# 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

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### ⚙️ 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](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/purchase-transaction "mention")
* [return-transaction](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/return-transaction "mention")
* [internal-event](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/internal-event "mention")
* [custom-event](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/custom-event "mention")
* [achievement](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/achievement "mention")
* [redemption-code-campaign](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types/redemption-code-campaign "mention")

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

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### 🔧 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="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns" %}
[creating-campaigns](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns)
{% endcontent-ref %}

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### ✅ 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.

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## 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="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns">creating-campaigns</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Managing Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/managing-campaigns">managing-campaigns</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Deleting Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/deleting-campaigns">deleting-campaigns</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Trigger Types</strong></td><td><a href="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/trigger-types">trigger-types</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Referral Campaigns</strong></td><td><a href="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/referral-campaign">referral-campaign</a></td></tr><tr><td><strong>Campaign Limitation</strong></td><td><a href="campaign-limitation">campaign-limitation</a></td></tr></tbody></table>

### 🧠 Related Articles

{% content-ref url="monitoring-and-analytics" %}
[monitoring-and-analytics](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/monitoring-and-analytics)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="campaign-simulation" %}
[campaign-simulation](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaign-simulation)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="custom-units-expiration-and-pending-settings" %}
[custom-units-expiration-and-pending-settings](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/custom-units-expiration-and-pending-settings)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="using-expressions" %}
[using-expressions](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/using-expressions)
{% endcontent-ref %}

{% content-ref url="campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/transaction-item-filters" %}
[transaction-item-filters](https://help.openloyalty.io/main-features/campaigns/campaigns-and-referral-campaigns/creating-campaigns/transaction-item-filters)
{% endcontent-ref %}