Installing Soreto and launching your first campaign
This article is a quick-start path, not a full tutorial — each step below is intentionally short, and links onward to the article that covers it in depth. If you want the complete picture of any single step, follow its link rather than expecting the full detail here.
1. Install the app
Install Soreto from the Shopify App Store, then open it from your Shopify admin. Once installed, it appears in your admin's app navigation like any other Shopify app, and every campaign you create lives inside it — nothing about your storefront changes until you launch a campaign and turn on placements.
2. Create your first campaign
From the app, click New campaign to start the campaign wizard. The wizard has two steps:
- Campaign Setup — name your campaign, confirm your company details, set the campaign's schedule, and define your referrer and friend reward structure (what each side receives, and how their discount codes work).
- Creative & Launch — write your widget copy, choose your button colours, and set your campaign images.
This article won't walk through every field in the wizard — see Creating & Managing Campaigns for the full walkthrough of Campaign Setup and launch/scheduling behavior, and Setting Up Rewards for a deeper look at reward structures and how discount codes are generated.
3. Turn on your placements
While you're in the campaign wizard, the Live Preview panel shows all four of Soreto's placements — the Floating widget, Inline card, Thank-you page, and Order status page — and whether each one is currently live on your store.
Some placements work as soon as your campaign is live; others need a one-time setup step outside the app first, in Shopify's Theme Editor (for the floating widget and inline card) or Shopify's Checkout customization editor (for the thank-you page and order status page). If a placement in the Live Preview panel shows as not live, that's usually why. See Widgets & Placements for what each placement looks like and exactly how to enable it.
4. Launch your campaign
Once your reward structure and creative are in place, launch the campaign. It starts showing to customers right away — your start and end dates are recorded for your own reference on the campaigns list, but don't currently delay or automatically stop the campaign on your storefront (see Creating & Managing Campaigns for the detail on this). If you're not ready for customers to see it yet, don't launch it until you are.
5. Test it on your storefront
Before you tell customers about your referral program, visit your storefront yourself and confirm that the placements you enabled actually show up where you expect. This is the fastest way to catch a placement that still needs its Theme Editor or Checkout customization setup step before you announce anything.
What's next?
Once your first campaign is live, these are the collections to go deeper on:
- Setting Up Rewards — reward structures, discount code types, and how referrer/friend rewards are generated.
- Creating & Managing Campaigns — the full campaign wizard walkthrough, scheduling, and managing campaigns after launch.
- Widgets & Placements — every placement in detail, including the Theme Editor and Checkout customization setup steps.
Common questions
- Do I need to touch Shopify's Theme Editor or Checkout customization editor for every campaign? Only the first time you enable a placement that requires it. Once a placement is added there, it stays available for future campaigns. See Widgets & Placements for which placements need this and how to do it.
- What happens if I don't set an end date? Choosing "Forever" as your campaign's schedule keeps it running indefinitely, with no automatic end date.
- Can I launch a campaign before I've finished writing my creative? The wizard's Creative & Launch step is where you finalize copy, colours, and images before launch — see Creating & Managing Campaigns for how the wizard sequences Campaign Setup and Creative & Launch.