Automatic affiliate coupons for WooCommerce (and more!)

With the upcoming release of AffiliateWP v2.6, we’ve greatly improved tracked affiliate coupons for sites using WooCommerce.

If you are familiar with AffiliateWP’s affiliate coupon tracking, you know how incredibly powerful it can be for your affiliate program.

However, it can quickly become frustrating when:

• Newly registered affiliates need to have a tracked affiliate coupon automatically assigned to them
• Existing affiliates need to have a tracked affiliate coupon
• You need to manually add an affiliate and also create a tracked affiliate coupon for them.

For each scenario, you would need to manually create a new coupon for every single affiliate who needed one. For sites with many affiliates, this can become a very time-consuming process!

Further time is lost when affiliate coupons need to be updated. What if the coupon’s amount should be set lower, the coupon’s expiry extended, or the products applicable to the coupon changed?

Since every coupon is independent of one another, you would need to go through and update every single coupon.

We can do better.

To help solve these problems and save time, we’ve built upon AffiliateWP’s existing coupon capabilities with dynamic coupons. It’s just one of the reasons we’re the best affiliate plugin for WooCommerce!

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For a more technical look into how dynamic coupons work under the hood, check out our development blog.

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Dynamic coupons

Dynamic coupons are similar to AffiliateWP’s existing tracked affiliate coupons. They give customers a discount off their purchase, and they award an affiliate with a commission if the customer’s purchase is successful.

Here’s the main difference:

All dynamic coupons automatically inherit their settings from the designated “Coupon Template”.

Setting up dynamic coupons is simple:

1. Create a coupon in WooCommerce
2. Visit AffiliateWP’s → Settings → Coupons tab
3. Select the coupon from the “Coupon Template” setting and save.

Once a coupon is selected as the coupon template, incredible superpowers are bestowed upon your affiliate program:

Coupons can be automatically generated and assigned to new affiliates

There’s no longer any need to manually create and assign a coupon code for every single affiliate who registers (unless you want to of course).

Just enable the “Automatically Generate Coupons” option, and a dynamic coupon will be automatically generated for every new affiliate!

This also works with AffiliateWP’s “Require Approval” setting. Only once the affiliate is approved will they receive a dynamic coupon.

Coupons can be generated when an affiliate is manually added

You can now add an affiliate manually and generate a coupon for them at the same time!

We’ve also streamlined the process by tying in the “Automatically Generate Coupons” option mentioned earlier.

When enabled, the “Affiliate Coupon” option is checked by default, saving you time when adding more affiliates in the future. Of course, if you don’t want a particular affiliate to receive a dynamic coupon, you can uncheck the option before adding them.

Likewise, if “Automatically Generate Coupons” is disabled, affiliates do not automatically receive a coupon code when they register. You will see the “Affiliate Coupon” option unchecked by default, allowing you to enable it when you’d like the affiliate to receive a dynamic coupon.

Dynamic coupons can be easily updated

Over time, there could be hundreds, if not thousands of dynamic coupons assigned to affiliates. We know how much pain this would cause if every single coupon needed to be updated manually.

Since dynamic coupons inherit their settings, you only need to make one update to the coupon template! Once saved, all dynamic coupons will instantly use the new coupon settings.

This makes adjusting coupon settings extremely simple when a coupon’s expiry, coupon amount, or any other detail needs to change. Since the coupon template can be easily changed, it also allows you to rotate between various coupons, each having their unique settings.

We also wanted to keep your Coupons admin screen in WooCommerce tidy and easy to manage. As a result, only the coupon template will show.

Bulk generate dynamic coupons for existing affiliates

We have included a new tool at Affiliates → Tools → Coupons to bulk-generate dynamic coupons for all existing, and active affiliates.

By default, a coupon code is only generated for affiliates who do not already have one, however coupon codes can be overridden by enabling the “Override existing coupon for all affiliates” checkbox option.

Manage coupons on a per-affiliate level

Dynamic coupons can be managed on a per-affiliate level by visiting the Edit Affiliate admin screen.

Provided a coupon template has been configured, you’ll be able to generate a new coupon for any affiliate by clicking the “Generate Coupon” button:

Likewise, after the coupon code has been created, you can remove it by clicking the “Delete Coupon” button:

Coupons can be shown to affiliates immediately after registration

The faster an affiliate receives their coupon code, the more likely they are going to start promoting your site.

We’ve added a new {registration_coupon} email tag. Use this in the “Application Accepted Email”, and an affiliate will see their new coupon code as soon as they receive their acceptance email.

New Coupons tab within the Affiliate Area

We’ve introduced a new “Coupons” tab to the Affiliate Area. An affiliate will only see it if they have a dynamic coupon, or if a coupon is manually assigned to them.

Previously, the Coupons tab was only possible with the Show Affiliate Coupons add-on. If you are using this add-on with AffiliateWP 2.6, you’ll be able to deactivate it and retain all functionality.

Dynamic coupons can be instantly disabled

There may be a time when you decide to turn off dynamic coupons. This can be done by either:

• Setting the coupon template’s status to draft
• Deleting the coupon template altogether
• Unselecting the “Coupon Template” from AffiliateWP’s Coupons screen.

Disabled coupons will no longer work at checkout, and will show a “Coupon does not exist” message to the customer.

Likewise, affiliates will no longer see their dynamic coupon from within the Affiliate Area.

Show an affiliate their coupons with a shortcode

Like the Coupons tab, we’ve integrated the shortcode from the Show Affiliate Coupons add-on.

This allows an affiliate to see all their coupons (both dynamic and manually assigned) anywhere on your site where shortcodes can function. They will only see their coupons if they are an active and logged in affiliate.

New template file

Developers now have access to a new dashboard-tab-coupons.php template file. Modifying this template file will change the appearance of the Affiliate Area’s Coupons tab, as well as the shortcode.

Try dynamic coupons today

Today, we’re releasing a beta version of AffiliateWP v2.6, which includes the first iteration of dynamic coupons. In the coming weeks, we’ll be releasing the official version which may include further refinements.

Make sure to back up your site and database before using beta software.

If you’re using WooCommerce and would like to try dynamic coupons, check that you have opted-in to beta versions.

To enable beta versions, visit Affiliates → Settings → Misc from within the WordPress admin and enable the “Opt into Beta Versions” checkbox. Once changes have been saved, you’ll then see a new update notification on the WordPress Plugins page.

If you decide to try the beta we’d love to hear your feedback. Otherwise, look out for the official release of AffiliateWP v2.6 in the coming weeks!