An affiliate program growing faster than its operations
HeyReach launched its affiliate program in Q2 2023. It quickly became an important acquisition channel for the business, particularly among agencies, consultants, and affiliates recommending LinkedIn outreach software to their clients and audiences.
But the operational side of the program did not scale as easily as the revenue.
With Rewardful, partner payouts were still a manual monthly process. The HeyReach team had to export CSV files, review commissions, move into separate payment platforms, pay partners individually or in batches, and then return to mark each payment as completed.
At least two people were involved, and the process could consume between one and three working days every month. Failed payments, missing payout details, unsupported countries, and different payment methods created more follow-up work. Partners contacted HeyReach directly when something went wrong.
The program also had no automatic protection against self-referrals or partners using paid ads in ways that HeyReach did not allow. As the program grew, managing everything manually became less practical.
By January 2025, HeyReach had generated roughly $200,000 through its affiliate program. The channel was clearly working. The system behind it needed to catch up.
Our partner program was growing, but the operational side was still very manual. Payouts meant exporting files, moving between payment platforms, fixing failed payments, and answering partner questions every month.
Ilija S.Chief Revenue Officer, HeyReachMoving the entire program in one day
HeyReach decided to migrate its affiliate program from Rewardful to Tolt in January 2025.
The migration was completed on the same day, without tracking downtime or lost commissions. Everything the program had built up came across:
- Partner accounts
- Referral links
- Clicks and leads
- Referred customers
- Commissions
- Revenue history
- Coupons
- Payout details
Partners did not need to register again, create a new password, update their links, or re-enter their payout information. Tolt’s passwordless login let them open the new branded portal using their existing email address.
When they logged in, their historical performance was already there. Partners could see the revenue they had generated, their earnings, clicks, leads, referred customers, referral links, coupons, and QR codes as if the platform had never changed.
HeyReach did not receive a single partner complaint about the move.
Import from Rewardful
Everything comes over, history included
We moved the entire program from Rewardful in one day. Our partners did not have to create new accounts, change their links, or move their data. They logged in and everything was already there.
Ilija S.Chief Revenue Officer, HeyReachMaking payouts fully hands-off
After the migration, monthly payouts stopped being a HeyReach operations task.
Tolt now handles the complete payout process, including payments, payout support, tax forms, and reporting. HeyReach receives one invoice from Tolt each month. Once that is handled, Tolt pays the partners from its payment accounts and deals directly with payout-related questions.
On Rewardful
On Tolt
Time on payouts
On Rewardful: 1–3 working days a month
On Tolt: Zero internal hours
People involved
On Rewardful: At least two
On Tolt: No one at HeyReach
Paying partners
On Rewardful: Export CSVs, pay in separate platforms, mark each one paid
On Tolt: Pay one invoice, and Tolt pays every partner
When something fails
On Rewardful: Partners write to HeyReach, and the team follows up
On Tolt: Tolt answers payout questions directly
Where partners are paid
On Rewardful: Unsupported countries mean more follow-ups
On Tolt: More than 80 countries
The result is a partner payout process that takes zero internal hours each month. HeyReach no longer needs to export payment files, switch between providers, manually mark commissions as paid, or assign people to chase failed payments.
This also allowed the program to expand internationally. HeyReach partners have now been paid across more than 80 countries without the team having to build its own global payout operation.
Nearly 3,000 partners can participate in the program while the HeyReach team remains largely hands-off. Their involvement is focused on creating campaigns and improving partner incentives rather than processing payments.
Adding fraud protection for the first time
The move to Tolt also gave HeyReach automatic fraud controls that it did not have before.
HeyReach uses Tolt to detect self-referrals and referrals coming from restricted paid advertising channels, including Google Ads, PPC, and social media ads. Suspicious activity can be reviewed before a commission is paid.
Across the lifetime of the program, these controls have identified 300 self-referrals, helped reject more than 400 suspicious commissions, and reviewed over $100,000 in associated revenue.
- 300
- 400+
- $100K+
The checks run in the background, so HeyReach does not need to manually investigate every referral or rely on partners following program rules without verification.
The Black Friday commission bump
With the operational work handled, HeyReach can spend more time experimenting with the program itself.
One of its most effective plays happens during Black Friday. For one week, HeyReach increases the commission available to selected partners and communicates the offer through Tolt’s messaging hub. Partners can receive email campaigns, notification-center updates, chat bubbles, and messages directly inside their portal.
The incentive is especially effective for agencies. A higher temporary commission gives them a clear reason to recommend an upgrade while their clients can access the Black Friday offer.
The agency earns more. The client gets a better deal. HeyReach drives more transactions.
During the latest campaign, partner-driven revenue increased by 98%. Transactions increased by 364%, and the number of partners actively generating revenue grew from 50 to 200.
That is four times as many revenue-driving partners during the promotional period.
Black Friday results
Partners driving revenue
- +98%
- +364%
- +13%
From $200K to more than $3M
Before moving to Tolt, HeyReach’s affiliate program had generated approximately $200,000 in revenue. Since the migration, it has generated another $2.8 million, bringing total historical partner-driven revenue to over $3.1 million.
More than $1.6 million of that revenue was generated in 2026 alone.
Q2 2023
HeyReach launches its affiliate program
Agencies, consultants and affiliates start recommending it to their clients and audiences.
Jan 2025
The move from Rewardful to Tolt, in one day
About $200K of partner revenue so far. Partners keep their accounts, links and history.
Nov 2025
A Black Friday commission bump
Four times as many partners drive revenue during the campaign week.
2026
$1.6M+ in partner revenue in 2026 alone
Payouts take zero internal hours, and fraud checks run in the background.
Sep 2026
$3.1M+ in partner revenue, all told
More than 1,500 paying customers referred, with close to 3,000 partners in the program.
The program has now referred more than 1,500 paying customers and produced over 1,000 approved commissions. It has become a meaningful acquisition channel within a fully bootstrapped company that has grown to more than $17M in ARR. Tolt did not create HeyReach’s partner strategy. It gave the team the infrastructure to run that strategy at a much larger scale, without manual payouts, partner disruption, or unchecked fraud becoming the cost of growth.
Tolt lets us focus on growing the program instead of operating its backend. Payouts, tax forms, reporting, and partner support are handled for us, while we can focus on campaigns that bring more partners into the channel.
Ilija S.Chief Revenue Officer, HeyReachTolt in this story
Written by
Damjan, Growth at Tolt
Capterra
