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social

Referral loop engine

  • referral
  • viral-loop
  • dtc
  • plg

Run referrals as a loop, spot advocates, fire the ask at the value moment with a double-sided reward, track and reward, amplify what spreads, then sharpen and go again.

Get access See how it runs
5 Steps in the flow
3 Tools orchestrated
5 Human checkpoints
Weekly Run cadence
compounding share of new customers / month Referred customers

The objective

What this system is built to do

Referrals come from the right person at the value moment, not from asking at checkout. Spot advocates, fire the ask when they feel it, reward both sides, make the share one-tap, then amplify what spreads.

Grow through the people who already love you. Spot advocates in your data, trigger the ask at the value moment (not checkout) with a double-sided reward via Friendbuy and Viral Loops, then amplify whatever spreads and feed it back in. Not doing: asking at checkout, one-sided bounties, or hiding the share behind a code to copy.

How it runs

The steps your team follows

The workflow, exactly as it runs inside . It plays through step by step, or pick any node on the map.

1Spot advocates
2Trigger the ask at the value moment
3Reward & track
4Amplify what spreads
5Refine the loop
Start
1

Spot advocates

Weekly
  1. Score your base in your data/CRM on NPS, repeat-purchase and review behaviour, find the people who already love you.
  2. Pull the advocate segment and the value-moment signal for each (delivery, activation, second purchase).
  3. Sync the segment into so the ask can fire at the right moment.
  4. Human approval, approve the advocate segment and its value-moment trigger before any ask goes out.
2

Trigger the ask at the value moment

Daily
  1. In , fire the referral ask on the value moment, e.g. 3 days post-delivery or at activation, NOT at checkout.
  2. Make the reward double-sided: something for the friend and something for the advocate.
  3. Keep the message human, "you loved it, here's one to share".
  4. Human approval, confirm trigger timing and reward before the ask goes live to the segment.
3

Reward & track

Daily
  1. Process and fulfil the double-sided reward in the moment a referral converts.
  2. Track referral share of new customers, conversion rate and invites per advocate, write outcomes back to the CRM.
  3. Watch reward cost per referred customer as the guardrail.
  4. Human approval, flag any segment where reward cost outruns the value it brings in.
4

Amplify what spreads

Weekly
  1. Find the share paths that actually spread, one-tap native share via usually wins over copyable codes.
  2. Feature the top advocates and widen the reward on the winning path.
  3. Cut friction wherever invites stall: pre-filled messages, one tap.
  4. Human approval, approve where to double down before reallocating reward budget.
5

Refine the loop

Quarterly
  1. Review the whole loop on a quarter's lag, referral programs compound slowly, so don't judge it early.
  2. Identify which advocate signals and value moments produced the most referred customers.
  3. Sharpen the advocate definition and the value-moment trigger, and feed it back into spotting.
  4. Human approval, sign off the refined advocate segment before it seeds the next cycle.
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Setup

The stack

The tools this system drives, and the context you bring once. Connect your own accounts, or swap in your team's equivalent.

Tools to connect

Friendbuyfrom $249 / mo Powers Spot advocates Or ReferralCandy, Viral Loops
ReferralCandyfrom $59 / mo Powers Reward & track Or Friendbuy, Viral Loops
Viral Loopsfrom $49 / mo Powers Amplify what spreads Or ReferralCandy, Prefinery

Context to bring

Your documents 4 files
  • Reward structure What both sides get, and when.
  • Brand & messaging The voice for prompts, shares and emails.
  • Customer segments Who to ask, and the best moment to ask.
  • Program & fraud rules Platform access plus the guardrails against abuse.

Proven in market

Run by 101 teams, verified on real accounts

Referral loop engine is built and verified by Growth Division, the GTM team behind 150+ companies. Here is what the same play has produced for their clients.

€1M additional sales in 6 months

Eat Sleep Cycle · Health / Wellness

500+ subscriber community

Presca · Sustainable Fashion

$100k → $1.2M ARR in 12 months

Musiversal · Music / SaaS

Built & verified by Growth Division

What we've learned running it hundreds of times

The small, hard-won details that decide whether it works, from every run.

19% referral share of new customers
≈2.2× conversion from double-sided rewards
3.1 invites per active advocate
referral share high confidence
Before 8%
After 19%

Moving the referral ask to the value moment lifted referral share of new customers

Timing beats offer size. Ask when the customer feels the value, not when they pay, the post-delivery moment is when they actually want to share.

Trigger-timing A/Bn≈12,400 customers10 weeks
referral conversion high confidence
Before 6%
After 13%

A double-sided reward beat a one-sided reward on referral conversion

Make it a gift, not a bounty. A double-sided reward converts far better because the friend benefits too, and the advocate doesn't look like they're farming their friends.

Reward-structure A/Bn≈9,800 invites9 weeks
invites / advocate medium confidence
Before 1.4
After 3.1

One-tap native share lifted invites sent per advocate, after a slow ramp

Friction is the silent killer of referral loops, but reducing it compounds slowly. The smoother share only pays off as advocates cycle back through their value moments, so give it a quarter.

Share-flow A/Bn≈6,200 advocates12 weeks
The full lab notebook Every experiment charted, with the raw before/after and the decision rules behind each call. Unlock free

Get started

How to run this system

Live in an afternoon. Clone it, connect your tools, set your inputs, and turn it on.

  1. 1

    Add to

    Clone the Referral loop engine into your workspace, wired end to end.

  2. 2

    Connect your tools

    Friendbuy, ReferralCandy, Viral Loops.

  3. 3

    Set your inputs

    Your ICP, targets and brand rules, once.

  4. 4

    Turn it on

    It runs weekly on autopilot, checking in with you only where it matters.

~25 min / week your time on autopilot · vs 6–9 hrs / week by hand
compounding share of new customers / month Referred customers, produced for you

Early access

Run the Referral loop engine in your workspace.

is in stealth with a first cohort of scaleups. Join the waitlist and we’ll open this system, and the full library, to you first.

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