The Affiliate Sale trigger in Workflows helps you automatically follow up with the buyer, notify your team, organise affiliate-generated customers and run other actions after a successful sale. The workflow usually runs on the buyer's contact record. This means standard actions such as Send Email or Send SMS may contact the buyer rather than the affiliate.
What is the Affiliate Sale trigger?
The Affiliate Sale trigger fires every time an affiliate makes a successful sale. This includes one-time, recurring and manually tracked sales.
You could use it to:
Congratulate affiliates
Notify customers
Assign tasks
Segment contacts
Important: who the workflow runs on (buyer vs affiliate)
Workflows always run "on" a main record. With the New Affiliate Sale trigger, the workflow usually starts from the buyer's side of the sale. This means standard actions like Send Email or Send SMS will message the buyer, unless you deliberately choose an affiliate-specific action.
To communicate with the affiliate (congratulations, reminders, status updates), use workflow actions designed for affiliates (for example, Send email to affiliate).
Filters available
Use optional filters to control which affiliate sales start the workflow.
Affiliate(s): Start the workflow only when selected affiliates make the sale.
Campaign: Start the workflow only for sales from a selected affiliate campaign.
Payout Method Status: Start the workflow based on whether the affiliate has added a payout method.
Tax Form Status: Start the workflow based on whether the affiliate has submitted tax forms.
These filters help you build targeted automations for affiliate engagement, payout setup reminders, tax form reminders and campaign-specific follow-ups.
How to set it up
To use the New Affiliate Sale trigger in your workflows:
Go to Automations > Workflows.
Create a new workflow or open an existing one.
Add the New Affiliate Sale trigger.
Add any optional filters:
- Affiliate(s)
- Campaign
- Payout Method Status
- Tax Form StatusAdd the workflow actions you want to run.
Click Save.
Popular use cases
Important: This trigger may run on the buyer's record from the sale. Standard contact actions, such as Send Email or Send SMS, may contact the buyer instead of the affiliate. Use affiliate-specific actions when the message should go to the affiliate.
Here are a few ways to put the New Affiliate Sale trigger to work:
1. Congratulate the affiliate
Why: It keeps affiliates motivated and encourages them to keep promoting you.
How: After the trigger fires, add an affiliate communication action (for example, Internal Notification) so the message goes to the affiliate rather than the buyer contact.
Note: This action sends an internal notification (to the business or admin) about the affiliate sale. It does not send an email to the affiliate.Example message: "Congrats on your new sale! Keep it going, your commissions are growing."
Add an Internal Notification action to alert your team whenever a new affiliate sale happens.
The "Send Email to Affiliate" action is intended for internal alerts, not communication with the affiliate.
2. Remind affiliates to complete their payout info
Why: It reduces payout delays.
Example: Send a reminder: "Update your payout method to receive your commission."
3. Tag customers from affiliate sales
Why: It lets you segment affiliate-driven leads for future campaigns.
Example: Add the tag "Affiliate Customer".
Known limitation
Some users expect the New Affiliate Sale trigger to automatically switch the workflow to the affiliate's community user profile. Workflows don't swap the main record part-way through. So rewarding affiliates with community points may need the automation to run on the affiliate's record when granting points.
Workaround options
If you mainly need to communicate with affiliates, use affiliate communication actions (for example, Send email to affiliate) straight after the trigger.
If you need to grant community points reliably, design the workflow so it awards points only when the target user is the group member, then use Grant community group leaderboard points.
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Does the New Affiliate Sale trigger run on the affiliate or the buyer?
The workflow usually runs on the buyer's contact record. Standard contact actions may therefore affect or message the buyer, unless you use an affiliate-specific action.
Q: Can I use Send Email or Send SMS to contact the affiliate?
Not reliably. Standard Send Email and Send SMS actions are tied to the workflow's main contact record, which may be the buyer. Use an affiliate-specific communication action when the message is meant for the affiliate.
Q: Can I limit the workflow to specific affiliates or campaigns?
Yes. Use the Affiliate(s) or Campaign filters to control which affiliate sales can enter the workflow.
Q: Can the workflow remind affiliates to complete payout or tax information?
Yes. Use the Payout Method Status or Tax Form Status filters, then add the right follow-up action for the affiliate.
Q: Does the trigger work for recurring affiliate sales?
Yes. The trigger can fire for one-time, recurring and manually tracked affiliate sales.
Q: Can I award community leaderboard points with this trigger?
Yes, but the workflow must run on the correct community group member. The trigger doesn't automatically switch the workflow from the buyer's contact record to the affiliate's community profile.