Tapfiliate is such a robust tool - you wouldn't think it would only serve one purpose. It can also be used to power referral programs!
In this guide, we'll discuss how Tapfiliate's software can be used to set up and manage a referral program - from sending those lovely referral links to your customers, to ensuring their loyalty is rewarded when they share their passion for your brand, product, or service.
Setting up your integration & program
Your integration with Tapfiliate
As with any case where you'd like to track your referred users, you'll need to install tracking scripts.
You can check out our integrations list to see which platforms we support, as well as the integrations options we have available for customized/non-supported set-ups.
For each transaction, we advise tracking at minimum the external_id & customer_id.
Setting up your program
When setting up your program, you determine your commission structure. This in turn would reflect how you'd like to reward your affiliates when a conversion is tracked.
For a referral program, you're likely going to base your reward on the referral alone.
This means you'll make use of the Points (PTS) currency, and use the Fixed reward option.
That way, you may set the reward to however many points you'd like to issue per referred conversion tracked.
Establishing your payout method
Tapfiliate may offer a myriad of payment methods to choose from, but did you know you could also establish your very own?
With Tapfiliate's Custom Payouts Module, you can set up a form that collects the data you'll need to apply the reward later on.
Depending on your program, you can use this to ask for information about:
The eCommerce account in which the user would like to have the credit applied
The account on your platform where the user would like to have their subscription extension or upgrade applied
The email address to which you could send a coupon code (in the case you're issuing discounts) or voucher/gift card
These are just a handful of examples! You can adjust and customize your payout method form to ask for whatever details you need to process their reward.
Structuring your rewards
You don't kick off your program without letting your participants know what's in it for them. We advise stating very clearly how your program works, and at which point you intend to issue rewards.
Here are two examples of ways you could structure your rewards program:
One conversion issues 5 points; user must reach 25 points for a reward.
In this example, the referrer has to drive 5 separate conversions to be eligible for the reward.
One confirmed referral, one reward.
Perhaps you're lead tracking. This means you're not tracking a purchase right away, but rather a potential customer who may or may not make use of your services/products. If the user converts and makes a purchase, you could then issue the reward and the referrer earns their points.
Refer three people, earn a free month of premium.
Purchases aren't necessary - you can track your trial sign-ups as conversions, too! This would then be tracked as a conversion, and result in points being issued to the referring user.
Note: Tapfiliate would only be used to gather data on referred conversions. The actual issuing of rewards, whether they be subscription extensions, plan upgrades, store credit, brand mechandise/swag, etc., would need to be handled externally.
Use Affiliate recruitment to send your link
Tapfiliate counts on an awesome Affiliate recruitment feature, which can be used to automatically send referral links to your customers.
It also allows you to draft beautifully branded emails which you can launch them at two critical points of the customer's referral program journey:
When they are added as an affiliate prospect and receive their referral link via email.
When they drive their first referral, so that they can provide their payout information.
We also advise setting up additional trigger email notifications so your customers know when they're referred someone!
Issuing rewards
When you want to issue your rewards, you may head on over to the Payments page, to settle balances. Do as follows:
Click on "Settle all balances". A window will open.
If you require a minimum amount of Points to be gathered before payout (for example, if your users need to accumulate at least 25 Points to earn a reward), modify the minimum payment amount. That way, any users who have accumulated less are not included in the payout cycle.
Toggle off the "Include affiliates that don't have a payout method set up" option. That way, their balances remain saved. They'll be informed that their payout method is missing, and that they should set it up to be able to claim their reward.
Click on the blue button to settle the balances.
You'll receive a CSV file containing payout data for each affiliate, indicating the user supplied information about where to apply the reward.
Advanced use cases
Perhaps you'd like to take it to another level and display the referral link on your end, on your affiliate's account/profile. That's possible!
Once you have created the affiliate prospect, you can retrieve the affiliate's referral link via this endpoint: