Affiliate recruitment software

Where your first hundred partners come from

Most programs launch, post about it once, and wait. Here are the five channels that actually bring partners, ranked worst to best, with the source tagged on every affiliate who arrives.

Start freeSee pricing
  • Five channels, honestly ranked
  • Every partner tagged by source
  • Import from eight other tools

Affiliates by source

Last 90 days

  • Referral widget38%
  • You invited them24%
  • Found your signup page18%
  • Imported12%
  • Marketplace8%

An illustrative mix, not an average. Referly publishes no benchmark for this and yours will look different.

Tagged by source
Import from 8 other tools

The five channels

Where your first fifty actually come from

Ranked by how well they work for a program that is starting from nothing, which is not the order most people try them in.

  1. Your own customers

    WIDGETBusiness and up

    People who already bought from you, invited to promote you from inside your product with a widget or a popup.

    Effort
    One script tag
    How well it works
    Best conversion of any channel, and the cheapest

  2. People you already know

    MANUAL

    Direct invitations to partners you have a relationship with. One email address at a time, assigned to a plan or a group.

    Effort
    A few minutes each
    How well it works
    Slow, and the highest quality partners you will get

  3. Partners you already have

    IMPORTED

    A CSV, or a direct import from Rewardful, FirstPromoter, Tolt, Tapfiliate, PartnerStack, Trackdesk, Partnero or Dub.

    Effort
    One import
    How well it works
    Instant, if you are switching rather than starting

  4. Affiliates browsing for programs

    REFERLY_MARKETPLACE

    A public listing in the Referly directory, where affiliates look for programs to join. Needs its own licence.

    Effort
    Write the listing once
    How well it works
    Steady trickle, quality varies, needs screening

  5. Creators with a track record

    INFLUENCER_DISCOVERY

    Browse affiliates who already earn on other Referly programs, filtered by category, platform, country and revenue.

    Effort
    $199/mo add-on
    How well it works
    Fast, and the only channel with real numbers attached

Most programs run one and three at the start, add two as relationships appear, and only reach for four and five once there is a budget and someone to screen applicants.

Do you have customers already?

Is this a new program?

Where to start, in order

  1. 1Your own customersYou have a customer base to invite from.
  2. 2People you already knowAlways worth doing, and the highest-quality partners you will get.
  3. 3Affiliates browsing for programsInbound applicants while you work on the other channels.

Not yet

  • Partners you already have. Nothing to import if you are starting from nothing.
Business and up

Channel one

Your best affiliates already bought from you

A widget inside your product that turns a happy customer into a partner in two clicks.

It sits in a corner of your app or store, opens on click, and gives the customer their own link, their own coupon code, a QR code and a way to invite friends by email. Everything they need arrives without them applying for anything.

How a customer referral program is designed

  • Link, coupon and QR

    Their personal set, generated on the spot, copyable in one tap.

  • Invite by email

    They send it to people they know, and you see sent, opened, clicked and converted.

  • Popups and banners

    On page load or exit intent, in seven positions, targeted by page rules.

  • Their earnings, inline

    What they have made so far, so the widget is worth reopening.

Channels two and three

Bring the partners you already have

Invite them one at a time, or move a whole program across in an afternoon.

Invite them one at a time

An invitation goes to one email address and can carry the plan and the group that partner should land on, so a creator you invite on 30% arrives on 30% rather than on your default. There is no bulk email invite: to bring a hundred partners at once you import them.

Signup links do the same job without you typing anyone's address. Every commission plan has its own link, so the partners who use it land on that plan automatically.

Or bring the whole list

A direct import pulls affiliates, referrals and their history across. A CSV does the same from anywhere else, with the columns mapped by you and coupon codes generated on arrival if you want them.

  • Rewardful
  • FirstPromoter
  • Tolt
  • Tapfiliate
  • PartnerStack
  • Trackdesk
  • Partnero
  • Dub

Importing is free on every plan. Having Referly run the migration for you is an Enterprise arrangement, which is a different thing and worth keeping separate.

Switching from another tool
Finding partners you do not already knowLetting them find you instead

Channels four and five

Partners who are already looking

Two routes where affiliates come to you rather than the other way round.

The Referly marketplace

A public listing in the directory affiliates browse when they are looking for programs to join. Applicants arrive through your normal signup flow and your normal screening.

Needs a marketplace licence, billed separately from your plan.

How the referly marketplace works

Influencer Discovery

Browse affiliates who already earn on other Referly programs, with real revenue and conversion figures attached rather than follower counts, and invite them directly.

A $199 a month add-on, included on Enterprise and Agency Scale.

How influencer discovery works

Measuring it

Every affiliate arrives with a source

So you can stop guessing which channel is worth more of your week.

The tag is set when the affiliate is created and never guessed afterwards. Group by it in the acquisition report and the answer to which channel to double down on stops being a matter of opinion.

The source tag itself is on every affiliate record on every plan. The acquisition report that groups and charts them is part of the Engage add-on.

Engage add-on
The rest of the reporting

Affiliates by source

Last 90 days

  • Referral widget38%
  • You invited them24%
  • Found your signup page18%
  • Imported12%
  • Marketplace8%

An illustrative mix, not an average. Referly publishes no benchmark for this and yours will look different.

WIDGET
The referral widget
MANUAL
You invited them
IMPORTED
A CSV or a connector
AFFILIATE_PORTAL
They found your signup page
REFERLY_MARKETPLACE
The directory listing
INFLUENCER_DISCOVERY
The Discovery add-on
API
Your own integration

Programs that did this

Three programs, and where their partners came from

The founders and affiliate managers who built a partner base from nothing, in their own words.

OptimizePress
SaaSSite builder

“We have been running affiliate programs for over a decade, and ours is one of the biggest parts of how OptimizePress grows. Referly is the first platform where an operation with thousands of partners actually feels manageable, from recruiting new affiliates to tracking every sale they send.”

James Dyson

James Dyson

Founder & CEO, OptimizePress

7 figures
in affiliate-driven sales
4,554
active affiliates
10,536
referrals
Letterly
Mobile appAI writing

“This platform is quite simple and easy to use, and you can start attracting people to your affiliate program very quickly. A big plus is that the founder, Ayo, is super responsive.”

Ilfat Khayrullin

Ilfat Khayrullin

CMO & Co-founder, Letterly

300K+
app users
689
active affiliates
24,114
clicks tracked
Moov
EcommerceFitness

“Affiliates drive a serious share of our revenue across three countries. Since we moved to Referly everything runs from one place, tracking has been spot on, and our partners get paid without me chasing spreadsheets.”

Alexander Koppers

Alexander Koppers

Affiliate Manager, Moov

$6.9M

in total affiliate-driven revenue

1,154
active affiliates
19,017
affiliate sales
1,240,030
clicks tracked

Availability

Recruiting features by plan

Invitations, signup links, application questions and importing are on every plan.

FeatureStartupBusinessEnterprise
Free migration from your current tool
Custom application questions
Customer referral widget
Referral popups and banners
Affiliate groups and segmentation
Referly marketplace listingLicense available30 free days included150 free days included
Influencer Discovery networkDiscovery add-on
Affiliate acquisition reportsEngage add-on
  • Direct invitations, per-plan signup links, custom application questions and importing from a CSV or another tool are on every plan, including Startup.
  • The referral widget and popups start on Business. The marketplace listing needs its own licence, and Influencer Discovery is a separate add-on. Neither is included in a plan price.
  • Importing is free on every plan. A managed migration run by Referly is an Enterprise arrangement.
Compare all plans

FAQ

Before you connect anything

The questions founders ask in the first ten minutes.

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  • With your own customers and the people you already know. The widget turns buyers into partners inside your product, and direct invitations cover the handful of relationships you have. Both work on day one and neither costs anything extra beyond your plan.

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