How to Create a Product Sharing Referral Campaign

Samantha Brown Updated by Samantha Brown

How to Create a Product Sharing Referral Campaign

Product Sharing is a powerful way to let your customers easily recommend specific products to their friends through personalized referral links. Instead of sharing your entire store, advocates can highlight individual items they love, making the referral experience feel more authentic and personal. In this help article, we'll walk you through how to create and configure a new Product Sharing campaign.

Getting Started with Product Sharing

Step 1: Create a new referral campaign

Navigate to Referral, then click the blue Create a Campaign button on the top right-hand corner of the screen.

Select Product Sharing. For creating a standard referral campaign, please refer to How to Create a New Referral Campaign guide.

Step 2: Set Your Campaign Settings

Enter a Name of your new campaign that is unique from your other existing campaigns and a Campaign Description (optional). Once done, click the blue Next Step button.

Step 3: Define the Advocate Reward

The Advocate Reward is the reward distributed to an advocate for successfully referring Friends. Select the reward parameters and settings to define the reward trigger, reward, and reward rules. These settings can always be adjusted after the initial campaign creation as well.

Step 4: Configure the Friend Incentive

The Friend Incentive is the incentive reward distributed to a referred friend for completing a designated action. Select the incentive parameters and settings to define the incentive trigger, incentive to be distributed, and incentive rules. These settings can always be adjusted after the initial campaign creation as well.

Configuring the Product Sharing CTA

Step 1

Navigate to Widgets, then click the Product Sharing Overlay.

Step 2

Now we'll configure the Share Button Settings. This is where you determine how your customers will interact with the Product Sharing feature.

The following steps will review how to set up a ribbon. Under the Trigger Settings in the 'Display widget on page load?' setting select 'No, use a ribbon'.

Then choose 'Select a ribbon template' and choose the available template or create a new one.

Alternatively, you can always choose to set up the widget on page load instead or set a trigger element on the page to load the widget as well. For instance, choosing 'No, set a trigger element on the page' allows you to include a native referral CTA such as "Share and Get $20" on each product detail page you wish.

Step 3

In this step, you'll customize the appearance of your Product Sharing CTA button to match your brand and create an optimal user experience. If you choose to trigger the widget with a ribbon then in the Ribbon Editor, configure the following:

Name: Identifiable name of the CTA button.

Content: The text that will appear on the button (for example, "Share This Product" or "Tell a Friend About Product X").

Positioning: Controls where on the page the button will appear.

Size: Configure the size of the CTA button.

Button Text: Select a font and color for the text to ensure readability across all product page backgrounds.

Button Container: Choose a color that stands out on your product pages and matches your brand palette. Consider using a contrasting color that draws attention without clashing with your site design.

Close Button: Enable the option to add a close button to dismiss the ribbon.

Once you've finalized the button appearance, click Save.

Step 4

Configure the Location Settings to determine where the CTA ribbon or CTA trigger element on the page should populate on your website. Define the URLs to display the CTA ribbon according to the products you wish to have advocates share and promote.

Triggering the widget from a Ribbon with a CTA:

Triggering the widget from a native CTA on product pages:

Next Steps

You'll need to create and design the customer facing Emails and Product Sharing Widgets before launching your campaign.

For assistance with setting up Emails or Widgets, reach out to your Customer Success Manager or support@friendbuy.com with questions.

Important: If you are making updates an existing Campaign, be sure to also update the offer details contained within your customer facing Referral Emails and Widgets to match the new program strategy.

Reviewing a Product Sharing Experience

  1. Navigate to a product page on your store with an active Product Sharing widget enabled
  2. Locate the Product Sharing button
  3. Click to share the product and attempt to share via your selected method
  4. Verify that the referral link is generated correctly
  5. Test clicking the link from the friend's perspective to confirm they land on the correct page

Learn how to test widgets properly here.

Best Practices for Product Sharing

Incentivize Sharing: Pair product sharing with your referral rewards. Make sure advocates understand what they'll earn by sharing specific products.

Optimize for Mobile: Since many customers share on mobile devices, ensure your share buttons are easily clickable and the sharing flow is mobile-friendly.

Track Performance: Use the analytics dashboard to monitor which products are shared most frequently. This data helps you understand customer preferences and optimize product recommendations.

Clear Call-to-Action: Make the share button prominent and use action-oriented language like "Share & Earn" rather than generic text.

Monitor Share Links: Regularly review shared products to identify top performers and adjust your marketing strategy accordingly.

Troubleshooting Product Sharing

Share Button Not Appearing

  • Verify that Product Sharing is enabled in your Widget Settings
  • Check that the widget has been deployed to your product pages
  • Clear your browser cache and refresh the page
  • Ensure you're viewing a product page where the widget is active

Referral Link Not Working

  • Confirm the Landing Page URL is correct and accessible
  • Verify that the referral code is being generated properly in your Code Bank
  • Check your fraud settings to ensure shared links aren't being blocked
  • Test the link in an incognito window to rule out browser cache issues

Analytics Not Showing Shared Products

  • Allow 24 hours for data to populate in your analytics dashboard
  • Verify that tracking is enabled for your referral campaign
  • Check that the referred friend completed a purchase to register in reports

For additional help, reach out to support@friendbuy.com.

How did we do?

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