Product-based commissions

Most programs pay one commission rate on every sale. But sometimes you want to pay only on certain products, or pay more on a high-margin product and less on a discounted one. Referly handles those two jobs in two different places, and it helps to know which one you need before you start.

• Pay on some products but not others? Your Base Commission Plan can do that on its own.
• Pay a different rate depending on which product was bought? That needs a custom commission plan.

Here’s how each one works.

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Limit your base plan to certain products

Your program has one Base Commission Plan, set under Program Settings → Program Details → General. It has a single Commission Type (percentage or flat) and one Commission Rate, and it does have a product field: Customer buys any of these products/plans. That field is a filter, not a rate picker. It decides whether the commission is paid, not how much:

• Leave it blank and the commission applies to every referred purchase, whatever the customer bought. This is the default.
• Add one or more products and the commission is paid only when the purchase includes something on your list. If the customer buys anything that isn’t on the list, the affiliate earns nothing on that sale.

The field appears when your base plan gives a Cash Reward and pays when a Customer Makes a Payment. It searches the same connected integrations described in the next section.

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Why different rates per product need a custom plan

The base plan has one Commission Rate, so it can’t pay 20% on one product and 10% on another. It’s one rate, with an optional product filter in front of it. To pay by product, you create a custom commission plan. Custom plans let you add several rates in one plan, each with its own conditions that check what was bought, plus a default rate for everything else. That’s the piece the base plan doesn’t have.

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Connect where you sell

So you can search for products by name instead of typing IDs, connect the platform your sales run through first. Referly pulls your product list from these connected integrations:

• Stripe
• Shopify
• WooCommerce
• Polar

Collections are a Shopify feature, so the option to target a collection only appears when Shopify is connected. With Stripe, WooCommerce, or Polar you target individual products. You don’t strictly need an integration to build the rule, but without one you’d have to enter product IDs by hand. See connect an integration to link a platform.

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Create a custom commission plan

Open Program Settings → Program Details → Commission Plans. At the top you’ll see your Base Commission Plan with a Default Plan badge. To make a new plan, select Add Commission Plan. The plan builder opens. It has three parts:

• Commissions tabs across the top. Every plan starts with a Default commission, and you add more as Commission 1, Commission 2, and so on. Each tab is one rate.
• A Conditions panel on the left, where you decide when a commission applies.
• A Reward panel on the right, where you set what the affiliate earns when it applies.

Give the plan a name so you can recognize it later, then move to the commission you want to attach the product rate to.

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Add a Product condition

Product-based rates work by adding a commission with a Product condition, then giving it the reward you want for those products. Pick the Add tab to create a new commission (for example Commission 1), or select an existing one. In its Conditions panel, select Add condition. Two dropdowns appear:

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Search and select your products

A search box appears below the condition. Start typing a product name and Referly searches your connected integrations, then shows matching results to pick from. You can select more than one.

• If Shopify is connected, the box reads Search products or collections… and collection results are marked with (collection) so you can tell them apart from individual products.
• With other integrations, the box reads Search products… and shows individual products only.
• Leave the box blank to apply the rate to all products. That’s useful for a catch-all rate paired with None of, or when the condition is really about something else.

Under the box, a Connected integrations banner confirms where products are coming from, with a Manage integrations button. If you haven’t connected anything yet, it reads No product integration connected and offers a Connect Integration button — you can still type product IDs manually in the meantime.

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Set the reward for those products

In the Reward panel on the right, set what the affiliate earns when this commission’s conditions match — a percentage of the sale or a flat amount. This is the rate that will apply to the products you chose. Every plan also keeps a Default commission. It has no required conditions and catches any sale your other commissions don’t match, so nothing goes unpaid. Set the Default to your normal rate, and let each product commission override it for its own products.

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Add more than one product rate

To pay several different rates by product, add a commission for each one. Use the Add tab to create Commission 2, Commission 3, and so on, and give each its own Product condition and Reward. You can also combine a product with another check inside a single commission — for example a product and a minimum order amount. When a commission has two or more conditions, a selector appears:

• ALL conditions must match — every condition has to be true.
• ANY condition can match — the reward applies if at least one is true.

For most product-based rates a single Product condition is all you need.

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Save and assign the plan

Save the plan when it looks right. A custom plan only affects affiliates once it’s assigned to them. You can:

• Set it as the default plan new affiliates get, from the Commission Plans page.
• Assign it to an affiliate group.
• Change the plan on an individual affiliate or on a referred customer using the Change Commission Plan option.

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