This article discusses features and capabilities available only for merchants on non-Shopify platforms. If you're using Shopify, visit this article.
Create and activate campaigns to start running your referral or affiliate program. Choose between a refer-a-friend or affiliate campaign, depending on your referral marketing needs:
A refer-a-friend campaign, also known as customer referral campaign, targets customers who have direct experience with a your product or service. Both the referrer and the referred friend receive rewards. This type of program relies on personal relationships to increase customer base, loyalty, and sales.
An affiliate campaign is a way for merchants to reward partners, also known as affiliates, for promoting your products or services. When a customer makes a purchase through an affiliate link, the affiliate earns a cash reward or commission. This type of program relies on the established audience of the affiliates to increase brand awareness and sales.
Create a campaign
To create a campaign:
From the ReferralCandy dashboard, go Campaigns.
Click Create campaign.
Select either Refer-a-Friend or Affiliate.
Click Create campaign. If you chose Refer-a-Friend, your campaign is ready to set up and activate. If you chose Affiliate campaign:
Select among the affiliate campaign types:
Instant access - Affiliates can immediately sign up and enroll
Curated - Applicants are queued for review before approval
Invite only - Upload a hand-picked list of affiliates
Click Choose campaign. A warning popup appears. Click Proceed.
Click View new campaign to fully set up your affiliate campaign.
Important: Choose the right affiliate campaign type (common source of confusion)
Affiliate campaigns can be used for an affiliate, influencer, creator, or ambassador program — the main difference is how people are allowed to join.
Instant access (public signup, no approval)
Choose this if you want anyone who qualifies for your target audience to be able to join immediately.
What to expect:
New signups appear right away as affiliates (there is no review/approval step).
Under Affiliates, you’ll only see “All affiliates” (no “Pending review/For review” tab).
Curated (applications + manual approval)
Choose this if you want people to apply first, and you approve each applicant before they become an affiliate.
What to expect:
You will see a “Pending review” / “For review” tab under Affiliates.
Applicants stay in that tab until you approve them.
If you don’t approve applications, applicants won’t become affiliates.
Invite only (no public signup)
Choose this if you only want hand-picked partners (no public signup or application flow).
What to expect:
There is no “Pending review/For review” tab, because people can’t apply.
You add affiliates manually by inviting or uploading them.
Note: You can manually add/upload affiliates in any affiliate campaign type (for example, to invite specific partners). “Invite only” just means manual adding is the only way to add affiliates.
Once created, configure additional campaign settings such as rewards, widgets, and themes. Read the Getting started guide to learn more.
Activate the campaign
To set your campaign status to Live when you're done setting up:
From the ReferralCandy dashboard, go to Campaigns > Select your campaign.
Click the Campaign actions dropdown in the upper right corner.
Select Review & activate.
A popup appears. Click Activate campaign to proceed.
You must complete all required settings and configurations before activating a campaign. A warning message may appear to indicate any missing or incomplete setup steps.
When a campaign is live:
New advocates or affiliates that meet your segment criteria are enrolled
Existing advocates can continue referring new friends
If enabled, referral emails are sent to advocates and affiliates
If enabled, pages and widgets are accessible
Campaign expiry
To set a campaign expiration date:
From your Shopify admin, go to Campaigns > Select your campaign. In the Get started section, go to Campaign details.
In the Campaign expiry section, select Expires on and pick a date.
Click Save.
When the selected date is reached, the system sets the campaign state to paused.
FAQs
Can I schedule a campaign start date?
Can I schedule a campaign start date?
While you can set a campaign end date by selecting an expiration date, there's no option to schedule when a campaign starts.
If this is a feature you're interested in, please let us know.
What's the difference between the Campaign name vs Campaign short code (common source of confusion)?
What's the difference between the Campaign name vs Campaign short code (common source of confusion)?
Campaign name
This is the label for your campaign in ReferralCandy.
You can rename the campaign later from Campaign details.
Campaign short code
This is the campaign identifier used in integrations (for example: Klaviyo custom properties like “RC [short code] - …”).
You can edit the short code only while the campaign is still in setup.
Once the campaign is activated (Live), the short code becomes locked and can’t be edited. If you need a different short code after activation, you’ll need to create a new campaign.