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Upsell Flows

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Sarah Rosin
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Overview 

The Upsell Flow feature allows sellers to add to the value of an order by offering additional related or value-add products to a customer once they've purchased an initial product. 

 

The consumer only needs to click a single button to immediately buy one or more additional products and charge the payment method used in their original purchase.

 

Sellers can display up to three additional offer pages after their initial offer. These pages can each have one or more products, either from you or from another seller. Customers can purchase one or more of these products, in quantities of one or more. After each step, you decide what page is displayed next depending on whether the customer made a purchase. When the flow is complete, the confirmation page displays all of the products purchased.

 

The cross-sell capability, when combined with a Joint Venture contract, allows two sellers to collaborate to gain revenue from advanced e-commerce flows by promoting each other’s products.

 

The following subjects are covered in this article:

 

Admin-Controlled & Developer-Required Features

Admin-Controlled 

Upsell Flows are available to all sellers. However, some additional capabilities are admin-controlled. Contact ClickBank if you want access to any of these capabilities:

  • Adding more than three steps to a flow
  • Adding more than one product to a step
  • Using your own confirmation page 

Developer-Required

Upsell Flows as a whole do not require in-depth technical knowledge. However, some advanced capabilities may require a developer's assistance to use:

 

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Understanding Upsell Flows

The Upsell Flow feature lets you create upsell flows that present up to three additional offers to a customer, after they have purchased an initial product.

 

Each flow begins with an initial product. Once the customer purchases that product, they are taken to an additional pitch page of your choice (Upsell #1). This pitch page can offer one or more additional products. The customer can either purchase one or more of these products, or decline to make any additional purchases.

 

Depending on how you configure the upsell flow, and how the customer responds to the offers on the first pitch page, they may be sent to a second pitch page, and finally to a third pitch page. At each step of the upsell flow, you may decide what action to take if the customer agrees or if they decline.

 

Each pitch page can include your products, or the products of another seller, but not both. If you do promote another seller's products in your upsell flow, you do not receive any revenue unless you create an Upsell JV contract with the other seller. For more information on Joint Ventures, see the Joint Venture article.

 

Once the customer completes the flow, they are taken to a ClickBank Confirmation Page, which contains links to the individual Thank You pages of the items purchased. You do not need to create a new Thank You Page to represent all possible purchase combinations; ClickBank automatically displays the correct combination of purchased items. The customer receives a separate confirmation email for each offer that they purchase.

 

Affiliate Commissions

The Affiliate from the original sale will be credited for each sale in the upsell flow, although you may choose a different commission rate for each product in the flow.

 

Since affiliates can make a commission on every product in an upsell flow, creating and using upsell flows can make your brand more appealing to affiliates. Affiliates can search for sellers with upsell flows in the marketplace, which lets affiliates maximize their investment by focusing on sellers who are using upsell flows.

 

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Upsell Flow Required, Optional, and NOT PERMITTED Elements

The following elements are required on all upsell flows:  

 

Your Upsell Flow Must Begin with a Different Product

Step One of your Upsell Flow should include the first products that are offered in an upsell--not the initial sale. This can get confusing when you're building your upsell. All steps in an upsell flow are products that are being offered after and in addition to the initial purchase.   

 

Clear Pricing

The price of each upsell offer must be clearly stated and visible next to each "accept" and "decline" option on the upsell flow pitch page.

 

 Accept and Decline Options

The "accept" and "decline" options for the customer must be clear an unambiguous. The "decline" option must be of equal prominence and within clear view of the "accept" option. 

 

"Accept" Must Indicate Purchase

The "accept" option must clearly indicate that the customer is making a purchase when they click or tap it. Acceptable phrases include: Acceptable phrases include: “Buy Now,” “Add to My Order,” or “Add to My Purchase.” 

 

Required Checkbox and Parameters for Recurring Billing Products 

If your upsell flow includes a recurring billing product, you must collect agreement from the customer to the terms of the subscription and its price. This agreement must be passed to ClickBank as the cbrblaccpt parameter.

 

Each Pitch Page Can Offer a Maximum of 12 Products

ClickBank does not recommend creating a pitch page that lets the customer purchase more than five products in a single step, regardless of the number of available products.

 

Each Pitch Page Can Offer Your Products or Another Seller's Products - But Not Both
You can put your products on a pitch page, the products of another seller, but you cannot mix your products and the products of another seller on the same pitch page. 

 

Each Pitch Page Can Only Offer the Product or Products Approved for That Step

Products must be approved for each step of the upsell flow. 

 

 

The following elements are optional on all upsell flows:  

Passing CBF Parameters

If your upsell flow does not utilize the session identification parameter your customers who have blocked or disabled cookies will be sent directly to the standard order confirmation page rather than the upsell flow pitch page. 

 

Different Price Points for Products

PitchPlus Upsell Flows that consist of the same price point can result in potential high refund and chargeback rates, as the charges can appear to be duplicates on a customer’s bank statement. Please consider offering products with different price points in your Pitch Plus Flow.

 

The following elements are ARE NOT permitted on an upsell flow:    

 

No Time Delayed Payment Links

If customers do not see that they are able to accept or decline the offer, this may cause them to exit the flow. This would abandon access to the product, as well as the remainder of your upsell flow. Please be sure that your "accept" and "decline" links are immediately visible to the customer.

 

“Order is Complete” is Not Acceptable

You cannot use misleading words in an upsell flow. This type of wording is misleading because the initial order is complete and customers are simply being offered additional products. 

 

Vague or Misleading Phrases are Unacceptable

Don't use phrases like "Click Here to Continue,” “Learn More,” or simply “Yes.”

 

“Add to Cart” is Not Acceptable

Many e-commerce businesses send customers to a shopping cart which lets them view the full purchase before finalizing the purchase. Since clicking the button makes the purchase, "Add to Cart" is not acceptable.

 

No Exit Pops

Exit pops are not permitted on the upsell flow pitch page as it could lead customers away from the page and out of the flow. This would abandon access to the product, as well as the remainder of your upsell flow.

 

No Countdown timers
Due to the way the ClickBank upsells works, it is not possible to provide a discount or different offer on the page once the timer has expired.

 

No Status Bars or Progress Bars that Don't Indicate the Initial Purchase Completion

These types of bars can cause confusion because the initial order is complete and customers are simply being offered additional products.

 

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Selecting Products for an Upsell Flow

When you're creating an upsell flow, you can include products of any kind. The maximum price of each product in the flow is $150. Some product types will impact the behavior of the flow:

  • If the upsell flow includes a physical product, the initial order form will ask for shipping information, even if the initial product is not a physical product. The customer country options are limited according to the physical product's shipping profile, and customers living in countries outside of the physical products' shipping profiles cannot make any purchases.

 

  • If the upsell flow includes more than one physical product, and the physical products have different available shipping regions, the customer is redirected to the order form if they attempt to purchase a later product but are not in that product's shipping region. For example, if step 1 of the flow is a physical product that ships to the US and Canada, and step 2 ships only to the US, a Canadian customer will be redirect to the order form if they attempt to purchase step 2.

 

  • If the upsell flow includes a recurring product, the customer must check a checkbox indicating that they understand and agree to the terms of the recurring billing agreement. See the Including Recurring Products section for more information.

Some features also impact the behavior of a flow:

  • If a customer purchases a product as part of a cart or as an Order Bump on the initial product, the Upsell Flow skips future steps that include that product. The customer is directed to the next step as though they had accepted the skipped step. This behavior helps us avoid duplicate orders and customer confusion.

 

  •  If your upsell flow includes a step with more than one product, it is skipped if the customer purchased any of the products as an order bump or in a cart. If you want to make sure that the other products are still presented, you can add a subsequent step that includes the remaining products.

While you can select any product type, the flow will be most successful if the initial product and those in the flow compliment each other. If a customer initially buys an ebook of diet recipes, it wouldn’t make sense to upsell your customers a video series on how to play the piano or make money online. Your upsell offers should add value to your customer’s initial purchase or expand on a specific aspect of your main product. For example, if you are offering an ebook providing diet recipes, consider upselling a video series demonstrating fat-burning exercises.

 

 

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Reporting and Analytics

For sales of products via an upsell flow, the analytics and transactions reporting sections provide columns detailing those sales. See the Using Sales Analytics article and Transactions Reporting articles for more information.

 

The Instant Notification service also provides data on upsell transactions. See the Instant Notification Service article for more information.

 

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Example Upsell Flows

Here are several examples of upsell flows that illustrate the consumer experience:

 

Flow With Single Upsell

If you offer a single upsell, the customer's flow is:

Initial Offer -> ClickBank Order Form -> Upsell Flow Offer -> Confirmation Page

The confirmation page will contain links to the Thank You Page for one or both products, depending on the consumer’s acceptance of the upsell.

 

Advanced Flows

You can present customers with up to three offers, allowing for more advanced flows.

For example, if the customer declines your initial offer, you could offer them a less expensive version of the product with fewer features, or if they purchase the first upsell product, you could offer them an additional product with related features or benefits.

In this flow, the consumer is presented three offers, each contingent on the acceptance of the previous offer.  At any point, if the consumer declines, the flow ends and they are taken to the confirmation page. 

This flowchart shows a sample PitchPlus Upsell flow. It begins with the Vendor Pitch Page for the initial product. The customer is then taken to the ClickBank Order Form. If they purchase the product, they are taken to the first Upsell Product's pitch page. If they accept that product, they are taken to the second Upsell Product's pitch page. IF they accept that product, they are taken to the third Upsell Product's pitch page. If they accept the third Upsell Product, or if they decline the first, second or third upsell products, they are taken to the ClickBank Order Confirmation Page. This page contains links to the Thank You pages for each product.

 

In this flow, the consumer is presented alternative offers after the initial upsell.  A decline can be used to present a downsale or another product in lieu of the one declined: 

This flowchart shows a sample PitchPlus Upsell flow. It begins with the Vendor Pitch Page for the initial product. The customer is then taken to the ClickBank Order Form. If they purchase the product, they are taken to the first Upsell Product's pitch page. If they accept the first Upsell product, they are taken to the second Upsell Product's Pitch Page. If they decline the first Upsell Product, they are taken to the third Upsell Product's Pitch Page. If they accept or decline the second or third product, they are taken to the ClickBank Order Confirmation Page. This page contains links to the Thank You pages for each product.

Lastly, this example flow shows a series of downsells rather than multiple additional value added products after the initial sale is successful: 

This flowchart shows a sample PitchPlus Upsell flow. It begins with the Vendor Pitch Page for the initial product. The customer is then taken to the ClickBank Order Form. If they purchase the product, they are taken to the first Upsell Product's pitch page. If they decline the first Upsell Product, they are taken to the second Upsell Product's Pitch Page. If they decline the second Upsell Product, they are taken to the third Upsell Product's Pitch Page. If they decline the third Upsell Product, or if they accept the first or second Upsell Products, they are taken to the ClickBank Order Confirmation Page. This page contains links to the Thank You pages for each product.

 

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Creating an Upsell Flow

The following steps will present a guide to creating a upsell flow:

 

Creating Pitch Pages

As part of the PitchPlus flow, you offer additional products to a customer who has already made a purchase. On each of these PitchPlus Upsell Pitch Pages, customers must be given the opportunity to accept or decline the additional offers. Since these pages do not operate like a typical Pitch Page, they must adhere to certain guidelines and be approved by ClickBank before the flow becomes active. Each upsell Pitch Page must follow these guidelines:

  • Must have a prominent option to decline the offer near every accept link or button.
  • Must prominently display the price associated with accepting the offer.
  • The accept link or button must indicate the customer is making a purchase:
    • Acceptable phrases include: “Buy Now,” “Add to My Order,” or “Add to My Purchase.”
    • Vague or misleading phrases are unacceptable, such as: “Click Here to Continue,” “Learn More,” or simply “Yes.”
    • “Add to Cart” is also not acceptable since many e-commerce businesses send customers to a shopping cart which lets them view the full purchase before finalizing the purchase. Since clicking the button makes the purchase, "Add to Cart" is not acceptable.
  • Each pitch page can offer a maximum of 12 products.
    NOTE: We do not recommend creating a pitch page that lets the customer purchase more than five products in a single step, regardless of the number of available products.
  • Each page can offer your products, or the products of another seller, but not both.
  • Each page can only offer the product or products that are approved for that step.
  • Each page can offer multiple products only if ClickBank has enabled this option for your account. Contact ClickBank if you want access to this capability.

In addition, you must agree not to change the price of the upsell offers or the accept/decline wording, buttons, or images after the upsell flow has been approved.

Including Recurring Products

If you want to offer recurring products in your PitchPlus Upsell flow, you must add some additional text and code to your PitchPlus upsell Pitch Page that asks the customer to verify that they understand they are purchasing a subscription/recurring product. This code must include a check box that the customer checks to indicate they understand the terms of the recurring billing agreement. You must then pass the cbrblaccpt parameter with a value of true at the end of the payment link, indicating that the customer has accepted the terms. This parameter is discussed in the Recurring Product Parameter section.

Example Code

The following code sample presents one method for adding the cbrblaccpt parameter to the Payment Link URL once the user has checked a checkbox indicating that they have accepted the terms. If you choose to use this code, you may have to modify it to make it work with your site. You can include similar code before the closing </body> tag to add the parameter:

<script type="text/javascript">
    function acceptCheck() {
        var agreeCheckbox = document.getElementById("agreeCheckbox");
        if(agreeCheckbox.checked) {
            return true;
        } else {
            mustAccept();
            return false;
        }
    }

    function mustAccept() {
        window.alert("By clicking accept, you agree to the payment terms of this recurring product.");
    }

    var acceptLink = document.getElementById("accept");
    acceptLink.onclick = acceptCheck;
</script>

Creating Upsell Payment Links

Now that you’ve created your Upsell Pitch Pages, it’s time to add accept and decline payment links to them.

A payment link on a Upsell page uses a special format, with additional parameters to indicate whether the customer made a purchase and, if so, the items and quantities purchased. Unlike a standard payment link, the first section of the payment link does not include a product ID.

In the example payment links provided, bold text indicates variables that depend on your account and configuration.

NOTE: The ability to offer more than one product in a single step is a Vendor-Enabled feature. Navigate to Vendor Settings and My Features to enabled Multi-Option Upsells.

The following payment link types are covered in this section:

In addition, the following additional subjects are covered:

One-Product Payment Link

If you are selling one product option in a single step in an upsell flow, you would use a payment link in the following format:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=ITEM&cbur=a

If you are selling one product option in a single step in an upsell flow(with a quantity of one or more), you would use a payment link in the following format:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=ITEM.quantity&cbur=a

 

Multi-Product Payment Link

 

If a customer is purchasing more than one product in a single step, you add additional product.quantity pairs separated by underscores to the payment link:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbur=a&cbitems=ITEM.quantity_ITEM.quantity

Decline Payment Link

If the customer decides not to purchase any products, they use the decline button, which uses the following payment link format:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbur=d&cbitems=ITEM

The product can be any product that is approved for the current step. This product is used solely for verification of the step and is not purchased.

Payment Link Parameters

The following parameters are used in a Upsell Flow payment link:

  • The cbur parameter indicates whether the customer has purchased one or more of the offered products. This parameter's use is discussed above.
  • The cbitems parameter indicates the items purchased and their quantities using one or more product-quantity pairs. If you pass a product that is not approved for the current step, or a product that the customer has already purchased, it is ignored. This parameter's use is discussed above.
  • The cbf parameter is an optional parameter that you can use to enable Upsell Flows for customers with disabled browser cookies. It is described in more detail in the CBF Session Identification Parameter section.
  • The cbrblaccpt parameter indicates that the customer has agreed to the terms for the recurring products included in this step. This parameter cannot be automatically included on a payment link - the customer must check a checkbox or take a similar action to indicate that they accept the terms. This parameter is discussed in the Recurring Product Parameter section.

The CBF Session Identification Parameter

The cbf session identification parameter lets you offer Upsells to customers with disabled browser cookies (approximately 10% of customers). You are not required to use the cbf session identification parameter; however, if it is not used, customers with disabled cookies will be redirected to the standard order confirmation page, rather than your first PitchPlus Upsell Pitch Page.

When the customer makes a purchase, ClickBank will pass the cbf parameter to your first upsell pitch page. You must then capture the parameter and pass it back to ClickBank in the payment link. This may be accomplished using a dynamic programming language such as Perl, PHP, JSP, ASP .Net or others.

If you are not experienced with dynamic programming, we recommend hiring an experienced developer for assistance.

An example of how to retrieve the parameter using PHP is:

$_REQUEST['cbf']

Here is an example of a payment link with the cbf parameter:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbur=a&cbitems=ITEM&cbf=VALUE

Recurring Product Parameter

If a step includes a recurring product, you use a parameter to indicate that the customer has reviewed and accepted the recurring billing terms. This parameter cannot be passed if the customer has not indicated their acceptance of the terms. See the Including Recurring Products section for more information.

Here is an example of a payment link with the cbrblaccpt parameter:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbur=a&cbitems=ITEM.quantity&cbrblaccpt=true

Vendor Tracking IDs

You can pass customizable Vendor Tracking IDs (VTIDs) at the end of your paylinks. These VTIDs can be tracked using ClickBank Analytics, which lets you split test or compare different pitch pages.

To use a Vendor Tracking ID, you can add the variable vtid=example to the end of your paylink. The VTID can be up to 250 alphanumeric characters, including underscores. It must begin with an alphanumeric character other than an underscore and cannot contain consecutive underscores.

Note: Account reporting will only display the first 24 characters of the VTID. 

 

Configuring the Upsell Flow

Now that you have created your Upsell Pitch Pages, you can configure your PitchPlus Upsell Flow.

  1. Log in to your ClickBank account.
  2. Click the Vendor Settings tab.
  3. Click My Products.
  4. In the Add New section, click Upsell Flow.
    The upsell flow page is displayed.
  5. Enter a name for the upsell flow, then click Save.
    A graphical representation of the upsell flow is displayed. For example:
    This image shows the window for creating a new PitchPlus Upsell Flow. The top of the image shows the name and ID number for the PitchPlus Upsell Flow, and a checkbox indicating whether the vendor will be passing the cbf parameter. The bottom section shows a graphical representation of the flow. It begins with the starting offer, which is offered automatically after the initial product is purchased. A second round of offers can be made based on whether the customer accepted or declined the first offer, and a third round of offers can be made based on whether the customer accepted or declined either of the second round offers.
    The starting offer is made automatically after the initial product is purchased. Offers 2 and 3 are contingent on the customer's choices on prior offers. When a customer reaches a step without a configured offer, or once they reach the end of the flow, they are taken to the order confirmation page. At each step, you can either end the flow or offer a new pitch page.
  6. Configure each offer by clicking Add Offer, then entering the offer information. To configure an offer, enter the following information:
    • Pitch URL – The standard Pitch Page URL. You must provide at least one pitch URL.
    • Mobile Pitch URL – The mobile Pitch Page URL. You must provide at least one pitch URL.
    • Add Product – Select a product to add that product to the step. You can only add approved products, and every product must belong to the same seller – you can include your products, or another seller's products, but not both. To add another seller's product, select other, then enter the seller and product. For each product you add, you can also specify affiliate commission rates:
      • Commission % – The commission percentage that the affiliate receives for the initial sale of the specified product.
      • Recurring Commission % – The commission percentage that the affiliate receives for recurring payments on the specified product.
    When you are done entering information for the current step, click Save.
  7. When you have completed the upsell flow, click Close.
  8. Click Request Approval in the status column.
    The upsell flow is submitted for approval. You will receive a response to your request within 3 to 5 business days.

Attaching the Upsell Flow to a Product

Upon approval, you’ll see an upsell flow number listed next to the flow name. To attach the upsell flow to one of your products, you’ll need to add the cbfid (ClickBank Flow ID) parameter to the payment link of the existing product you wish to use to initiate the upsell flow.

To accomplish this, add the upsell flow ID number as a cbfid URL parameter to the payment link. The format for this parameter is:

https://VENDORNICKNAME.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=ITEM&cbfid=FlowID

For example, the following payment link would result in flow ID 4 being initiated after the initial purchase of product 1 is completed:

https://somenick.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=1&cbfid=4 

If you have multiple upsell flows, you can switch this number at any time to initiate a different upsell flow. At this point, your flow should be live, and you should place a test purchase to verify that it's working correctly.

Customized Order Form Skin Users

If you are using the customized order form skin, you must pass the skin parameter before you pass the flow ID parameter on the payment link.

For example:

https://somenick.pay.clickbank.net/?cbitems=3&cbskin=myskin&cbfid=a

ClickBank Order Confirmation Page

The following image represents the ClickBank Order Confirmation Page a consumer will receive when they accept multiple offers during an upsell flow:

This image is a screenshot showing the confirmation page that is displayed after a user has purchased multiple items through a PitchPlus Upsell Flow. For each product, the screen shows the order number, the order email address, the product title and type, the price, and a button labeled Download or Access Digital Product.

Encrypting Upsell Flow Parameters

You can encrypt the parameters passed to the upsell flow pages and thank you page if you want to avoid including personally identifiable information (PII) in the URLs. See the Encrypting Passed Parameters article for more information.

 

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Managing Existing Upsell Flows

You can manage existing flows by editing, copying, or deleting them. If you make a change to a flow in any field other than the title, the flow must be re-approved.

 

For information on managing your upsell flows, check out this article:
How do I manage my Upsell Flows?

 

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Troubleshooting

Any upsell flow that you create requires an approval by ClickBank. This section explains some of the common reasons why upsell flows are disapproved.

  • Pitch Page URL and Product Don’t Match – Often, when creating your upsell flow pitch page, you may inadvertently select a product that does not correspond to the pitch page URL identified in your flow. Make sure that the products offered on the pitch page are listed in the correct step of the Upsell Flow.
  • Required Parameters for Recurring Billing Products – If you are including a recurring billing product in your flow, you must collect agreement from the consumer to the terms of the subscription and its price and pass that agreement to ClickBank as the cbrblaccpt parameter.
  • Start Your Flow With A Different Product – When you create your flow, step 1 should include the first products offered as an upsell, not the product originally purchased by the consumer. All upsell flows are defined with products that are being offered after the original purchase has completed.
  • No Exit Pops – Exit pops are not permitted on the upsell flow pitch page.
  • Clear Pricing, Acceptance and Decline Options – The price of the offer must be clearly stated and visible on the upsell flow pitch page. Also, the Accept and Decline options for the consumer must be clear and unambiguous.
  • Product ID in Payment Links Must Match the Flow – Double check that your payment links on the upsell flow pitch page refer to the same products that you defined for your flow. If they do not match, your flow will be disapproved.
  • Accept and Decline Parameters Not on Pay Links – Your accept upsell and decline upsell options must have the correct format for the pay links in order to function properly. An accept action by the consumer has a pay link that includes cbur=a as the parameter whereas a decline action by the consumer has a pay link that includes cbur=d as the parameter. Without these two pay links, your flow cannot be approved as it will not function properly. See Creating Upsell Payment Links for more information.
  • CBFID Missing from Originating Product’s Pay Link – Once your flow has been approved, you must modify your starting product’s pay link to pass the parameter that indicates an upsell flow should be initiated if the consumer buys the product. Your upsell flow will have an ID (see your upsell flow table in your account for this value) that must be passed as a parameter for the originating product’s pay link. Without this parameter, your approved upsell flow will never initiate. See Attaching the Upsell Flow to a Product for more information.

 

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