A single campaign can carry up to four caps. They're all optional — set the ones you want and leave the rest blank.
#Why caps at multiple levels
Different campaigns have different risk profiles:
- A small client-thank-you campaign with a known recipient list → maybe just a total budget
- A sales prospecting campaign with many senders → per-sender link cap plus a total link cap
- A retention campaign that runs for a long time → per-recipient cap to prevent over-gifting
Stack only what you need.
#Total campaign budget
The total dollar budget for this campaign across all senders, all recipients, all time. Once cumulative spend hits the cap, the campaign is closed because its budget is reached. The landing page closes gracefully — visitors see the existing "campaign closed" copy.
This budget does not reset. A campaign has a finite life; its budget covers the whole life.
#Link count caps
Two complementary link-count caps:
- Total link cap — the total number of invite links allowed across all senders for this campaign.
- Per-sender link cap — a ceiling on how many links any single sender can generate for this campaign.
Useful patterns:
- Limit campaign reach without limiting any single sender: set a total link cap, leave the per-sender cap blank.
- Throttle each sender's enthusiasm without capping campaign size: set a per-sender link cap, leave the total cap blank.
- Both: hard reach ceiling plus per-sender fairness.
These caps fire at link generation time. A breach blocks link creation with a clear error — the sender knows immediately, and no recipient is ever involved.
#Per-recipient cap on a campaign
This is anti-over-gifting at the campaign level. It caps total spend on any single recipient within this specific campaign.
When set, it overrides the account-wide per-recipient annual cap for orders in this campaign. (The campaign-scoped cap is usually tighter — that's the point.)
#How campaign caps interact with team, user, and account caps
Merch evaluates caps on a new order in this priority order (first failure wins):
- Account fulfillment credit limit
- Total campaign budget
- Team cap
- User cap
- Per-recipient cap (campaign-scoped if set, otherwise account-wide annual)
So an order can be held for a campaign-cap reason even if the sender has plenty of personal budget left. Each cap is evaluated independently.
#What happens when a cap is hit
Same as everywhere in spend controls:
- The order is parked on credit hold with the matching reason.
- The recipient sees no error — their tracking page renders normally.
- The Spend Controls page shows the held queue with the reason that fired.
Resolution options vary by reason. For campaign caps:
- Raise the campaign cap (auto-clears held orders).
- Extend the campaign budget.
- Override the specific held order with a captured reason.
#FAQs
If I raise the campaign budget, does the campaign reopen? Yes — when the next evaluation runs and finds spend below the new limit, the campaign reactivates and the landing page reopens.
Are public-link orders gated by the per-sender cap? No. Public links don't have a specific sender attached — they count against the campaign and account caps, but not user or team caps. The per-sender cap only applies to invite links with a known creator.
Do unused links count toward the total link cap? Yes — link counters increment when the link is generated, not when it's redeemed. Cancelling a link before redemption reverses the counter; redeemed links stay counted.
Does the campaign cap stop my sales team from generating any more links once the budget is reached? Yes. Once the campaign is closed because its budget is reached, no new orders will be accepted. Link generation still works if your total link cap isn't separately exhausted, but those links won't be redeemable.