Referral Program Economics: Reward Design, Viral Loops & Referral CAC
Run the referral numbers of a fictional subscription app: participation and invite funnels, referred-user conversion, viral coefficient and cycle time, referral CAC with fraud, single- vs double-sided rewards, LTV by channel, break-even reward size and COUNTIFS fraud rules, every cell checked as you go.
The first lesson is free — no account needed.
About this course
A referral program economics course that runs the numbers of one fictional subscription app's referral program in a spreadsheet, for growth marketers, product managers and founders. You take the referral funnel apart from the prompt to shares, invites and paying subscribers, compare how referred, organic and paid trial users convert and stay, model the viral loop over six cycles with the viral coefficient and a chart of how fast it flattens, add up the full referral CAC including rewards paid to cheaters and compare it with paid CAC, test five single- and double-sided reward designs from a split test, estimate LTV by channel, find the break-even reward and the maximum reward at a 3:1 LTV:CAC and screen paid referrals for self-referrals and shared devices with IF, OR and COUNTIFS. The first lab is free.
Lessons
- The Referral Funnel: Participation and InvitesFree
- How Referred Users Convert and Stay Pro
- Viral Coefficient and Cycle Time Pro
- Referral CAC vs Paid CAC Pro
- Reward Design: Single-Sided vs Double-Sided Pro
- LTV of Referred vs Non-Referred Users Pro
- Reward Budget and Break-Even Reward Size Pro
- Fraud Rules: Self-Referrals and Shared Devices Pro