How to set up the in app referral program? (full guide)

The in-app referral program generates referral links for all your users without them needing to leave your app. This guide walks through every step: tracking, rewards, the widget, a live test, and how to promote it.

Terminology used

• In-app referral program = the program itself.
• Advocate = the user who is recommending you.
• Referral = a new sign-up via an advocate.
• Widget = the pop-up provided by Reditus, showcased in your app.

Are you a developer? See our technical documentation here. Below is how it looks when fully installed.

1. Set up referral tracking

For the in-app referral program we use the same tracking as the affiliate program. If you already have this installed for your affiliate program, you do not need to do anything here.

For our referral tracking to work, we require three things.

1. Installing a tracking script on your site and sign-up page
2. Installing a snippet into your sign-up form
3. Connecting your payment processor

These three steps let us identify who signed up via an advocate or an affiliate, which is why the same tracking serves both programs. It also makes sure a sign-up is never attributed twice.

The payment processor connection is what lets us calculate the appropriate commission or reward, and identify who moved to a paid plan.

2. Set up the referral program benefits

With an affiliate program things are straightforward: an affiliate earns X% commission for X months. A referral program gives you far more flexibility in the rewards you hand out, and in whether you want double-sided benefits.

Advocate rewards

When an advocate (your user) refers you, what kind of reward do you want to give them? You have three options.

• On sign-up: when someone signs up, the advocate receives a fixed fee or a custom reward.
• On first purchase: when their referral makes a first payment, interval does not matter, they receive a reward. A fixed fee or a custom reward both work.
• On recurring payment: similar to the affiliate program, a percentage for a set number of months. No custom rewards are possible here yet.

When choosing a custom reward, use our webhooks to attribute the reward to the advocate. Custom rewards have to be added on your side.

Set up your in-app referral program rewards here: https://app.getreditus.com/saas/referral_program/config/details

Case study: Snitcher's custom in-app referral program, a SaaS growth case study.

New user reward

This reward triggers when someone signs up via an advocate (your user). In the UI this person is called a referral. Technically we call it a lead, so it stays separate from referrals coming from affiliates.

What we typically see is that you want to give them something extra related to your app: extra trial, a discount for the first few months, credits, or something else.

Since the reward is always set within your application, you can use our webhooks to create these rewards. That leaves room to get creative with what you give out.

FYI: webhooks are only available on our paid plans. See Reditus pricing.

3. Install and embed the widget

Before your users can grab a link from our embed inside your app, three steps are needed from your side. These have to be done by a developer, so we recommend sending them to the technical documentation.

Loading the widget

To embed the widget into your app, a developer needs 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 need to display referral information to your users. Here is a guide on how to do that.

const authToken = await fetchAuthToken();window.gr("loadReferralWidget", { product_id: PRODUCT_ID, auth_token: authToken, user_details: { email: "john@example.com", first_name: "John", last_name: "Doe", company_id: "1as2-3df4-5fg6-7hj8", company_name: "Acme", },});

You can grab your Reditus Product Secret here.

Authenticating the user

Each user's referral activity has to be linked to the correct account. Authentication is handled on your backend so 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 signs this token and should never be exposed in front-end code. Generate the token on your server and pass it to your client.

See the technical documentation to authenticate the user: https://docs.getreditus.com/referral-program/authentication

Showing the widget modal

Now that the widget is loaded and your users are authenticated, the final step is presenting the referral interface inside your application. The modal is where users share referral links and track referrals.

See how to show the modal: https://docs.getreditus.com/referral-program/show

Below is how the widget looks. The first screen is where users are asked to join the referral program and opt in. The second screen shows their unique referral link, their referrals (leads), and the rewards earned.

4. Run a live test

When everything is installed, 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
• Applying the rewards, if you have custom rewards

If everything works well, it is time to go live.

5. Show the pop-up and trigger it on WOW moments

Show a static text or icon in your app

You fully decide how and where you trigger the embed. A few ideas.

• Add "Earn & Refer" to the top of your app
• Add a gift icon to your app
• Put "Share and earn" text in the sidebar
• List "referral program" in your account settings

In the end, people who love your product should be aware of the referral program and the rewards they could earn.

Timeslines is an example of how to add it to the top of your app. See their case study on how they added $130k in revenue via affiliate and referral marketing.

At Reditus we installed it in the sidebar.

Trigger the pop-up on WoW moments using URL parameters

When your users experience a WoW moment, or have achieved the value they were waiting for, ask them to join your referral program. Use the pre-made links to trigger the pop-up from your own tools.

The widget also supports deep linking using a query parameter like ?reditus-show-referral=program. When the URL contains this parameter, the referral widget automatically opens and can switch to a specific tab.

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Example URLs:

• https://your-app.com/dashboard?reditus-show-referral=program
• https://your-app.com/account/settings?reditus-show-referral=referrals
• https://your-app.com/billing?reditus-show-referral=rewards

The modal will open automatically after the widget is loaded and the user is authenticated.

Want to test everything in staging first?

1. Sign up with a (new) account at app.getreditus.net
2. Change our API endpoints from .com to .net
3. Follow the steps above to set up the referral program
4. Done testing? Move to your production environment: change the API endpoints to .com, grab your production Product ID and change it, then grab your production Product Secret and change it.

Need access to the webhooks in staging? Ping us in support.

Frequently asked installation questions

Can we use the same tracking as the affiliate program?

Yes. If you have the affiliate program already running, you can skip the tracking installation steps. We use the same tracking for both programs, which also means you never get duplicated referrals.

What is the difference between the in-app referral program and the affiliate program?

The in-app referral program is focused on your current user base, turning them into ambassadors.

The affiliate program often brings in people who are not users at all: consultants, publishers, agencies, influencers. They sit outside your own user base but have access to your ideal customer profile.

See more information about the two here: In-app referral program | Affiliate program.

Can I try the in-app referral program for free?

You can try it free for 14 days, no credit card required. The in-app referral program is included in every Reditus plan, starting with the Growth plan at $99/€99 per month (annual billing).

The affiliate program features, API access, and webhooks are also included from the Growth plan. See our full pricing and feature list here: https://www.getreditus.com/pricing/

What is possible with a referral program?

Many companies have big plans for the referral program and want custom rewards, which is completely different from the affiliate program. The referral program gives you a lot more flexibility. Think about:

• One-time credit award for generating a sign-up
• One-time cash or custom reward for generating a paid client
• Swag gift(s) for generating X number of paid users
• Give 10% discount to all people referred, and receive 10% credit yourself

We built custom rewards and webhooks so you can be as creative as possible. We do recommend keeping things simple, so people understand what they are receiving.

See the in-app referral program from Snitcher to get some inspiration on what is possible when you fully use our API to set up the program.

Ready to start your in-app referral program? Start your 14-day free trial now.