---
name: referrals
description: "Design, launch, and optimize referral and affiliate programs that turn customers into acquisition channels. Use when the user says referral program, affiliate program, ambassador, refer a friend, viral loop, word of mouth, or affiliate payout. Not for launch-week virality tactics: use launch. Not for the nurture emails themselves: use emails. Not for partner co-marketing campaigns: use co-marketing."
license: MIT
metadata:
  author: TechTide AI (Alex Cinovoj)
  provenance: rewritten from patterns in an open SaaS marketing skills pack (MIT)
  category: Marketing & Growth
---

# Referral and Affiliate Programs

A referral program only works when the product is worth talking about and the ask lands at the right moment. Design the loop first, pick incentives second, tooling last.

## Before starting

If `.agents/product-marketing.md` or `.claude/product-marketing.md` exists, read it first. Then confirm: program type (referral, affiliate, both), B2B or B2C, LTV and current CAC, existing program state, whether the product is naturally shareable, and reward budget. Work with what you get; note gaps instead of blocking.

## Pick the program type

| | Customer referral | Affiliate |
|---|---|---|
| Who promotes | Existing customers | Creators, bloggers, non-customers |
| Reward | One-time or capped | Ongoing commission |
| Trust / volume | High trust, low volume | Variable trust, high volume |
| Best for | Self-serve products with word of mouth | Reaching audiences you do not own, higher-ticket deals |

Run both only when each has an owner. An unowned affiliate program attracts coupon-site parasites.

## Design the referral loop

The loop: trigger moment, share action, referred user converts, both get rewarded, repeat.

1. **Trigger moments.** Ask right after the first aha moment, a milestone, a great support interaction, or a renewal/upgrade. Never on day one, never mid-frustration.
2. **Share mechanism**, ranked by conversion: in-product share, personalized link, email invite, social share, plain code (works offline). Build the top one you can ship.
3. **Incentive structure.** Double-sided rewards convert best (both sides win, framing is generous, not salesy). Single-sided suits high-value products. Tiered rewards keep repeat referrers engaged. Size the reward against LTV: total reward cost per acquired customer should land meaningfully under your blended CAC. Reward in product value (credits, months free) before cash when possible; it is cheaper and selects real users.
4. **Fraud rules.** Self-referral detection, reward caps, payout only after the referred user activates or pays, not on signup.

Read references/program-operations.md when you need the launch checklist, affiliate commission design, nurture email skeletons, or the optimization playbook.

## Metrics that matter

Program health: active referrers in the last 30 days, referral conversion rate, rewards paid. Business impact: percent of new customers from referrals, CAC via referral vs other channels, LTV of referred vs non-referred customers. Referred customers typically show higher LTV and lower churn; verify with your own cohort data instead of quoting industry numbers.

## Good vs Bad

**Bad:** "Launch a give $50 / get $50 program to all users via a single announcement email." Cash reward invites fraud, the blast hits users who have not activated, and there is no in-product surface, so the program dies in a week.

**Good:** "Give a month free, get a month free, shown in-product immediately after a user completes their third project, with payout only after the referred user activates. Announcement email goes to customers active in the last 60 days." Right reward currency, right moment, fraud-resistant, targeted.

## Verification

Before launch, walk the entire loop yourself with two test accounts: trigger the prompt, share the link, convert the referred account, confirm both rewards land and attribution is recorded. Expect every step to work without manual intervention. Any step that needs a human: fix it before announcing.

Thirty days after launch, pull the funnel: prompt views, shares, referred signups, conversions, rewards paid. Expect a visible number at every stage. A zero at any stage names your bottleneck; fix that stage only (awareness, share friction, landing experience, or incentive strength).

## Footguns

- **Reward on signup, not activation.** Guaranteed fraud and junk signups. Fix: pay out on activation or first payment.
- **Asking everyone, immediately.** Users who have not hit value cannot refer credibly. Fix: gate prompts behind an activation event.
- **Referral link lands on the generic homepage.** Referred users lose the context of their friend's endorsement. Fix: dedicated landing page naming the referrer and the new-user reward.
- **Set-and-forget incentives.** Programs decay. Fix: review funnel monthly, A/B one variable at a time (amount, type, timing, copy), per references/program-operations.md.

## Completion checklist

- [ ] Program type chosen with reasoning tied to LTV/CAC
- [ ] Trigger moment, share mechanism, and incentive structure specified
- [ ] Fraud rules defined; payout gated on activation
- [ ] Full loop walked end to end with test accounts
- [ ] Funnel metrics instrumented before announcement

Any box unchecked: not done. Fix or say so.