How To Get Started With The Groupon Affiliate Program

Submitted by: Groupon Affiliates

What is an affiliate partner?

An affiliate partner is a person or entity that uses various marketing tactics to drive traffic to a retailer in exchange for a commission when a sale occurs.

An affiliate can drive traffic to Groupon in many ways, via blogs, search engine campaigns, social media platforms, mobile marketing, and more. When the affiliate refers a consumer that completes a purchase, the affiliate earns a percentage of that sale, it’s that easy! Our commission rate ranges from 2-15%, depending on whether or not it’s a new or existing customer, and on your overall sales volume.

We also offer 30 return days. So if you refer a consumer to Groupon, and they don’t complete a purchase during that initial visit, but return to Groupon within 30 days and finalize their sale, you will still earn commission on that sale. In fact, you’ll earn commission on all purchases they make within 30 days of your referral!

To join the Groupon Affiliate program, simply go to www.groupon.com/pages/affiliates and click the “Get Started” button. You’ll be prompted to set-up a free account on Commission Junction, our third-party tracking network. If you’re already part of Commission Junction, simply click “Get Links” and search for “Groupon.” When you see the Groupon logo, check the box to the left, and click the “Apply to Program” button. The approval process usually takes 1-2 business days.

In order for us to know that you referred a consumer to us, the consumer will need to click through your affiliate tracking link to get to Groupon. Once you are approved into the Groupon affiliate program, you will be able to use a variety of links and banners to use in your marketing efforts. Below, we’ll review a few different tools that will enable you to access whatever you might need.

Link Generator- Let’s say that you’re on the Groupon site, and you see a great deal that you want to share with your friend. Using our Affiliate Link Generator, you can instantly create an affiliate tracking link to that deal, which you can share via Facebook, Twitter, email, or on your own websites. The Affi liate Link Generator sits above the Groupon site, and whenever you see a deal you want to share, simply click a button and voila! Go to Groupon.com and navigate to a deal that you’d like to promote. Once you’ve found one, click the Affiliate Link Generator bookmark you just created. You’ll see a toolbar appear on top of the Groupon page.Click the relevant button to share the deal via Facebook, Twitter or email, or just click “Affiliate Link Code” if you just want the direct link. The tool will automatically create a tracking link for you, pre-populated with your CJ PID. All you need to do now is copy and paste that code anywhere you want to share the Groupon!

Widget- If you have a blog or website, you might want to take advantage of our affiliate widget. This piece of creative dynamically displays whatever Groupon is most relevant to your visitor. So, if your visitor is from New York, the widget will show the daily deal in New York. If your visitor is from San Francisco, they’ll see the daily deal in San Francisco. And, it’s as easy as apple pie! With ice cream!

To get your widget, go to http://www.groupon.com/affiliate_widget and enter your CJ PID in the field provided. The next thing you’ll need to do is to get an API key. The API key simply tells Groupon that you’re using our widget. It’s an easy, instantaneous process. Simply click the “get one” link in the API Key field, login to your personal Groupon account, and then click the “Get My API Key” button.

Now, all you need to do is customize your widget! Choose your size, your ad accent color, and city. If you would like the widget to display whatever deal is most relevant to your visitor, choose “auto-detect.” If you would like the widget to only show deals from a specific city, you can select the relevant city from the dropdown box. Once you’ve made your choices, simply click “Generate Widget.” You’ll get a preview of the widget, as well as the code associated with it. Copy and paste that code onto your site and away you go!

Banners- We have a variety of banners in all sizes available for your use in the Commission Junction interface. To access these, simply login to CJ, click “Get Links,” and search for Groupon. Next, click “View Links.” This will display all the banners and links available for you to use in your marketing efforts. If you click “Additional Search Options,” you’ll be able to fi lter by link type or size. Once you’ve found a banner you’d like to use, click “Get HTML,” located on the far right. This will generate a pop-up window that contains your affiliate tracking code. Copy and paste this code onto your site.

WordPress Plugin- If you use WordPress as your publishing platform, you’ll certainly appreciate the simplicity of the Groupon affiliate plugin. The plugin enables you to easily post Groupon deals to your blog, complete with text and images. All you need to do is enter in your CJ PID and API key once, and then your tracking links will be automatically generated going forward. To get your API key, simply login to your Groupon consumer account, and go to www. groupon.com/api.

To get the Groupon WordPress plugin, simply login to your WordPress account and go to the Plugins menu. Click “Add New,” and do a search for “Groupon Affiliate Plugin.” Next, click “Install Now.”

Once the plugin is installed, you will need to activate it. You will be prompted to do so immediately after installation, or you can also click “Activate” under the plugin listing.

Next, you will need to enter in your Groupon API key, CJ PID and default city. The default city is simply your “home” market. You’ll be able to post deals from any market, but this option enables you to select which deals you’ll see first. To enter these values, click the WordPress Settings menu, and select “Groupon for WordPress.” You will only need to do this once.

Once all your information is entered, you’re ready to post! Now, when you add a new post you’ll see a Groupon button in the rich text editor menu. Click that button and a window will pop up that lists all the Groupon deals running at the moment.

Once you’ve identified which deal you want to feature, a few simple clicks embeds the deal image and description into the blog post while automatically linking through the Commission Junction affiliate system.

Still have questions? We’d love to hear from you!

http://www.groupon.com/pages/affiliates

affiliate@groupon.com

About the Author: Love Groupon? Ever thought, How can affiliate marketing benefit me? If you love Groupon and want to make money telling your website visitors, friends, and family about deals, this is for you!

groupon.com/pages/affiliates

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