Shareable codes guide
Shareable codes, also referred to as vanity codes, allow ambassadors to have their own personalized discount code for the purpose of sharing with friends, family, and/or followers. Orders made using ambassadors' shareable codes are considered referrals. (See Sales attribution overview for a detailed explanation on how Roster assigns attribution to ambassadors.)
For Shopify brands who enabled shareable codes, ambassadors are able to create their own shareable code (e.g. SARAH20).
Non-Shopify brands have the option of uploading pre-generated codes that Roster automatically allocates to ambassadors who are added to the program.
Both Shopify and non-Shopify brands can also manually assign codes to ambassadors, as well as import existing shareable codes.
Shareable are one of three methods by which Roster tracks referrals made by brands' ambassadors. See Referral settings within the Programs > Program setup section of this site to understand how referrals are tracked at a program-level.
Pros and cons of shareable discount codes
Pros
- Social post friendly: Shareable codes are easy to share in Instagram stories, post captions, and other places where links don't work.
- Trusted insider: Shareable codes makes ambassadors feel like insiders by having their own discount code.
- Industry expectations: Many creators and influencers expect to have their own code to share and may not be as motivated to participate if they don't have a code.
Cons
- Leaked codes: Shareable codes can get leaked to coupon sites like Honey and Capital One. Many brands don't want to pay referral commissions to ambassadors when the customer simply found the leaked code from a Honey plugin.
- No attribution window: There are no attribution windows for leaked codes. For example, referral links typically have a 30-day attribution window, after which an ambassador is not credited with a referral.
- Limited data: Leaked codes don't provide as much data as referral links. For example, it's possible to understand where customers are coming from when clicking on a referral link, but shareable codes don't provide that level of information.
How shareable codes work
In Roster, brands create discount rules (see Discounts overview) to manage the discount codes that are assigned to ambassadors. Shareable discount rules are one of three types of discount rules. Shareable codes are assigned to ambassadors and inherit the same discount value as defined by it's containing shareable discount rule.
When a customer makes a purchase with a shareable code, that order becomes eligible to be attributed to the ambassador to whom the code is assigned, based upon Roster's Sales attribution overview.
Next steps
- Set up shareable codes document for step-by-step instructions.
- Import existing shareable codes to import codes from a previous program.
- Disable leaked codes to block shareable codes that have been leaked.
- Shareable code FAQs for frequently asked questions.