Creating default, individual and secondary links for partners

Who is this article for?

This article will be useful to you if would like to create additional referral links for your partners.

Some reasons to create more links for your partners may include: 

• To gain more insight into tracking analytics
• To drive traffic to new or different pages on your website
• To provide unique referral links to specific partners in your program
• To create a secondary link to promote a new offering or special event

When you originally create your group you enter your group name and your desired link destination. This will automatically create your group's first default link. 

There are three options for creating more links beyond your first default link for your partners:

1. You can create up to two additional default links
2. You can create a new link for an individual partner
3. You can create a new secondary link for groups of partners 

Each group can contain a total of 50 total links. 

Creating additional default links

You can have up to 3 default links for each group. These default links will be immediately available for new partners. Default links are available to partner team owners, admin, and members.

If you create a new default link for a group with existing partners, partners will be prompted to "Activate" the new default link before sharing.

To create a default link:

1. In your Groups tab, select your desired group
2. In that group's top menu bar, click into the Links tab
   1. If referral links are not enabled, toggle them on
      
3. Click "Create a Default link"
4. In the drawer view that opens, give your link a title and description to help partners understand why they might use this link
5. Select your link destination from previously added destinations, or click "Add new destination"
   1. If adding a new destination URL, enter your new link destination and select if you would like this destination to be made available to all partners creating custom links, or only partners in this group.
   2. Check the box to confirm that tracking has been set up on the new destination so that partners will receive commissions when using this link destination.
6. Optional: add any desired UTMs for tracking purposes and customize your partner's link text 
7. Click "Create link"

Deleting and editing default link

Deleting a default link ensures this link will not be created for future partners who join the group. Deleting a default link from a group will not delete the link for existing partners. This is to ensure if your partners have shared this link externally that the link continues to work as expected, and no customers are missed.

Once you have created a default link, the link title, description, destination and UTMS can be edited by clicking on the link and clicking "Edit link". 

Creating links for an individual partner

To create a new link for an individual partner:

1. Log in to your PartnerStack account
2. In your All Partners tab search for and select the partner you want to create the link for 
3. On the right-hand side of your partner's "Links" section, click "Create link"
4. Select or add the link destination, add UTMs if desired, and customize the partner's link text
   1. If adding a new link destination, select if this new destination should be made available to all partners, or only this partner when creating custom links
5. Click "Create Link"

Once created, the link will display in the Links and Destination list along with any other active links the partner has. The newly created link will also appear on the partner's dashboard in their Links tab. 

Please note, that UTMs added when creating an individual link will be added to any existing UTMs already set at the group level.

Individual links are created for the partner team owner only. As a custom-created link has specific link text, it cannot be created for each member of the team as this would prevent team member-specific link activity tracking.

Enabling custom link creation

If you would like partners to have the ability to create their own custom links you can enable custom link creation. Custom links can be enabled on a group-by-group basis. 

1. Log in to your PartnerStack account
2. In your Groups tab select the group you would like to enable custom links for 
3. In the top menu bar click on the Links tab
4. Toggle Custom links on 
   

Partners in groups with custom link creation enabled will be able to create their own links. Partners will be able to customize their link appearance (their link text) allowing them to personalize and brand their links to match their business name or social handles. 

Partners can also select their custom link destination from a drop-down of URLs. This drop-down of URLs populates from the links you have approved for use in your Links Management page to ensure partners are directing customers to pages set up to capture customer activity.

For more information on how partners create custom links see our Creating custom referral links partner support guide.

Link Management and pre-approving custom link destinations

When creating custom links partners can select their link destination from a drop-down of URLs. By default, this list is populated with the destination URLs for the default and secondary links in the partner's group. If you would like your partners to be able to create custom links pointing to other pages on your website, additional destination URLs can be added in your Settings > Features > Link Management page. 

Once created, custom link destinations can be edited, or deleted from your Link Management page.

Adding custom link destinations

To add a new custom link destination URL for your partners, navigate to your Link Management tab. Destinations can be added for use by all partners, groups of partners, or specific partners. 

Adding a destination URL that is not integrated to capture customer creation may result in missed referrals. Before adding a new custom link destination, please ensure your desired URL is integrated to capture customer creation. If you're unsure how your program is integrated with PartnerStack, contact your technical team or PartnerStack support using your in-app chatbot.

1. Click on your Settings tab in your left-hand menu
2. Click on the Features tab
3. Next to Link Management click "Configure"
4. In your Link Management tab, click "Add Link destination"
5. In the drawer view that opens enter your approved custom link destination URL, starting with "https://"
6. Select the audience you would like this destination URL to be available for
   1. Destination URLs can be made available to all partners, specific groups, or specific partners. 
7. Click "Add link destination" 
8. Review and confirm that there is appropriate tracking set up to ensure that your partners will receive credit for any traffic they send to your newly added destination and click "Add link destination" 

Using wildcard characters to allow partners enter any destination

If you are integrated with PartnerStack in a way that supports site-wide customer tracking and you would like partners to be able to create links pointing to any page on your website you can use a wildcard character(*)/deep-linking in your approved destination links.

Deep-linking allows partners to create custom links to any product or page on your site, without you needing to add each page individually as an approved link destination. Deep-linking also enables partners to create dynamic referral link templates.

1. Click on your Settings tab in your left-hand menu
2. Click on the Features tab
3. Next to Link Management click "Configure"
4. In your Link Management tab, click "Add Link destination"
5. In the drawer view that opens enter your root website URL with an asterix after the first backslash, before your domain, or both
   1. Entering the wildcard character after your domain (https://acme.com/*) will enable partners to create custom links pointing to URLs that start with your domain
   2. Entering the wildcard character before your domain (https://*.acme.com/) will enable partners to create custom links pointing to URLs that end with your domain
   3. Entering a wildcard character before and after your domain (https://*.acme.com/*) will enable partners to create custom links pointing to URLs that have your domain in the middle of a longer address
6. Select the audience you would like this destination URL to be available for
   1. Destination URLs can be made available to all partners, specific groups, or specific partners. 
7. Click "Add link destination" 
8. Review and confirm that there is appropriate tracking set up to ensure that your partners will receive credit for any traffic they send to your newly added destination and click "Add link destination"

Editing custom link destinations and audiences

Custom link destinations', and their audience can be edited from your Link Management page. Updating a custom link destination will replace the link destination for any partners that have created a custom link pointing to the old destination.

If you are removing partners from a link's audience these partners will still be able to access any existing links using this destination, however, they will not be able to create new links with this destination moving forward.

Note, that wildcard links cannot be edited, but can be deleted.

1. Click on your Settings tab in your left-hand menu
2. Click on the Features tab
3. Next to Link Management click "Configure"
4. In your Link Management tab, click on the link you would like to edit
5. Update the link destination and/or audience
6. Confirm your update

Deleting custom link destinations

When you remove a custom link destination, you will be prompted to select a new URL for any existing links created by partners that were using the old destination. Once you remove a destination, partners will not be able to create new custom links using the deleted destination.

1. Click on your Settings tab in your left-hand menu
2. Click on the Features tab
3. Next to Link Management click "Configure"
4. In your Link Management tab, click on the link you would like to delete
5. Click "Remove" 
6. In the drawer view that opens select a new link destination for existing custom links to direct to moving forward.

Creating secondary links for groups of partners

Using this method does not automatically create the link for your partners. Partners must sign into their PartnerStack account to activate the secondary link that shows on their Links tab. 

Secondary links can be activated by partner team owners, admin, and members. When a team member activates a secondary link the link is generated with a unique link text to ensure activity can be tracked to the specific team member.

To create a secondary link for a group of partners:

1. Log in to your PartnerStack account
2. In your Groups tab select the group you wish to create a secondary link for 
3. In your group's top menu, click on the Links subtab
4. Scroll down to "Add secondary links (optional)" and click "Create a secondary link"
5. In the drawer view, enter your desired link destination, UTMs if applicable and custom link text (URL)
6. Click "Create Link
7. Notify your partners that a new link is available for them to activate in their Links tab by clicking "Create"

Note: The "Partner link preview" gives an example of what a partner's link will look like when generated. As the preview is not an active partner link, you will see an error if you follow this link.

Once complete, this will create a secondary link within the partner's Links tab that looks like this:

The partner must sign in to their PartnerStack account and click "Activate" for the link to become active (this populates the link's shortcodes). If the partner does not first create the link they will get an error when attempting to share the link. 

Best practice: a partner's "partner_key" will be based on their first and last name. To avoid creating secondary links that include a partner's full name we recommend using the shortcode {unique_id}. 

Editing links

Once a link has been created (default, individual, custom or secondary) you can edit the link title, description and UTMs and destination.

Once created it is not possible to edit the customized link text (URL) as this would break the existing link already shared by your partners.

To edit a default or secondary link:

1. Navigate to your Groups > Links tab 
2. Click on the expander arrow for the link you would like to edit
3. Click "Edit link"
4. In the drawer view that opens edit your link title, description, destination, and/or UTMs
5. Click "Update link"

To edit an individual or custom link:

1. In your All Partners tab search for and click on your partner
2. In the partner's Links section click on the name of the link you would like to edit
   1. Note: Links with the type "Custom" can be edited from the partner detail view. To edit a "Default" or "Secondary" link type follow the steps above
3. In the drawer view that opens edit the link title, description, destination, and/or UTMs
4. Click "Update link"

Deleting links

Additional default links and secondary links can be deleted from your Groups > Links tab. Deleting an additional default or secondary link will not delete existing links, but will ensure the links are not created for new partners. 

The original default link created when you made the group cannot be deleted but can be edited. 

To delete an additional default link or a secondary link:

1. Click on the expander arrow for the link you would like to delete
2. Click "Delete link"
3. In the drawer view that opens confirm you would like to delete the link by clicking "Delete link"

Individual partner links and custom links created by the partner cannot be deleted on behalf of the partner. 

This is to help ensure links that have been created, shared, and promoted by a partner are not deleted resulting in lost conversions.

If you would like a partner to delete one of their links please reach out to them in your Messages tab. The partner can update this link anywhere they have shared it to another link before deleting it from their dashboard. 

Partner teams and link access

Partner team members each have access to their own, individual link. Partner team members will not have access to the same link as their other team members. This ensures link activity can be tracked to the team member who drove the activity. 

Team members will have the same link destination but the link customization/text must be unique to ensure accurate activity tracking.