Royal Affiliate Pro Documentation

Getting Started

Royal Affiliate Pro is a complete affiliate management solution for WordPress, built for store owners and marketers who need powerful commission tracking, automated payouts, and robust fraud protection without relying on external SaaS platforms.

Pro Features

Core Features

• Real-time cookie-based referral tracking
• Percentage or fixed-rate commission structures
• WooCommerce integration with automatic referral tracking
• Affiliate tags with color-coded management (Pro)
• Coupon tracking with usage analytics (Pro)
• Form lead tracking — Gravity Forms, WPForms, FormForge (Pro)
• Challenges & gamification with 5 reward types (Business)
• Email marketing — Mailchimp, Kit, ActiveCampaign (Business)
• Affiliate landing pages (Business)
• Email notifications for registration, approval, referrals, and payouts
• REST API for custom integrations (Agency)
• CSV export with contact fields for all data
• Activity log for admin actions (Agency)

Installation

License Activation

A valid license is required to receive updates and access Pro features.

Commission Priority

Royal Affiliate Pro features the most flexible commission engine available for WordPress, with 7 priority levels. The system evaluates each level in order and uses the first match it finds.

Priority Chain (First Match Wins)

Commission Types

Product & Category Rates

Product-Specific Rates

Set unique commission rates for individual WooCommerce products. This is useful when certain products have higher margins or when you want to incentivize affiliates to promote specific items.

• Select2 search - Quickly find products by name
• Percentage or flat rate - Choose the commission type per product
• Active/Inactive toggle - Enable or disable individual product rates without deleting them

Category-Specific Rates

Set commission rates per WooCommerce product category. When a product belongs to multiple categories, the category with the highest priority wins.

• Set rates for any product category
• Priority system resolves conflicts when products belong to multiple categories
• Highest-priority category rate is applied

Tiered Commissions

Create multiple commission tiers with automatic progression to reward your top-performing affiliates with higher rates as they grow.

How It Works

• Thresholds - Set minimum referral count AND/OR minimum earnings to advance
• Auto-progression - Affiliates automatically advance when thresholds are met
• Custom rates - Each tier has its own commission rate (percentage or flat)
• Tier badges - Visible on the affiliate dashboard to motivate progression

Example Tier Structure

Multi-Tier MLM Commissions

Royal Affiliate Pro supports a UniLevel multi-tier commission model where affiliates earn additional commissions when their recruits generate sales.

How It Works

Consider this recruitment chain: Affiliate A recruits B, and B recruits C.

• When C makes a sale: C gets the direct commission
• B gets the Level 2 rate (for recruiting C)
• A gets the Level 3 rate (for recruiting B, who recruited C)

Multi-tier commissions are additional - they are not deducted from the direct affiliate's commission.

Settings

Parent Assignment

Parent affiliates are assigned automatically via the referral cookie during registration. When a visitor signs up as an affiliate through another affiliate's referral link, that referring affiliate becomes their parent. Admins can also manually set or change parent assignments from the affiliate edit screen.

Status Cascade

When a direct referral's status changes, tier referrals cascade accordingly:

• Approved referral - tier referrals are also approved
• Rejected referral - tier referrals are also rejected
• Refunded referral - tier referrals are also rejected

When multi-tier is enabled, affiliates see a Team tab in their dashboard showing direct recruits and tier earnings.

Campaigns

Create time-bound campaigns with custom commission rates to drive focused affiliate activity during promotions, launches, or seasonal events.

Campaign Features

• Start/End dates - Set precise campaign duration
• Custom commission rates - Campaign-specific rates override the default
• Campaign slugs - Track via URL parameter: ?campaign=slug
• Creative assignment - Link campaigns to specific marketing materials
• Campaign tracking - Track referrals by campaign in reports

Lifetime Commissions

Reward affiliates with recurring commissions from customers they originally referred. Once a customer is linked to an affiliate, all future purchases by that customer earn commissions for the affiliate.

Qualification Criteria

Control which affiliates qualify for lifetime commissions using multiple criteria:

• All Affiliates - Every affiliate earns lifetime commissions
• By Tier - Only affiliates at specific commission tiers
• By Campaign - Only affiliates in specific campaigns
• Minimum Referrals - Requires a minimum number of approved referrals
• Minimum Earnings - Requires a minimum total earnings threshold
• Specific Affiliates - Manually select individual affiliates

Custom Lifetime Rate

Optionally set a custom lifetime commission rate that overrides the default rate. This lets you offer a different (often lower) rate for repeat purchases while still rewarding the original referrer.

Payment Methods

Royal Affiliate Pro supports four payout methods with 0% platform fees - you only pay standard payment processor fees.

Available Methods

1. Stripe Connect (Business+)

The easiest and most compliant payout method. Affiliates connect their Stripe account directly from the dashboard using OAuth Express flow. Stripe handles all 1099 tax compliance including W-9 forms and identity verification for US affiliates.

2. PayPal Payouts API (Pro+)

Batch processing of payouts to PayPal accounts. Affiliates enter their PayPal email address in their dashboard settings. Supports both individual and batch payouts.

3. Manual / Bank Transfer (Pro+)

Admin processes payouts externally (bank transfer, check, etc.) and marks them as complete in the system. Includes a notes field for tracking payment references.

4. Store Credit (Business+)

Credits the affiliate's WooCommerce wallet balance. Supports four popular wallet plugins with automatic detection. Optional bonus percentage incentivizes store credit selection.

Automated Payouts

Fully automated daily payout processing eliminates the need for manual payout management.

How It Works

• Configurable minimum threshold - Affiliates must reach a minimum balance before payouts are processed
• Automatic processing schedule - Payouts are processed daily at a configured time
• Zero manual intervention - Once configured, the system handles everything
• Email notifications - Affiliates receive automatic email when payouts are sent

Store Credit

Allow affiliates to receive payouts as WooCommerce store credit, keeping funds within your ecosystem and encouraging repeat purchases.

Supported Wallet Plugins

• WooCommerce Store Credit
• YITH WooCommerce Account Funds
• TeraWallet (woo-wallet)
• WooCommerce Wallet

Royal Affiliate Pro automatically detects which wallet plugin is installed and uses the appropriate integration.

Bonus Percentage

Incentivize affiliates to choose store credit by offering a bonus percentage. For example, a 10% bonus means a $100 commission becomes $110 in store credit.

Referral Tracking

Royal Affiliate Pro uses cookie-based tracking to attribute sales to the correct affiliate.

How It Works

1. Visitor clicks an affiliate link: yoursite.com/?ref=affiliatecode
2. The plugin sets a rafp_ref cookie containing the affiliate ID, campaign ID, and timestamp
3. The cookie persists for a configurable duration (default: 30 days)
4. When the visitor makes a purchase, the cookie is read and a referral is created

URL Parameters

Tracking Settings

Attribution Models

Choose how Royal Affiliate Pro attributes sales when a customer clicks multiple affiliate links.

Available Models

• First Click - The first affiliate to send the customer gets credit for all purchases. The original cookie is never overwritten.
• Last Click (Default) - The most recent affiliate click overwrites the cookie. The last affiliate to send the customer gets credit.

Excluded Pages

Block referral tracking on specific URLs. Supports wildcards and regex patterns to exclude checkout pages, admin areas, or any URLs where tracking should not apply.

Forced Landing Pages

Designate specific pages as forced landing pages. When an affiliate link lands on these pages, the cookie expiration is refreshed, extending the tracking window.

Standalone Conversions

Track affiliate referrals without WooCommerce by placing the [rafp_conversion] shortcode on any thank-you or confirmation page.

How It Works

Place the shortcode on a confirmation page that visitors reach after completing an action (purchase, signup, form submission). The shortcode reads the affiliate tracking cookie and creates a referral.

Works With

• Stripe Checkout
• PayPal
• ThriveCart
• Gumroad
• Any external checkout that redirects back to your site

Dynamic Amount Support

Pass the sale amount and reference via URL parameters for accurate commission calculation:

yoursite.com/thank-you/?amount=99.99&reference=INV-001

Affiliate Tags

Organize your affiliates into groups with color-coded tags. Tags enable targeted management, filtered views, and bulk operations across your program.

Creating Tags

Navigate to Royal Affiliate Pro → Tools → Tags to manage tags. Each tag has a name, slug, color, and optional description.

• Color picker — Assign a hex color to each tag for visual identification in the affiliate list
• Auto-generated slugs — Slugs are created from the tag name automatically
• Affiliate counts — See how many affiliates are assigned to each tag at a glance

Assigning Tags

• Individual assignment — Edit any affiliate and check/uncheck tags in the Tags section
• Bulk assignment — Select multiple affiliates from the list and use the “Add Tag” or “Remove Tag” bulk actions

Filtering by Tag

The affiliate list includes a tag filter dropdown. Select a tag to show only affiliates with that tag. Tags display as colored badge pills next to each affiliate’s name.

Coupon Tracking

Assign WooCommerce coupon codes to affiliates and track their performance with full usage analytics.

Assigning Coupons

Navigate to Royal Affiliate Pro → Coupons to manage coupon assignments. You can assign existing WooCommerce coupons to individual affiliates or generate coupons in bulk.

Tag-Based Bulk Generation

Select a tag from the dropdown and generate personalized coupon codes for all affiliates with that tag in one click. Coupon settings (discount type, amount, expiry) are configured before generation.

Coupon Analytics

• Usage count — How many times the coupon has been used
• Revenue generated — Total order value from coupon usage
• Conversion tracking — Coupon-driven referrals are attributed to the assigned affiliate

Affiliate Dashboard

Affiliates see their assigned coupons in the Coupons tab of their dashboard, complete with usage stats and performance data.

Challenges & Gamification

Create goal-based challenges to motivate affiliates with real rewards. Challenges track progress automatically and apply rewards when goals are met.

Creating a Challenge

Navigate to Royal Affiliate Pro → Challenges to create and manage challenges. Each challenge requires:

• Name & description — What the challenge is about
• Metric — What to track: referral count, earnings, or revenue generated
• Goal — The target value (e.g., 20 sales, $10,000 revenue)
• Reward — What the affiliate earns upon completion
• Date range — Optional start and end dates
• Scope — All affiliates, or only those with a specific tag

5 Reward Types

Progress Tracking

Progress is tracked automatically via hooks when referrals are created or approved. Affiliates see their progress in the Challenges tab of their dashboard with visual progress bars, time remaining, and reward descriptions.

Tag-Scoped Challenges

Set a challenge scope to a specific tag to create VIP-only or tier-specific competitions. Only affiliates with the matching tag will see and participate in the challenge.

Leaderboard

Use the [rafp_leaderboard] shortcode to display a public leaderboard for any active challenge. Shows top performers by progress.

Email Marketing Integrations

Automatically sync new affiliates to your email marketing platform with tag mapping for segmentation.

Supported Platforms

• Mailchimp — Sync to audiences with tag mapping
• Kit (ConvertKit) — Sync with tag-based segmentation
• ActiveCampaign — Sync with tag-based segmentation

Configuration

Navigate to Royal Affiliate Pro → Settings → Integrations to configure your API keys and select your audience/list. New affiliates are automatically added when they register.

Bulk Sync

Use the Sync All button to push all existing affiliates to your email platform in one click. Useful when first connecting the integration or after importing affiliates.

Form Lead Tracking

Track affiliate referrals from form submissions. When a visitor who was referred by an affiliate submits a form, a referral is automatically created.

Supported Form Plugins

• Gravity Forms
• WPForms
• FormForge

How It Works

Enable form tracking in Settings → Integrations. When a referred visitor submits any form from a supported plugin, a referral is created for the affiliate. No additional configuration is needed per form.

Affiliate Landing Pages

Create dedicated landing pages for affiliates with automatic referral code injection.

How It Works

Navigate to Royal Affiliate Pro → Settings → Landing Pages to enable and configure. When enabled, each affiliate gets a custom URL that automatically sets their tracking cookie when visitors arrive.

Features

• Custom URLs — Each affiliate gets a personalized landing page URL
• Auto cookie injection — Referral tracking is set automatically on page load
• Template customization — Configure which page template to use

Affiliate Dashboard

Provide your affiliates with a full-featured frontend dashboard using the [rafp_dashboard] shortcode on any WordPress page.

Dashboard Tabs

1. Overview - Stat cards (earnings, unpaid balance, referrals, conversion rate), recent referrals table, and request payout button
2. Referrals - Full referral history with status filters, date range picker, and pagination
3. Payouts - Complete payout history with status tracking
4. Links - Custom link generator, referral link copy, and QR code generation
5. Creatives - Banner and text marketing materials with one-click embed code
6. Coupons - Assigned coupon codes with usage stats, revenue generated, and conversion counts (Pro)
7. Challenges - Active challenges with progress bars, completed challenges with rewards, leaderboard rankings (Business)
8. Settings - Payment preferences, profile fields (phone, address), notification toggles, Stripe Connect / PayPal configuration
9. Team - Direct recruits table and tier earnings (only visible when multi-tier is enabled)

Additional Shortcodes

Creatives

Provide your affiliates with professional banner and text-based marketing materials they can embed on their own sites.

Banner Creatives

• 15+ IAB standard banner sizes - 728x90, 300x250, 160x600, and more
• Custom image upload - Upload banners or use a URL
• Campaign assignment - Link creatives to specific campaigns

Text Creatives

• Custom HTML-based text creatives
• Affiliate link automatically embedded

Embed Formats

Affiliates can copy their creative embed code in 5 formats:

1. HTML Link - Standard anchor tag
2. HTML Image - Image with affiliate link
3. JavaScript - Dynamic embed script
4. WordPress Shortcode - For WordPress sites
5. BB Code - For forum posting

Leaderboard

Display a public leaderboard showing your top-performing affiliates to motivate competition and engagement.

Configuration

• Metrics - Rank by earnings, referral count, or conversion rate
• Time periods - All-time, monthly, or weekly rankings
• Display count - Customizable number of affiliates shown
• Privacy controls - Uses display names only; affiliates cannot see each other's detailed data

Fraud Detection

Royal Affiliate Pro includes 5 layers of fraud protection to keep your affiliate program honest and your data accurate.

Protection Layers

Fraud Log

All detected fraud attempts are logged with detailed information including severity level, IP address, user agent, affiliate ID, and reason for flagging. The fraud log is filterable by severity and date range.

Settings

Configure Royal Affiliate Pro from the plugin settings page, organized into logical tabs.

General Tab

• Cookie Duration - How long tracking cookies persist (default: 30 days)
• Referral Code Format - Username-based or random codes
• Link Format - Pretty URLs or query string
• Attribution Model - First click or last click

Commission Tab

• Default Rate - Global default commission rate
• Commission Type - Percentage or flat rate
• Multi-Tier Settings - Enable/configure MLM levels and rates

Payment Tab

• Payment Methods - Enable and configure Stripe, PayPal, manual, store credit
• Minimum Payout - Minimum balance required before payout
• Automated Schedule - Configure automatic payout processing

Notifications Tab

• Email Templates - Customize each notification type
• Toggle on/off - Enable or disable individual notifications

Tracking Tab

• Cross-Subdomain - Share cookies across subdomains
• Excluded Pages - URLs where tracking should not apply
• Forced Landing Pages - Pages that refresh cookie expiration

Integrations Tab

• Form Tracking - Enable/disable Gravity Forms, WPForms, FormForge tracking (Pro)
• Mailchimp - API key, audience selection, tag mapping (Business)
• Kit (ConvertKit) - API key, tag selection (Business)
• ActiveCampaign - API URL, API key, list selection, tag mapping (Business)
• Landing Pages - Enable/disable affiliate landing pages (Business)

Email Notifications

Royal Affiliate Pro sends 9 notification types to keep admins and affiliates informed throughout the affiliate lifecycle.

Notification Types

Monthly Performance Reports

Automated monthly reports sent to each affiliate include:

• Earnings summary for the month
• Referral counts and conversion rate
• Top-performing referral links
• Comparison to the previous month

Troubleshooting

Referral not tracking

• Check the cookie is being set (browser dev tools > Application > Cookies > look for rafp_ref)
• Verify the affiliate is approved (pending affiliates do not track referrals)
• Check if the page is in the Excluded Pages list
• Clear your caching plugin cache
• Verify WooCommerce is active (required for WooCommerce-based referrals)

Payouts not processing

• Verify API keys are correct (Stripe Secret Key / PayPal API credentials)
• Check the affiliate has connected their payment account in their dashboard
• Ensure the affiliate has met the minimum payout threshold
• Check that automated payouts are enabled (Settings > Payment)

Affiliate dashboard not showing

• Verify the [rafp_dashboard] shortcode is on the page
• Check the user is logged in AND registered as an affiliate
• Verify the affiliate is approved (not pending or rejected)

Commission amount seems wrong

• Review the 7-level priority chain - a higher-priority rate may be overriding
• Check product-specific and category-specific rates
• Verify the affiliate's tier rate
• Check if a campaign rate is currently active

Stripe Connect errors

• Verify Client ID, Secret Key, and Publishable Key are all entered
• Ensure the webhook endpoint is configured in your Stripe dashboard
• Check Stripe is in the correct mode (Sandbox vs Live)

Frequently Asked Questions

How do affiliates sign up?

Create a page with the [rafp_registration_form] shortcode. Affiliates fill out the form, and admins approve them from the Royal Affiliate > Affiliates screen.

What WooCommerce integration is included?

Automatic referral tracking for all WooCommerce orders. Supports simple, variable, subscription, and downloadable products.

Can I import affiliates from another plugin?

Currently this requires manual import. You can create affiliates via the admin panel or the REST API for bulk operations.

Does Stripe Connect handle tax compliance?

Yes. Stripe handles all 1099 compliance including W-9 forms, identity verification, and annual filing for US affiliates earning over $600.

What happens if I disable multi-tier commissions?

Existing tier referrals remain unchanged in the database, but no new tier referrals will be created for future sales.

Can affiliates see each other's data?

No. Each affiliate only sees their own data in the dashboard. The leaderboard shows rankings but uses display names only.