18.5 Tracking Referred Leads & Closings (Attribution)

Understanding which partners are actually sending leads and contributing to closed business is key to evaluating your referral program's success.

Link-Based Tracking (Limited Usefulness for Offline RE Closings):

  • Leads Tab (Affiliate Manager → Leads): This tab shows a list of Contacts whose *first tracked interaction* (based on browser cookies) with one of your Close Master websites or funnels came via an affiliate's unique tracking link (generated if a campaign is linked to an asset). This is useful for seeing *initial* traffic driven by affiliate links but doesn't automatically confirm a closed deal.
  • Customers Tab (Affiliate Manager → Customers): This tab typically shows Contacts who completed a *trackable conversion event* (like an online purchase via an Order Form in a linked funnel) while the affiliate's cookie was active. This is generally not relevant for standard real estate commissions paid upon offline closing.

Manual Sales / Crediting Closed Deals (ESSENTIAL for Real Estate):

Since the vast majority of real estate referral commissions are earned only when a deal successfully closes (which happens offline and potentially months after the initial referral), you MUST manually credit the sale to the referring affiliate within the Affiliate Manager to generate the commission record accurately.

Steps to Add a Manual Sale:

  1. Navigate to Affiliate Manager → Payouts tab.
  2. Click the + Add Manual Sale button.
  3. Fill in the Details:
    • Select Affiliate: Choose the referring partner (Affiliate) from the dropdown list who is owed the commission for this closed deal.
    • Select Campaign: Choose the specific referral Campaign whose rules apply to this referral (e.g., "Agent Referral - 25% Commission Split").
    • Customer Information: Enter the Name and/or Email of the client whose transaction just closed.
    • Sale Amount (CRUCIAL for Calculation): Enter the value that the commission should be calculated *from*.
      • If the Campaign uses a Percentage commission: Enter the Gross Commission Income (GCI) your agency received for the referred side of this specific transaction here (e.g., if your GCI was $10,000 and the campaign pays 25%, enter 10000). The system will then calculate 25% of this amount as the commission owed.
      • If the Campaign uses a Flat Fee commission: You can often just enter 1 or leave it blank (depending on system setup), as the system will automatically apply the pre-defined flat fee amount from the campaign settings regardless of the sale amount entered here. Check how your specific setup works.
    • (Optional) Order ID / Notes: Add any internal reference number (like MLS# or deal ID) or notes about the transaction.
  4. Click Submit or Add Sale.
  5. Result: This action generates a new commission record in the Payouts list for the selected affiliate. The commission amount will be calculated based on the Sale Amount you entered and the Commission Type (Percentage/Flat Fee) defined in the selected Campaign. The new commission record will typically have a Status of Pending, ready for your review and approval (See 18.4).

Manually Attributing Leads (Optional):

  • If you want to simply log that a specific Contact was referred by a partner *before* a deal closes (without generating a commission yet), look for an option like + Add Manual Lead within the Affiliate Manager. This typically allows you to associate an existing Contact with an Affiliate partner for tracking purposes, potentially showing up in the affiliate's Leads tab in their portal.

Mastering the Add Manual Sale process is fundamental to accurately tracking and paying out commissions for offline real estate referral programs managed through Close Master.