Bonus Entry Actions
By James
By James
Use Pro actions for referrals, social follows, uploads, questions, and secret codes.
Bonus Entry Actions
Bonus actions let entrants earn extra chances after the base entry. You can build, edit, save, and preview them on Free or Pro, but actions on a new Free-plan contest stay paused for entrants until you upgrade to Pro. Add bonus action dialog on the Free plan showing Pro labels for each action and an Upgrade to Pro button Add an action 1. Open the contest editor. 2. Go to Build > Bonus actions. 3. Click Add bonus action. 4. Choose a type and configure its required fields. 5. Set the number of entries it awards. 6. Save and test the preview. On Free, each action in the dialog has a Pro label. You can still add and configure it. The editor shows Paused on the Free plan · live for entrants when you upgrade, and the action-settings panel links to View plans. When actions are live - Pro — saved, complete actions are live for entrants. - Free, new contest — actions remain editable and visible in the merchant preview, but entrants do not see or complete them on the live standalone page, popup, or app block. - Upgrade from Free — paused actions become live immediately; you do not need to relaunch the contest. The billing success message confirms how many contests now have live actions. - Existing grandfathered contest — a contest that already had bonus actions when plan gating was introduced keeps those actions live on Free. New contests, including copies and contests created from templates, follow the current plan rules. If you activate a Free-plan contest with paused actions, Launch names the actions that entrants will not see. A running contest can also appear under Needs attention as Activate bonus actions, with an Upgrade to Pro action. Available actions | Action | Typical use | |---|---| | Email signup | Collect an email where an additional signup action is useful; the base entry already requires email | | Photo Upload | Collect user-generated images | | Visit URL | Send entrants to a product or landing page | | Answer Question | Collect text, single-choice, or multiple-choice answers | | Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, YouTube | Prompt a social profile or channel visit | | Referral Share | Award entries when invited friends enter | | Secret Code | Gate entries using a known code | Entry values and limits Set rewards in proportion to the effort required. A profile visit might be worth one entry, while a photo submission might be worth more. Random winner selection is weighted by each entrant's total earned entries. Referral Share uses Entries per referral and Maximum referral entries instead of the normal one-time entry value. It always remains optional. Copying or sharing earns nothing by itself; the reward is added when a new entrant submits through the unique link. See Referral Sharing for the storefront flow and the Referred entries and Top referrers reports. Other actions can be marked Required to enter. Required actions appear on the entry form and must be completed before submission, so use them only when essential. Edit or remove an action Saving changes to an existing action updates it without deleting entrant completions, photos, answers, or other submissions. Removing an action is different. If entrants have completed it, the editor shows a warning with Remove anyway and Keep action. Removing it permanently deletes those action submissions. Entrants keep the bonus entries they already earned, so their weighted draw total does not decrease. Complete configuration An incomplete action is not shown on the storefront. For example, URL and social actions need destinations, choice questions need options, and Secret Code needs a code. Keep the action list focused, write clear instructions, and preview both entry and success states. For photo contests, use Results to review the gallery, votes, and hidden submissions. See Billing & Plans for current plan limits.
Referral Sharing
Referral sharing gives each confirmed entrant a unique link and awards extra entries when a new person enters through it. It is a Pro bonus action: you can configure and preview it on Free, but entrants on a new Free-plan contest do not receive referral tools or rewards until you upgrade. Mobile Results view showing the Referrals segment, referred entries, successful referrals, and active referrers Configure referrals 1. Open the contest editor. 2. Go to Build > Bonus actions. 3. Click Add bonus action and choose Referral Share. 4. Add a clear title and description. 5. Enter the Share message used by supported device share sheets. 6. Set Entries per referral from 1 to 10. 7. Set Maximum referral entries from 1 to 100. 8. Save and test the complete storefront flow in Preview. On Free, the editor labels Referral Share as Pro and keeps it paused on the live storefront. Launch warns before activation. Upgrading to Pro makes it live immediately without relaunching the contest. A contest that already had bonus actions when plan gating was introduced is grandfathered and keeps them live. Referral Share always remains optional. It cannot be made a required action because an entrant must complete the base entry before receiving a referral link. What entrants see After the base entry is confirmed, the success experience shows: - A unique referral URL containing the entrant's referral code. - Copy and, when the browser supports native sharing, Share. - Successful referral count. - Referral bonus progress, such as 4 of 20 bonus entries earned. Copying or sharing the link does not award entries. The original entrant earns the configured reward only after a new entrant submits a valid entry through the unique link. Self-referrals are ignored, and rewards stop at the configured maximum. Referral rewards increase the original entrant's total entries. A weighted random draw uses that total, so an entrant with more earned entries has proportionally more chances. Review referral performance Open Results and select Referrals. The summary shows Successful referrals and Active referrers. - Referred entries shows each referred entrant, who referred them, total entries, source, and entry date. - Top referrers ranks entrants by successful referrals and shows referral bonus entries, total entries, and latest referral date. Use search and pagination to review larger contests. The Referrals segment count is the number of successful referrals. Troubleshooting If a reward is missing, confirm that: - The contest is on Pro, or is a grandfathered contest whose actions remain live. - Referral Share is configured and saved. - The friend opened the unique referral URL, not the ordinary contest URL. - The friend completed a valid entry as a new entrant. - The original entrant has not reached Maximum referral entries. - The contest was active when the friend entered. Keep the reward simple and explain it in the contest description and terms. For a broader Results tour, see Managing Entries. See Bonus Entry Actions for the full Free and Pro action rules.
Social, Question, Upload, and Secret Code Actions
Use bonus actions for social discovery, questions, photo submissions, link visits, and code-gated campaigns. Configure them under Build > Bonus actions. On Free, you can build and preview them, but actions on a new contest remain paused for entrants until you upgrade to Pro. Social and URL actions Instagram, TikTok, X/Twitter, and YouTube actions send entrants to your profile or channel. Visit URL can point to a product, collection, article, or campaign page. Provide a valid destination and clear action title. Social platforms do not always allow third-party apps to verify a follow automatically, so ensure your wording and rules describe what is actually required. Answer Question Choose a text answer, single choice, or multiple choice. Choice-based questions need options before they can appear. Where relevant, configure whether a correct answer is required. Questions can support trivia, preferences, product feedback, or a lightweight qualifying step. Photo Upload Use photo upload for user-generated-content campaigns, styling challenges, before-and-after submissions, or product showcases. JPEG, PNG, and WebP are allowed by default, with a default 10 MB limit; the action settings let you choose a limit from 1 to 50 MB and edit the allowed file types. The photo action also controls the public gallery workflow: - Manually approve photos keeps each new submission out of the gallery until you approve it in Results. - Require email to vote changes voting from anonymous browser-based voting to one vote per email address. - When email is required, you can also enable Ask voters for their name and Ask voters for marketing consent. Consenting voters sync to active Pro email integrations. Photo submissions appear under Results > Photo entries, where you can review vote totals, approve or reject pending photos, hide or unhide approved photos, delete only the uploaded photo while keeping the entrant, or delete the full entry. Identified voters appear in the Votes segment. Add the Photo gallery block from Launch so shoppers can see approved photos and vote. Hidden, rejected, or unapproved photos stay out of the public gallery and cannot receive new public votes. Hiding a photo also excludes it from Most votes. Approval state and gallery visibility do not remove the entrant from random or manual selection. Use Delete photo when only the image and its votes should be removed; use Delete when the entrant must be removed from every winner method. Tied most-voted leaders are shown for a manual tie-break. Your terms should explain moderation, acceptable content, image usage rights, voting, marketing consent, and winner selection. See Photo Contests and Public Voting for the complete setup and moderation workflow. Secret Code Set a code, case-sensitivity behavior, and optional hint. This works well for package inserts, retail events, VIP groups, or live promotions. Test before launch Save the actions and use Preview to check their setup. On Free, Launch names the paused actions and the live storefront hides them, including photo upload, gallery, and voting. Upgrade to Pro to make them live without relaunching the contest. Grandfathered contests that already had actions when plan gating was introduced keep them live. On Pro, complete a test entry and confirm the correct total appears in Results. For photos, test upload, gallery visibility, and voting behavior on mobile as well as desktop. Saving ordinary edits preserves existing submissions. Explicitly removing a completed action permanently deletes its photos, answers, or other submissions; the warning offers Remove anyway or Keep action, and entrants retain the bonus entries already earned. See Bonus Entry Actions for the full action lifecycle.
Photo Contests and Public Voting
Photo contests combine a Photo upload bonus action, a storefront gallery, public voting, moderation, and a most-votes winner method. Photo upload is a Pro bonus action: on Free you can configure and preview it, but it stays paused for entrants on new contests until you upgrade. Before you start - Decide what entrants may submit and how you may reuse their images. - Add clear moderation, voting, tie-break, and winner-selection rules to your terms. - Use an Online Store 2.0 theme page for the Photo gallery block. - Connect a Pro email integration first if you want consenting voters to sync to a marketing audience. 1. Configure the Photo upload action 1. Open the contest editor and go to Build > Bonus actions. 2. Click Add bonus action and choose Photo upload. 3. Set the action title, number of entries earned, whether it is required, the upload prompt, maximum file size, and allowed file types. JPEG, PNG, and WebP are allowed by default with a 10 MB limit; the editor permits a limit from 1 to 50 MB. 4. Configure moderation and voting: - Manually approve photos — new photos stay out of the gallery until you approve them in Results. Existing photos remain approved when you enable this setting. - Require email to vote — the gallery asks for an email address and enforces one vote per email per contest. - Ask voters for their name — adds an optional first-name field when email is required. - Ask voters for marketing consent — adds the contest's email consent checkbox. It is optional and unchecked. Consenting voters sync to active Pro email integrations. 5. Save and preview the contest. Photo upload settings showing manual approval and email-gated voting controls Without Require email to vote, votes are anonymous and limited by the shopper's browser or device. A shopper can change their vote. Anonymous votes increase the totals but do not appear as identified voter rows in Results. 2. Add the Photo gallery block 1. Go to Launch > Photo gallery block. This channel appears when the contest has a Photo upload action. 2. Click Open theme editor. 3. Add the Photo gallery block to the page where shoppers should browse and vote. 4. Select the contest, place the block, and click Save. 5. Return to Launch and confirm the channel reports Added. In Shopify's theme editor you can configure the heading, winner heading, two to four columns, whether names and vote counts are shown, colors, vote-button text, and maximum width. Names are shown only when the contest collects them, and only the entrant's first name is exposed. Voting opens when the contest's start date arrives. The entry end date does not close voting by itself; voting closes when you select a winner or resolve the contest with No winner. After winner selection, the gallery highlights the winner. 3. Approve and moderate photos Open Results > Photo entries. Use: - All photos for every photo submission. - Awaiting approval for new photos held by manual approval. - Rejected for photos you kept out of the gallery. - Approve or Reject on a pending card. - The card menu to hide or unhide an approved photo. - Delete photo to remove only the uploaded image while keeping the entrant. - Delete to remove the complete entrant record and all winner eligibility. Results photo moderation showing approval filters and pending photo actions Photo entry action menu showing separate Delete photo and Delete options Pending, rejected, and hidden photos do not appear in the public gallery and cannot receive new public votes. Existing vote totals are retained. Hiding also excludes a photo from Most votes; approval or rejection alone does not remove the entrant from random/manual selection. Delete photo removes only the uploaded image from the gallery and Shopify Files, deletes votes for that photo, and subtracts its photo-action entries; the entrant stays in the contest with at least one entry. Delete removes the entire entrant and all winner eligibility. Rejection is reversible; both deletion actions are permanent. The dashboard shows Needs attention > Approve photos while a queue is waiting. UserLoop sends an operational review alert when the first photo enters an empty queue. While more submissions arrive and the queue remains open, additional alerts are limited to one per 24 hours. 4. Review voters and choose a winner When email is required, open Results > Votes to see each voter's email, optional name, selected photo, marketing-consent state, and vote date. Identified voters also appear in All entries as gallery-vote activity. Anonymous votes are visible only through photo vote totals. After the contest ends, open Draw winners, choose a prize, and select Most votes. The highest-voted confirmed, visible photo that has not already won is eligible. If you rejected a photo after it received votes, also hide it to exclude it from Most votes. If eligible leaders are tied, choose one of the tied photos. You can also use random or manual selection. Marketing consent and integrations A voter is sent to Klaviyo, Omnisend, or Campaign Monitor only when all of these are true: - The store is on Pro and the provider is connected. - Require email to vote is enabled. - Ask voters for marketing consent is enabled. - The voter selects the consent checkbox. Non-consented and anonymous votes are never subscribed. Historical votes are not resent after you connect an integration. Troubleshooting - The gallery channel is missing in Launch: confirm the contest has a saved Photo upload action. - A photo is not public: check Awaiting approval, Rejected, and the Hidden badge, then confirm the correct gallery block and contest are saved in the theme. - A voter is not listed: identified voter rows require Require email to vote. - A voter did not sync: confirm Pro, an active integration, both voting consent settings, and that the voter selected the checkbox. - Most votes finds no eligible photo: unhide a confirmed photo that has at least one vote and confirm the entrant has not already won. For general action behavior, see Social, Question, Upload, and Secret Code Actions. For result controls, see Managing Entries and Selecting Winners.