In this guide, you’ll learn how to plan and launch a time-limited referral promotion or competition to drive customer acquisition during key campaigns or seasonal events.
How to Run a Time-Limited Referral Promotion or Competition
Running a time-bound campaign is a proven way to boost referrals during specific periods, such as holidays, sales events, or product launches. Here’s how to plan and execute a successful campaign.
Define Your Promotion
Your Special Offer
Design an offer that's more compelling than your usual referral incentive. Options include:
- Entry into a prize draw
- Higher-value reward (e.g., £20 instead of £10)
- A free gift with purchase
- Tickets to an event
- Exclusive or early access to a sale or product launch
- Extended reward validity period
- Co-branded or partner rewards
The Promotion Period
Clearly define campaign timeframes:
- Start and end dates for showing the promotion to customers. This covers when you will tell your referrers (existing customers) about the promotion.
- Friend purchase or sign up deadline: The last date that referees (friends) can complete a qualifying purchase or sign up. This is often set a few days after the official end of the promotion to give customers time to complete a purchase or sign up.
For after purchase rewards that have approval (common in finance, utilities and insurance), note that the referee will be given the promotional reward if they sign up before the sign up deadline. This is based on the transaction date we receive via your integration. When they're approved has no effect on the reward they are given.
e.g. A promotion runs 1st Jan to 31st Jan. Alice tells Bob about the promotion, and Bob creates an account on the 15th Jan. Bob doesn't meet the eligibility criteria until the 2nd Feb. Bob will be given the promotional reward because his account was created before the deadline. If Bob created his account after the 1st Feb, he will be given the offer that follows the promotion.
Qualification Criteria
Decide what’s required from both referrers and referees. By default a promotional offer uses the same criteria as your regular offers, but you may wish to consider additional criteria during a promotion, e.g.
- Do referred friends need to make a purchase above a specific value to qualify?
- Do referrers need to introduce more than 1 friend in order to get the better reward?
More strict criteria can harm the effectiveness of the promotion, so use them sparingly.
How You'll Promote the Offer
Determine the channels you’ll use to raise awareness:
- Email newsletter
- Dedicated or promotional email campaigns
- Homepage banners or popups
- Social media posts and paid ads
- In-app notifications or website messaging
During the promotional period, push your referrers to engage with these promotions. Don't forget to make clear any qualification criteria their friends must meet including when they must purchase or sign up by.
After the Promotion Ends
After a promotion ends, we recommend a "follow up" offer to continue promotion. This can be your previous "normal" offer.
Referrers who share the promotion after the promotion period has ended will be automatically moved to the normal offer.
Referees who transact or sign up after the "last purchase date" will automatically be moved to the normal offer.
If you ran a competition, we recommend using the Reports for Download section of the platform to select a report that helps you choose a winner.
If you don’t set a follow-up offer, your referral programme will pause at the end of the promotion, potentially losing valuable referral traffic.
Ready to Launch?
When you're ready to set up your time-limited promotion, fill out this request form and our Operations Team will take care of the setup.
Examples of Past Competitions