Publisher Referrals

How to create referral plans for your publishers and payments for commission.

Updated over a week ago

Publisher Referrals

In the AdTech industry, particularly Lead Generation, publishers can be motivated to recruit new publishers through a commission system. Publishers would earn commission based on their referral's performance (i.e. revenue, profit, or cost), and even more commission (smaller percentage) from any referred publishers that they bring on.

Here's an example of this referral commission structure:

Original Publisher-A refers to Publisher-B. Publisher-A will receive a 10% commission on Publisher-B's revenue performance. If Publisher-B refers to Publisher-C, then Publisher-A will get 5% from Publisher-C and 10% from Publisher-B, and so on. This referral plan can continue up to 8 levels of referrals.


How to Create a Publisher Referral Plan in Swaarm

  1. Go to Publishers Overview > Referrals tab

  2. Click + Create Referral Plan

  3. Add a Name to identify the referral plan

  4. Add a Description of the referral plan

  5. Select Publishers to be included in the referral plan:

    1. By Name or ID

    2. By Publisher Tags

  6. Optional: Check the box Default

    1. This is also known as the "Global Referral Plan" meaning any publisher not selected explicitly or via tags by ANOTHER referral plan will be included in this default plan

  7. Add Commission Level(s)

    1. Add a Name (e.g. "Commission Level 1")

    2. Select Commission Target

      1. Cost

      2. Revenue

      3. Profit

        Note: The commission amount will be calculated based on the commission target. For eg., If Publisher A has referred Publisher B, then as per the given configuration in the screenshot below, Publisher A will receive 10% of Publisher B's revenue per month.

    1. Set the commission Percentage

    2. Select the Level

  8. Click Save


How to Add a Referral Publisher

  1. Go to the Publisher Details page

  2. Click Edit in the top right corner

  3. Go to the field Referral Publisher under the General Tab

  4. Select the Referral Publisher i.e. the Publisher that has referred this new publisher

  5. Click Save

πŸ’‘ Referral Program with 10% Commission Example

For every $100 earned by a referred publisher, the referring publisher gets a 10% commission. You can set up different percentages and commission targets for all levels.

The Log section displays all outcomes of referral plans, allowing the creation of payment to the original publisher from this tab.

Once the above setup is done, the system will start generating publisher payment logs accordingly as per the plan and referral mapping. You can see all the payment logs in the Log section. You can also create publisher referral payments from here.


How to Create a Referral Payment

You can create payments based on the commission level on the Logs tab.

  1. Go to the Publishers Overview page

  2. Click on the Referrals tab

  3. Click on the Logs tab

  4. Filter by Period and/or Publisher

  5. Select + Create Payment on the row you want to pay the commission

This will then take you to the Payments tab and the Create Payment box will be filled out with all the necessary details. The internal note will also include a timestamp for the commission period and a comment that it is for a "Referral Payment".

πŸ’‘ Commission Breakdown

You can click the Publisher Breakdown box to view details on that commission.

Share Publisher Referral Links on the Partner Platform

You can enable Publisher Referral Links to display on the Partner Platform by navigating to Organization > Settings > Partner Platform tab. These Referral Links are accessible on the Partner Platform under Settings > Referral tab, where they can be copied for sharing.

When a publisher signs up through the referral link, registers for the platform and is added into the system, the respective referral publisher will be automatically assigned in the Referral field within the Publisher details > edit form.

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