network such as Affiwise works with regulated brokers and can help match you to brokers that suit your traffic and GEOs, and help you present your application clearly. It cannot guarantee approval, since each broker makes its own decision, but it can save you from applying blindly to programmes that were never going to fit.
Starting on standard terms and earning better ones
Most new partners begin on standard terms, and that is reasonable. The broker has no data on you yet, so it prices in uncertainty. Your job in the first period is to reduce that uncertainty with evidence.
What brokers measure
First-time deposit quality: do your referred clients fund accounts at meaningful levels and meet the broker's qualification criteria?
Retention: do clients keep trading beyond the first deposit, or disappear immediately?
Fraud and chargebacks: are there duplicate identities, disputed deposits or suspicious patterns in your traffic?
Compliance: do your promotions stay within the agreed rules without needing corrections?
Consistency: is volume steady and explainable, or does it spike without a reason?
Make quality visible
Good tracking lets you see which sources produce good clients and which do not, so you can cut the weak ones before the broker raises it. If your setup is not yet in order, add sub-IDs to your links and tag your traffic by source from the start.
Ask for better terms at the right time
Once you have a reasonable run of data, go to your manager with specifics: which sources you run, how those clients have behaved and what you plan to scale. Ask for a higher payout, a different deal type or access to additional GEOs, and explain why the data supports it. Asking early, with no evidence, rarely works.
Understand the deal types
Brokers typically offer CPA, hybrid and revenue share models, and the right one depends on your traffic. Affiwise offers CPA, Hybrid and RevShare deals, with CPAs up to $700 per qualified FTD depending on the broker and GEO. Details of how payment works, including weekly payouts by bank transfer or crypto, are on our payouts page. Treat any rate as a ceiling that depends on qualification, not as something to expect on day one.
A pre-application checklist
Run through this before you submit anything. It takes a short time and removes most of the common causes of rejection.
Confirm that every channel you list is live, public and consistent with what you describe.
Write down your real traffic sources and be ready to explain each one.
List the countries and languages you will target and check them against what the broker accepts.
Review your past content and remove or correct anything that implies guaranteed results or hides risk.
Add a clear affiliate disclosure and a visible risk warning to your channels.
Prepare identification or business registration details that match your payment account.
Decide whether you use incentives or brand bidding, and plan to declare it rather than hide it.
Set up tracking with source tags so you can show quality later.
Prepare an honest explanation for any previous termination.
Set realistic expectations: start on standard terms and plan to earn improvements.
Approval is mostly about reducing doubt. If your channels are real, your traffic is described accurately, your content is responsible and your identity details are consistent, you have removed the usual reasons for a no. The rest comes from the quality you deliver once you start.
If you would like help finding brokers that suit your traffic and GEOs, you can apply to Affiwise. It is free to apply, and you will work with a dedicated affiliate manager who can help you present your profile and plan your launch.
Risk warning: CFDs and forex are complex instruments that carry a high risk of losing money rapidly due to leverage.
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