This article serves as a comprehensive guide of key terms to equip you with a deeper understanding of how referral programs operate.
So let's dive in and unravel the language of referrals to empower your marketing strategy and enhance customer engagement.
A
AB Test – A method of comparing two versions of a page, offer, or message to optimise based on performance metrics like clicks, shares, or conversions.
Active Customer List – A list of email addresses for currently active customers, typically provided in CSV format for launch preparation or targeting within referral campaigns.
Advocacy – When satisfied customers promote or refer a brand to others, often via structured referral programs.
AM – Account Manager – Client liaison responsible for referral strategy support, performance reviews, and troubleshooting.
AOV – Average Order Value – The average value of customer purchases; a higher AOV often reflects program efficiency and targeting.
ARR – Annual Recurring Revenue – Total projected annual income from subscriptions or recurring sources, important in subscription models.
B
Bloomreach – A digital experience platform (DXP) used for enhancing personalised content, potentially integrated with referral campaigns.
C
Campaign – A targeted referral initiative based on client-specified rules (e.g., language, loyalty tier). Customers see associated offers only if they meet campaign targeting criteria. Most clients run one live campaign, but multiple can be created.
COS – Customer Origin Survey – A data collection tool asking how the customer discovered the brand, to improve source attribution, including referrals.
Corner-Peel – A sliding promotional element (e.g. at the screen corner), used to highlight referral promotions post-purchase or on landing pages.
CSM – Customer Success Manager – Provides strategic guidance and support to ensure successful client engagement and referral program value.
Customers Enrolled – Customers who qualify to share a referral offer, tracked per specific offer. A customer enrolled into multiple offers will be counted multiple times.
D
Data Layer – A JavaScript object that passes structured data from your website to systems like Google Tag Manager or referral platforms.
Design – The visual presentation of referral elements, including layouts, colours, fonts, rewards, call-to-action style, etc.
E
Earned Growth – Revenue growth driven by organic referrals or customer advocacy rather than paid marketing.
EBR – Executive Business Review – A strategic meeting to review progress and outcomes of initiatives like referral campaigns.
ECR – Extended Customer Revenue - A metric that tracks the revenue generated over 12 months by customers who were acquired through referrals. Unlike first-order revenue, ECR highlights the long-term value of referred customers and helps measure the extended impact of referral programs on customer lifetime value. It provides a better understanding of how referred customers perform over time compared to those acquired through other channels.
Emarsys – A customer engagement platform used to personalise and automate referral-related communications via email or mobile.
ESP – Email Service Provider – A platform for sending marketing and transactional emails.
Experiment – The active setup within a campaign; one experiment is live at a time and may test offer variants to improve performance.
F
Feefo – A review platform used as a form of social proof, boosting the credibility of referral campaigns.
G
Gaming – Abuse or fraudulent manipulation of referral schemes (e.g., self-referrals or mass sharing to fake accounts); identified and limited by controls.
Gaming Approval – Manual or automated decision-making process for evaluating flagged referrals for reward eligibility.
Gaming Controls – Rules designed to detect and score suspicious referral activity, moving questionable records to the Gaming Queue.
Gaming Queue – Queue displaying referrals or referrers/referred customers that require manual review due to suspicious activity or high-risk score.
H
Hashed Data/Emails – Encrypted or anonymised personal data used for privacy-compliant customer matching or fraud detection.
Homepage Promotion – Referral display on a homepage, such as a banner, pop-up, or strip promoting referral participation.
I
Incented Customers – Referees who have claimed their reward (voucher or discount) upon submitting their email via referral.
Incentive – The reward (voucher, discount, credit) offered to encourage participation in the referral program by referrers and/or referees.
K
Klaviyo – A customer communication platform often integrated for sending automated referral invitations and nurture flows.
L
Landing Page – A dedicated page on a client's website that promotes the referral program, encouraging users to join and share offers.
Layout – The visual structure of landing pages, referral widgets, modals, or email templates.
Links (for Sharing Methods) – Referral links include:
1. Open Direct (send an email to referee),
2. Open Link (copy/paste anywhere),
3. Forwarded Email Link (sent to referrer who forwards it manually).
Locales – Language and region-specific settings used to tailor referral campaigns globally.
Love2Shop – A UK-based multi-retailer gift card platform commonly used for delivering digital referral rewards.
M
MA – Marketing Automation – Platforms that schedule and trigger personalised messages, such as referral reminders or reward emails.
Meta – Refers to Facebook/Instagram platforms used for advertising or organic referral sharing.
N
Name Share – A sharing method where the referrer enters the name/email of the referee to send them the referral directly.
Native Share – Using built-in device sharing capabilities (e.g., WhatsApp, SMS, iMessage) to promote the referral offer.
Network Insights – Performance dashboards showing key referral metrics by user segment, geography, share type, and conversion behaviour.
New Customers – A referee who makes a first purchase is counted even if they didn’t redeem the referral voucher.
NPS – Net Promoter Score – A survey score indicating how likely a customer is to refer a brand — commonly used to segment referrer prospects.
O
Offer – The referral proposition shown to customers, detailing the benefit to referrer/referee (e.g., “Give £10, Get £10”).
Offer Page – A Mention Me post-purchase overlay that presents the offer and captures customer enrolment or sharing behaviour.
Ometria – A customer intelligence and marketing platform used to target referral messages based on behaviour and lifecycle stage.
OPM – Onboarding Project Manager – A role supporting client teams in setting up and launching referral programs successfully.
OPS – Operations – Internal teams managing the admin side of the referral program.
P
Personalised Share Image – A dynamic image customised with referrer branding (name, logo) used when sharing on social/email.
Placeholder – A dynamic field used within referral copy that is automatically populated with relevant content during the customer journey. Examples include placeholders for names, reward values, or brand names. These dynamic tags allow personalisation and ensure the correct details appear in the live version.
Promotion – A special campaign or limited-time push to increase referral activity (e.g., double rewards in December).
Purchase Rate – Ratio of new customers acquired to actual shares made in a referral campaign.
Q
QBR – Quarterly Business Review – Regular business review session where progress and effectiveness of referral initiatives are analysed.
R
Referee – The person being invited to discover and shop from a brand via a referral for the first time.
Referrer – An existing customer who shares their referral link or offer with others.
Referral – The act of sharing/recommending a brand via a program with incentives and tracking.
Referee Reward – The offer presented to a referee for their first engagement or purchase (e.g., 10% off, free item).
Referrer Reward – The incentive earned by a referrer when a referee successfully converts.
Referrer Share Page – The page showing enrolled referrers' options to share the offer (social buttons, direct link, email invite).
Reward Approval – The process for confirming that a reward should be issued based on eligibility.
Rewards – Monetary or non-monetary incentives given for completing referral actions.
Revenue – Earnings from first-time orders made by referees that count toward referral-attributed revenue.
ROI – Return on Investment – Value gained from referral initiatives compared to costs of rewards, platform, and resourcing.
Runa (formerly WeGift) – Digital reward platforms used to fulfil referral incentives, such as sending branded gift cards.
S
Salesforce – A widely used CRM system where referral data (e.g., referrer source or new customer status) can be integrated.
Segment – A defined audience subset used in targeting referral campaigns based on behaviour, demographics, or purchase history.
Self-Referral – A customer attempting to refer themselves (e.g., by using a personal email to refer a work email) to get a reward.
Sentiment Analysis – AI-driven interpretation of customer feedback tone as positive, neutral, or negative — useful in referral reviews.
SFTP – Secure File Transfer Protocol – A secure way to send/receive customer data files used to verify enrolments or push rewards.
Share Page – The webpage enabling customers to share the referral offer with their friends or networks.
Sharers – Distinct referrers who have actively shared their referral offer (duplication avoided across multiple shares).
Shares – The number of times referral offers have been shared, across all platforms.
Share Rate – Ratio of eligible customers (enrolled) who go on to actively share their offer.
Share Responses – Clicks/interactions generated from shared referral links.
T
Tag – A JavaScript snippet installed on a website that tracks actions (e.g., post-purchase behaviour, offer views) for referral processing.
Text Editor – The module for editing referral content like headlines, descriptions, and calls-to-action within emails or landing pages.
Triggering Rules – Conditions that determine when and for whom referral elements appear (e.g., after checkout, loyalty tier).
U
Unique Impression – A distinct session/user viewing the referral offer — only counted once within a session.
UTM Parameter – Tracking code appended to URLs to identify traffic source, medium, and campaign for analytics. Vital for measuring referral link performance
V
Validity Period – The timeframe during which a referral offer or reward can be used before it expires.
Variation – A version of an offer, test setup, or layout used in A/B testing or Experiments.
Velocity Controls – Limits applied to control how many rewards a referrer or referee can earn in a specific period, helping prevent abuse.
Vouchers – Digital or printed promo codes or gift cards used as referral rewards.
W
WeTransfer – A file-sharing service used, typically internally, for sharing large assets during campaign setup.