Adding promo codes for your mobile or web app

Promo codes (or voucher codes) are a useful way of providing a single-use subscription-style service without needing to set up authentication APIs. The user simply receives the code from you and gains access to the content you make available under that promo code. This means that if you wanted to give the user access to just one edition, you could. Equally you could give them to every edition - its up to you. Anyone with an unredeemed code will gain access, but the codes are not designed as a substitute for setting up a personal account with your publication.

Note: Codes are meant to be non-personally identifiable information (PII). For example, do NOT use email addresses or real names of users in the codes. We are not allowed to store PII on our servers for your users.

1. Go to the Pugpig Distribution Service site and sign in using your credentials.
   • If unsure what this means or if you don't have an account, contact a Pugpig representative at support@pugpig.com to request assistance.
2. Go to the Promo Codes addon. This is located in the main left toolbar under "Third Party Subs"
3. Under "Offers", create an offer group by filling out the following:
   • Insert a “code”. The code you insert into this column doesn’t matter and is just used for your reference. This is needed.
   • In the name column, add a “name”. Once again, this doesn’t matter specifically and is just used for reference purposes. This is needed.
   • Choose either:
     • “kill oldest” - where if a code can be used e.g. 5 times, the 6th time will log out the person who redeems the code 1st
     • “limit” - where the code can only be used the prescribed number of times. Limit is based on devices (e.g. if someone is using an iPhone and iPad, they will be considered two users)
   • Valid days is the number of days the code is valid for once it has been redeemed (optional).
   • Valid regex - insert the edition key that you want the code to be able to redeem here in brackets “(-)”. If more than one, separate with “|” (optional). If not set to a specific key(s), the code will work for all editions.
     • To find the edition key you need to go to Content Sources > Main Content Feed, then click on the edition you want, and the key will display at the top of the page, after 'Edition:'.
   • Active from / Active to - the dates the code is active for regardless of whether it is redeemed or not. If the code is not redeemed in this prescribed timeframe, then the user will lose access (optional).
   • If the code is ready to go live right away, toggle the “active” slider to “on”.
   • Click the green tick to save. Click the red cross to delete.
4. Click the link that is generated in the “code” column to generate the codes. You will be taken to a new window. 
   • Click “Add codes”.
   • In the “Offer code format”, you can include any letters and numbers. Use question marks to denote the characters you want to be randomly generated. For example, “??????????” would generate a 10-character random code. You could do a mix, such as “CARROT-420-????”
   • In “Number of unique codes”, type the number of codes you want to be generated using the format specified in “Offer code format”. The limit is 10,000 codes per time. If you want to generate more than 10,000 codes, please contact a Pugpig representative who can provide assistance.
   • “Number of uses per code”: if you want one code to be redeemable by multiple users or across multiple devices, then insert here the number of times you want the code to be redeemable.
   • Toggling “numbers only” will change how the “??????????” in the “Offer code format” is generated. Instead of letters and numbers mixed, it will just be numbers.
   • Click “Generate”
5. After that is complete and you’ve refreshed the page, the generated codes should be listed. When the codes are redeemed, it should list the details of the device that has redeemed the code in the code’s row.
6. You can use the test form to test that the code works and provides the user with the right level of access. However, this will count as a code being redeemed, so do not use this for live codes.