🎉 You've Designed Your Pass, Now What?
Completing your pass design is a big milestone, but the real magic happens when users actually have the pass in their wallet. This guide walks you through the three ways to issue passes, what happens behind the scenes, and how to track adoption once passes are out in the wild.
Ways to Issue Passes
Badge gives you three flexible methods to issue passes, depending on your tech setup and the audience you're targeting.
1. 📋 Sign Up Page
Best for: Collecting leads and creating passes for new users
A Badge-hosted sign-up form is the fastest path from unknown visitor to active pass holder. Here's how it works:
Build your form: Configure a sign-up form that collects the fields you need, such as name, email, phone number, or loyalty ID. These map directly to the custom attributes on your pass template.
Auto-generate passes: The moment a user submits the form, Badge automatically creates a unique pass for them, no manual work required.
Instant delivery: The user receives a QR code or a download button immediately, letting them add the pass to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet on the spot.
This method is ideal for in-store sign-up moments, event registrations, or any touchpoint where you want zero friction between interest and install.
2. 📂 Import Users via CSV
Best for: Issuing passes to an existing customer list in bulk.
If you already have a list of users, you can issue passes to all of them at once using a CSV upload.
Prepare your file: Format your CSV so each column maps to a custom attribute on your pass template (e.g., name, email, member ID, points balance). Email address is required to generate download links.
Upload to Badge: Import the file directly in the Badge platform. Badge processes each row and creates a unique pass per user.
Download links generated: Each user gets their own unique pass download link. You can then distribute those links via your own email platform, SMS tool, or CRM.
💡 Tip: Double-check your column headers against the custom attribute names in your pass template before uploading. Mismatched names are the most common cause of import issues.
3. 🔌 API or Custom Integration
Best for: Teams who want real-time, automated pass issuance tied directly to their existing systems.
The API method is the most powerful option and the right choice if you need passes to be created or updated automatically based on events in your CRM, loyalty platform, or e-commerce system.
Create passes via API: Use Badge's
UserPassUpsertendpoint to create or update passes programmatically. Pass attributes like member ID, points balance, reward value, or expiration date can all be populated dynamically.Keep passes current: Since Badge supports real-time pass updates (typically within ~5 seconds), your users' passes can reflect live data, such as updated points balances, new rewards, or refreshed offers, without any action required from the user.
Webhooks: Use Badge webhooks to trigger updates based on events in your system, such as a purchase, a redemption, or a tier change.
For full API documentation, visit docs.trybadge.com.
📊 Tracking Your Progress
Once passes are issued, you can monitor adoption directly from the pass template details page. The stats card shows three key metrics:
Created: Total number of passes created.
Invited: Number of users who have been sent an invite email through our platform.
Activated: Number of users who have downloaded and installed the pass.
These stats help you track how well your pass issuance process is working and how engaged your users are.
The gap between Created and Activated is your activation rate, and it's one of the most important numbers to watch. A low activation rate usually signals a distribution or awareness problem, not a pass design problem. If you're seeing low activation, check out our guide on Pass Activation Best Practices for proven tactics to close that gap.
🙋 Need Help?
If you run into any issues during pass issuance, reach out to your Badge customer success manager or contact our support team. We're here to make sure every pass gets into the right hands.