The Social Snowball Marketplace is a discovery channel that connects your brand with creators looking for programs to join. You list a dedicated marketplace program, creators find you and apply, and anyone you approve becomes an affiliate in that program.
Before you start
A few things to know before you set one up:
You get one marketplace program, alongside your existing programs. It appears in Programs with a Marketplace tag, separated from the rest.
You need Instagram, TikTok, or both connected before you can create one. Connect whichever you're active on - creators can tag your brand on any platform you've connected.
Affiliates join a marketplace program only through the marketplace sign-up form. You can't segment affiliates in from elsewhere.
Once created, a marketplace program can't be deleted. You can close it, and reopen it later.
Connecting Instagram? It needs to be a professional account (Business or Creator), connected to a Facebook Page you're an admin of. If it isn't set up that way yet, follow Meta's guide to connecting Instagram to a Facebook Page first.
Create your marketplace program
In Programs, select New Program and choose Marketplace rather than Standard. If you haven't connected Instagram or TikTok yet, you'll be prompted to connect one first.
From there you'll set:
Program name. Internal only. Creators never see this.
Brand description. This one is public, and it's what creators read on your brand page. Be specific about who you are and the kind of creators you want to work with - a sharp description brings in better-matched applications.
Brand industries. Pick as many as genuinely fit. Creators search and filter on these, and each industry has its own trending list ranked by how many affiliates are signing up.
Product showcase. Choose at least one Shopify product to feature. You can add several.
Country targeting. Worldwide by default, or restrict to specific countries.
Application form. Optional - see below.
Commission. Percentage, fixed, or product-level, the same as a standard program.
Welcome gift. Worth considering. Creators can filter the marketplace for brands offering one, so it's a real draw.
The remaining advanced settings work exactly as they do on a standard program.
Building your application form
Name, email, and social accounts are collected automatically, so there's no need to ask for them.
Beyond that you can add your own questions in four formats - short text, long text, single select, and multi select - and mark each one required or optional. Drag and drop to reorder, and use the live preview to see what creators will see.
The form is optional as a whole. If you add no questions, creators see "No additional information is needed for this application" and can apply in one click.
Marketplace programs don't use your standard sign-up form, and the marketplace form can't be embedded on your own site.
Opening and closing your listing
Closing hides you from the marketplace and stops new creators signing up. Affiliates already in the program are unaffected - they keep earning and keep getting paid. You can reopen whenever you like.
Editing is locked while a marketplace sync is running. If the listing is temporarily uneditable, wait for the sync to finish and try again.
Keeping your listing live
Your listing depends on your Instagram or TikTok connection, so it can close on its own if that connection breaks.
Delete the integration and the listing closes automatically.
If it stays in a failed state for 12 days, the listing is removed.
We'll email you roughly once a day while an integration needs reconnecting, and email you again if the listing does get removed.
Reviewing applications
Marketplace applications appear in Affiliates > Applications, listed separately from applications that come through your regular sign-up forms. You approve or reject them the same way - see how to manually approve sign-up form applicants.
Each application shows you:
The creator's profile, content categories, and connected social accounts
Phone number and country
Their answers to any custom questions you added
Median revenue, number of brand partnerships, and fulfilment rate
Those last three are worth paying attention to, since they tell you whether a creator actually delivers rather than just how their profile looks. Creators new to Social Snowball will show zeros with a note explaining they're new - blank stats aren't a warning sign in themselves.
Approving
Approving creates an affiliate and places them in your marketplace program, recorded with marketplace as their acquisition method. Marketplace applicants always go into your marketplace program, so there's no program to choose at the point of approval.
Rejecting
Rejected creators can't reapply to your brand for 90 days.
Emails
Marketplace applications use their own emails, separate from your other sign-up forms. You're notified when an application comes in, and creators are notified when you approve or reject them.
Those creator emails come from two editable templates, Marketplace Application Approved and Marketplace Application Rejected. You'll find them in Customize > Emails, alongside your other email templates.
If you send your emails through Klaviyo, approving a marketplace creator triggers the Signed up as an affiliate via marketplace event, so you can build a welcome flow for marketplace creators around it. If our team has set up a Marketplace Approved Application flow for you, search your Klaviyo flows for "Social Snowball" to find it.
Tracking where affiliates came from
Marketplace applications can be filtered separately from your other sign-up forms, so you can see how the channel is performing on its own.
Marketplace also appears as an acquisition source in Klaviyo, Attentive, Postscript, Sendlane, and outbound webhooks.
What creators can see about you
Your brand page shows:
Your description, industries, logo, website, and social accounts
Your product showcase, and any welcome gift on offer
Commission, average order value, and discount details - who the discount applies to, which customer segments, and any minimum cart value
Which channels are enabled: Shopify, Meta Ads, TikTok Shop
TikTok collabs, with their per-product commissions
Recent mentions of your brand from Instagram and TikTok
Which countries you accept affiliates from
Figures are shown in USD regardless of your store currency, so creators can compare brands like for like. Revenue only ever appears as a range, for example $50k-$100k, so your actual numbers stay private.
Your public listing
Listed brands also get a public page on marketplace.socialsnowball.io. Creators can search, browse trending brands, and view your page without logging in, and those pages are indexed by search engines.
Need help?
Start a chat with our support team from your dashboard.