Partners
Partners in the Marketing area (Links) — route /marketing/partners.
Partners lives in the Marketing area of the dashboard, under Links.
At a glance#
| Dashboard route | /marketing/partners |
| Area | Marketing (marketing) |
| Group | Links |
| Platforms | Available for every app platform. |
What it does#
Partners is a tabbed surface combining referrals and affiliates — two programs that share one shape: a code is a tracking link plus a reward. They have separate backends and separate tabs, and were previously two pages.
Referrals — your existing users bringing new ones, usually rewarded on both sides.
Affiliates — third parties promoting you for a commission.
When to use it#
When you want someone other than you doing the acquiring. Both are performance channels in the strictest sense: you pay for outcomes rather than for impressions, which makes them the lowest-risk growth channels available.
They fail in opposite ways, which is worth knowing before you build either. Referral programs fail by being too complicated to explain. Affiliate programs fail by attracting people who game them.
Workflow#
Make the referral reward explicable in one sentence
If a user cannot describe the offer to a friend, the program does not work regardless of how generous it is.
Reward the outcome you actually want
Rewarding signups gets you signups. Rewarding an activated, retained user costs more per reward and is usually cheaper per real customer.
Watch affiliate traffic quality, not volume
Affiliates optimise for whatever you pay them for. Check activation and retention of affiliate-sourced users against your baseline — see Cohort revenue.
Check for fraud
Both programs create a direct financial incentive to generate fake conversions. Fraud is where that shows up.
Permissions and prerequisites#
Requires codes to be issued and redeemable, and the conversion event you reward on to be tracked reliably. Rewards depend on your own fulfilment.
Limits and edge cases#
Two separate backends behind one shell, so referrals and affiliates do not share reporting.
Self-referral is the most common abuse and needs a rule, not a hope.
A reward you cannot fulfil is worse than no program. Check the mechanics end to end.
Attribution applies here too. A referred install that is not attributed does not earn a reward.
Troubleshooting#
Codes redeemed but no rewards. Check what milestone the reward is attached to and whether the event is arriving.
A single referrer generating unusual volume. Investigate before paying. Concentration is the signal.
Affiliate installs with no retention. They are optimising for your payout condition. Change what you pay for.
Where the data comes from#
Referrals and affiliates are separate backends behind one shell, so they do not share reporting.
Served by
Tracking
Growth