Skip to main content
Referral Program FAQs

Understanding how the "typical" referral flow works for most of our Friendbuy users, and answering some frequently asked questions!

W
Written by William Harper
Updated over a week ago

Typical Referral Program User Flow

Question: What is a typical referral user flow?

Answer: Advocate refers Friend (either via Email, Facebook, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, SMS or WhatsApp) > Friend clicks on friend’s referral link and lands on a URL that will automatically apply a discount at checkout> referred Friend Purchases and Friendbuy sends a Reward Email with an Amazon gift card code with instructions for redeeming that code on Amazon.com.

Question: How are conversions tracked in Friendbuy?

Answer: Conversions are tracked using a cookie or redemption of a coupon code. If attributing referral via coupon code, make sure you’re passing the coupon code variable in the Conversion Tracker on the checkout page.

Question: How can I tell if a conversion was tracked in Friendbuy?

Answer: Navigate to 'Settings' > 'Referral Management' > 'Purchase Tracker'

Rewarding Advocates

Question: Advocate calls in and says they referred a Friend, they know their Friend purchased, but they didn’t receive their reward.

Answer: Manually generate a conversion.

In the Friendbuy UI:

1. Navigate to 'Referral and Sharing'

2. Click 'Conversions'

3. Click the green button that says 'Create Conversion'

4. Enter the email address of the referred Friend who has purchased

5. Click the radio button to choose a purchase

6. Enter the email address of the Advocate who you want to reward

7. Choose the campaign you want to associate the conversion to (you can choose any campaign - they all have the same reward configuration)

8. Keep the green box checked to manually override fraud checks and reward criteria - this will allow the reward to be sent to the Advocate immediately

9. Click 'Create Conversion' button and voila!

Question: Where can I see which gift card codes were sent to which customers?

Answer: Navigate to 'Coupons' in the Friendbuy platform. Click on either the Advocate coupon bank or Friend coupon bank (they should be delineated). You can search by Email Address or Coupon code.

Question: How can I tell why a reward to an Advocate was rejected by Friendbuy?

Answer: Rewards Report - Here is where you can identify whether a reward was approved or rejected (if rejected, you can see why)

In the Friendbuy UI:

1. Navigate to 'Referral and Sharing'

2. Click 'Rewards’

3. Enter the Advocate's email address to search for the conversion information (please note that all of the data in this report includes anyone has actually purchased from a referral link)

4. If a reward is rejected, click the green link that says 'more' to see why Friendbuy rejected a reward to an Advocate

Question: How can I send an Advocate a gift card code if their reward was rejected?

Answer: Navigate to 'Referral and Sharing' > 'Rewards', search for the Advocate’s Email Address. If the Reward was rejected, click 'Override Rejection' (shown in the screenshot above) and Friendbuy will automatically send the Reward.

Blocking Advocates and Referral Codes

Question: How do I block an Advocate from receiving rewards through the referral program?

Answer: There are two places in the Friendbuy UI where you can block an Advocate:

1. Rewards Report: Navigate to 'Referral and Sharing' > 'Rewards' > 'Search' for the Advocate’s email address and click ‘Block Sharer’ in the referrer column.

2. Customer Search Tool: Look up an Advocate by email address or referral code. You can blacklist the referral code and block the Advocate’s email address from this view.

In the Friendbuy UI:

1. Navigate to 'Customer Search'

2. Search by either Advocate email or Referral Code

3. Click 'Search', and select 'Block Sharer' under 'Referrer Details'.

Question: How do I blacklist a referral code so that anyone who clicks through won’t be able to get the discount applied at checkout’?

Answer: Customer Search Tool: Search for a referral code in the search bar. You can blacklist the referral code from this view, so that if anyone clicks through this link they will be redirected to a page that says “Sorry, this offer is no longer valid.”

In the Friendbuy UI:

1. Navigate to 'Customer Search'

2. Search by either Advocate email or Referral Code

3. Click 'Search' and select 'Block' under the 'Referrals' tab.

Question: If Friendbuy determines that an Advocate shared with themselves, how does Friendbuy block them from getting the discount applied at checkout?

Answer: You can set up a self-referral redirect in the Friendbuy UI, so that if anyone clicks on their own link (either from an Email, Facebook, Twitter, Facebook Messenger, PURL, SMS or WhatsApp), Friendbuy can redirect the user to a page that says “oops! This program is only for new customers. Please feel free to refer friends and family.” Note: this copy is configurable.

In the Friendbuy UI:

1. Navigate to 'Referral & Sharing' > 'Widgets'

2. Select the widget you'd like to edit

3. Click 'Settings' > 'Fraud Checks'

4. Enable 'Self Referral Redirect; and set a redirect URL

Manually Generate a Conversion:

1. Navigate to 'Referral and Sharing'

2. Click 'Conversions'

3. Click the green button that says 'Create Conversion'

4. Enter the email address of the referred Friend who has purchased

5. Click the radio button to choose a purchase

6. Enter the email address of the Advocate who you want to reward

7. Choose the campaign you want to associate the conversion to (you can choose any campaign - they all have the same reward configuration)

8. Keep the green box checked to manually override fraud checks and reward criteria - this will allow the reward to be sent to the Advocate immediately

9. Click 'Create Conversion' button and voila!

Rewards Report - Here is where you can identify whether a reward was approved or rejected (if rejected, you can see why)

1. Navigate to 'Referral and Sharing'

2. Click 'Rewards'

3. Enter the Advocate's email address to search for the conversion information (please note that all of the data in this report includes anyone has actually purchased from a referral link)

4. If a reward is rejected, click the green link that says 'more' to see why Friendbuy rejected a reward to an Advocate

Customer Search Tool - Look up an Advocate by email address, referral code, and more. If the Advocate shared via email, you can see the recipients of the share.

1. Navigate to 'Customer Search'

2. Select how you want to search

3. Click 'Search'

Did this answer your question?