Gift Cards are an incredible feature for service businesses. But right now there's no way to use them as an automated referral reward inside an affiliate campaign — and that's the single most obvious use case for service businesses running referral programs. Here's the scenario: A customer refers a friend. That friend books a service, shows up, and pays in full. The referrer should automatically receive a gift card loaded with a reward amount that the business owner configured inside the affiliate campaign — and that amount should depend on which service the referred friend actually completed and paid for. A $25 gift card for referring someone who got a basic cleaning. A $100 gift card for referring someone who got a premium service. No manual steps. No workflows to build. It just works. This is better than cash for service businesses. The referrer isn't doing this to earn income like a SaaS affiliate — they're a happy customer sharing a good experience. A gift card keeps the reward inside the business ecosystem. The referrer spends it on their next appointment, which drives repeat business instead of being a cash expense that walks out the door. What we need: A new reward type inside Affiliate Campaign settings: Gift Card. Right now, the only reward option is a cash commission (flat or percentage). Add "Gift Card" as a reward type. When selected, let the business owner choose which Gift Card Product to use and set the denomination per service — just like how you'd set commission rates per product, but the payout is a gift card instead of cash. Auto-send on qualifying completion. When a referred customer completes and pays for a service in full (not a deposit, not a form fill — full payment), the system automatically sends the configured gift card to the referrer via their preferred delivery method (email or SMS). The gift card is linked to the referrer's contact record so the business can see the balance, redemption status, and which referral earned it. Per-service gift card amounts. Different services should trigger different gift card values — configured right inside the campaign, not through a separate workflow. This builds on the need for per-service reward rates in affiliate campaigns (see related idea: "Per-Service Commission Rates in Affiliate Campaigns") and the need for Services V2 as a campaign source (see related idea: "Affiliate Manager Needs Services V2 Support"). This should be simple for the business owner to set up. Go to the affiliate campaign settings, select "Gift Card" as the reward type, pick the gift card product, set the amount per service, and publish. No workflow builder needed. The system handles the rest. A workflow action to send gift cards would also be valuable as a separate feature for power users who want custom logic — but the primary experience should be native inside the Affiliate Manager campaign settings so that any business owner can set it up without technical knowledge. Why this matters: Cleaning companies, auto detailers, salons, landscapers, contractors, and every other service business that runs on referrals would use this immediately. Gift Cards and the Affiliate Manager are two powerful features that don't talk to each other. Connecting them would make GHL the only platform where a service business can run a fully automated referral-to-gift-card program — and that's a massive competitive advantage. Upvote if you want gift cards to work as automated referral rewards in affiliate campaigns.
