# Campaigns & Referral Campaigns

Open Loyalty lets you create flexible and powerful **campaigns** that reward your members based on specific actions or achievements. These campaigns can drive engagement, incentivize behavior, and grow your program through both **direct interaction** and **referrals**.

This article gives you an overview of how **Direct Campaigns** and **Referral Campaigns** work, and links out to their configuration guides.

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### 🧾 Types of Campaigns

There are two main types of campaigns in this section:

#### 🔹 Direct Campaigns

These campaigns are triggered directly by a member’s action, such as making a purchase, achieving a milestone, or redeeming a code. You can configure a wide range of conditions and effects based on:

* **Transaction triggers** (e.g., purchases, returns)
* **Custom and internal events**
* **Achievements**
* **Redemption codes**

#### 🔹 Referral Campaigns

Referral Campaigns reward **referrers** (existing members) based on the activity of the **referees** (newly invited members). These campaigns are ideal for viral program growth.

The logic is triggered when the referred member performs a defined action (such as a transaction or event), and the campaign delivers a reward to the referring member.

You can configure:

* Triggers and conditions based on the referee’s activity
* Multi-level reward structures (1st, 2nd, 3rd level referrers)
* Reward types and limits

***

### ⚙️ Trigger Types

Campaigns are activated by a variety of **event triggers**, each of which supports its own set of conditions and variables. These include:

* [Purchase Transaction](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/purchase-transaction.md)
* [Return Transaction](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/return-transaction.md)
* [Internal Event](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/internal-event.md)
* [Custom Event](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/custom-event.md)
* [Achievement](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/achievement.md)
* [Redemption Code](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/redemption-code-campaign.md)

Each trigger has its own article with details on available attributes, best practices, and example configurations.

***

### 🔧 Configuring Campaigns

Creating and managing campaigns includes several key building blocks:

* **Campaign Effects**: Define how members are rewarded (e.g., add units, give reward).
* **Conditions & Filters**: Apply custom filters based on member attributes, transaction item details, or achievement progress.
* **Limitations**: Control how many times a campaign can issue rewards globally or per member.
* **Expressions & Variables**: Use dynamic formulas and member data to fine-tune your logic.
* **Templates with Autocomplete**: Simplify the configuration with smart autocomplete for variables.
* **Custom Attributes**: Use member-specific custom data in filters or expressions.
* **Distribution Rules**: Define how many units to distribute using static or percent-based logic.

See the campaign creation guide for a complete walkthrough:<br>

{% content-ref url="/pages/HQuxPjB52QWPOej7zG7G" %}
[Creating Campaigns](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

***

### ✅ Best Practices

* **Schedule thoughtfully**: Use appropriate frequency and timing.
* **Segment wisely**: Target specific audiences to increase relevance.
* **Rate-control your rewards**: Set sensible per-member and total limits before launching.
* **Monitor engagement**: Use dashboard analytics to identify spikes or drops.
* **Iterate using duplicates**: Copy campaigns for A/B testing.
* **Clean responsibly**: Deactivate and export before deleting, ensuring historical reward data remains accurate.

***

## Learn more about

<table data-view="cards"><thead><tr><th></th><th data-hidden data-card-target data-type="content-ref"></th></tr></thead><tbody><tr><td><strong>Creating Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="/pages/HQuxPjB52QWPOej7zG7G">/pages/HQuxPjB52QWPOej7zG7G</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Managing Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="/pages/CBoxyQP6CGolLXwUSHYn">/pages/CBoxyQP6CGolLXwUSHYn</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Deleting Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="/pages/PmVfciITeoL9AnaOEJBQ">/pages/PmVfciITeoL9AnaOEJBQ</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Trigger Types</strong></td><td><a href="/pages/49q24QdBkVP1LBiauWNv">/pages/49q24QdBkVP1LBiauWNv</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Referral Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="/pages/2TMM68lFVeTp1OgMW7Gf">/pages/2TMM68lFVeTp1OgMW7Gf</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Campaign Limitation</strong></td><td><a href="/pages/uZgkuToQPBFwtVSmVzwv">/pages/uZgkuToQPBFwtVSmVzwv</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

### 🧠 Related Articles

{% content-ref url="/pages/bcEN516g7WiwElql1slQ" %}
[Monitoring & Analytics](/main-features/campaigns/monitoring-and-analytics.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/kNF1QsocBs7SQFNcqyPk" %}
[Campaign Simulation](/main-features/campaigns/campaign-simulation.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/uUCidbYe2emZ99wJq0Jg" %}
[Custom Units Expiration & Pending Settings](/main-features/campaigns/custom-units-expiration-and-pending-settings.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/AuZ2WANdc34mx304POYB" %}
[Using Expressions](/main-features/campaigns/using-expressions.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="/pages/xhRn42iGj5amwW8V9wKI" %}
[Transaction Item Filters](/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/transaction-item-filters.md)
{% endcontent-ref %}


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