Program Reward Options Explained

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Choosing the most optimal reward for your Advocate program is a balancing act between what your customers want and what your business can afford to offer. In this article, we review the major reward types and when they’re recommended to use. To learn more about creating rewards/reward units, see Create a Reward or Create a Reward Unit.

Cash Payouts

Important: Participants will need to provide their banking and tax information on file before they are eligible to receive cash rewards.

Your Advocate program will need to be configured to pay out cash rewards to your customer advocates and their referred friends. Advocate payouts function similarly to partner funds transfers, but they are automatically handled by your Advocate program and don’t need to be sent out manually.

• Recommended for: Referral programs that give out high-value rewards; B2C

Other reward options

Limited: All of the listed reward options are already available to referred users. To enable them for Advocates as well, you might need to upgrade your plan. Contact us to gain access.

If your program offers lower-value rewards, considering another program reward type that doesn't require your participants to supply tax or banking details to impact.com, might be a better option.

Credit

This reward type is easy to communicate to both new and existing customers, making it the most popular choice. It gives the recipient a reason to make a first or repeat purchase, and provides an obvious benefit when shopping. Many brands use these rewards to create a simple slogan such as “Give $10, Get $10” to make the benefit clear for both parties.

• Recommended for: Industries with regular purchases; B2C

Discount

Similar to credit, percentage discounts (e.g., 20% off) provide direct value to new and existing customers.

Percentage discount rewards are a great alternative to fixed-value account credits because they automatically scale relative to the value of the purchase. This setup can be especially motivating for participants if your business model uses different pricing tiers. The reward becomes more valuable when the participant make a more expensive purchase.

• Recommended for: Any Advocate program

Gift Cards

Third-party gift cards, like Amazon or pre-paid Visa gift cards, are often used to reward customer advocates in industries with low purchase frequencies. Some examples include:

• Telecom providers
• Online insurance and mortgage brokers
• Travel booking websites

Gift cards are also popular for the B2B market because they allow you to reward the advocate, not just the company they work for. The person referring their colleague likely isn’t paying the bill for your service, so a discount, credit or free time may not be a motivating reward. However, a gift card they can personally use might be. Learn more about Gift Card Rewards.

• Recommended for: Industries with low purchase frequencies; B2B

Coupon Codes

Coupon codes can be incorporated into your program widget or microsite, and used to reward your participants and any friends they refer.

Advocates typically earn rewards when a referral they’ve made converts. After a successful conversion, the advocate is automatically notified via email. Then, they receive a unique coupon code that they can redeem for a reward.

For referred friends, the code is typically intended to be used during their initial checkout. You can set up a friend widget that shows the discount code within your program’s landing page, or during checkout to ensure the referred friend receives their reward at the correct time. Learn more about Fuel Tank Rewards.

• Recommended for: B2C

Free Time

By rewarding your promoters with exposure to paid features for a limited time, they learn the value of upgrading. It increases the likelihood that they’ll pay for a premium subscription once the reward period has ended. Or, better yet, they will continue to refer new friends in order to keep receiving free premium access.

This type of reward is particularly helpful in subscription-based products, with monthly and/or yearly billing, and which have a number of plans at different price-points.

For example, offering a reward in the form of a free month of service can provide the flexibility for users to choose which product/plan to purchase (and on which billing cycle) as the reward's value will scale with the value of their purchase.

• Recommended for: B2B or B2C

Swag or Product

Product rewards can take the form of branded gifts or company swag. Company shirts, socks, stickers, mugs, or other items can all be repurposed as referral rewards. For example, the referred friend might receive a bonus gift in their first order, and the customer advocate will be able to add a special gift when they place their next shipment.

Note: Product is a lesser-used reward because of the logistical challenges and shipping costs it can involve.

• Recommended for: Companies that already create a physical product; B2C