We’ve published an updated set of FAQs reflecting the latest questions about the Ambassador Program. If you’re looking for answers or want to be sure you’re up‑to‑date, please take a moment to read the updated FAQ document HERE.
By way of additional updates, we are taking action on requests for further clarity within the backend. Specifically, we’re working on updates to the backend earnings section of your account to make it easier to understand how Royalty and Referral Commissions are calculated. More to come on that end once it’s ready, so stay tuned.
As always, we appreciate your feedback and will keep refining these resources. Feel free to post a follow‑up question HERE.
Thank you for being a part of the community and for sharing your feedback.
Well, I’m disappointed that Zazzle won’t pay us self-referrals on direct-only products, but sorta relieved because it means that I’m just not going to help customers anymore. I’ll check my chats a few times a week and send everyone to customer support, but that’s it. At least I’ll get my life back!
“Q: What happens if a Customer clears their cookies before purchasing? A: If a Customer deletes their cookies, Zazzle may not be able to track the Referral, and a Referral Commission might not be awarded for that sale.”
Let’s hope those folks who tells their customers on special orders see’s this gem.
Not only that, but if a customer deletes their cookies they may have to put their passwords in all over again. Customers might not be very happy about this.
Q: Why, in some cases, am I making less in Earnings for a Self-Promotion Instant Download/Digital Product sale than with a non-Referred Sale (i.e., says “None” in the Referral column).
“It’s important to note that these updates do not reflect a change in your eventual Earnings.”
I do not understand how you can honestly say that there is no change, or even no ‘significant’ change. Previously on a ‘none’ or even a ‘self-referral’ of a digital product, you would have made anywhere from $8.50-12 at a 10% rate. Now if you end up with a self-referral on a digital, you max out at $5.42 at 10%. How is that ‘no change’. This is not an insignificant amount for people who get several digital downloads per day.
I always thought that practice of trying to game the system to get self-referrals on custom orders was unprofessional at best, so I can understand why Zazzle is essentially putting a stop to it. But since we’re only getting half royalties on most orders (at least in the wedding world - which, I’m assuming, is where most custom requests come in) and there’s no system to reward us for that sort of work, it really leaves us with very little incentive to help customers. I ran the numbers, and even small requests end up just not being worth the time invested.
I have to assume that line was meant to refer to physical products where the total earnings is not impacted by the marketing fee.
On digital products it’s absolutely crazy that we’re punished for referring the customer. I think it just means that we have to consider digital products a nice little “extra” that we might get now and then, but not something that you’d want to promote. Zazzle certainly seems to have de-emphasized them on the product page, so perhaps they’ve concluded that it wasn’t a financially viable thing.
At any rate, if you wanted to specifically market and sell digital products, I think you’d be much better off choosing a different platform, because Zazzle is providing a huge DIS-incentive for doing it here.
Q: What happens if I use my Referral link in a paid ad? A: You cannot use Zazzle’s brand or trademarks to generate Referral Commissions via paid search ads or display network advertisements. Doing so violates the Ambassador Program terms and may result in withheld Referral Commissions or removal from the program.
As I understand we can’t promote with paid ads yes?! Many of creators used to run ads via social networks (of their own products)
What happens if I add a tracking code to a self-promotion link? Since it’s an extra parameter, I’m assuming it would ruin our clean links. This info is invaluable, so I hope tracking codes can be made an exception to the rule. I posted a follow-up question to the Zazzle team about this so hopefully it will be answered in the next updated FAQ.
“Q: What happens if a Customer clicks multiple Referral links before purchasing?
A: As noted earlier, the initial referral is protected for 14 days. If a customer clicks a second
referral link during that time, the original referral remains active and no changes are made. Once
the 14-day window expires, if the customer clicks a new referral link, that new referrer becomes
active and the cycle continues.”
THIS IS AWFUL! Can anyone, seriously anyone, give me a scenario where the initial referral click should count over the most recently clicked referral link? That is not fair in any case. So basically, if someone clicks on any Zazzle ad from Zazzle or another ambassador link, it essentially does not matter if they find my product right after on Pinterest, click MY link and buy my item. THIS is why we aren’t getting referrals. This is so jacked man. If they click my product link, and then buy my item… I deserve the royalty. Not someone (likely Zazzle themselves) who they clicked on a week prior.
If feels like Zazzle is now taking a percent of all of our sales, referred by us or not, to pay for their increased marketing costs that will literally only take money away from us not only in the form of a percent of each sale… but in the very fact that they will be using OUR money to promote OUR items with their referral links to take even more from us.
It will be nearly impossible to get referrals now I am so disheartened and I have been putting hours a day into my graduation collections trying to upgrade their images and get them pinned
I truly don’t understand the logic behind these referral cuts. Even when I earn self-referrals, some are reduced to just 3% without any clear reason. It feels completely arbitrary, and the lack of transparency is disheartening. How are we supposed to market ourselves effectively when we don’t even know the rules we’re working under? I sincerely urge the company to make these policies clear and consistent, so that we as creators can plan, promote, and grow with confidence.
With a “Self-Promotion” referral, your total earnings (royalty + referral) are capped at 35, 40, 45, or 50% of total order price depending on category. So lets say the product is in the 35% category and your royalty rate for it is set to 30%. The referral portion of your earnings would then be calculated as X, where [30 + X = 35]. (so 5% referral commission)
At first glance it may seem like reducing your royalty means you’d then earn more for the referral portion.
So say your royalty was/is only 10%. [10 + X = 35]. So referral portion X would be 25% instead of the 5% above. But in either case your total earnings are going to be roughly 35% of the order total, but with the lower royalty that order total is obviously going to be less so you earn less in total.
Under this new system, it’s important to remember that there is no set % for “self-promotion” (formerly PP2) link referrals anymore. The referral portion is always going to vary depending on the royalty so that total earnings equal [roughly] the cap (or “earnings goal” as its called in the FAQs).
Furthermore, the earning caps (35, 40, 45, 50%) are only applied to “Self-Promotion” referrals. “Cross-Over” links still pay a flat 15%, and we can set a royalty as high as 50%. So in theory, you could do a 50% royalty, plus 15% referral = 65% of total order. Whereas the max you could earn if a “Self-Promotion” referral would be 35-50%. This is also why with Instant Downloads that allow us to go up to 99% royalty, the total earnings on a “Self-Promotion” referral have significantly dropped - because it’s capped at 50% now. But you can promote them with a “Cross-Over” style link (includes your RF#) that pays a flat 15% and actually earn more, because the total earnings cap doesn’t apply in this situation.
Thank you for this information. Just to double check in regards to custom orders, are designers better off just adding our id referral link and making 15% as opposed to hoping to get a self referral and possibly making less?
THIS IS AWFUL! Can anyone, seriously anyone, give me a scenario where the initial referral click should count over the most recently clicked referral link? That is not fair in any case.
Well …
Let’s say I have put a referral link out there for my wedding invitation. Some person who’s never even heard of Zazzle before follows it (and therefore picks up my referral “cookie”). They play around with the Personalize fields. Now it’s in their Saved Designs. Maybe they are asking their friends/family/bridal party for feedback on it. So it sits. Maybe they even order one as a sample. They wait for that to arrive, and then they get more feedback on the actual printed product and they finally make the decision that yep, these are the invites I want. Maybe they even sit on it a little longer waiting for a sale or their next paycheck .. Meanwhile, they have been all over the internet looking at other options, probably have a Pinterest “idea board” for their wedding so have probably now clicked on whoknowshowmany other links with someone else’s “cookie” in it. So when they pull the trigger and place their full real order, it could very realistically be longer than 2 weeks since they first clicked my link. Since it’s my design that captured their interest and my link that brought them to Z, then I should get the ref credit for their order. It should not go to some other random person whose “cookie” they picked up later.
The fact that Z has a complicated “cookie” system different from the popular last-click attribution method is what has saved our referrals from being “stolen” by extensions like Rakuten and Honey.
The problem with last-click attribution is that it ignores the entire customer journey and credits only the final touchpoint , overlooking the impact of earlier interactions like ads, emails, or social media. This can lead to misleading insights and underinvestment in key channels that contribute to conversions..
Every situation if different so there is no cookie-cutter answer for that. (Ha, no pun intended.) One has to look at the numbers and decide which scenario they want to gamble on.
How is that gaming the system? A clean link is a clean link, and we are producing a custom order for a sale that otherwise wouldn’t have happened, so why shouldn’t we get a referral commission?
I am so disheartened and I have been putting hours a day into my graduation collections trying to upgrade their images and get them pinned