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How to configure your program settings
How to configure your program settings

Here's how to set up your ambassadors' referral code, discount code, and commission settings

Updated over a week ago

One of the first things you need to do when launching your ambassador program with Buzzbassador is to set your program settings. This includes the settings for your ambassador's discount code, their unique referral codes, and their commission rate.

When an ambassador joins your program, Buzzbassador will automatically generate a referral code and a discount code for them. The referral code will be for ambassadors to share with their friends, family, and followers. The discount code will be for ambassadors to use themselves. Additionally, when an ambassador refers a sale with their referral code, they earn a commission.

**You can learn more about the difference between referral codes and discount codes here. You can also learn more about how the referral codes are automatically created here.

If you want to create multiple levels of rewards (discounts and commissions) for your ambassadors, you can do that with our Program Tiers function. You'd simply repeat the steps below for each tier that you want to create.

Step 1: Navigate to Program Settings

Go to Settings (⚙️) > Program Settings.

Step 2: Open The Program Editor

If you want to edit an existing program tier:

If you are brand new to the app, you will see that there is already one tier of your program created for you, and it is set to be your Default program.

What this means: You can set one (1) program tier to be your default tier. The default tier is the one that all ambassadors are assigned to by default in the case that they are not otherwise assigned to a different tier. You can see which program is set to default by checking the Default column to see which tier has the switch turned to the On (green) position.

If you are brand new to the app, you likely filled in the program settings for this default tier before you reached your Buzzbassador dashboard, during our onboarding process. If you have been here for a while, you may have also created additional tiers. Regardless, any time you want to change the settings of an existing program tier, all you need to do is click the "Edit" button for that respective tier.

If you want to create a new program tier:

If you want to add a new tier in addition to your already existing tier(s), all you need to do is click the pink/purple gradient "Create" button.

NOTE: Regardless of whether you are editing an existing tier or creating a new one, the following steps (Step 3 - 7) will remain the same.

Step 3: Set General Program Information

Type in a name and description for the tier. Both of these identifiers are intended for your team's internal use so that you can easily differentiate between each tier and its unique requirements and perks. In other words, this is only visible to you - your ambassadors do not see it.

Step 4: Set The Discount Code Structure

Each tier has a discount code that the ambassadors in that particular tier can use to get a discount on their own personal purchases from your store.

To configure the discount structure for this tier, fill in the following fields:

  • Discount type: Can be set to either Percentage (ex. 10% off) or Fixed (ex. $5 off)

  • Customer eligibility: If set to Everyone, the discount code will be eligible for use by any and all customers on your shop. If set to Ambassadors only, the discount code will only be eligible for use by your approved ambassadors in this program tier. In that case, your ambassadors must use the same email address they used to apply to join your program at your checkout in order for the discount code to work for them.

  • Discount value: This is the discount rate that the code will deduct from the ambassador's order.

  • Discount code: This is the actual title of the code that will be created in Shopify -- in other words, it's what the customer will type in at checkout to get the discount.

  • Product Eligibility: Can be set to either All, Certain Collections, or Certain Products.

  • Eligible collections/Eligible products: If Certain Collections or Certain Products is selected for the 'Product Eligibility' field, this field will appear as well. This is where you make the selection of which product(s) or collection(s) in your store are eligible for applying the discount.

Step 5: Set Referral Code Structure

Each ambassador receives their own unique referral code that they will share with friends and followers. You will need to set up the structure that those referral codes will follow for ambassadors in this particular tier. We call this a "referral rule". You can find everything you need to know about how referral rules/codes work in this article.

To configure the Referral Rule for this tier, fill in the following fields:

  • Discount type: Can be set to either Percentage (ex. 10% off) or Fixed (ex. $5 off)

  • Referral rule title: This is not the name(s) of the actual referral codes. Since your referral codes are unique for each ambassador, they will be created as "sub-codes" under this rule, which is what you are setting here. This title is not an active code -- you can't type it in at the checkout of your store. No one else will see this rule title. Learn more about referral rules in this article.

  • Discount value: This is the discount rate that the referral codes will deduct from the referred customer's order.

  • Start date: The referral codes in this rule will become active (ready for use) on the date you set here. If you have a particular launch date for this tier, you could include that date here. Or, you can just set it to the current day so that the codes will be active going forward.

  • Product Eligibility: Can be set to either All, Certain Collections, or Certain Products.

  • Eligible collections/Eligible products: If Certain Collections or Certain Products is selected for the 'Product Eligibility' field, this field will appear as well. This is where you make the selection of which product(s) or collection(s) in your store are eligible for applying the discount.

Step 6: Set Commission Structure

Lastly, you will need to customize the commission rate that the ambassadors in this tier will earn when someone places an order with their referral code.

To configure the commission rate for this tier, fill in the following fields:

  • Commission type: Can be set to either Percentage (ex. 10% of the order), Fixed Amount Per Order (ex. $5 per sale), or Fixed Amount Per Item (ex. $2 per sold item).

  • Commission rate: For example, if you have a Percentage commission and the commission rate is set to 10%, the ambassador would earn $10 from a $100 order.

  • Include discount / taxes / shipping in commission calculation: If these switches are turned on (green), the commission will be calculated based on the total of the order including these factors. If these switches are turned off (grey), the commission will be calculated based on the total of the order not including these factors.

  • Restrict commission by shipping destination country: If this switch is turned on (green), you will be able to decide which shipping destinations an order must be going to in order for the ambassador to earn commission on that order. This comes in handy if you have very high shipping costs to a certain country; you may not want to pay commission on orders shipped there, seeing as your profit margins would likely be low. For example, if you only want to pay ambassadors commission for US orders, you would turn this switch on, and type "United States" in the Applicable Shipping Destinations field.

  • Decline commissions for ambassadors’ self-placed orders: If this switch is turned on (green), any time an ambassador uses their own referral code at checkout, the order will not count for commission. Many merchants turn this on to prevent ambassadors from attempting to "cheat the system" and earn commission back on their own purchases. Keep in mind that any declined commissions can always be recovered.

Step 7: Save Your Changes

Click the "Save Changes" button at the top right of the screen to save your changes to the tier.

Make sure to click the "Save Changes" button at the top right of the screen to save your changes!


Once you've set all of that, you're done with configuring your program settings! Keep in mind that you can repeat the process above as many times as you'd like, to create as many tiers as you like. You can read more about creating multiple program tiers in this article.

If you need any further help, please don't hesitate to send us a chat at the bottom right corner of your app screen, or email us at [email protected].

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