Shared Engagement Pool

The Shared Engagement Pool is a distribution structure where the reward pool is divided equally among all collaborators who earned any metric score during the distribution period. It does not matter how high each collaborator’s score is. If they have any score at all, they receive an equal share.

This is the simplest distribution structure. When a distribution triggers on schedule, Siren looks at every collaborator who has a non-zero metric score, divides the total reward pool by the number of qualifying collaborators, and creates an obligation for each one. A collaborator who drove 50 site visits gets the same share as one who drove 500. The only question is whether they contributed at all.

How the reward pool is calculated

The reward pool for a distribution is based on a percentage of revenue collected since the last distribution. You configure this percentage when setting up the distributor. For example, if you set the pool to 10% and your site earned $50,000 since the last distribution, the reward pool for that period is $5,000.

With the Shared Engagement Pool, that $5,000 would be split equally among all collaborators who have a metric score. If 10 collaborators qualified, each receives a $500 obligation.

How metric scores work in this structure

Each distributor is configured with tracking events that define what it measures. As these events happen during the distribution period, Siren accumulates a metric score for each collaborator. Each event type has a configurable point value.

In the Shared Engagement Pool, these scores only determine eligibility. A collaborator needs at least one tracked event to qualify. Beyond that threshold, the score has no effect on payout size. This makes the structure straightforward but also means that collaborators who contribute heavily receive the same reward as those who contribute minimally.

Where this works

The Shared Engagement Pool works well when the goal is broad participation rather than peak performance. If you want every contributor to feel they have an equal stake regardless of volume, this structure encourages that.

A marketplace with dozens of content creators is one example. If the marketplace pools a percentage of subscription revenue and distributes it to creators monthly, the Shared Engagement Pool ensures every active creator gets something. This can be useful early in a platform’s life when you want to attract and retain creators before enough data exists to reward performance proportionally.

It also works for flat-fee contributor programs where everyone who participates in a period gets the same stipend. Rather than manually tracking who was active, the distributor handles it automatically through the metric tracking system.

When to avoid this

This structure does not reward high performers. If your goal is to motivate collaborators to outperform each other, or to reward collaborators proportionally to their contributions, use the Performance Weighted Pool or Top Score Wins structure instead.

It can also create a free-rider problem. A collaborator who generates one blog post visit gets the same share as one who drives thousands of visits. In programs where contribution levels vary widely, this may not feel fair to your top contributors.

Comparison with the program-level structure

The program-level Shared Engagement Pool works the same way conceptually, but operates on a per-transaction basis. When a customer converts, the reward for that transaction is split equally among all collaborators who had an engagement with that customer. The distribution-level version operates over a time period instead, splitting the accumulated reward pool among all collaborators who earned any metrics during the period.