I Used to Send Products to Influencers Without Knowing If They Sold. Now Every Discount Code Is Accountable
An ambassador program that manages the ambassadors, nutritionists and content creators of a Chilean eCommerce business: it measures how much each code sells, records the products sent and tracks, piece by piece, whether what was promised got published.
A Chilean eCommerce business sent products every month to people who recommended the brand: trainers, nutritionists, people with large followings. In exchange they posted stories and reels, and shared a discount code of their own.
The problem was the other half. How much did each code sell? Was that shipment worth it? Did they post the four stories they promised or just one? The answers were scattered across coupons, spreadsheets, WhatsApp and the memory of whoever coordinated.
To sort that out I built an ambassador program: an app where each person is managed, their code usage is measured, what was sent to them is recorded and whether they delivered is tracked.
Three kinds of people, one system
- Ambassadors: are created in the app or arrive on sync if their coupon already existed.
- Nutritionists: arrive on sync of their professional profile published in the store.
- UGC creators (user-generated content): apply through a form and the team decides who to activate.
A key decision: coupons, orders and accounts live in the store (its eCommerce CMS). The app creates them there and asks it for uses and sales every time you look at a screen. That way there are never two versions of how much a code sold.
The Dashboard: how the program is doing
The home screen shows the period you choose, with a tab for each kind of person and five indicators:
- Code uses and attributed sales, with average order value.
- Discount given and its weight against sales.
- Active people and current redemptions.
Below, a ranking by uses, sales and compliance, and a search box that finds anyone, even archived people.
How a sale is attributed
The most important rule: an order counts toward a person only if their code was used. No links or cookies. If the customer saw the story but didn't enter the code, it isn't attributed.
- Pending, failed, canceled and refunded orders don't count.
- Uses are split into new customers (their first purchase in the store) and existing customers.
- For creators, new customers weigh more: the goal is to bring in new people.
That split changed conversations: a code that only gives a discount to customers who were going to buy anyway isn't worth the same as one that brings in new people.
Each person's record
Each record has four tabs:
- Summary: uses, sales, new customers and the products most bought with their code.
- Redemptions: their content agreements and compliance.
- Comparison: one redemption against the previous one, measured per day.
- History: uses and sales month by month.
When creating an ambassador, the system proposes the code and validates it live against all of the store's coupons. What's left in the store is the coupon (10% discount, no sale items, one use per customer), their account and the welcome email.
If someone wants to change their code, there's a button for administrators only:
UGC creators: from application to code
Creators apply with their region, Instagram, followers, sport and the supplements they use. Applications arrive in an inbox.
- Filters across the whole database (region, municipality, sport, followers) that stay in the link so you can share the same list.
- Quick evaluation: Contact, On the radar or Not for now, with the 1, 2 and 3 keys.
- Evaluating isn't rejecting: the person stays in the database for another campaign.
- Activate creates the record, coupon, account and welcome email all at once.
- CSV export, only for those who can see personal data.
There are two safeguards that came out of real cases. If the same Instagram appears with another email, it could be someone impersonating another account: it isn't activated without verifying by direct message. And a person belongs to just one program: an ambassador's email can't also be a creator's.
Redemptions: what's sent and what's promised
A redemption records the products sent in exchange for content. It doesn't create orders or deduct stock.
- Products sent, searched in the store's catalog.
- Redemption period: between those dates is how the code's performance is measured.
- Commitments: for example, four stories and a reel, with a checkbox per piece.
- Compliance: each piece stores the date and the published link.
- Automatic statuses based on the dates: Draft, Active and Finished.
What each person sees, and what the assistant does
Ambassadors and creators have a portal in the store where they see how many times and when their code was used, with no amounts or products.
In addition, the app is connected to the store's AI virtual assistant (I covered it in this article about the CRM), which handles codes according to their category:
That's why the app always creates each coupon in its correct category.
Sync, archive and permissions
- Sync brings in whoever exists in the store and isn't in the app, without overwriting anything entered by hand.
- Nobody is deleted: they're archived, and their code keeps working.
- Three roles: administrator, user and viewer, who sees everything but changes nothing.
The program summary also appears in the metrics hub, with a "To review" list for the team.
What the business gains
- Every shipment of products has a measurable result.
- You know who brings in new customers and who just hands out discounts.
- Promised content is tracked piece by piece.
- Adding creators scales, with less fraud and fewer errors.
Want a system like this for your business? Let's talk.
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