Affiliate recruitment software
Where your first hundred partners come from
Most programs launch, post about it once, and wait. Here are the five channels that actually bring partners, ranked worst to best, with the source tagged on every affiliate who arrives.
- Five channels, honestly ranked
- Every partner tagged by source
- Import from eight other tools
Affiliates by source
Last 90 days
- Referral widget38%
- You invited them24%
- Found your signup page18%
- Imported12%
- Marketplace8%
An illustrative mix, not an average. Referly publishes no benchmark for this and yours will look different.
The five channels
Where your first fifty actually come from
Ranked by how well they work for a program that is starting from nothing, which is not the order most people try them in.
Your own customers
WIDGETBusiness and upPeople who already bought from you, invited to promote you from inside your product with a widget or a popup.
- Effort
- One script tag
- How well it works
- Best conversion of any channel, and the cheapest
People you already know
MANUALDirect invitations to partners you have a relationship with. One email address at a time, assigned to a plan or a group.
- Effort
- A few minutes each
- How well it works
- Slow, and the highest quality partners you will get
Partners you already have
IMPORTEDA CSV, or a direct import from Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt, Tapfiliate, PartnerStack, Trackdesk, Partnero or Dub.
- Effort
- One import
- How well it works
- Instant, if you are switching rather than starting
Affiliates browsing for programs
REFERLY_MARKETPLACEA public listing in the Referly directory, where affiliates look for programs to join. Needs its own licence.
- Effort
- Write the listing once
- How well it works
- Steady trickle, quality varies, needs screening
Creators with a track record
INFLUENCER_DISCOVERYBrowse affiliates who already earn on other Referly programs, filtered by category, platform, country and revenue.
- Effort
- $199/mo add-on
- How well it works
- Fast, and the only channel with real numbers attached
Most programs run one and three at the start, add two as relationships appear, and only reach for four and five once there is a budget and someone to screen applicants.
Do you have customers already?
Is this a new program?
Where to start, in order
- 1Your own customersYou have a customer base to invite from.
- 2People you already knowAlways worth doing, and the highest-quality partners you will get.
- 3Affiliates browsing for programsInbound applicants while you work on the other channels.
Not yet
- Partners you already have. Nothing to import if you are starting from nothing.
Channel one
Your best affiliates already bought from you
A widget inside your product that turns a happy customer into a partner in two clicks.
It sits in a corner of your app or store, opens on click, and gives the customer their own link, their own coupon code, a QR code and a way to invite friends by email. Everything they need arrives without them applying for anything.
Link, coupon and QR
Their personal set, generated on the spot, copyable in one tap.
Invite by email
They send it to people they know, and you see sent, opened, clicked and converted.
Popups and banners
On page load or exit intent, in seven positions, targeted by page rules.
Their earnings, inline
What they have made so far, so the widget is worth reopening.
Channels two and three
Bring the partners you already have
Invite them one at a time, or move a whole program across in an afternoon.
Invite them one at a time
An invitation goes to one email address and can carry the plan and the group that partner should land on, so a creator you invite on 30% arrives on 30% rather than on your default. There is no bulk email invite: to bring a hundred partners at once you import them.
Signup links do the same job without you typing anyone's address. Every commission plan has its own link, so the partners who use it land on that plan automatically.
Or bring the whole list
A direct import pulls affiliates, referrals and their history across. A CSV does the same from anywhere else, with the columns mapped by you and coupon codes generated on arrival if you want them.
- Rewardful
- FirstPromoter
- Tolt
- Tapfiliate
- PartnerStack
- Trackdesk
- Partnero
- Dub
Importing is free on every plan. Having Referly run the migration for you is an Enterprise arrangement, which is a different thing and worth keeping separate.
Channels four and five
Partners who are already looking
Two routes where affiliates come to you rather than the other way round.
The Referly marketplace
A public listing in the directory affiliates browse when they are looking for programs to join. Applicants arrive through your normal signup flow and your normal screening.
Needs a marketplace licence, billed separately from your plan.
Influencer Discovery
Browse affiliates who already earn on other Referly programs, with real revenue and conversion figures attached rather than follower counts, and invite them directly.
A $199 a month add-on, included on Enterprise and Agency Scale.
Measuring it
Every affiliate arrives with a source
So you can stop guessing which channel is worth more of your week.
The tag is set when the affiliate is created and never guessed afterwards. Group by it in the acquisition report and the answer to which channel to double down on stops being a matter of opinion.
The source tag itself is on every affiliate record on every plan. The acquisition report that groups and charts them is part of the Engage add-on.
Engage add-onAffiliates by source
Last 90 days
- Referral widget38%
- You invited them24%
- Found your signup page18%
- Imported12%
- Marketplace8%
An illustrative mix, not an average. Referly publishes no benchmark for this and yours will look different.
- WIDGET
- The referral widget
- MANUAL
- You invited them
- IMPORTED
- A CSV or a connector
- AFFILIATE_PORTAL
- They found your signup page
- REFERLY_MARKETPLACE
- The directory listing
- INFLUENCER_DISCOVERY
- The Discovery add-on
- API
- Your own integration
Programs that did this
Three programs, and where their partners came from
The founders and affiliate managers who built a partner base from nothing, in their own words.
“We have been running affiliate programs for over a decade, and ours is one of the biggest parts of how OptimizePress grows. Referly is the first platform where an operation with thousands of partners actually feels manageable, from recruiting new affiliates to tracking every sale they send.”
James Dyson
Founder & CEO, OptimizePress
- 7 figures
- in affiliate-driven sales
- 4,554
- active affiliates
- 10,536
- referrals
“This platform is quite simple and easy to use, and you can start attracting people to your affiliate program very quickly. A big plus is that the founder, Ayo, is super responsive.”
Ilfat Khayrullin
CMO & Co-founder, Letterly
- 300K+
- app users
- 689
- active affiliates
- 24,114
- clicks tracked
“Affiliates drive a serious share of our revenue across three countries. Since we moved to Referly everything runs from one place, tracking has been spot on, and our partners get paid without me chasing spreadsheets.”
Alexander Koppers
Affiliate Manager, Moov
$6.9M
in total affiliate-driven revenue
- 1,154
- active affiliates
- 19,017
- affiliate sales
- 1,240,030
- clicks tracked
Availability
Recruiting features by plan
Invitations, signup links, application questions and importing are on every plan.
| Feature | Startup | Business | Enterprise |
|---|---|---|---|
| Free migration from your current tool | |||
| Custom application questions | |||
| Customer referral widget | |||
| Referral popups and banners | |||
| Affiliate groups and segmentation | |||
| Referly marketplace listing | License available | 30 free days included | 150 free days included |
| Influencer Discovery networkDiscovery add-on | |||
| Affiliate acquisition reportsEngage add-on |
- Direct invitations, per-plan signup links, custom application questions and importing from a CSV or another tool are on every plan, including Startup.
- The referral widget and popups start on Business. The marketplace listing needs its own licence, and Influencer Discovery is a separate add-on. Neither is included in a plan price.
- Importing is free on every plan. A managed migration run by Referly is an Enterprise arrangement.
FAQ
Before you connect anything
The questions founders ask in the first ten minutes.
14-day free trial · No credit card required · Cancel anytime
With your own customers and the people you already know. The widget turns buyers into partners inside your product, and direct invitations cover the handful of relationships you have. Both work on day one and neither costs anything extra beyond your plan.
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