Set Up Affiliate Coupons

This guide walks you through assigning a coupon code to a collaborator so that Siren can credit them whenever a customer uses that code at checkout. It applies to WooCommerce, Easy Digital Downloads, LifterLMS, and NorthCommerce. The setup is almost identical on each platform, but the location of the coupon screen changes, so we’ve called out the differences below.

Coupon tracking is especially useful for situations where a clickable referral link isn’t practical. Think podcast sponsorships, printed flyers, YouTube video descriptions, or any social post where the audience is more likely to remember a short code than click a URL.

Before you start, make sure the collaborator belongs to a program that has the Coupon Code Used engagement trigger enabled. If that trigger isn’t turned on, applying the coupon at checkout won’t produce any attribution, no matter how it’s assigned. For a conceptual overview, see Coupon Code Tracking.

How it works

Siren doesn’t create coupons for you. You build the coupon inside your commerce plugin the way you normally would, choosing the discount type, amount, restrictions, and expiration. Siren adds a small “assign to a collaborator” field to the coupon edit screen. Once you pick a collaborator and save, that code is linked to their account.

From there, the normal attribution pipeline takes over. When a customer applies the code at checkout, Siren creates a Coupon Code Used engagement for the collaborator who owns the code. If the customer completes the purchase, that engagement becomes a conversion, and the program generates an obligation recording what the collaborator is owed.

For the concept-level explanation and a rundown of which integrations detect coupons differently, see Coupon Code Tracking.

Setting up a coupon in WooCommerce

WooCommerce is the most common setup, so we’ll walk through it in detail. The same logic applies to the other integrations covered below.

Go to Marketing > Coupons in the WordPress admin

This opens WooCommerce's coupon management screen.

Create a new coupon or edit an existing one

Pick a code your collaborator will share with their audience, then set the discount type and amount.

Find the Siren section on the coupon edit screen

Siren adds an 'assign to a collaborator' field below the standard WooCommerce settings.

Select the collaborator

Start typing their name and pick them from the dropdown.

Publish or update the coupon

The code is now linked to that collaborator's account.

You can confirm the assignment by opening Siren > Collaborators, clicking the collaborator’s name, and checking the Coupons tab on their profile.

Other platforms

The pattern on every other supported integration is the same: find the Siren collaborator field on the coupon edit screen, pick a collaborator, and save. Only the location of the coupon screen changes.

Easy Digital Downloads

EDD has its own coupon system under Downloads > Discounts. Open or create a discount, scroll to the Siren collaborator field that Siren adds to the discount edit screen, select the collaborator, and save. EDD detects the coupon the moment it’s applied at checkout, the same way WooCommerce does, so the engagement fires before the order is placed.

LifterLMS

LifterLMS stores coupons under LifterLMS > Orders > Coupons. Create or edit a coupon, set the title, discount, and any restrictions, then pick the collaborator in the Siren assignment field before publishing.

One thing to know about LifterLMS: it doesn’t expose a hook for the moment a coupon is applied at checkout, so Siren detects the coupon when the sale completes instead. The engagement still gets created and the collaborator still gets credit, but it fires alongside the conversion rather than a step earlier. For most use cases this is invisible. See the integration feature matrix for the full comparison.

NorthCommerce

NorthCommerce has a coupons screen in its own admin area. Create or edit a coupon there, find the Siren collaborator field, select a collaborator, and save. NorthCommerce detects coupons at checkout the same way WooCommerce and EDD do.

A reminder for anyone shopping integrations: LearnDash and Gravity Forms don’t have coupon systems, so they don’t support coupon tracking. If your store runs on one of those plugins, you’ll need to rely on referral links or another engagement trigger instead.

How attribution works when a link and a coupon are both used

Coupons get applied at checkout, which is usually the last thing a customer does before placing an order. That matters because most affiliate programs use the newest engagement wins sorter, and the coupon code is almost always the newest engagement on the record.

So if a customer originally arrived through Affiliate A’s referral link but entered Affiliate B’s coupon code at checkout, Affiliate B gets credit for the conversion inside that program group. The link visit still happened and is still stored, but the coupon is the most recent engagement, so it wins. This is by design. Entering a coupon is a deliberate action the customer took at the point of purchase, and it’s the most direct signal of which collaborator influenced the sale.

If you run multiple programs in different program groups, each group evaluates independently. A single transaction can still generate multiple conversions and obligations across different groups. An instructor royalty program and an affiliate program can both pay out on the same sale, for example, because they live in separate groups. The coupon only competes with other engagements inside its own group.

If you want more background on how sorters pick a winner when several engagements are present, take a look at what is an engagement and the newest engagement wins program group structure.

Testing your setup

The fastest way to verify everything is wired up correctly is a test purchase.

Create a test collaborator

Use a throwaway name so you can tell the test record apart from real ones.

Assign a test coupon to that collaborator

Create the coupon in your commerce plugin and pick the test collaborator in the Siren field.

Place a test order using the coupon

Open a private browser window, add something to the cart, and apply the coupon at checkout. Use a manual payment method if you aren't testing with a live processor.

Go to Siren > Conversions

You should see a new conversion tied to the test transaction. If you used a manual payment, mark the order completed so the conversion finalizes.

Open the conversion and verify attribution

Confirm that the test collaborator received credit and that an obligation was created for them.

If the conversion doesn’t appear, double-check that the program has the Coupon Code Used trigger enabled and that the test collaborator is actually part of that program. Those are the two things that cause this to silently fail. It’s also worth confirming the coupon is actually saved with an assignment, since it’s easy to miss the dropdown on a busy coupon edit screen.

Where to go next

Once you’ve got coupons working, there are a few natural next steps depending on where you are in your setup:

Managing collaborators covers how to keep their profiles, contact info, and program memberships organized.
How to pay collaborators walks through turning obligations into real payouts once sales start rolling in.
The coupon-based influencer program recipe is a solid starting template if you’re building a program where the coupon is the main tracking method.
The integration feature matrix is handy if you run more than one commerce plugin and want to know exactly which features are available where.
How to spot and prevent affiliate fraud covers coupon stacking specifically, which is the main abuse pattern coupon-tracked programs face.