Looking to setup the in-app referral program? See here how to install, authenticate & embed the widget in your SaaS to set it up.
In this guide will we walk through all steps needed for setting up the in-app referral program, which will allow you to generate referral links for all your users without them needing to leave the app.
Terminology used;
In-app referral program = Program itself.
Advocate = User who is recommending you
Referral = new sign up via an advocate
Widget = pop up provided by Reditus, showcased in your app
Are you a developer? See our technical documentation here.
1. Setup referral tracking
For the in-app referral program we use the same tracking as we have for the affiliate program. If you already have this installed for your affiliate program, you don't need to do anything.
For our tracking to work, we require three three things.
- Installing a tracking script on your site + sign up page
- Installing a snippet into your sign up form
- Connecting your payment processor
These three steps will allow us to identify who signed up via an advocate or referral, so this tracking works for both programs. It will also make sure that we would never attribute a sign up twice.
With the payment processor connection; we are able to calculate the appropriate commissions or reward and able to identify who moved to a paid plan.
2. Setup the referral program benefits
When setting up an in-app referral program, you will need to set up the rewards your users can earn. With an affiliate program things are super straightforward; an affiliate will X % commission for X amount of months. For a referral program, you can have a lot more flexibility in the rewards you are going to give and if you want to give 'double-sided benefits'.
Advocate Rewards (beta)
Define what kind of rewards you want to give towards your users. As this feature is currently in Beta, we will be adding different types of rewards over time. See your referral program settings page, to see what kind of rewards are available.
New User reward
If you want to give your new users a reward for signing up via another user, you can do this with the referral program. What we typically see is that you want to give them something extra which is related to your app; extra trial, discount for first x months, credits or something else.
Since the reward is set within your application, you can use our API (and soon webhooks) to create these rewards. See our Referral program API documentation for more information.
3. Install and Embed the Widget
Load the widget
To embed the widget into your app, you would need a developer to load the data into the widget programmatically and embed it into the site.
Loading the widget is essential because it brings in the necessary JavaScript and exposes the functions you’ll need to display referral information to your users.
Here is a guide on how to do that.
Authenticating the User
We want to make sure each user’s referral activity is linked to the correct account. Authentication is handled on your backend to ensure your product secret remains private. You can find your Product ID, and Product Secret here; https://app.getreditus.com/saas/referral_program/config/authentication
The product secret from Reditus is critical for signing this token and should never be exposed in front-end code. Instead, you will generate the token on your server and pass it to your client.
See here the technical documentation to authenticate the user; https://docs.getreditus.com/referral-program/authentication
Showing the Widget Modal
Display the in-app referral modal so users can share referral links and track referrals directly in your application. Now that you’ve loaded the widget (Step 1) and authenticated your users (Step 2), the final step is to present the referral interface inside your application.
See here how to show the Modal; https://docs.getreditus.com/referral-program/show
Coming soon: URL link to trigger the popup at WoW or Value moments.
See below how the widgets looks, the first screen is where users are asked to join the referral program and they can 'opt-in' to it.
The second screen will allow them to see their unique referral link, their referrals (leads) and the rewards earned.
4. Run a live test
We recommend to run a full test yourself before pushing it out to your entire user base. Make sure the following works;
- Tracking of sign ups into Leads
- Generating the link for your users
5. Trigger the pop up on WOW moments
Coming soon: URL link to trigger the popup at WoW or Value moments.
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Want to test in staging?
- sign up with a (new) account at app.getreditus.net
- Change our api endpoints from .com to .net
- Folllow the steps above to setup the referral program
- Done testing? Change things to your production environment
- Change the API endpoints to .com
- Grab your production Product ID & change it
- Grab your production Product Secret & change it
Frequently Asked Installation Questions | In-app referral program
Can we use the same tracking as the affiliate program?
Yes, if you have the affiliate program already running you can skip the installation steps. We use the same tracking for both programs, making sure you would never have duplicated referrals as well.
What is the difference between the in-app referral program and affiliate program?
The in-app referral program is focused on your current user base, turning them into ambassadors.
The affiliate program often also have people recommending you which aren't users. think about Consultants, Publishers, Agencies, Influencers etc. People outside of your own user base, but would have access to your Ideal Customer Profile.
Can I start using the in-app referral program for free?
Yes. The in-app referral program is available in our free plan. You will have the ability to generate up to $1,000 Monthly Recurring Revenue for Free. Once you surpass the treshold, you will be moved into a paid plan.
If you want to use the affiliate program features, or have access to the API you will be asked to move to a paid plan.
See our full pricing + feature list here; https://www.getreditus.com/pricing/
Why does it say this feature is in Beta?
We have big plans for the referral program, and only delivered the MVP for it now. It currently has the same mechanics as an affiliate program; triggering a recurring commission for every paid client referred.
After our beta period, we will also have other kind of rewards. Think about;
- One time credit award for generating a sign up
- One time cash award for generating a paid client
- Swag gift for generating X number of paid users
- Give 10% discount to all people referred, and receive 10% credit yourself
As you can see there are many options for the rewards, hence we still call it Beta. Based on the feedback & requests we receive from our early users, we will start building other kind of rewards.
The tracking & widget are fully tested, so you don't have to worry about things not working, it is purely the reward triggering which will receive a major upgrade during our Beta period.
Book a call with us to chat more about what kind of rewards / structure you would like.