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Configure Your Advocate Program

Published on: Thu, 24 Aug, 2023 at 3:07 AM | Updated on: Wed, 26 Feb, 2025 at 1:13 AM

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Step 1: Create your referral program

Reach out to your CSM or contact support to have the Advocate referral program added to your impact.com account.

Step 2: Set up your program

Create your program rules

Program rules consist of goals and actions. Your program may have:

1 goal and 1 action
1 goal with multiple actions
Multiple goal and action pairs

Add a goal

A goal is the desired participant behavior — what you want them to do. The goals you set will depend on your program and the outcomes you want to drive. Goals can be set for advocates, their referred friends, or both. At least one conversion goal is required for your program.

Your program rules will likely change as you work with the impact.com Implementation Engineers to set up your data integrations and finalize your program design. You can return later to update this goal so it matches your data structure.

In the left navigation menu, select Program Rules.
In Section 1 under the Rules field, select Edit.
Under Program Goals, select [Pencil] to give your program goal a name, like User Subscribed or Purchase Complete. This should describe your desired outcome.
Select Edit to the right of the goal name.
Make sure a Goal Key is selected. Once saved, it cannot be changed. We recommend using the purchase key for the initial setup.
Select a goal trigger. We recommend Referred user performs an action for your first goal.
Set optional goal criteria, including conditions or rules.
- Conditions can be set using the dropdown lists or written in JSONata. Your assigned impact.com Implementation Engineer can assist with setting up your goal criteria.
Choose whether this is considered a conversion goal. If this goal is marked as a conversion goal, it will count towards conversions in your program analytics.
- You'll receive an error message if you try to save your rules without setting up at least one conversion goal.
Set reward limits if needed.
Scroll up to the top of the goal and select Done.

Add an action

Next, create an action for this goal.

Actions are tied to specific goals. When the participant achieves a goal, an action (like issuing a reward) is triggered. Actions are set up within the goal setup screen.

Select [Pencil] to name your action. The action name should reflect what you want the action to achieve, like Issue Gift Card Reward or Email Advocate.
Select Edit to the right of the action name.
Make sure an Action Key is selected. Once saved, it cannot be changed.
Select an Action Type. For Purchase Goals, we recommend selecting Reward and Email. You can also choose Email, Exchange Reward, Retraction or Tiered Rewards and Email.
Reward & Email
Email
Tiered Rewards & Email
Exchange Reward
Retraction
1. Select the Audience. If you select Referrer, then the action will apply to your customer advocate. If you select Referred User, it will apply to anyone your advocate refers.
2. [Optional] Add action criteria if you want to create a more nuanced action based on custom fields, calculated fields, and more.
3. Choose whether the reward is fixed or dynamic. Fixed rewards always have the same value. Dynamic rewards vary based on a custom JSONata formula.
  Gift card rewards must have a fixed value. They can't be set up with a dynamic value.
4. [Optional] Select a reward expiration date.
5. [Optional] Set a pending duration, if you don’t want the reward to be immediately available to your participant.
6. Scroll up to the top of the action and select Done.
7. Scroll up to the top of the goal and select Done.
Add further goals and actions as needed. When you’re ready to move on, select Save for this section to continue with creating rewards and setting up the email created in this action.
1. Select the Audience. If you select Referrer, then the action will apply to your advocate. If you select Referred User, it will apply to anyone your advocate refers.
2. [Optional] Add action criteria if you want to create a more nuanced action based on custom fields, calculated fields, and more.
3. Scroll up to the top of the action and select Done.
4. Scroll up to the top of the goal and select Done.
Add further goals and actions as needed. When you’re ready to move on, select Save for this section to continue with creating rewards and setting up the email created in this action.
1. Select the Audience. If you select Referrer, then the action will apply to your advocate. If you select Referred User, it will apply to anyone your advocate refers.
2. Add action criteria if you want to create a more nuanced action based on custom fields, calculated fields, and more.
3. Select Add Reward to create a reward tier.
4. For each tier:
  Add a reward condition. The reward in this tier will only be given when this condition is met.
  Choose whether the reward is fixed or dynamic. Fixed rewards always have the same value. Dynamic rewards can vary based on a custom JSONata formula.
  Gift card rewards must have a fixed value. They can't be set up with a dynamic value.
  [Optional] Select a reward expiration date.
  [Optional] Set a pending duration, if you don’t want the reward to be immediately available to your participant.
5. Scroll up to the top of the action and select Done.
6. Scroll up to the top of the goal and select Done.
Add further goals and actions as needed. When you’re ready to move on, select Save for this section to continue creating rewards.
1. Add action criteria if you want to create a more nuanced action based on custom fields, calculated fields, and more.
2. Select the Source Unit between Pre-defined unit or Formula.
  If selecting a pre-defined unit, you can select the point or percentage value exchanged.
  If selecting Formula, you need to define your reward unit with a JSONata expression using an event or user fields, goals, and more. This expression must return a string. Example: POINT
  Note: When points are exchanged for gift cards, the user can select the points they want to redeem in the available increments for that gift card type.
3. Select a Source Value between Fixed Amount or Formula.
  If selecting a fixed amount, use the up and down arrows to toggle to the amount of source units exchanged.
  If selecting Formula, define your reward value with a JSONata expression using an event or user fields, goals, and more. When referring to an event and user fields, use the full field path. impact.com's reward values only support whole numbers, so numbers must be written in the lowest denomination. Example: event.fields.revenue and user.customFields.first-Purchase-Date Numbers example: 1 USD is equal to 100
4. Select a Destination Reward to exchange the source for.
5. Optionally choose to repeat the exchange as needed.
6. Scroll up to the top of the action and select Done.
7. Scroll up to the top of the goal and select Done.
Add further goals and actions as needed. When you’re ready to move on, select Save for this section to continue creating rewards.
1. Choose a Retraction Type by selecting between Reward Retraction, Refferal Retraction or Event Retraction.
  Reward Retraction – This option allows you to retract specific rewards. If you select this option, select the Retracted Reward Keys that are relevant.
  Referral Retraction – Retract all rewards for the referral.
  Event Retraction – Retract the rewards caused by a specific event. If you select this option, provide the Source Event Keys and select Add Field(s) to add source event filters.
2. Add action criteria if you want to create a more nuanced action based on custom fields, calculated fields, and more.
3. Scroll up to the top of the action and select Done.
4. Scroll up to the top of the goal and select Done.
Add further goals and actions as needed. When you’re ready to move on, select Save for this section to continue creating rewards.

Create a reward

Rewards are how you can incentivize your advocates and their referred friends to engage with your program. The best reward type for you will depend on your industry, audience, and business model.

In Section 1, under the Reward field, select Edit.
Select Create a new reward.
Select a reward type.
- See the Program Reward Options Explained article to learn more about the reward types on offer.
Finish personalizing your reward settings and select Save.

Specify your referral landing page

The landing page is where referred friends will be directed when they click on an advocate’s share link. We recommend using a purchase page or sign-up form that has been customized for your referral program. You can set a Landing page URL when setting up a program.

In Section 1, under Landing page, select Edit.
Provide the URL of the page referred friends are sent to when they click a customer advocate's share link.
[Optional] Provide a fallback URL. This is where referred friends will be sent should the landing page not load.
[Optional] Change the cookie expiry date. This is the amount of time the cookie stays valid for after a shared link has been clicked.
Select Save.

This page can be configured to track participants and add them to your program. Learn more about configuring your landing page for referral tracking.

Step 3: Customize your design and messaging

Design your program emails

You can send transactional emails to your customer advocates and anyone they refer. For example, you can alert participants when a friend signs up using their referral code, or when they’ve earned a reward. Effective program emails are informational and contain a call-to-action (CTA).

Make one of impact.com's email templates your own, import an email template created in another tool like Marketo, or use the email editor to design a unique email from scratch.

In the left navigation menu, select Program Rules.
In Section 2 under the field with the email icon, select Customize. Make sure it is [Toggled on].
Use the pick-and-plop email editor to modify your email template.
Select Save draft or Publish to save and apply the changes.
Learn more by viewing the Design your Program Emails article.

Set up your program widget

The program widget is the main way participants engage with your program. Use the In-App or Website Referral Widgets to allow your existing advocates to learn about and share your program with their friends and colleagues. Use the Friend Widget to allow new, referred friends to identify themselves to the program and instantly get their reward. Learn how to Customize Program Widgets.

Note: If you are unable to embed a widget into your website, then a microsite can be used instead. Microsites are hosted by impact.com and are purpose-built to show participants the same information that would be available through the widget. Speak to the implementation team if you are planning on using a microsite as a stopgap solution until a widget can be installed. Learn more about Customizing Microsite Layouts and Pages.

In Section 2 under the relevant widget field, select Customize.
Use the pick-and-plop editor to modify the widget.
Select Save draft or Publish to save and apply the changes.

Configure your program’s share options

Referral codes, share links, and message links are the main methods your customer advocates use to refer their friends. Each of these is unique to individual participants. Learn more about Referral Program Sharing Options.

Social Messaging settings allow you to configure the suggested posts or messages that an advocate sees when they click a message link. Message links help advocates share their unique share link via email, Facebook, X, and other social media platforms.

Still within the Program Rules menu, in Section 2 under the Social Messaging field, select Edit.
Select Hosted as the Open Graph Source. This allows you to define your messaging in the impact.com platform.
Add a Title, Description, and optionally an Image.
- See Message Links Explained for more on the dynamic variables.
[Optional] Customize share messages per social network.
Select Save.

Step 4: Configure the advanced settings

[Optional] Add translations

Take advantage of the translation and localization support to make your referral program available in multiple languages.

Still within the Program Rules menu, in Section 3, under the Translations field, select Edit.
Download all the default email and widget source content for your program.
Translate the files off program.
Upload the translated email and widget files.
Select Done.

Microsite translations

Microsite content translations need to be done within the content section:

In the left navigation menu, select Content.
In the Translations section select Microsite to expand a list of options, then select the microsite content you want to translate.
Download the source content and translations, translate the content off platform, and upload the translated files.
Select Done.

Learn more

Translate and Localize Your Advocate Program

Next steps

Now that your program has been set up, a member of our team will work with you to set up your integrations and referral attribution tracking. Once the data implementation is complete and tests are successful, your new referral program will be good to go!

Next steps

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