topic Re: Marketing referral fee in Ask a Question

Marketing referral fee

LauraLacina — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 22:17:37 GMT

Can someone explain to me the Marketing referral fee? it seems to be on all my sales. My royalty is 10% so after the marketing referral fee, it drops by 50%? I guess I am trying to figure out what that is used for? Why is it taken out?

Re: Marketing referral fee

Sara_H — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 22:29:30 GMT

@LauraLacina 3rd party sales now come with a Marketing Referral Fee depending on which department the product is in.

https://help.zazzle.com/hc/en-us/articles/30810357489175-Ambassador-Referral-Commissions-Creator-Royalties

If it's down by 50% my guess is that your product is in the wedding dept

Re: Marketing referral fee

Windy — Fri, 18 Jul 2025 23:10:21 GMT

To counteract this new fee, which Zazzle says is required in order to promote our products on the internet, a lot of us are jacking up our royalty percentages.

Re: Marketing referral fee

LauraLacina — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 00:08:32 GMT

Doesn't that require an extra cost as well? If you up your royalty, do you get charged with the excessive royalty fee?

Re: Marketing referral fee

Windy — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 01:23:52 GMT

Sure. Ten percent on a greeting card I am looking at right now, would bring estimated earnings of 25 cents. When I raise the royalty to 23 percent, I do get slapped with an excess royalty fee of three cents. but the estimated earnings I get are 64 cents.

I am not afraid of a three cent excess royalty fee when in the end I have more than twice as much money in my pocket.

Re: Marketing referral fee

LauraLacina — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:21:05 GMT

So, another question is, if the marketing referral fee is applied, only when Zazzle markets that particular product? I looked at Google Analytics for that particular product, and it only had 7 views, so I paid half of my royalty for 30 cents in Google Ads? I really don't understand?

Re: Marketing referral fee

Sara_H — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 19:32:29 GMT

@LauraLacina Marketing referral fees are applied on every referred sale as per the new terms and conditions. It's just how it is. Doesn't matter how many views a product has.

https://www.zazzle.com/terms/user_agreement and https://www.zazzle.com/terms/ambassadors_agreement

Re: Marketing referral fee

tamirazdesigns — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 22:49:30 GMT

I have my royalties above 10%. Always have. But it's ridiculous we get charged an Excess Fee now if it's above that small percentage amount! Some years back a new fee was imposed on designers for any items set at 15% royalty or above which was bad enough, plus other fees at that time.

Check if you have any Self sales also, to see what that says regarding the new Marketing Royalty Fee amount deducted from earnings!

Regarding the new "Marketing Royalty Fee" that's a separate fee:

I don't understand, why are we designers now being charged a "Marketing Royalty Fee" when we promoted our sold items ourselves?

As an example, in looking at my sold items since 4/1/2025, for the items that says Referral Type as Self-Promotion Link: On one of them I was charged a "Marketing Royalty Fee" of $3.47. And on another one I was charged a "Marketing Royalty Fee" of $8.16. Yes, that's in addition of the Excess Royalty Fee.

Why is Zazzle "deducting" our earnings even more by imposing that new "Marketing Royalty Fee" from designers from our own "sold" items that we promoted ourselves and that says Referral Type as Self-Promotion Link? Don't understand this.

Re: Marketing referral fee

whimsywhim — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 22:34:52 GMT

I have found that the marketing fee is at least 40% on many different products. 50% is the average. It is quite egregious.

Re: Marketing referral fee

Sara_H — Sat, 19 Jul 2025 23:32:47 GMT

@tamirazdesigns If you hover over the Marketing Royalty Fee in the new transaction report, it says it's applied to all Referred Sales. Then it goes on to explain that the amount is included in the Referral Commission you earn

Self referrals are all about "goals" which means whatever your product's royalty is, the earnings goal is capped at whatever x department %

It's like robbing peter to pay paul - even though it's been deducted from one pot (your royalty) - it's given back to you in the other (your self referral commission) so each amount adds up to the total "earnings goal" (in theory)

I think

edited to try and make sense of it (I think I failed lol)

Re: Marketing referral fee

tamirazdesigns — Sun, 20 Jul 2025 04:20:39 GMT

Thanks for trying to make sense of this mess! It's all so very convoluted and crazy now!I

So for my Referral Type as Self-Promotion Link sold items:

I see the Excess Royalty Fee amount (though a minus symbol in both sections) deducted from the Royalty section, and then added back in to the Referral Commission section. But do not see how the Marketing Royalty Fee deducted from the Royalty section is added back into the Referral Commission section, instead only the Total from the Royalty Fee section is added into the bottom Referral Commission section (that doesn't include the Marketing Royalty Fee that was deducted). Oh my head hurts after going round and round with the calculator. But maybe that was part of the convoluted plan.

Looks like they need to put this back and forth crazy math (deduct and add back in the amounts and percentages) from both sections into a clearer format!

You're right about Peter & Paul! 😂

Re: Marketing referral fee

LauraLacina — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 04:56:04 GMT

Well, it is super confusing, and I am still trying to make sense of it all. Zazzle states it wants to "reward those who actively drive traffic to Zazzle." Not sure what that means either, so where does the money go? To Zazzle or to someone else? So am I splitting my royalty with the 3rd party? Still confused?

Re: Marketing referral fee

LauraLacina — Mon, 21 Jul 2025 05:06:50 GMT

I wanted to make another note, since approximately 2023, my sales have not been what they once were. In an effort to regain my momentum, I have increased my promotions, posts, etc, without spending advertising dollars, which doesn't seem to make a difference. However, I am not a marketing major, nor am I a social media expert; I am a designer/illustrator/artist. Despite frustration, I have just kept my nose to the grinding wheel and kept moving forward, putting up new designs, and promoting consistently. I am beginning to think that the only way for someone to truly succeed is to either be a marketing expert or spend a bunch of money on ads. If I do this, then I take time away from actually designing, which is what I am best at. I really wish they could find a way to make the designers happy. I am finding it harder and harder to put forth new designs and to spend the time I used to on Zazzle. Burnt out and frustrated.

Re: Marketing referral fee

Connie — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 03:33:32 GMT

@Sara_H

@Sara_H wrote:
It's like robbing peter to pay paul - even though it's been deducted from one pot (your royalty) - it's given back to you in the other (your self referral commission) so each amount adds up to the total "earnings goal" (in theory)

I think this is the best non-technical explanation yet! It's seems awfully convoluted to do it that way, instead of just not taking out the Marketing fee at all from self-referrals, but at least it's good that they are giving US that marketing fee instead of keeping it for themselves when we did the work.

Re: Marketing referral fee

whimsywhim — Tue, 22 Jul 2025 12:29:56 GMT

I just know that on many products, if not most, 50% is taken from our royalties supposedly for marketing fees. Because most are 3rd party referrals, none of it goes to Paul. It is just gone from our royalties.

Re: Marketing referral fee

RemiC — Sun, 01 Mar 2026 01:06:56 GMT

I am a little bit lost too with these fees. I do promote my own products, and I don't use the direct link to share my products either anymore. I hope Zazzle will be transparent one day and share with us, creators, where the referrals come from. That's valuable marketing information. I know that this will sound excessive, but in a way, I feel like my account has been highjacked when I consider that 99% of my sales are reportedly referred. 50% on every sales is a big hit.

Re: Marketing referral fee

horse_lover — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 14:07:58 GMT

I am a little late to this thread, but I came searching about this very subject. I am very confused. I have a line that says shindigz_paperplates and that it was refered as 3rd party. and 40% was taken from my royalty fees as a marketing royalty fee.

I have been referring my products on pintrest. Does this mean that someone else in the ambassador program shared my link or zazzle sharing it? or does this mean it was my link that brought the sale, are they penalizing us for sharing? That doesnt make sense. I went to see if I had any earnings from the ambassador program, and it does not seem to. Which brings me to think it was someone else who shared my link.

It also makes me feel like they are falsely advertising in a big way, and giving us pennies after we spent so much time building designs for them.

Someone please help me make sense of this.

Re: Marketing referral fee

jophb — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:22:56 GMT

It would be noted with 'self' if it was through your link. Zazzle is also a 3rd party. So it could be that they came through an Ad or promotional e-mail done by Zazzle. Or yes, it could have been another affiliate.

Re: Marketing referral fee

Sara_H — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 16:27:10 GMT

@horse_lover

when you sell something - depending which department that product is in - You are charged a Marketing Referral Fee

Paper plates are in the Crafts & Party Supplies which incurs a 50% fee for a 3rd party referral

MRF Departments

On the sale email that you'll receive when they ship, if Zazzle is the 3rd Party - you'll see a long string of numbers like this

Zazzle as the 3rd Party

If it was someone else that have promoted your products they may have a tracking code

The new fee came into effect 1st April 2025

https://www.zazzle.com/hc/article/ambassador_program_faqs_creator-37460907460631

Re: Marketing referral fee

horse_lover — Mon, 02 Mar 2026 18:40:50 GMT

What is a referred sale? Is this something that Zazzle is sending out to another party to fulfill an order? or is it that zazzle refered your product to make the sale?

What I think it is, is the later, that zazzle advertised the product. So in other words, every time they refer, they will take 50-ish % off your commissions. But my next question is, based on other peoples comments, is zazzle even honoring the affiliates program at all?