Sale-based rewards

A sale-based reward (pay-per-sale) pays partners when a customer they referred makes a purchase. It’s the most common reward type on Dub, and the one most partners expect: they earn either a percentage of the sale (revenue share) or a fixed fee per sale. Unlike click and lead rewards, sale rewards can be recurring, so a partner keeps earning on every renewal for as long as you choose.

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How sale rewards work

Sale rewards are triggered by sale events on Dub. A sale event is created whenever:

• You track a sale via the /track/sale endpoint or one of our SDKs
• A payment or invoice is paid via your Stripe integration
• A lead submitted by a partner reaches Closed won
• A deal is marked as closed won in HubSpot via your HubSpot integration

Each sale event creates a commission for the partner whose link the customer came from. Dub applies the sale reward in this order:

1. a link-level reward if one is set,
2. otherwise a partner-level reward,
3. otherwise the partner’s group reward.

The commission amount is determined by that reward, plus any conditions that match the sale. If a sale is later refunded or disputed in Stripe, Dub updates the associated commission automatically:

• Refunded: the commission is marked Refunded and removed from any pending payout. See handling refunds.
• Disputed: the commission is put On Hold while the dispute is open, so it can’t be paid out (available on the Advanced plan and above). If you lose the dispute, the commission is marked Refunded. If you win it, or the inquiry closes without a chargeback, the commission goes back to Pending. It stays on hold if it was already on hold before the dispute or a pending risk event still covers it.

Commissions that have already been paid aren’t changed. To recover those, create a clawback.

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Creating a sale reward

In your group rewards tab, click Create next to the Sale reward type. When the reward builder is open, set your amount per sale, and optionally set your sale reward conditions. Once you’ve configured the reward, you’ll see a reward preview and quality score, and be asked to confirm before it goes live. Dub generates the reward description partners see automatically, but you can customize how it’s shown to partners by using the customize the reward description by clicking the pencil button next to the reward. You can also describe the reward in plain English using the AI reward builder, for example:

• “30% recurring for 12 months”
• “50% lifetime for customers who joined before Jan 2026, else $100 one time”
• “$500 if productId = ‘prod_xxx’ (Pro Plan), else $100 one time”

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Amount

Sale rewards support two payout models: Percentage rewards are calculated on the sale amount Dub receives. For Stripe, that’s the invoice or checkout total after any discounts, and for /track/sale it’s the amount you pass.

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Duration

The duration controls how long a partner keeps earning on a given customer after the first sale:

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Sale reward conditions

Conditions let you pay a different amount when a sale meets certain criteria. Click Add condition in the reward builder, and set the reward amount and duration for each condition block.

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Customer attributes

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Partner attributes

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Sale attributes

Learn more about metadata conditions.

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Sale reward examples

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First-sale bonus

Pay a big rate on the first sale to reward customer acquisition, then a standard rate on renewals:

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Staggered reward durations

Tailor your reward amount by the customer’s subscription duration, subscription start date, or signup date. In this example, we’re offering a 25% reward for the first 12 months and a 10% reward for all other sales: There are 3 different conditions for staggered reward durations:

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Geo-specific

Tailor your reward amount by customer country. In this example, we’re rewarding partners with a higher percentage for conversions from Canada and the United States:

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Product spotlight

Tailor your reward amount by product. In this example, we’re rewarding more when the sale is for the Gold Plan:

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Sale amount modifiers

For creating tiered rewards based on the sale amount. In this example, we’re giving our partners a higher reward if the sale amount is over a specific dollar amount:

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Partner performance tiers

Tailor your reward amount by partner performance. In this example, we offer a 50% base reward and increase it to 60% based on how many conversions the partner has:

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Yearly vs. monthly billing

Pay a different rate depending on how often the customer’s plan bills. If you use the Stripe integration, choose Sale → Billing period as the condition. Dub fills in the billing period from Stripe for you. In this example, partners earn 35% on monthly plans and 25% on all other sales, including yearly plans, for 24 months: If a Stripe invoice has line items on different billing periods (for example, a yearly plan plus a monthly add-on), Dub works out the commission for each line item separately. See the full example.

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Using metadata instead

If you track sales with /track/sale, the Billing period condition isn’t available. Use a metadata condition instead. In this example, we’re passing a billingCycle field on each sale (via the metadata prop) and rewarding partners more for driving annual plans over monthly plans:

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New vs. recurring sales

Tailor your reward amount based on whether the sale is the customer’s first sale or a recurring sale. During reward creation, select Sale as the condition type and then choose Type as the condition field. This will allow you to differentiate between new and recurring sales. In this example, we’re rewarding partners with a 80% reward for the first sale while keeping the standard recurring commission for all other sales: This is especially useful for subscription-based products, where you may want to offer a higher reward for the first sale to incentivize partners to acquire new customers, while offering a lower reward for recurring sales, while combining with other conditions.

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Updating a sale reward

When you change a group’s sale reward, historical commissions aren’t changed. The new configuration applies to future sales – including renewals from customers the partner referred before the change – only when no link-level or partner-level override is configured. If you switch a group from one-time to recurring, previously referred customers’ renewals become eligible for commission again.