Publisher Referrals let you reward publishers who recruit new publishers to your network. The referring publisher earns a commission based on their referral's performance - and if that referral also recruits publishers, the original referrer earns a smaller commission from those too, up to 8 levels deep.
Example: Publisher A refers Publisher B and earns 10% of Publisher B's revenue. Publisher B then refers Publisher C - Publisher A earns 5% from Publisher C and Publisher B also earns 10% from Publisher C.
How it works
You create a Referral Plan - defines who is included and what commission rates apply at each level
You assign a Referral Publisher on each new publisher's profile — linking them to whoever referred them
Swaarm calculates commissions automatically based on the plan
How to Create a Publisher Referral Plan in Swaarm
Go to Publishers Overview > Referrals tab
Click + Create Referral Plan
Add a Name to identify the referral plan
Add a Description of the referral plan
Select Publishers to be included in the referral plan:
By Name or ID
By Publisher Tags
Optional: Check the box Default
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
Add Commission Level(s)
Add a Name (e.g. "Commission Level 1")
Select Commission Target
Cost
Revenue
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.
Set the commission Percentage
Select the Level
Click Save
How to Add a Referral Publisher
Go to the Publisher Details page
Click Edit in the top right corner
Go to the field Referral Publisher under the General Tab
Select the Referral Publisher i.e. the Publisher that has referred this new publisher
Click Save
💡 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.
Go to the Publishers Overview page
Click on the Referrals tab
Click on the Logs tab
Filter by Period and/or Publisher
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".
💡 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.