# Referrals > Design referral, affiliate and ambassador programmes with incentives and payout mechanics. Use when designing customer referral loops, affiliate programs, or invites. - Skill: `poorvith-mp/referrals` (Agent Skill, multi-file: 3 files) - Install (CLI): `npx skillmds@latest add poorvith-mp/referrals` - Raw SKILL.md: https://api.skillmd.com/api/skills/poorvith-mp/referrals/raw - Safety review: pending - Works with: Claude Code, Claude.ai, OpenAI Codex - Category: Coding & Dev Tools - Author: poorvith-mp (https://skillmd.com/u/poorvith-mp) - Updated: 2026-09-17 - Page: https://skillmd.com/skills/poorvith-mp/referrals --- # referrals ## Core Philosophy A referral or affiliate program cannot fix an unretentive product. Referral programs work exclusively as an amplification loop for products that already demonstrate high customer satisfaction (NPS > 50) and clear organic word-of-mouth. To prevent fraud, low-quality leads, and margin erosion, incentives must be double-sided, economically bounded, and triggered precisely at the customer's peak emotional moment of value. --- ## 4-Stage Referral Loop Architecture ### Stage 1: Economic Modeling & Incentive Engineering 1. **Unit Economics Guardrails**: - Set Maximum Referral Reward $\le 0.30 imes text{Customer Acquisition Cost (CAC)}$. - Example: If Blended CAC is $300, total referral payout must not exceed $90 across both parties. 2. **Double-Sided Incentive Structures**: - *Cash/Credit*: Give $50 account credit to referrer; Give $50 onboarding credit to referee. - *Feature/Quota Unlocks*: Give 5,000 free API calls or 1 month of premium features to both sides. - *Status/Access*: Invite-only early beta access or VIP community tier for 3 successful invites. 3. **Affiliate vs Customer Referral**: - *Customer Referrals*: Account credits and feature upgrades (keeps incentives aligned with product usage). - *Affiliate Program*: Cash commissions (15–25% recurring for 12 months) for content creators, agencies, and consultants. ### Stage 2: Trigger Timing & Journey Placement 1. **The "Peak Joy" Trigger Moment**: - Never ask for a referral during onboarding or setup. - Trigger referral prompts immediately after value realization: - After completing their first successful build or export. - After resolving a customer support ticket with a 5-star rating. - Immediately after reaching a quantifiable milestone (e.g., "You saved 10 hours this week"). 2. **In-Product Real Estate**: - Dedicated navigation item: "Share & Earn $50". - Non-intrusive modal or banner at milestone achievements. - Transactional email footer: "Give your team $25 off". ### Stage 3: Attribution, Tracking & Fraud Mitigation 1. **Tracking Infrastructure**: - Generate unique, deterministic referral slugs per user (`app.domain.com/r/{user_slug}`). - Store referral cookie with a 30-to-60 day attribution window. - Implement server-side attribution logging on signup and conversion events. 2. **Fraud Prevention Gates**: - Disallow referral payouts for accounts sharing IP addresses, credit cards, or device fingerprints. - Implement delayed reward maturation: Hold payouts for 30 days until the referee passes the refund/chargeback window. - Require referee to complete a paid transaction or minimum active threshold before rewarding referrer. ### Stage 4: Program Optimization & Viral Loops 1. **Viral Coefficient ($K$-Factor) Calculation**: $$K = i imes c$$ - Where $i$ = Number of invites sent per active user, and $c$ = Conversion rate of each invite. - If $K > 1$, the product achieves viral organic growth. 2. **Friction Reduction in Sharing**: - Provide 1-click native copy to clipboard with pre-written social and email share copy. - Generate automated Open Graph preview cards showing the referee's personalized discount. --- ## Deliverable Format: Referral Program Specification (`REFERRAL-PROGRAM-SPEC.md`) ```markdown # Customer Referral Program Specification: [Program Name] ## 1. Incentive Economics & Rules - **Referrer Reward**: [e.g. $50 account credit / 1 free month] - **Referee Reward**: [e.g. 20% off first 3 months] - **Maximum Payout / User**: [Cap, e.g. $500/year] - **Economic Limit**: [Referral cost as % of CAC] ## 2. Trigger Moments & UI Placements - **Primary Trigger**: [Exact in-product milestone, e.g. 10th workflow run] - **UI Placements**: [Sidebar widget, settings tab, invoice email footer] - **In-App Modal Copy**: [Headline, body, primary CTA button text] ## 3. Fraud & Payout Policies - **Maturation Window**: [e.g. 30 days post-conversion] - **Self-Referral Check**: [IP, fingerprint, credit card hash match] - **Minimum Spend**: [Referee must spend minimum $X to trigger credit] ## 4. Viral Sharing Assets - **Default Share URL**: `https://[domain].com/r/{referral_code}` - **Pre-Written Email Copy**: [Subject and body] - **Social Share Text**: [Default tweet/LinkedIn post copy] ``` --- ## Worked Example: B2B Developer Tool Referral Program - **Incentive**: Give $100 cloud compute credits to both referrer and referee. - **Trigger**: Displayed in-app immediately after user executes 100 successful cloud builds. - **Fraud Rule**: Payout releases only when referee spends $50 of real cash or runs 50 builds across 14 distinct days. - **Resulting Metric**: 18% of referred users convert to paid vs 6% baseline organic rate; $K$-factor increased from 0.12 to 0.41. --- ## Verification Checklist - [ ] Total referral incentive cost does not exceed 30% of target blended CAC. - [ ] Referral prompt is triggered strictly after value realization, not during onboarding. - [ ] Tracking uses durable cookies (30–60 days) and server-side conversion webhooks. - [ ] Fraud safeguards block self-referrals and shared billing profiles. - [ ] 1-click sharing copy is pre-written and includes dynamic discount preview. --- ## Anti-Patterns - **Early Begging**: Showing referral popups before the user has completed a single core workflow. - **Asymmetric One-Sided Rewards**: Rewarding the referrer with cash while offering zero incentive to the person being invited. - **Uncapped Vulnerabilities**: Allowing bad actors to farm thousands in credits using throwaway email domains.