Bonus promotions

How it works

Bonus promotions are a marketing tool to incentivize virtual items’ 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:

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

You can’t set regional restrictions on bonus promotions.

When building a catalog of items using API methods, you can retrieve information about promotions. In the response, in addition to information about the virtual item, 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.

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{
  "item_id": 400962,
  "sku": "test_item",
  "type": "virtual_good",
  "name": "name_test_limit",
  "description": "description_test_limit",
  "price": {
    "amount": "1.00",
    "amount_without_discount": "1.00",
    "currency": "USD"
  },
  "virtual_prices": [
    {
      "description": null,
      "item_id": 322172,
      "sku": "1234500",
      "name": "virt currency only",
      "type": "virtual_currency",
      "amount": 1,
      "amount_without_discount": 1,
      "calculated_price": {
        "amount": "1.00",
        "amount_without_discount": "1.00"
      },
      "is_default": true
    }
  ],
  "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 Booster item has a purchase restriction — it can be bought by a user no more than 2 times.

Booster is a bonus item when purchasing Empire Lootbox.

User bought Booster 1 time and also bought Empire Lootbox 1 time, receiving Booster as a bonus.

When attempting to buy Empire Lootbox again, the response to the order creation method will indicate that the user has exceeded the purchase limit for the Booster item.

Example of limits on using bonus promotions:

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

Booster is a bonus item when purchasing Empire Lootbox.

User bought Empire Lootbox 1 time and received Booster as a bonus.

When attempting to buy Empire Lootbox again, the bonus item Booster 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 Booster item has a purchase restriction — it can be bought by a user no more than 1 time.

Booster is a bonus item when purchasing the Empire Lootbox.

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

User bought Empire Lootbox 1 time and received Booster as a bonus.

When attempting to buy Empire Lootbox again, the response to the order creation method will indicate that the user has exceeded the purchase limit for the Booster item.

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:

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“condition”: null
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“date_end”: null
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Last updated: January 22, 2024

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