Bonus promotions

How it works

Bonus promotions are a marketing tool to incentivize games’ buyers by granting them bonus items.

Main features:

  • Providing one or multiple bonus items when purchasing a promotional item.
  • Specifying the number of times a promotion is available to a user.
  • Setting up personalized bonus promotions.

Examples of use:

  • You can award bonuses in the form of virtual currency that can be spent on virtual items or games.
  • You can run bonus promotions on significant dates for your project, such as the anniversary of the project, to reward users for their loyalty.
  • You can award bonus items in addition to item and game purchases to users who have reached a certain level in a game.
  • You can award bonus items to users for a limited time to motivate them to purchase virtual items and games.

Restrictions:
  • You can’t apply regional restrictions to bonus promotions.
  • Users from any region can receive a game as a bonus, despite the regional restrictions set for that game.
  • If the game that is provided as a bonus runs out of keys, the user will not be able to buy a promotional item with that bonus.

When building a game catalog using API methods, you can retrieve information about promotions. In the response, in addition to information about the game, you will receive the following information about a Bonus type promotion:

  • name
  • start and end date
  • bonus item(s)
  • total number of promotions available to the user
  • remaining number of promotions available to the user

If the remaining number of promotions available to the user is zero, the promotion information will not be displayed in the catalog.

Copy
Full screen
Small screen

{
  "item_id": 400962,
  "sku": "test_game",
  "type": "game_key",
  "name": "name_test_limit",
  "description": "description_test_limit",
  "price": {
    "amount": "1.00",
    "amount_without_discount": "1.00",
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  "can_be_bought": true,
  "promotions": [
    {
      "name": "New Year Bonus",
      "date_start": "2022-12-30T22:00:00+03:00",
      "date_end": "2023-01-02T21:59:59+03:00",
      "discount": null,
      "bonus": [
        {
          "quantity": 3,
          "name": "mybonusitem",
          "sku": "444777",
          "type": "virtual_good"
        }
      ],
      "limits": {
        "per_user": {
          "available": 7,
          "total": 7
        }
      }
    }
  ],
  "limits": null,
  "attributes": [],
  "is_free": false,
  "groups": [
    {
      "external_id": "01022023",
      "name": "Group1"
    }
  ],
  "virtual_item_type": "consumable",
  "inventory_options": {
    "consumable": {
      "usages_count": 1
    },
    "expiration_period": null
  }
}
Note

If there is a limit set on purchasing a bonus item, and the user has received all available items within that limit, the promotional item will not be available for purchase.

If a bonus promotion has a usage limit, and the remaining number of promotions available to the user is zero, the promotional item will be displayed in the catalog without the bonus item.

Examples

Depending on the restrictions that are set, there are different user scenarios for purchasing promotional items with bonuses.

Example of limits on purchasing bonus items:

In Publisher Account, the Xsollus: Basic Edition game on the Steam platform has a purchase restriction — it can be bought by a user no more than 2 times.

Xsollus: Basic Edition is a bonus item when purchasing Xsollus: Deluxe Edition.

User bought Basic Edition 1 time and also bought Deluxe Edition 1 time, receiving Basic Edition as a bonus.

When attempting to buy Deluxe Edition again, the response to the order creation method will indicate that the user has exceeded the purchase limit for the Basic Edition.

Example of limits on using bonus promotions:

In Publisher Account, the bonus promotion has a usage limits — no more than 1 time per user.

Xsollus: Basic Edition is a bonus item when purchasing Xsollus: Deluxe Edition.

User bought Deluxe Edition 1 time and received Basic Edition as a bonus.

When attempting to buy Deluxe Edition again, the bonus item Basic Edition will not be displayed and delivered to the user.

Example of limits on purchasing bonus items and on using bonus promotions:

In Publisher Account, the Xsollus: Basic Edition item has a purchase restriction — it can be bought by a user no more than 1 time.

Xsollus: Basic Edition is a bonus item when purchasing the Xsollus: Deluxe Edition.

The bonus promotion has a usage limits — no more than 2 times per user.

User bought Deluxe Edition 1 time and received Basic Edition as a bonus.

When attempting to buy Deluxe Edition again, the response to the order creation method will indicate that the user has exceeded the purchase limit for the Basic Edition item.

When placing an order, the following information is shown about the applied promotions:
  • the result of applying a discount promotion:
    • discount amount for the promotion
    • crossed out price without discount
    • discount price
  • the result of applying the bonus promotion:
    • bonus items
    • Free value in the price line for bonus items
  • the result of applying the promo code
    • discount amount for the promo code
    • crossed out price without discount
    • discount price
    • bonus items
    • Free value in the price line for bonus items

How to get it

Setting up bonus promotion

You can set up bonus promotions in one of the following ways:

Set up via Publisher Account

If you set up bonus promotions via Publisher Account, you can:
  • set up the promotion’s validity period
  • limit the number of times the promotion can be used by the user
  • set the conditions for the promotion to trigger
  • set up promotions that apply to any types of items:

Editing bonus promotions with an Active status isn’t currently available in Publisher Account.

You can use API methods to enhance your bonus promotions configuration options.

Note
New promotions are inactive by default. ​​To activate your promotion, edit the promotion, and in the top right corner of the drop-down list, select Activate promotion.

To set up a promotion via Publisher Account:

  1. Go to Store > Promotions in Publisher Account.
  1. Click Create promotion.
  1. Specify the following parameters:
    1. Enter the promotion title.
    2. Choose Bonus as a Promotion type.
    3. Specify promotional items.
    4. Specify the item that is granted to the user when purchasing the promotional item.
Note

To select multiple types of promotional items for one promotion, first choose one type of item and check if they are displayed in the List of promotional items field, then go back to the Promotional items field and select another type.

To select multiple different types of bonus items for one promotion, first select one type of item and check if they are displayed in the List of bonus items field, then go back to the Bonus items field and select another type.

  1. Click Next.
  2. You can set the number of uses for the promotion if necessary. To do this, on the Conditions and limits page, switch the Limit number of times one user can use promotion toggle to On and specify the number.
  3. To set up personalized promotions, set Trigger promotion only for specific users to On and specify the condition(s). To set up a personalization, follow these instructions.
  4. Click Next.
  5. Specify the promotion period.
  1. Click Next.
  2. Check the settings and click Save and exit.
  3. To activate a promotion:
    1. Find the promotion in your promotions catalog.
    2. Click the ••• icon, and in the drop-down list, select Edit plan or go to editing by clicking on the promotion in the promotion catalog.
    3. In the upper right corner, open the drop-down menu and choose Activate promotion.

Set up via API methods

To work with bonus promotions, you can use the methods from the Common and Bonuses subsection of the Promotions method group.

To create a bonus promotion, use the Create bonus promotion method and specify the necessary parameters.

To activate a bonus promotion, use the Update bonus promotion method with the “is_enabled”:true parameter or the Activate promotion method.

To deactivate a promotion, use the Deactivate promotion method.

To edit a promotion via API methods, call the Update bonus promotion method with the new promotion parameters. Editing the promotion is also available for promotions with an Active status.

When creating or editing a bonus promotion via API methods, you can also:

Copy
Full screen
Small screen

“condition”: null
Copy
Full screen
Small screen

“date_end”: null
Was this article helpful?
Thank you!
Is there anything we can improve? Message
We’re sorry to hear that
Please explain why this article wasn’t helpful to you. Message
Thank you for your feedback!
We’ll review your message and use it to help us improve your experience.
Rate this page
Rate this page
Is there anything we can improve?

Don’t want to answer

Thank you for your feedback!
Last updated: January 22, 2024

Found a typo or other text error? Select the text and press Ctrl+Enter.

Report a problem
We always review our content. Your feedback helps us improve it.
Provide an email so we can follow up
Thank you for your feedback!