Can I run an affiliate program using GrowSurf?

Referral programs vs affiliate programs

For more information, please check out What's the Difference Between an Affiliate Program and a Referral Program?

How to run an affiliate program using GrowSurf

Although GrowSurf does not support any out-of-the-box affiliate/payout features, it is possible to run an affiliate program.

Important concept: Within GrowSurf, referrals are treated as a one-to-one person relationship (1 referred friend = 1 referral). A referral is defined by your referral trigger in your campaign. What this means is that any purchases a referred friend makes after having been referred will never trigger a referral again. Think of a referral as a new customer for your business.

Follow these steps to run an affiliate program:

1. Create a campaign with no rewards, as you would be using GrowSurf just for referral tracking.
2. When you add a participant in GrowSurf, you could save any custom data to that person as metadata.
3. On every new customer signup you receive, add them to your campaign (so that they have a referrer tied to them). Make sure your campaign has your referral trigger set to Signup Event, as a referral will be triggered instantly when the referred friend signs up.
4. For every purchase that is made on your platform/site, you could then call the GrowSurf REST API /GET Participant by Email endpoint to check if that person had a referrer. If they had a referrer, you could then issue out a payout from your end.