ConvertKit

ConvertKit user synchronization integration

ConvertKit, which has been renamed to Kit, is an email marketing platform. The Post Affiliate Pro plugin connects it to your affiliate program, so every affiliate you approve becomes a subscriber in ConvertKit, in the forms and with the tags you choose, without any manual export or import.

The plugin handles three moments in an affiliate’s life:

• Approved for the first time: the affiliate is subscribed to your ConvertKit forms, with the tags and custom fields you defined.
• Updated: when the affiliate’s details change, the subscriber is updated as well (enabled by default).
• Deleted: when the affiliate is deleted, the subscriber is unsubscribed (disabled by default, you turn it on).

NOTE: The synchronization runs one way, from Post Affiliate Pro to ConvertKit. Subscribers that exist only in ConvertKit are not turned into affiliates.

How to integrate Post Affiliate Pro with ConvertKit

Get your ConvertKit API credentials

You need the API secret of your ConvertKit (Kit) account. In your account open the settings and look for the API secret on the Developer page. In older accounts it is under Settings > Advanced, where you click Show to reveal it. The same place also shows your public API key, which you need in the next step to look up your IDs.

Find your form IDs and tag IDs

The plugin needs the ID of each form and tag, not the name. ConvertKit’s API lists them. For example, you can run these commands in a terminal, with your public API key in place of YOUR_API_KEY:

curl "https://api.convertkit.com/v3/forms?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"
curl "https://api.convertkit.com/v3/tags?api_key=YOUR_API_KEY"

Every form and tag is listed with its id and name. Note the IDs you want to use.

Activate the plugin

In your merchant panel navigate to Configuration > Plugins > ConvertKit user synchronization > Activate. Then fill in the configuration:

• API Secret: the API secret of your ConvertKit account.
• Form IDs: the IDs of the forms that new affiliates should be subscribed to, separated by commas. Required.
• Tag IDs: the IDs of the tags that new affiliates should get, separated by commas. Optional.
• Update customer: updates the subscriber after a detail in the affiliate account is changed. Enabled by default.
• Unsubscribe customer: unsubscribes the subscriber when the affiliate is deleted. Disabled by default.
• Send more affiliate details: lets you save additional affiliate values into ConvertKit custom fields.

Each field has a hint in the plugin, so you should have no problem setting it up.

Send more details as custom fields

By default the plugin sends the email address and the first name of the affiliate. To send more, enable Send more affiliate details and fill in up to 10 rows. In each row you enter the identifier of the ConvertKit custom field and choose which affiliate value is saved into it. You can also choose the same value from the affiliate’s parent, which is useful in a multi-tier program when you want to know who recruited whom. See custom fields for adding your own fields to the affiliate profile.

The custom fields have to exist in ConvertKit before you use them here, so create them in your ConvertKit account first. Empty values are not sent.

Test the integration

Approve a test affiliate and check that the subscriber appears in ConvertKit, in your forms, with the tags and custom fields you chose. Then change a detail of the affiliate, such as the first name, and confirm that the subscriber is updated.

How does the plugin work exactly?

The plugin reacts to events on the affiliate record in Post Affiliate Pro:

1. An affiliate is approved for the first time, either by you or automatically under your affiliate approval settings. The plugin subscribes the affiliate to every form you listed, with the email address, the first name, the tags and the custom fields. If one of the forms returns an error, the remaining forms are skipped, so check the form IDs if an affiliate is missing from some of them.
2. The affiliate’s details are saved. If Update customer is on, the plugin finds the subscriber in ConvertKit by email address and sends the current email address, first name and custom fields. If there is no subscriber with that address, nothing happens, the plugin does not create one. Because the subscriber is found by the current email address, a change of the email address itself is not carried over.
3. The affiliate is deleted. If Unsubscribe customer is on, the plugin unsubscribes the subscriber. The subscriber is not deleted from your ConvertKit account.

Tags are applied only when the affiliate is first subscribed. Only affiliates are synchronized, merchants are ignored. New affiliates are not subscribed until the API secret and at least one form ID are filled in.

NOTE: The plugin uses version 3 of the ConvertKit (Kit) API. Kit’s documentation says that version 3 is no longer in active development and points to version 4. Version 3 still works, and Kit has not published an end date for it.

Use case: onboarding new affiliates with tags

Say you approve a few new affiliates every week and want each of them to get a welcome sequence. In ConvertKit you build an automation that starts when a subscriber joins a form or gets a tag, for example an affiliate tag, and sends a welcome message, a walkthrough of your marketing materials, and a reminder to grab the first affiliate link.

Enter the form and the tag in the plugin, and every approved affiliate starts that sequence on the day they are approved, with no manual work. Because affiliates are in their own form and tag, they stay separate from your customers and you can send them news, offers and training that fit them.

Use ConvertKit for this kind of nurturing, and keep the email templates built into Post Affiliate Pro for transactional messages such as commission and payout notices.

What is ConvertKit?

ConvertKit is an email marketing platform that has been renamed to Kit. It offers forms and landing pages, email broadcasts, automations and sequences, and tagging and segmentation.

For affiliate managers, forms and tags are the useful part. You subscribe affiliates to their own form, tag them, and build an audience that is separate from your customers.

Key features of ConvertKit

• Forms and landing pages: unlimited landing pages and forms on every plan, including the free one.
• Email broadcasts: send one-off emails to your audience.
• Tagging and segmentation: organize subscribers with tags and segments, which is what the plugin uses.
• Automations and sequences: visual automations and email sequences on the paid plans.
• Selling: sell digital products and subscriptions.
• Apps and integrations: connections to other tools, and an API, which this plugin uses.

ConvertKit pricing options

At the time of writing, Kit lists a free plan for up to 10,000 subscribers, and the paid plans Creator and Pro, both with a 14-day free trial. Prices are based on the number of subscribers and Kit’s pricing page mixes monthly, yearly and promotional prices, so check the current numbers on the Kit pricing page before you decide.

Alternatives to ConvertKit

If ConvertKit does not fit your needs, Post Affiliate Pro also integrates with other email marketing tools. See the guides for ActiveCampaign , Flodesk , GetResponse , Mailjet , MailChimp user synchronization and AWeber , or compare more email marketing tools.