Create a Revenue Share in Siren

Prefer AI-guided setup? Beacon is our free AI assistant that can design and generate a complete revenue share configuration for you. Just describe what you want and it’ll create a recipe you can install with one click. Connect Beacon to get started.

Prerequisite: This guide assumes you’re already comfortable creating a program. If not, start with Create a Program in Siren first.

Programs vs. distributors

Programs pay per transaction. When a sale happens, the collaborator who referred it gets a reward right then. That’s a great fit for affiliate-style incentives, but it falls apart when you need to reward cumulative contribution over time.

Distributors fill that gap. A distributor pools revenue from qualifying transactions across a period, tracks collaborator performance, then splits the pool on a schedule. It’s the difference between a per-deal commission and a monthly performance bonus. Distributors power revenue shares, bonus pools, and any incentive where collaborators are compared against each other before anyone gets paid.

Not sure which structure fits your program? See Choosing a Distribution Structure.

A course creator revenue share

Picture an education site that sells access through memberships instead of per-course purchases. Multiple creators produce content, and you want to pay each one a share of monthly membership revenue based on how much students engage with their courses.

A standard program can’t do this. There’s no single transaction tied to a specific creator. Instead, you set a revenue percentage (say, 25% of membership revenue goes to the creator pool), track engagement metrics over the month, and let Siren split the pool based on performance.

Configure the distributor

Revenue percentage

This is the size of the pool, not a per-collaborator rate. Set it to 25% and 25% of all qualifying revenue during the period goes into the pool. Earn $10,000 in memberships, and $2,500 is available to split.

Distribution schedule

Choose weekly, monthly, or annual. Monthly is the most common for revenue shares. When the scheduled date hits, Siren tallies metrics and revenue, calculates each collaborator’s share, and creates obligations automatically.

Metric tracking events

Metrics define what you’re measuring to determine performance. They work like engagement tracking events in programs, but they award points instead of triggering payouts.

Each metric has a point value. For a course platform you might set course completed to 10 points and lesson completed to 1 point, so a creator whose students finish whole courses earns far more credit than one whose students only click a lesson or two. Available metrics include site visited, blog post visited, collaborator product sold, coupon code used, course completed, and lesson completed.

Incentive structure

The incentive structure decides how the pool is divided.

• Shared engagement pool splits evenly among any collaborator who earned at least one point.
• Performance weighted pool splits proportionally based on scores. This is the usual pick for revenue shares.
• Top score wins gives the whole pool to the top scorer. Use this for competitive bonus programs.

Commission pool filters

These filters control which parts of a transaction count toward the pool. You can include or exclude discounts, fees, shipping, taxes, and specific line items.

For a membership revenue share you’d typically restrict line items to subscriptions (excluding one-time purchases), subtract discounts (so you’re not paying on revenue you never collected), and leave shipping and taxes off. See Line Item Filters for the full reference.

What happens when distribution triggers

While the period is active, Siren quietly tracks every qualifying metric event and transaction. Points accumulate for each collaborator. Revenue accumulates in the pool.

On the scheduled date, Siren calculates each collaborator’s share using the incentive structure you picked, then creates obligations. You review and approve them through the normal fulfillment process. The next period resets and the cycle starts over.