Friendbuy Recharge Integration: Renewal Milestone Rewards
The Recharge Renewal Milestone Rewards feature allows you to reward your advocates (referrers) not just for bringing in new customers, but for the success of those referred customers' subscriptions. Instead of a one-time reward when a referred friend first purchases, you can now configure rewards as referred friends continue to renew their subscription.
This aligns your reward program with subscription success metrics: you reward advocates for referring friends who remain customers, not just those who make one purchase.
Why This Matters for Subscription Businesses
- Rewards realized value: Pay out when a referral proves its worth through multiple renewals, not just the first order
- Incentivizes quality: Advocates have skin in the game, they're motivated to refer friends likely to stay subscribed
- Focuses on longer term customers: Minimize rewarding for referrals that churn after one order
- Differentiates your program: Stand out in the subscription space with retention-focused rewards
How It Works
Step 1: Advocate Refers a Friend
An advocate shares a referral link with a friend. The friend signs up for a subscription through that link, creating the referral attribution.
Step 2: Friend's Subscription Renews
Each time the friend's subscription renews (a successful recurring charge), Friendbuy detects it and checks if the advocate has reached a configured milestone.
Step 3: Advocate Receives Escalating Rewards
When a milestone is reached, the advocate receives the configured reward. Each milestone reward is issued only once per friend, no duplicate payments.
Setting Up Renewal Milestone Rewards
Create or Edit a Referral Campaign: Navigate to your Friendbuy dashboard and open the referral campaign you want to configure, or create a new one. Ensure the Recharge integration is configured.
- Choose Your Reward Basis: In the Advocate Reward section, locate the "Reward advocates based on" setting. Select "Number of friend subscription renewals".
- Define the Renewal Qualification settings: defines which subscription renewals count toward advocate milestone rewards.
- Milestone Window: time restriction that requires a referred friend to reach a milestone within a specific elapsed time from their initial purchase. You can define a window based on days, weeks, or months.
- Qualifying Products: ability to restrict which products' (SKUs') renewals count toward milestones.
Defining Specific SKUs is useful when:- You want to exclude specific low-margin products
- You want to track rewards only for your core subscription offerings
- You have a mix of subscription and one-time purchase products
- Also reward the friend's first order?: Choose whether to reward renewals only or also reward the standard advocate reward.
- Configure Your Reward Tiers: For each tier, set the renewal milestone (e.g., From 1 To 1 for 1st renewal), the reward amount and type, and a notification email. You can configure milestones at any renewal amount, they don't need to be consecutive.
- Example tiers:
Tier 1: 1st renewal → $10 Recharge discount
Tier 2: 2nd renewal → $20 Recharge discount
Tier 3: 4th renewal → $30 Shopify coupon (skips 3rd renewal)
- Example tiers:
Active Renewal Definition
An active renewal is a successful recurring subscription charge that counts toward milestone calculations. The following charges are considered active renewals:
Active Renewals Include:
- Successful recurring subscription charge (card was successfully charged)
- One-time billing cycles in a recurring subscription (e.g., monthly charge on a monthly plan)
- Multi-period bundled charges (e.g., a 3-month prepaid plan billed as a single charge = 1 renewal)
- Renewal charges from subscriptions that were previously paused (if the charge succeeds)
- Renewal charges from subscriptions with multiple product items (if at least one qualifies)
Active Renewals Do Not Include:
- Paused subscriptions – No charge occurs while paused
- Skipped deliveries/renewals – Scheduled delivery was skipped; no charge
- Failed charges – Payment method declined, insufficient funds, or error occurred
- Voided charges – Charge was issued but then voided by the payment processor
- Refunded charges – Charge was refunded after being successfully processed
- Cancelled subscriptions – Once a subscription is cancelled, no future renewals occur
- Initial order/first purchase – The friend's first subscription order is NOT a renewal; renewals only begin after that
Important Edge Cases & Behaviors
Skipped Deliveries & Paused Subscriptions
A skipped delivery or paused subscription is NOT an active renewal and does not count toward a milestone. If a milestone window is set, the clock continues to run during subscription pauses.
Friend Cancels Then Resubscribes
If a friend cancels and later resubscribes, their renewal count resumes from where it left off, it does not restart. The original advocate continues to earn the next not-yet-reached milestone.
Refunds or Chargebacks After a Reward is Issued
Once a milestone reward has been issued, a refund or chargeback of the underlying renewal does NOT reverse the advocate's reward. The reward stands as paid.
Multiple Subscriptions
If a friend has multiple qualifying subscriptions, only the most expensive subscription's renewals count toward milestones. Other subscriptions are ignored.
No Retroactive Rewards
Renewal milestone rewards are awarded only for renewals that occur after you enable the feature. Past renewals do not generate rewards, and past referrals are not retroactively eligible.
Examples
Example 1: Escalating Rewards with a Time Window
Configuration:
- 1st renewal → $10 Recharge discount
- 2nd renewal → $20 Recharge discount
- Milestone window: 6 months
Scenario: Sarah refers Jessica. Jessica signs up on January 1.
- Feb 1: Jessica's first renewal. Sarah receives $10.
- Mar 1: Jessica's second renewal. Sarah receives $20.
- Apr 1: Jessica's third renewal. No reward configured for 3rd.
- Result: Sarah earned $30 total.
Example 2: Missed Milestone Due to Churn
Same configuration as Example 1.
Scenario: Marcus refers David. David signs up on January 1.
- Feb 1: David's first renewal. Marcus receives $10.
- Feb 15: David cancels.
- Result: Marcus earned only $10. The $20 reward is never issued.
Example 3: Milestone Missed Due to Time Window
Same configuration as Example 1.
Scenario: Priya refers Alex. Alex signs up on January 1.
- Feb 1: Alex's first renewal. Priya receives $10.
- Mar–Jun: Alex pauses multiple times, skipping charges.
- Jul 1: Alex's second renewal—but outside the 6-month window.
- Result: Priya earned only $10. The $20 reward is forfeited.
Reward Fulfillment & Support
Reward Types
Milestone rewards support all the reward types Friendbuy already offers:
- Recharge discount codes
- Shopify coupon codes
- Store credit or account credit
- Points or loyalty program points
- Gift cards
- Free product rewards
Fallback Behavior
If the configured reward type cannot be delivered to an advocate, the system automatically falls back to issuing a Shopify coupon code instead.
Notification Emails
When an advocate earns a milestone reward, they receive the notification email you configured for that tier. If a milestone is not reached or is forfeited, no email is sent.
Tracking & Reporting
You can track renewal milestone rewards in your Friendbuy reporting dashboard. For each referred friend, you'll see:
- Which renewals counted
- Which milestone rewards were issued
- Which rewards were forfeited (and why)
- Total rewards paid to each advocate
Frequently Asked Questions
Q: Can I configure rewards for every renewal, or only specific ones?
A: You can set rewards at any renewal numbers. Common patterns include rewarding every renewal, rewarding only major milestones, or rewarding only early renewals.
Q: What counts as a renewal?
A: A renewal is a successful recurring charge. A friend's initial subscription order is NOT a renewal, only charges after that first order count.
Q: Do skipped charges count?
A: No. Only active (successfully charged) renewals count. Skipped deliveries and paused subscriptions do not advance milestones.
Q: How long does an advocate have to earn rewards?
A: By default, there's no time limit. However, you can optionally set a milestone window (e.g., 6 months) to require rewards to be earned within a specific timeframe.
Q: Can I change my reward configuration after it's live?
A: Yes. Changes apply to new referrals and future renewals. Already-issued rewards keep their original amounts.
Q: What happens if an advocate becomes ineligible (e.g., flagged for fraud)?
A: Future milestone rewards for that advocate stop being issued. Rewards already received are not reversed.
Need Help?
For more information on configuring your Friendbuy referral program, contact our support team at support@friendbuy.com.
