Using partner groups

Who is this article for?

This article will be useful to you if are a company on PartnerStack looking to learn about your groups.

What are groups?

Groups enable you to organize and manage your partners. You can customize each group's experience with many features including specific applications, messaging, unique offers, and marketing resources. 

To view your current groups or create new groups, click on the Groups tab in your left hand menu.

From the Groups tab, you can:

• Create new groups
• View your current group list
• Monitor group statistics

The group statistics displayed in your Groups tab refresh every hour and include:

• Partners: The number of partners in each group
• Clicks: The sum of partners' link clicks
• Signups: The sum of paid and unpaid customer signups
• Revenue: The sum of all transactions in USD for all time

Note that certain plans on PartnerStack allow for multiple group options, while others allow for one.

Creating a group

To create a group you'll need to know what you want to name you group, and your desired referral link destination URL. This is the page that your partners' links will redirect their customers to once clicked. This is where the tracking cookie is placed in the customer's browser, allowing PartnerStack to track activity back to the partner who referred the customer.

To create a group:

1. Click on your Groups tab in your left-hand menu
2. Click "Create group"
   
3. Enter your desired group Name and Link Destination

Click into the group you have created to access the following tabs:

• Offers: Using triggers create exciting and motivating offer for your partners
• Links: Create additional default links or secondary links, enable custom link creation, and add UTM tracking to your group links
• Social content: Create social content templates for your partners to use when they share their link(s)
• Lead submission: Enable Lead submission and create Lead forms (if included in your plan)
• Deal registration: Enable Deal submission and create Deal forms (if included in your plan)
• Application: Create an application for your group to gather information on your group applicants and control which partners are admitted to each group
• Group settings: Edit your group settings including your group name, group wide terms of service and group-move triggers 

Group Offers tab

In a group's Offers tab you can view the current offers available to the groups' partners. If no offers have been created, click "Create offer" to quickly jump to your Triggers tab to build out the group's first offer. 

Offers are built with triggers which are a set conditions that need to be met in order for partners to earn a commission.

Offer examples:

• Partner signs up a new customer and earns $1
• Partner sells {product_key} to their customer and earns 20% of the sale

To learn more about creating triggers, click here.

Group Links tab

In a group's Links tab you can create up to 3 default links. You may want to have three default links if you want to give your partners links that direct to different areas of or products on your website. 

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 window that opens, give your link a title and description to help partners understand why they might use this link
5. Enter your link destination and, if desired, UTMs for tracking purposes
   1. For more information on using UTMs see our Tracking partner traffic through UTMs support guide
6. If you would like, you can customize your partner's link text 
7. When everything is set to your liking, click "Create link"

Editing default links

Once a link has been created, you can edit the link name, description, and UTMs. It is not possible to change the text (link customization) as this would break existing partner links already shared by your partners. 

You can delete two of three default links, however, cannot delete the original link created when you created your group. If you are deleting a default link we recommend reaching out to partners beforehand so they have time to update their link anywhere they may have shared it. 

For more information on editing or deleting links see the Creating default, individual and secondary links for partners support guide.

Enabling group lead submission

In a group's lead submission tab you can allow partners to submit leads for your team to qualify and work to close. 

Lead submission is only available on certain plans. If you are unsure if you have access to lead forms or would like to discuss enabling them, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email Support@PartnerStack.com.

From a group's Lead submissions tab, you can:

• Enable/disable the feature if it is included in your plan
• "Reset lead form" allows you to refresh the setup you've been working on
• Add in a title and description for the lead form
• Customize the lead form fields you capture when partners submit a lead
• Customize your lead pipeline stages

To learn more about lead submission, including how to set up your lead form, and create custom pipeline stages see the Accepting leads with lead forms support guide.

Enabling group deal registration

In a group's deal registration tab you can allow partners to register deals with your team that the partner is currently in the process of closing.

Deal registration is only available on certain plans. If you are unsure if you have access to lead forms or would like to discuss enabling them, please reach out to your Customer Success Manager or email Support@PartnerStack.com.

From a group's Deal registration tab, you can:

• Enable/disable the feature if it is included in your plan
• "Reset deal form" allows you refresh the setup you've been working on
• Add in a title and description for the registration form
• Customize the deal form fields you capture when partners submit a deal
• Add your own deal stages
• Customize how you and your partners work with the final stage of deals

To learn more about deal registration, including how to set up your deal registration form, create custom deal stages and specify how closed deals are finalized see the Using Deal submission  suport guide.

Update your group's social content

In a group's social content tab you can set the default text that will appear when your partners quick share their links on Twitter, LinkedIn, or via email.

To create a social post template:

1. In your desired group, click on the Social content tab
2. Click on "Twitter", "LinkedIn" or "Email" 
3. Enter your message, post title, or email subject and body
4. You can preview the post as you draft by clicking "Preview post"
5. Click "Update" to save your social content

Applications

In a group's application tab you can view and customize the application for your group. 

In the applications view, you can:

• Enable and disable applications if applications are included in your plan
  • Note "disabling" applications means the group will not be gated by an application. 
• "Reset application form" allows you to refresh the setup you've been working on
• "View live application form" is the Partner-view of your application
• Input the title and description for the application form
• Customize the application form fields to gather prospective partner information

To learn more about building and using application forms, see the Using application forms support guide.

Group Settings

In a group's settings tab you can view and update the group's current settings including:

• Edit the group's name
• Preview and the group's public program page
• Quick copy your group's public program page
  
  • Share a group's public program page with partners that should apply for or land in that specific group, instead of your default group
• Add a group-specific Terms of Service link to set specific Terms for specific types of partners
  • Group terms of service take precedent over the terms of service set in your company settings
  • Ensure the terms of service URL is a publicly hosted link to allow partner access
  • Your partners will be prompted to join your Terms of Service in a banner at the top of their program page. After agreeing, partners will be able to access their current Terms of Service and their Terms of Service history in their "Program Settings" tab.

Editing group name & sharing your group public program page link

You can change a group's name by:

1. In your desired group, click on the Group settings tab
2. Update the group name
3. Click "Save"
4. Copy your new public program page link from your group settings tab and update anywhere you have shared your group public program page

Changing a group's name will break existing public program page links as these pages are based on your group name. Partner referral links are not affected by group name changes. 

Changing your default group

Your default group is the group Marketplace partners will apply to. 

If you would like to change your default group reach out to your Success Manager or support@partnerstack.com.