How revenue share for digital products works
On a revenue share launch, a marketing partner builds the path to the sale and takes a percentage of what that path sells, usually alongside a lower upfront fee. For a digital product the path is always the same: content earns attention, your profile turns viewers into followers, a landing page turns followers into email subscribers, and the list buys at launch. Every step can be counted, which is why digital products suit this deal.
What changes by product is the money at the end of that path. A $497 course pays out nearly its full price within days. A $59.99 app subscription loses 15% to 30% to the store and settles later in monthly store reports. A $9.99 ebook pays a royalty of a few dollars. A $49 community pays a little every month for as long as members stay. That decides what the share is calculated on, which report settles it and how long it runs.
Whether to pay this way at all is covered in revenue share vs retainer, and typical splits in agency revenue share percentage. This page fits the deal to your product.
Revenue share by product type: courses, apps, books and paid communities
Platform cuts from each platform's own pages, November 2026. Net is before taxes and your own costs.
| Product | Typical net per sale after the platform cut | What to base the share on | Tracking source | Main risk |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Online course | About $482 of a $497 sale on a 0% platform with 2.9% + 30¢ processing. About $460 before processing on a 7.5% plan. | Collected cash after refunds and processing, including each payment plan installment as it lands | Your course platform's payments report (Kajabi, Teachable, Thinkific) or Stripe | Refunds inside your guarantee window and failed installments |
| App | 70% to 85% of the price on the App Store. About $50.99 of a $59.99 annual subscription under Apple's Small Business Program. | Store proceeds from paid subscriptions and purchases, for a fixed number of months per subscriber | App Store Connect Payments and Financial Reports; Google Play Console earnings report | Trials that never convert, and no rule on renewals |
| Ebook on Amazon KDP | 35% or 70% royalty. About $6.78 on a $9.99 ebook with a 2 MB file; about 35 cents on a 99 cent ebook. | Book royalties plus sales of the bigger offer the book leads to | KDP royalty reports, plus the checkout of the backend offer | A price too low to pay a partner on the book alone |
| Paid community | About $47.58 of a $49 monthly payment on Skool Pro. About $44.10 on Skool Hobby, and less on Patreon once processing comes off. | Monthly payments from members the launch brought in, for a fixed window per member | Skool, Circle or Patreon payouts, or Stripe | Monthly churn, and a share with no end date |
Revenue share for online courses: payment plans, refunds and platform fees
Kajabi advertises 0% revenue share, with Kajabi Payments at 2.9% + 30¢ on US cards on its Basic plan (Kajabi pricing). Teachable charges a 7.5% transaction fee on its $39 Starter plan and 0% on Builder and above with Teachable Payments (Teachable pricing). Thinkific lists its own payments at about 2.9% (Thinkific pricing).
Payment plans are where course deals get messy. If 30 buyers choose three payments of $179 instead of $497 upfront, the cash arrives over three months and some installments fail. Base the share on collected cash and pay it as each installment lands. A share on the full plan value at signup pays the partner on money that may never arrive.
Refunds set the payment date. If your guarantee runs 14 or 30 days, settle the share for each launch after that window closes, on sales net of refunds. That rule removes most clawback arguments. The launch itself, from paid beta to cart close, is covered in how to launch an online course.
App marketing revenue share: store cuts, trials and which report counts
Apple pays you 70% of each auto-renewable subscription payment in a subscriber's first year and 85% after a year of paid service, and free trials don't count toward that year (Apple subscriptions). Developers who earned up to $1 million in proceeds in the prior calendar year can join the App Store Small Business Program and get 85% from the first payment. Google Play's service fee page lists 15% on auto-renewing subscriptions. In the US, from June 30, 2026, it shows that as 10% plus a 5% billing fee, and one-time purchases on new installs as 20% plus the 5% billing fee on the first $1 million a year.
Never base an app share on installs or trial starts. A trial canceled on day six is worth nothing. Base it on store proceeds from paid transactions, then settle the hard question: first payment or lifetime value. A share on the first payment ignores the renewal the launch also produced. A share on every renewal forever turns one launch into a permanent cost. The middle ground is a share on each new subscriber's payments for a fixed window, such as their first 12 months.
Pick the report before launch. In App Store Connect, Sales and Trends records a transaction when the customer starts it, while Payments and Financial Reports include only paid, settled transactions and finalized proceeds (Apple reporting tools). In Google Play Console, the estimated sales report doesn't deduct taxes or Google fees, and the earnings report showing your payout is typically ready by the fifth of the following month (Google Play reports). Settle invoices on the financial and earnings reports; use the fast ones to steer content in launch week. More on the launch side in our app launch campaign page.
Book marketing revenue share: royalties, wide vs exclusive and the backend offer
Amazon KDP pays ebooks either 35% of the list price or 70% after delivery costs (KDP royalties). Since July 7, 2026, the 70% band on Amazon.com covers list prices from $2.99 to $12.99 (KDP list prices), and delivery costs $0.15 per MB on Amazon.com (KDP digital pricing). Paperbacks earn 50% or 60% depending on price and marketplace, minus printing costs (KDP paperback royalties).
Wide or exclusive changes the tracking. KDP Select is a 90-day enrollment during which the ebook can only be distributed through KDP and public libraries (KDP Select), and the 70% rate in Brazil, Japan, Mexico and India requires it. Exclusive keeps every ebook sale in one KDP report. Going wide adds stores and reports, so the partner needs read access to each, or a share limited to named stores.
The bigger issue is price. A few dollars a copy rarely pays for a launch, so a book works best as the front of a funnel. Put a bonus inside it, such as a workbook or the first lesson of your course, that readers claim with their email. Some of those subscribers then buy a $297 program or a membership. Share on the royalties plus those backend sales, and the book becomes the cheapest way into your list.
Revenue share for paid communities: churn and how long the share runs
Community platforms take about 1% to 10%. Skool charges a 10% transaction fee on its $9 Hobby plan and 2.9% on its $99 Pro plan (Skool pricing). Circle charges 2% on Professional and 1% on Business (Circle pricing). Patreon takes 10% plus payment processing, currency conversion and payout fees (Patreon pricing).
The fee is the small part. Recurring revenue needs an end date. The cleanest structure is a share on each member the launch brought in, for a fixed number of months from that member's first payment, with the window written down. Monthly churn decides what that window is worth: at 8% churn, 120 founding members shrink to about 44 after a year. Our guide to starting a paid community covers churn in depth.
At a hypothetical 20%, a 6-month window on those 120 members pays the partner about $5,619, a 12-month window about $9,026, and no end date about $14,274. Match the window to the retention work the partner does, and say whether members who rejoin count.
Worked revenue share launch examples: what each side earns
Four hypothetical launches on the same path: content, profile, landing page, email list, launch, purchases. The 20% is an illustration, not our rate.
| Hypothetical launch | Funnel | Net revenue counted | Partner at 20% | You keep before costs |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Course, $497 one-off on Kajabi | 60,000 followers, 8,000 landing page visits, 5,000 emails, 75 buyers (1.5%), 4 refunds | $34,184 after refunds and card fees | $6,837 | $27,347 |
| App, $59.99 a year with a 7-day free trial | 8,000 installs, 800 trial starts, 320 paid subscribers | $16,317 in year-one proceeds at 85% (Small Business Program) | $3,263, plus $1,305 if the 128 year-two renewals count | $13,054 |
| Book, $9.99 ebook leading to a $297 program | 1,500 copies, 600 readers claim the in-book bonus, 30 buy the program | $10,174 royalties + $8,643 program sales = $18,817 | $3,763 ($2,035 on the book alone) | $15,054 |
| Paid community, $49 a month on Skool Pro | 4,000 emails, 120 founding members (3%), 8% monthly churn | $45,129 over each member's first 12 months | $9,026 ($14,274 with no end date) | $36,103 |
Assumes the partner's upfront fee is separate and any ad spend is paid by you directly to the platforms. At Apple's standard first-year rate, the 320 app subscribers bring about $13,438. Run your own numbers in the revenue share calculator.
What makes a digital product a good revenue share candidate
A partner on a share bets its time on your product. This is what makes the bet worth taking.
- Enough net per buyer. Each sale must leave room for a share and for you. A $497 course does; a 99 cent ebook only works as the entry to something bigger.
- A backend or recurring layer. A book that leads to a program, an app with renewals, a course with a graduate community.
- A checkout or store you own and can share read access to: Stripe, your course or community platform, KDP, App Store Connect or Play Console.
- A product that is ready, or will be ready inside the launch window. Most of our launches go live about 3 to 4 weeks after the brief is agreed, so the product, or at least a paid beta, has to keep pace.
- Signs people want it: beta buyers, a waitlist, app store reviews, members who stay past month two.
- A founder who will show up. Courses and communities sell on your face and voice. If you won't appear on camera, an app or a book fits better.
- Written rules for refunds, trials, renewals and churn before the first post, in a revenue share agreement.
Case study: a new product launch
We launched a new product. In 2 weeks, these are the results.
- 115kfollowers, starting from zero
- 7,000+emails collected
- 100+purchases across an app, a book and a paid community
No audience, no list and no sales on day one. Organic content earned the follow, a landing page captured the email, and three offers closed the sale. Read the case study.
Next steps to launch your digital product on a revenue share
Write down your net per sale
Price minus the platform cut, processing and your refund rate.
Pick the base and the report
Collected cash for courses, store proceeds for apps, royalties plus backend sales for books, monthly payments for communities. Name the report that settles each invoice.
Set the window for anything recurring
Decide how many months of each subscriber's or member's payments count, and the date the whole deal ends.
Map the funnel you are missing
Content, profile, landing page, email list, launch, purchases. Most founders have the product but not the audience or the list. That is what a revenue share partner should build.
Apply with your product and launch date
We grow the audience organically, build the landing page and email capture, and run the launch through your checkout, for a lower upfront fee plus a share of the sales we help create. Terms are set per deal, and we are selective because we only win when you do. Our own launch sold an app, a book and a paid community: 100+ purchases, 7,000+ emails and 115k followers in 2 weeks, then 148,153 Instagram followers and 15.7 million views in the 30 days to Nov 9, 2026. See our case study and how revenue share partnerships work, then send us your product. We reply within 48 hours.