Creating dynamic referral links

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Who is this article for?

This article will be useful to you if are a partner on PartnerStack looking to use dynamic links to create more than 100 custom links.

PartnerStack allows you to make up to 100 custom referral links. If you need more than 100 custom referral links, we have allowed for a link to have a destination template instead.

This template allows you to create just one link within PartnerStack that can be edited outside of PartnerStack to create as many links as you need. 

How dynamic referral links work

Using dynamic referral links allows you to create just a few custom referral links within PartnerStack, but an unlimited amount outside of PartnerStack based on those links.

You will need to keep track of the links you are creating outside of PartnerStack in an external text editor, such as a spreadsheet.

This works by:

  1. Creating a custom referral link within PartnerStack with templates formatted to match the subdirectories of the URL of the page you want to send traffic to
  2. You can then provide the values for the templates when sharing the links outside of PartnerStack

The templates can be named anything, and you can have more than one template in a link. However, if your link contains multiple templates, each template within the link must be unique. 

The values will be populated via query parameters. Query parameters are a defined set of parameters attached to the end of a URL. They are extensions of the URL that are used to help define specific content or actions based on the data being passed. 

How to find URLs subdirectories

A subdirectory makes up part of a URL, and is typically what will come after www.website.com/.

Anything following that backslash will be a subdirectory. If there are multiple backslashes after www.website.com/, then there are multiple subdirectories in the URL and your link templates must accommodate for those.

Examples: 

Create a dynamic referral link that links to a specific product

If you wish to promote a specific product through your referral link, follow these steps:

1. Find the destination URL of the product you want to promote 

Find the URL of the product you want to promote on the website of the company you are partnering with.

Examples: 

2. Determine how many subdirectories are in the URL of the product you want to promote

See How to find URLs subdirectories if you are unsure of how to do this.

Examples:

3. Determine your desired destination URL 

Your desired destination URL should have the same number of templates as the URL of the product you want to promote has subdirectories.

Templates should be formatted like {template_name}. If you have multiple, they should be separated with a backslash. This is similar to how subdirectories are separated by backslashes.

The templates can be named anything, and you can have more than one template in a link. However, if your link contains multiple templates, each template within the link must be unique.

Examples:

4. Create a custom referral link with the destination URL established in Step 3.

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Use the menu in the top-left to select the program you're wanting to create a dynamic link for
  3. Navigate to Links in the menu on the far left
  4. On the Links tab, put your destination URL in the "Redirects to (optional)" field 
  5. Create this link to save it within your PartnerStack account

Example: You could add in the destination URL https://reverb.com/{type}/{product} in the Redirects to field like this:

You only need to create the link with the destination template inside of PartnerStack, all other links will be created outside of PartnerStack.

5. Prepare your link

  1. Copy the referral link you made in Step 1
  2. Paste the referral link you just copied into an external text editor (Google Sheets, Evernote, anything!)
  3. Paste the link to the product you want to promote somewhere nearby so that you can access it easily as well

Example:

Referral link Product

https://reverb.grsm.io/bronwentest

 

 https://reverb.com/p/fender-precision-bass-1970-1983 

6. Sub in the template values for your referral link

Your link will not work if you do not provide the template values to replace the macros in the destination URL

Providing a template value looks roughly like{template_name}=productname added to the end of your referral URL.

In your external text editor, provide the template values to the end of your referral URL with the subdirectory values we discovered earlier.

Add an ? in between where your custom referral link ends and the product URL begins.

Each query parameter value must also be separated by an &.

Example:

Becomes: https://reverb.grsm.io/bronwentest ?type=p&product=fender-precision-bass-1970-1983

Example 2:

Becomes:  https://reverb.grsm.io/bronwenreverb?type=c&group=bass-guitars&product=short-scale

You will need to keep track of the links you are creating outside of PartnerStack in an external text editor, such as a spreadsheet.

Sharing the URLs created in Step 6 will track your referral for that specific product, without needing to create each unique product link within your PartnerStack account. 

Create a dynamic referral link that links to a search result

If you wish to share a referral link that lands on a search result page (rather than a specific product page), follow these steps:

1. Find the destination URL of the search page you want to promote 

Find the URL of the search page results on the website of the company you are partnering with.

Example: 

  • If you use the search bar for a specific term on Reverb's site, you land on something like https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=fender%20p%20bass

2. Determine your desired destination URL 

With the link found in Step 1, we can see that we would only need one template in the destination URL. This template would be used to provide the search term results.
Therefore, the destination URL we will need would be https://reverb.com/marketplace?query={search_term}

3. Create a custom referral link with the destination URL established in Step 3

  1. Log in to your account
  2. Use the menu in the top-left to select the program you're wanting to create a dynamic link for
  3. Navigate to Links in the menu on the far left
  4. On the Links tab, put your destination URL in the "Redirects to (optional)" field 
  5. Create this link to save it within your PartnerStack account
  6.  Example: You could add in the destination URL https://reverb.com/marketplace?query={search_term} in the Redirects to (optional) field

You only need to create the link with the destination template inside of PartnerStack, all other links will be created outside of PartnerStack.

4. Prepare your link

  1. Copy the referral link you made in Step 1:
  2. Paste the referral link you just copied into an external text editor (Google Sheets, Evernote, anything!)
  3. Paste the link to the search term page URL you want to promote somewhere nearby so that you can access it easily as well

Example:

Referral link Page

https://reverb.grsm.io/bronwentest

 

 https://reverb.com/marketplace?query=fender%20p%20bass

5. Sub in the template values for your referral link

Note: Your link will not work if you do not provide the template values to replace the macros in the destination URL

Providing a template value looks roughly like {template_name}=productname added to the end of your referral URL.

In the case of linking to a search term page, everything that comes after https://reverb.com/marketplace?query= is what we will be using as our template values.

Examples:

Becomes: https://reverb.grsm.io/brontest?search_term=fender%20bass 

Becomes: https://reverb.grsm.io/brontest?search_term=drum%20sythesizers

You will need to keep track of the links you are creating outside of PartnerStack in an external text editor, such as a spreadsheet.

Sharing the URLs created in Step 6 will track your referral for that specific product, without needing to create each unique search term query link within your PartnerStack account.

 

Want to make a standard custom referral link? See our guide Creating Custom Referral Links.

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