{"kind":"campaign_type","knowledgeVersion":"2026-11-04","id":"refer_a_friend","slug":"refer-a-friend","name":"Refer-a-Friend","shortName":"Refer-a-friend","category":"growth","categoryLabel":"Referral growth","status":"available","availableOn":"All plans, including Free","summary":"Customers share a personal link and both sides get rewarded.","description":"A referral promotion turns one happy customer into a small, trackable acquisition channel. Promotedly mints a unique referral URL for each customer and follows it all the way to the friend's redemption before it releases the reward.","example":"Give a friend $10 off — get $10 when they use it.","bestFor":["Word-of-mouth businesses","Salons","Gyms"],"customerJourney":["Claims the promotion and joins your list.","Gets a personal referral link with share buttons for text, email, copy-link and social.","Friend opens the link, sees the friend-side offer on your branded page, and claims it.","Reward trigger fires — either at the friend's signup or when the friend actually redeems.","Both sides get their reward, and the referral appears on your analytics as attributed revenue."],"setupSteps":[{"title":"Set both rewards","detail":"Choose the friend-side discount and the referrer reward. They do not have to match."},{"title":"Choose the trigger","detail":"Reward on friend signup for maximum volume, or on friend redemption for maximum quality. Redemption is the default."},{"title":"Cap it","detail":"Set the maximum referrals per customer — ten by default — so one enthusiastic poster cannot drain the budget."},{"title":"Write the share message","detail":"The text that pre-fills when a customer taps share. Keep it in their voice, not yours."},{"title":"Deploy","detail":"Referral promotions work best as a pop-up on your site and as a follow-up to an in-store claim."}],"configurable":["Friend discount","Referrer reward","Number of referrals allowed per customer","Reward trigger — signup or redemption","Maximum total rewards","Expiration","Referral tracking and attribution","Fraud and duplicate detection"],"whyItWorks":"A referred customer arrives with a recommendation attached, which is the one thing paid advertising cannot buy. Because the reward only fires on a real referral, the cost of acquisition is fixed and known before you launch.","producesReward":true,"serverDecidedOutcome":true,"pairsWith":["give_get","share_to_unlock","loyalty_visit"],"channels":["QR code card","Website pop-up","Shareable link"],"url":"https://promotedly.com/promotions/refer-a-friend","image":{"url":"https://promotedly.com/img/photos/refer-friend.webp","alt":"Two friends laughing at an outdoor taco restaurant as one shows the other something on his phone","width":1200,"height":800},"machineReadable":"https://promotedly.com/ai/features/refer-a-friend.json","mcpTool":"create_rewards_campaign","faqs":[{"question":"How do you stop people referring themselves?","answer":"Referral chains are checked for duplicate contact details, self-referral, shared devices and repeated IP addresses, and rewards on the redemption trigger only release after the friend's reward is marked redeemed by your staff. Suspicious chains are held for your review rather than paid out."},{"question":"Should I reward on signup or on redemption?","answer":"Signup produces more referrals and a longer list; redemption produces fewer referrals but only pays for customers who actually walked in. If this is your first referral campaign, use redemption — it is far harder to game and the maths is easier to defend."},{"question":"Where does the referral link live?","answer":"On the reward screen at the end of the customer's own claim, and again in the follow-up email or text. That is the moment they are most pleased with you, which is the moment a share is most likely."}]}