Rewarding partners based on what customers buy

Who is this article for?

Program managers who want to pay partners different commissions based on which product a referred customer purchases. No technical background required. Developers should see the companion article: Setting up Product Attribution via the API.

What is Product Attribution?

Product Attribution lets you define your product catalog in PartnerStack and see which partners influenced each sale.

When a partner refers a customer, PartnerStack tracks that relationship. Product Attribution takes this further — it also tracks what the customer bought, so you can automatically calculate the right commission for each product.

Why use Product Attribution?

Without Product Attribution, every transaction triggers the same commission regardless of what the customer purchased. Product Attribution gives you the flexibility to:

• Pay different commissions per product — reward partners more for selling high-value products
• Commission only on specific products — run a promotion where partners earn only for a new product you're launching
• Track partner performance by product — see which partners are driving sales for each product in your catalog
• Give partners upsell visibility — partners can see which products each customer has (and hasn't) purchased, helping them identify expansion opportunities

How it works — a real example

You run a company called GigaKick that sells four products:

You want partners to earn higher commissions for selling Inbox and Knowledge Base.

With Product Attribution set up, here's what happens automatically:

1. A partner refers a customer
2. The customer purchases Live Chat and Inbox
3. Your billing system notifies PartnerStack
4. PartnerStack sees which products the customer bought
5. The right commission fires for each product — 10% for Live Chat, 20% for Inbox
6. The partner sees both products and commissions in their dashboard

No manual review. The right amounts just appear.

Step 1: Define your products

Before PartnerStack can track what customers purchase, your development team needs to create your product catalog in PartnerStack via the API. This is a one-time setup.

Once complete, you can review your products under Settings → Features → Products. Each product shows:

• Name: Display name of the product (e.g., "Live Chat")
• Description: Short explanation of the product
• Key: Unique identifier used by your integration

Need help? Your developer can follow the Product Attribution API guide, or contact your Customer Success Manager.

Step 2: Link products to customers

Once your catalog exists, your integration links products to individual customers. Each customer profile in PartnerStack will show a Products tab with:

• Which products they have (e.g., "Live Chat", "Knowledge Base")
• The status of each product: Trial, Active, or Churned
• Which partner influenced each product sale

You don't need to manage this manually — your integration handles it automatically when customers purchase, upgrade, or cancel.

Step 3: Set up your triggers

Now that products are linked to customers, you can create triggers that pay partners based on what was sold.

To create a product-based commission trigger:

1. In your PartnerStack dashboard, go to Triggers
2. Click Create trigger
3. Select Offer
4. Select Transaction Created as your trigger event
5. Set your Action to Generate a commission and enter the percentage (e.g., 20% for Inbox)
6. Under Rules, click Add rule and select Product as the rule object
7. Select Name and apply Criteria› is any of → select your product (e.g., Inbox)
8. Add a nested rule: Product › Status › is any of › Active
9. Add any partner rules you need (Group, Tag) to control eligibility
10. Click Save trigger

Repeat for each product you want to commission separately.

Tip: Use clear names like "Earn $25 for every active Inbox" so triggers are easy to identify.

Available Product rule fields

You can combine these with other rules — partner group, transaction amount, customer age — to build the exact commission logic your program needs.

Step 4: Send transactions with product data

When a customer is billed, your integration sends a transaction to PartnerStack. To link the transaction to the right product, include the subscription_key that matches the product record.

PartnerStack then:

1. Matches the transaction to the customer's product
2. Evaluates your trigger rules
3. Generates the correct commission automatically

Partners see the commission in their dashboard — no manual review needed.

What partners see

Partners don't see your trigger names or rules. They see:

• The offer description you write (e.g., "Earn $25 for every active product sale", "Earn 20% for every Inbox sale")

• Their commission amount once a trigger fires
• All products purchased by a customer

Partners only see offers they're eligible for. If you restrict a product commission to a specific partner group, others won't see it.

Helping partners spot upsell opportunities

Partners can see every product a customer has — not just the ones they sold.

When a partner opens a customer's profile, the Products tab shows all products that the customer has purchased across all partners in the program.

For each product, partners see:

What partners won't see: Who the other partners are. If a different partner sold the customer a product, that product appears in the list — but without any attribution details. Partners see the customer's product landscape, not other partners' activity.

Example: A partner reviewing a customer sees:

• Inbox — Active
• Surveys — Churned
• Live Chat — Active
• Knowledge Base — Trial

The partner immediately knows: Surveys is an open door. The customer had it and dropped it. That's the upsell conversation.

Frequently asked questions

Do I need to set this up for every customer?

No. Once your developer connects your billing system, product records are created automatically when customers purchase.

What happens if a customer buys a second product?

A new product record is created and linked to the customer. If a partner influenced that sale, they're attributed automatically.

What if a customer cancels a product?

Your integration updates the product status to Churned. Future transactions for that product won't match Active status rules.

What if I only want to commission one specific product?

Create a single trigger with a Product Book Key rule matching that product. Transactions for other products won't match and won't fire.

Will my existing triggers still work?

Yes. Product Attribution only affects triggers that include Product rules. Existing triggers work exactly as before.

The wrong commission is firing. What should I check?

Usually the transaction wasn't linked to the product record. Ask your developer to verify the subscription_key sent with the transaction exactly matches the external_subscription_key on the product — including capitalization.

Can partners see products sold by other partners?

Yes — they see the full product list for any customer. But they don't see which partner sold each product. No names, no attribution details. Just the products, statuses, and dates.

Can I use Product Attribution with drip commissions?

Yes. You can use Product rules with any trigger action type, including drip commissions. This is useful if you want to spread a partner's commission over multiple months but only for customers on a specific plan.

If you need help investigating, reach out to support@partnerstack.com.

Related articles:

• Getting started with triggers
• Examples of common offer triggers
• Drip commissions
• Setting up Product Attribution via the API