Case Study: How AdBird Launched Its First Dating App Affiliate Program and Reached 2M+ Clicks and 80K Conversions

Executive Summary

For a brand launching its first affiliate channel, the platform choice sets two things at once: how fast the program goes live, and how far it can go afterward. Adbird had no program to migrate, no prior tooling, and a short runway.

Adbird is an Istanbul-based dating app developer. When the team set out to build an affiliate channel from scratch, the priority was speed: get live quickly and start acquiring quality traffic, without a long evaluation or a heavy technical lift. Trackdesk fit that brief. In its first months on the platform, Adbird stood up a working affiliate program and reached roughly 2 million tracked clicks, 80,000 conversions, and 120 active affiliates, with SEO as the lead channel and the US as the strongest market.

We needed to move fast, and Trackdesk let us get our program up and running right away. The best part of working with Trackdesk is the speed — fast replies and real support from the team whenever we need them.

— Sena Korkmaz, Affiliate Manager, Adbird

What Adbird runs on Trackdesk today:

A first affiliate program live and tracking within its first weeks
CPA, RevShare, and hybrid commissions tiered by GEO and affiliate quality
Purchases as the conversion event focused on first-time purchasers
Hands-on traffic monitoring for a fraud-sensitive vertical
SEO as the lead channel with the US as the strongest market

About AdBird

Adbird is a mobile app developer in the dating space, based in İstanbul. It runs a performance-based affiliate program that pays partners for the traffic and first-time purchasers they bring in, built on Trackdesk as the tracking layer.

Industry: Mobile app development, dating
Headquarters: Istanbul, Türkiye
Business model: Performance affiliate program acquiring first-time purchasers for its dating app
Primary markets: United States (lead), with France, Brazil, Germany, the UK, Israel, Spain, Australia, Canada, and Italy
On Trackdesk since: 2025

The Challenge: A First Affiliate Channel, Built From Scratch

Adbird was new to affiliate marketing. There was no in-house tracking, no legacy platform to migrate from, and no existing program to build on. The channel had to be created from nothing, and two pressures shaped the platform decision:

Speed to launch. The team needed the program live quickly and traffic flowing, without spending weeks on evaluation or integration work.
Traffic quality in a fraud-sensitive vertical. Dating traffic attracts clickbait and low-quality sources. The program needed clean acquisition from the start, which meant tracking the team could actually monitor and act on.

For a brand launching cold, the platform is not a back-office choice. It decides whether the channel goes live in weeks, and whether the traffic it brings in is worth paying for.

Why AdBird Chose Trackdesk

With a short runway, Adbird’s technical team ran a quick review of Trackdesk and moved straight to launch. Three things made that possible:

Fast to launch. The program went live quickly, so Adbird could start tracking and acquiring traffic without delay.
Hands-on support. Fast replies and direct help from the Trackdesk team through setup and beyond.
An intuitive platform. A brief technical review was enough to get the program running, with no steep learning curve.

How the Program Runs Today

Adbird now runs a managed program with commission models matched to market and partner quality:

✔  Commission models: CPA, RevShare, and hybrid, tiered by GEO and affiliate quality.
✔  Conversion event: purchases, with first-time purchasers as the core acquisition goal.
✔  Payout cadence: monthly.
✔  Traffic quality: hands-on monitoring to keep acquisition clean in a fraud-sensitive vertical.

Results: 2M Clicks, 80K Conversions, 120 Affiliates

In its first months on Trackdesk, Adbird’s program reached real volume from a standing start:

~2,000,000 clicks tracked across the program.
~80,000 conversions recorded.
120 active affiliates recruited and running.
SEO as the standout channel, sending the traffic that converts.
The United States as the strongest-performing market among ten active GEOs.

In Their Own Words

If you’re a dating brand launching an affiliate program, prioritize GEO optimization and quality traffic from the start. Avoid clickbait and low-quality sources — they cost you more than they bring in. And get the right tracking software in place early: a platform like Trackdesk is a must-have for running your operations efficiently from day one.

— Sena Korkmaz, Affiliate Manager, Adbird

What This Means for App Brands Launching an Affiliate Channel

Adbird’s launch is a working reference for any app brand standing up its first affiliate program. The structural lesson: when you build a channel from zero, the platform decision governs how quickly you can go live and how cleanly you can control traffic once volume arrives.

Two things separate first programs that reach volume from those that stall:

A platform that goes live fast, so the channel starts producing while the runway is still short.
Tracking a team can monitor in a fraud-sensitive vertical, so quality traffic is the default and clickbait gets caught early.

For a dating brand, that second point is the difference between conversions that hold and spend that leaks.

Build Your Affiliate Program on Trackdesk

Trackdesk gives brands the infrastructure to launch an affiliate program fast and run it cleanly from day one: real-time tracking, CPA, RevShare and hybrid commissions, automated payouts, and a support team that stays involved past launch.

If you’re standing up your first affiliate program and speed matters, talk to us before you pick a platform.

Request a demo today.