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AdvocateLoop Docs

WordPress Plugin Installation & Setup

This page covers installing the plugin and connecting it to your AdvocateLoop account. If you just want the fastest possible path, the WooCommerce Quick Start gets you to a working install in about ten minutes; the steps below cover the same ground plus a few alternatives and verification checks.

Prerequisites

  • WordPress 5.8 or higher
  • PHP 7.4 or higher
  • An AdvocateLoop account (sign up here)

WooCommerce is not required for the base plugin. If you have WooCommerce installed and active, the WooCommerce integration features turn on automatically.

Step 1: Install the plugin

There are two ways to install:

  1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New
  2. Search for “AdvocateLoop”
  3. Click Install Now, then Activate

Option B: From a ZIP file

If you have the plugin as a ZIP file (for example, a beta version provided directly):

  1. In your WordPress admin, go to Plugins → Add New → Upload Plugin
  2. Choose the ZIP file and click Install Now
  3. Click Activate Plugin once the upload finishes

Step 2: Get your credentials

You’ll need two values from your AdvocateLoop dashboard at app.advocateloop.com:

  • API Key — used by the plugin to authenticate with the AdvocateLoop API
  • Brand ID — identifies which brand the requests belong to

Both are available under Settings → API Keys in the dashboard. The API key is shown only once when first generated, so copy it somewhere safe before leaving the page. If you’ve lost it, you can generate a new one — generating a new key invalidates the old one immediately.

Step 3: Connect your brand

  1. In your WordPress admin, go to AdvocateLoop in the main sidebar (or WooCommerce → AdvocateLoop if you’re running WooCommerce)
  2. Paste your API Key into the API Key field
  3. Paste your Brand ID into the Brand ID field
  4. Click Save Changes

The plugin verifies the connection automatically. If the credentials are valid, you’ll see a green confirmation. If they’re not, you’ll see an error explaining what went wrong (most commonly: incorrect API key, or the API key was regenerated and the old one is no longer valid).

Step 4: Verify everything’s working

The connection check on the settings page tells you the plugin can talk to the API. To verify end-to-end tracking, run a quick test:

  1. In your AdvocateLoop dashboard, go to Referrers and create a test referrer with your own email. Note the referral code (something like V2AVMRDJ).

  2. Open an incognito or private browsing window (so cookies are clean) and visit your site with the referral code in the URL:

    https://yoursite.com/?ref=V2AVMRDJ

  3. Check the dashboard. Under Insights → Clicks you should see a new click recorded within a few seconds.

If the click shows up, the plugin is connected and tracking is working. If it doesn’t, see Troubleshooting for next steps.

What gets stored in your WordPress database

The plugin is intentionally lightweight in terms of local storage:

  • Plugin settings are stored in the standard WordPress options table (wp_options)
  • Order metadata for WooCommerce — small reference fields like the claim ID and visitor ID — is stored as post meta on each order
  • No custom database tables are created. Uninstalling the plugin doesn’t leave behind any custom schema.
  • No customer personal data is duplicated locally. Customer information (email, name, phone) lives on the WooCommerce order itself and is sent to the AdvocateLoop API only when a tracking event fires.

Updating the plugin

If you installed from the WordPress admin, updates appear in the standard Plugins → Updates screen. The plugin’s database options and settings are preserved across updates. Your API key and Brand ID don’t need to be re-entered.

If you installed from a ZIP file, you’ll need to manually upload the new version. The simplest approach: deactivate, delete (settings are preserved), upload the new ZIP, activate.

Deactivating and uninstalling

Deactivating stops the plugin from running but preserves all settings. You can reactivate later and pick up where you left off.

Uninstalling (Plugins → Installed Plugins → Delete) removes the plugin files. Settings are removed too — if you reinstall later, you’ll need to re-enter your API Key and Brand ID. Order metadata and any other WordPress data created by the plugin remain untouched.

Removing the plugin doesn’t affect data in your AdvocateLoop dashboard — your referrers, clicks, claims, conversions, and reports all stay intact in the cloud.