How to Restrict Campaigns to Specific Affiliates in Post Affiliate Pro

Problem definition

In affiliate marketing programs, it is often necessary to restrict access to certain campaigns—such as those for exclusive products or special promotions—to specific affiliates. Post Affiliate Pro provides flexible campaign visibility options to help program managers control and customize which affiliates can participate in which campaigns.

Understanding Campaign Types in Post Affiliate Pro

Post Affiliate Pro supports three campaign types:

• Public: All affiliates can see and join these campaigns without restrictions.
• Public with Manual Approval: After activating the Private Campaigns feature, all affiliates can see the campaign, but must be manually approved before joining and promoting it.
• Private: Also enabled by the Private Campaigns feature, the campaign is completely invisible to affiliates unless they are manually invited, added by an admin, or assigned via automation plugins.

The ‘Private Campaigns’ feature introduces the last two campaign types, giving you precise control over affiliate participation.

How to Restrict Campaigns to Specific Affiliates

To create a campaign that only certain affiliates can access:

1. Navigate to Campaigns > Campaign Manager in your merchant panel.
2. Create or edit a campaign and select either ‘Public with Manual Approval’ or ‘Private’ as the visibility type.
   • For Public with Manual Approval, affiliates can apply to join, and you must manually approve each one.
   • For Private, only affiliates you add or invite will be able to see and join the campaign.
3. Add affiliates manually by selecting them in the campaign settings.
4. Automate assignments using plugins—such as:
   • Assign to Groups by Ordered Products : Automatically assign affiliates to groups (and thus campaigns) based on products they have ordered.
   • Assign to Groups by Affiliate Profile Fields : Assign affiliates to groups based on custom fields in their profile.
5. Only invited or assigned affiliates will have access to the private campaign and its commissions.

Troubleshooting Restricted Campaign Access

• Affiliates cannot see the campaign: Verify that the campaign is set to ‘Private’ and that the affiliate has been added manually or via an assignment plugin.
• Manual approval not working: Ensure the campaign type is set to ‘Public with Manual Approval’ and that you have reviewed and approved join requests.
• Automated assignments not functioning: Double-check plugin configuration and that the correct criteria (product orders, profile fields, etc.) are set up.

Best Practices for Managing Campaign Visibility

• Use Private campaigns for offers that should be restricted to a select group, such as high-value or region-specific promotions.
• Use Public with Manual Approval when you want to allow affiliates to apply but maintain control over who can join.
• Regularly audit campaign participants to ensure only intended affiliates have access.
• Leverage automation plugins for scalable and rules-based affiliate assignments.

Example Use Case: Restricting Commission on Specific Products

Suppose you want only a handful of trusted affiliates to promote and earn commission on a new premium product. Create a private campaign for this product, assign it only to those affiliates (manually or using the ‘Assign to Groups by Ordered Products’ plugin), and set up the relevant commission structure. This ensures only pre-approved affiliates can access, promote, and earn from this campaign.

Further Resources

• Private Campaigns Documentation
• Assign to Groups by Ordered Products Plugin
• Assign to Groups by Affiliate Profile Fields Plugin

These resources provide additional details and step-by-step guides for leveraging advanced campaign targeting and assignment features in Post Affiliate Pro.