Using a CRM/Marketing automation platform to communicate with affiliates can make it easier to keep affiliates engaged and informed. For platforms that Refersion doesn’t integrate with, you can use a workflow automation platform like Zapier to get information routed into the platform of your choice.
For this integration, you’ll be building a zap that receives affiliate information from Refersion via webhook. You’ll create filters and formatting steps to ensure the data is compatible with your CRM/Marketing automation platform. Finally, Zapier will take care of sending the formatted affiliate data into the platform of your choice.
Before you get started, please note:
This is an advanced tutorial; familiarity with both Zapier and webhooks will be required. We recommend looping in your developer.
You will need a paid Zapier plan that supports at least 1 Premium app in order to use the Webhooks feature.
These instructions are intended as general guidelines, and you may need to make adjustments or tweaks to ensure satisfactory performance with the specifics of your platform and data.
The platform you choose should either be supported by Zapier (examples include but are not limited to ActiveCampaign, Drip, Hubspot, Omnisend, Pipedrive, and Salesforce), or the platform should have public API docs you can use. We recommend using platforms already supported by Zapier.
Ensuring all the information you want to see in your CRM is set up properly in Refersion beforehand will prevent the need to backfill missing information later. Below are a few tips for getting the most out of the Zapier integration:
Your affiliate links in Refersion should be set up to include any desired UTM parameters (universally or affiliate-specific) or other formatting.
Any custom form fields you wish to include in your platform should be defined on your affiliate registration page, and they should be filled with relevant data.
Coupon codes should already exist as conversion triggers for your affiliate(s) if you’d like those to be pushed into another platform.
Finally, we suggest creating a test affiliate to use to define the Zap. In this example, we will be pushing data about test affiliate “John Rolfe” from our test site, Albers Furniture:
Step 1 - Create Zap
To begin, you’ll need a way to start your zap; Zapier calls this a “trigger”. You’ll choose “Webhooks by Zapier” as your trigger. For the type of trigger event, select “Catch Hook” and click continue. On the next page, you’ll be given a custom webhook URL. This URL allows Zapier to receive information from another system which will automatically start the zap later. Copy the webhook URL
Step 2 - Setting up a webhook in Refersion
In your Refersion account, navigate to Account > Settings > Webhooks (on the bottom left) and then click + Create New Webhook.
A new window will pop up where you’ll enter the webhook URL you copied in the previous step and select a topic. Which topic you select depends on your particular use case; if the goal is only to send APPROVED affiliates (the most common scenario), use “Affiliate Status Change”. If you want all affiliates to push (on application), use “New Affiliate”. Insert the Zapier webhook URL from step one in the webhook URL field as shown in the image below:
In Zapier, to proceed to the next tab, you will have to test your Zap by sending a request to this webhook URL. To test the webhook, you can either create a new affiliate in your account (If you’re using the ‘New Affiliate’ webhook topic), or you can approve a pending affiliate in your account (If you’re using the ‘Affiliate Status Change’ webhook topic).
Step 3 - Add a filter step for approved affiliates (optional)
If you selected the “Affiliate Status Change” topic, then you’ll receive a notification in Zapier anytime an affiliate’s status changes from pending to approved, pending to denied, approved to disabled, and so forth. To ensure only information for approved affiliates is added to your CRM or email platform, you can add a filter step to your zap based on the status field from the Refersion webhook.
In the alternative, you can use a path step in your Zap to perform different actions based on different affiliate statuses.
Step 4 - Fetch the full affiliate referral link (optional)
The data pushed via webhook in step one includes the standard affiliate information (address, email, etc.) as well as any custom fields. To fetch the full affiliate link, you must either (a) add a ‘Get Affiliate’ step using our Zapier integration or (b) reconstruct the link using a formula. For (a), use the ‘Get Affiliate’ action in Refersion’s integration with Zapier and the “affiliate code” value from the results of step one.
Step 5 - Add a format step (optional)
If using custom field information, then add a "Formatting by Zapier" step to transform line-item information to text; this allows you to extract the values from custom fields as individual fields.
Step 6 - Create a contact in your CRM/Marketing automation platform
The last step is to push the data from the previous steps into your CRM/Marketing automation platform. Before you can push any custom data from Refersion into your platform: such as the affiliate’s link, coupon, or custom fields, you’ll need to ensure that you have properly defined any corresponding custom fields in that platform first; depending on the platform, you may also need to understand the object used and limitations on actions supported by Zapier.
The image below shows how you’d map fields from Zapier to your CRM/Marketing automation platform. The example below is from Salesforce; however, the concept is the same regardless of the platform.