Create Referral Program

Learn how to set up a referral program and create unique referral codes in the Campaign Manager.

Contents

1. Program size
2. Timeframe
3. Referral workflow
4. Referee reward
5. Tiers for referrers
6. Notifications
7. Metadata and the summary

To begin with, you’ll need to run the Campaign manager with the plus (+) and create a new referral program.

Program size

In the first step, define program details such as:

• Program name and category. 
• Code settings (pattern, redemption limit, codes count).
• Auto-update campaign mode (new codes will be automatically added to the campaign if you run out of the original pool of codes).
• Customers will join the campaign only once*.

Program timeframe

In the second step, define optional time limits:

• Start and end date (if no end date is set, the program will run non-stop and would need to be paused manually). 
• Validity timeframe (e.g., every day between 3 and 6 pm). 
• Valid on particular days only (e.g., only on the weekend). 
• Valid for specific amount of time after publication (e.g., code is active for 48 hours after sharing with customers).

Read more about the time limits here. 

Incentive workflow

In the third section, you will be asked to set up your referral campaign workflow.

Choose a conversion event (when a new customer is designated as a referred customer).

• Referral code redemption - the referee redeems a referral code
• Custom event - a custom trigger

Next, choose the type of referral program.

• Referrer - This is a single-sided referral program where only the referrer is rewarded. 
• Referrer and referee - This is a double-sided referral program where both the referrer and the referee who was invited get a reward.

Referee reward

If you decide on a double-sided referral program, you need to define a reward for new customers (referees). It can be a discount code (percentage, unit, amount, free shipping, fixed price), gift card credits, or loyalty points.

Discount Effects

If you choose discount coupons, you need to decide if the discount is applied to the whole order or to specific items only. Select the discount effect and if needed, define discounted products using validation rules. Read more about discount effects. The discount effect is discount-specific, meaning that the effects are based on the discount context, i.e. effects for the Amount type are slightly different than the effects for a Percent type.

Validation Rules

Below this section, you can see  validation rules. Here, you can create validation rules attached to referral codes. They restrict redemptions made by new customers (referees). For example, you can set the required minimum order value to $50. You can create these validation rules for both single and double-sided referral programs. 

If you need help with creating limits, visit this guide.

Tiers

In the fifth stage of the program creation, you need to define rewarding criteria and tell Voucherify when and how the referrer is rewarded.

To do so, you are going to build tiers. Each tier is a separate level in your referral program. If you want to have different rewards or/and different rewarding criteria then tiers are what you need. For example, you can reward a referrer for each successful referral with a 10% discount and by using the second tier you can trigger an extra reward for every 5th, 10th, and 15th referred customer.

There is no limit on the number of tiers, you can build multi-level referral programs with many rewards and custom rewarding schemas.

The creation of tiers is a 3-step process:

• Criteria
• Rewards
• Notifications

Step 1: Tier criteria 

For both custom events and referral code redemption based conversion events, you can reward the referrer based on two criteria:

• Reward every time a referee (the invited customer) performs the conversion event (custom event or referral code redemption).
• Reward for a given number of referees who performed a conversion event.

Use filters to create needed segment conditions and confirm the selection with Add. As a result, a referrer needs to enter the created segment to get the reward.

For example, on the screen above, you can see that to fulfill the rewarding criteria, the referrers need to meet to following requirements:

• Refer 5 customers.
• Have metadata attribute paid_bill set to true.

Step 2: Tier rewards

Next, define the reward for referrers. You can choose from digital and material rewards:

• Discount coupon
• Gift card credits
• Loyalty points
• Physical product (imported from your product catalog).

If you have already created rewards, you can select them from a list by clicking on the magnifying glass. You can also build rewards from scratch by clicking on the plus sign. Read more about the Rewards Catalog.

When creating new digital rewards, you need to specify the campaign which will be the source of codes. You can either choose an exiting campaign or you can create a new campaign on the spot.

If you decide to create a new campaign from scratch, you will be taken to the Campaign Manager where you can set the campaign name, incentive type and value, validation rules, and campaign metadata. After filling in the details, confirm with Save.

If you decide to create a new reward from scratch, you will have the option of adding metadata, which is custom attributes to the reward. Read more here. Don't forget to click Save. Otherwise, the reward won't be saved. 

Continue to add possible rewards for the referrer. All active referrer rewards will be listed in the referral tier manager.

Step 3: Tier notifications

Lastly, you can add notifications that are triggered when all rewarding criteria are met and a reward is assigned to the referrer.

You can design your message on the spot (email & SMS) or map fields for your integrations. Read more.

When the tier is ready, confirm with Done. You can add another referral tier or go to the Next step.

Program notifications

In the 6th stage, you can add optional notifications to your referral campaign. You can set up automatic notifications for two events:

• To send a referral code to a referrer, the message is triggered by code publication.

  

• To inform the referee about the successful referral. The message is triggered by successful referral.

  Note that all variables related to vouchers will be populated only in referrer notifications. 

Read more about notifications set up.

Metadata and summary

In the 7th step, you can add additional metadata to your campaign. Read more here about metadata.

The last stage of the manager shows a summary of your referral program. You can see the overview and, in case you need to, go back to each step to modify it.

When all program details are ready, confirm with Save and wait until the referral codes are generated.