Migrate from FirstPromoter to TrackRev: A Step-by-Step Checklist

FirstPromoter's tier structure has a hard step that catches programs at a predictable moment: the Starter plan at $89/mo caps at 200 affiliates, and the next tier is $249/mo for 2,000 affiliates. Programs sitting at 250–500 affiliates pay for 1,500+ unused capacity. The 1.0-to-2.0 pricing transition added a second pain point — teams grandfathered on legacy rates feel the gap acutely. For programs in either bucket, a Stripe-native rebuild on TrackRev typically cuts costs 30–40% and improves attribution accuracy by adding server-side fallback to a stack that has been mostly client-side.

This guide is the operational checklist: every export menu path, the CSV reshaping required for TrackRev's import format, the JS namespace swap, the parallel-run protocol, and the affiliate notification email. The migration takes 3–5 working days for a typical 200–500 affiliate program.

Why teams migrate from FirstPromoter to TrackRev

Four specific reasons drive most FirstPromoter migrations. Identify which apply before starting — they determine which parts of this checklist matter most for your case.

• Tier sizing. Starter at $89/mo caps at 200 affiliates; the next tier at $249/mo is 2,000 affiliates. Programs in the 200–500 range pay for 1,500+ unused slots. TrackRev's pricing doesn't ladder on affiliate count.
• Server-side attribution. FirstPromoter is largely client-side with a JS snippet. Safari ITP and ad-blockers eat 10–15% of conversions. TrackRev's server-side fallback recovers that gap by default — see server-side vs client-side click tracking.
• Channel attribution beyond affiliates. FirstPromoter focuses on affiliates and refer-a-friend; non-affiliate channels (newsletters, paid, organic) need a separate tool. TrackRev unifies them on the same Stripe pipeline.
• Legacy pricing transitions. Teams who lived through the FirstPromoter 1.0-to-2.0 pricing shift often re-evaluate the relationship — a clean migration is cheaper than negotiating grandfathered terms forever.

What you'll preserve from FirstPromoter

Substantial. FirstPromoter's data model maps to TrackRev's with few surprises.

• Promoter (affiliate) accounts — email, name, custom slug, commission tier, payout details.
• Referral link slugs — re-issue identical slugs so existing creator content still resolves.
• Conversion records — past conversions imported as historical entries for affiliate-side trust.
• Payout history — lifetime-paid totals carried over so dashboard balances stay continuous.
• Commission structures — flat, tiered, recurring, lifetime-window commissions all translate one-to-one.

What you can't directly migrate

Be explicit with affiliates about the few things that don't carry across. FirstPromoter has some platform-specific concepts that need translation rather than direct import.

• FirstPromoter "Promotions". Their Promotion entity bundles a campaign + commission rule + landing page. TrackRev splits these into Campaign + Commission Rule. Map each Promotion to one Campaign in the import.
• Double-commission on referred-referrals (MLM-style). FirstPromoter supports two-tier commission natively; TrackRev supports it too but with a different configuration model. Document the tree before exporting, then rebuild it manually in TrackRev.
• Promo-code-only affiliates. Affiliates promoted only via coupon code (not link click) need their codes mapped to TrackRev's promo-code attribution flow. Pull the code-to-affiliate mapping from FirstPromoter's coupons report before cancellation.
• Multi-language affiliate dashboard translations. FirstPromoter offers ~10 affiliate-facing UI languages. TrackRev's affiliate dashboard is English-default. If multi-language is a hard requirement, evaluate that gap before committing.

Pre-migration checklist

Bookkeeping and risk reduction. Half is data export, half is communication prep.

• Export the promoter list (Account → Settings → Export Data → Promoters CSV).
• Export conversions (Account → Settings → Export Data → Conversions CSV).
• Export the payout ledger (Account → Settings → Export Data → Payouts CSV).
• Screenshot the Promotions configuration page — it doesn't fully serialise into the export.
• Map promo-code-only affiliates if you have any. Pull their code from the Coupons section.
• Identify your tracking subdomain (e.g. go.yourdomain.com) and current DNS provider.
• Decide your attribution window and document it. FirstPromoter defaults vary by plan; TrackRev defaults to 90 days.
• Pick the cutover date. Right after a payout run is ideal — affiliates are checking dashboards least.
• Draft the affiliate notification email (template below) and queue it for cutover day.

Step 1: Export your data from FirstPromoter

FirstPromoter's exports live under Account → Settings → Export Data. There is no per-section CSV button on the listing pages — everything comes from the central export tool.

• Promoters CSV: includes email, name, custom slug, commission tier, signup date, payout method.
• Conversions CSV: full conversion history with Stripe customer ID, promoter ID, commission amount, status.
• Payouts CSV: lifetime-paid totals per promoter.
• Promotions config: not fully in the CSV — screenshot the Promotions page and note each Promotion's commission rule.
• If your program has more than ~5,000 conversions, use FirstPromoter's API export instead of the UI export — the UI tool times out on large datasets.

Step 2: Set up your TrackRev workspace

Two integrations get attribution working end to end.

• Create a TrackRev workspace and connect Stripe with a restricted API key scoped to read charges, customers, and subscriptions.
• Set the attribution window in workspace settings. Use FirstPromoter's prior window for parallel-running so the comparison is apples-to-apples.
• Add your tracking subdomain. TrackRev provides the CNAME target — point it at a second subdomain (e.g. go2.yourdomain.com) during parallel-running so FirstPromoter's redirects stay alive.
• Recreate each FirstPromoter Promotion as a TrackRev Campaign + Commission Rule pair. Use the screenshots from Step 1.

Step 3: Import affiliates and links

Reshape FirstPromoter's Promoters CSV into TrackRev's import format. The schema is similar but with different column names.

email,first_name,last_name,custom_slug,commission_tier,recurring,payout_method,payout_email
sam@example.com,Sam,Patel,sam-p,25,true,paypal,sam@example.com
casey@example.com,Casey,Wu,casey,30,true,wise,casey@example.com

Re-issue every promoter's existing slug. FirstPromoter's promoter.cust_id column becomes TrackRev's custom_slug. Anything that already works in a YouTube description or blog post must still resolve after cutover — slug continuity is non-negotiable for low-friction migrations.

Step 4: Configure attribution and commissions

Rebuild the commission structure exactly. Affiliates compare numbers between dashboards within the first 24 hours; mismatches generate support load.

• Recreate each commission tier under Workspace → Commissions.
• Set the same minimum payout threshold (FirstPromoter typically defaults to $25; mirror your current setting).
• Configure the same cookie window for new clicks.
• For two-tier (sub-affiliate) commissions, configure TrackRev's tier-2 rule with the same percentage FirstPromoter used (e.g. 10% on referred-referral revenue).
• For promo-code-only affiliates, map each code to its affiliate in TrackRev's promo-code attribution settings.

Step 5: Switch tracking script and notify affiliates

Swap FirstPromoter's $FPROM / fpr() snippet for TrackRev's. The namespaces don't collide, so both can run during parallel verification. Then send the announcement email immediately — affiliates check the new dashboard on day one to verify their balance.

1Subject: We're upgrading the affiliate platform — your account is ready2 3Hi {{first_name}},4 5We're moving the affiliate program to a new platform with faster6real-time attribution and a cleaner dashboard.7 8What stays the same:9- Your referral link: {{old_short_link}}10- Your commission rate: {{commission_rate}}%11- Your lifetime balance: ${{lifetime_balance}}12 13What's new:14- Dashboard login: {{trackrev_login_url}}15- We've already created your account — use {{affiliate_email}}16  to set a password.17- Old FirstPromoter dashboard stays accessible read-only for 3018  days at {{old_dashboard_url}}.19 20You don't need to update any links you've shared. Existing21YouTube descriptions, blog posts, and emails continue to work.22 23Questions? Reply to this email — we'll respond same day.24 25Thanks for being part of the program.

Step 6: Run both in parallel for 14 days

FirstPromoter migrations especially benefit from a full 14-day parallel run because client-side-only tracking has more edge cases than server-augmented tracking. The delta you observe between platforms is itself useful data — it tells you exactly how much ITP and ad-blocker traffic FirstPromoter was missing.

• Daily: compare conversion counts. Expect TrackRev to run 5–15% higher because server-side fallback catches conversions FirstPromoter missed.
• Day 7: reconcile 20 random conversions against Stripe charges by hand. Both should match Stripe; if either drifts, fix before continuing.
• Day 14: review the parallel-run report. If TrackRev's count is in the expected 5–15% above range and affiliate balances match within tolerance, proceed to decommission.

Step 7: Decommission FirstPromoter

Confirm three things before cancelling the FirstPromoter subscription. Historical raw data isn't re-exportable after account closure.

• Archive the final Promoters, Conversions, and Payouts CSVs (12-month dispute window cover).
• Remove FirstPromoter's webhook from Stripe (Developers → Webhooks). Leaving it logs harmless errors but adds noise.
• Strip FirstPromoter's fpr JavaScript snippet from the site. Keep TrackRev's.
• Hold the FirstPromoter account in read-only mode for 30 days before full cancellation — affiliates use the buffer to cross-check balances.

FirstPromoter vs TrackRev: feature and pricing comparison

Honest comparison. FirstPromoter has a richer multi-language affiliate dashboard and longer history in the e-commerce affiliate niche; TrackRev's strengths are server-side tracking, flat pricing, and channel unification.

Common gotchas specific to FirstPromoter migrations

Four issues account for most support load. Address them in the import phase, not after cutover.

Promotion-to-Campaign mapping

FirstPromoter's Promotion entity bundles three things TrackRev models separately: a campaign, a commission rule, and a landing page. The naive 1:1 import puts everything into one Campaign and loses the commission rule context. Map each Promotion to a Campaign + a named Commission Rule; this also makes future commission changes cleaner.

Two-tier commission tree continuity

If you use FirstPromoter's referred-referral commissions, the affiliate tree (who referred whom) isn't in the standard export. Pull the relationships from the API endpoint /affiliates/{id}/referrals before cancellation; otherwise the tree resets at TrackRev cutover and tier-2 commissions stop calculating retroactively.

Promo-code-only affiliates

Affiliates who only promote via coupon code (no clicked link) are a special case. Their conversions in FirstPromoter are attributed via Stripe's coupon field. In TrackRev, map each code to its affiliate under Promo Code Attribution; otherwise their conversions land unattributed after cutover and they notice within hours.

Dashboard language expectations

If your program has a meaningful non-English affiliate base, FirstPromoter's multi-language affiliate dashboard is a real feature TrackRev doesn't yet match. Communicate this explicitly in the affiliate notification email — affiliates who relied on a localised UI need to know what's changing.

Migration timeline

For programs at the Starter cap (around 200 affiliates), 3–5 working days end-to-end. For 200–500 affiliates squeezed at the next-tier mark, the same 3–5 days but with more time spent on Promotion-to-Campaign mapping. Above 1,000 affiliates, 7–10 working days with a phased CSV import.

Why TrackRev for Stripe-native programs

TrackRev runs server-side attribution by default, which closes the 10–15% gap FirstPromoter's client-only stack leaves on the table. The same Stripe pipeline that handles affiliates also attributes every other marketing channel, so the affiliate platform isn't a separate spreadsheet exercise from the rest of your channel reporting. See Stripe affiliate tracking for the affiliate side, payouts for the disbursement side, analytics for reporting, and our FirstPromoter alternative writeup for the feature-by-feature head-to-head. Free tier at /pricing, setup walkthrough at /how-it-works, start at /signup.