← Playbooks
Growth · 16 min

Referral Programs That Actually Work

The mechanics behind Dropbox / Robinhood-style loops.

Action plan0/3 · 0%
Progress saved locally in this browser.
Tools
ReferralCandySegmentBigQuery
Why it works

A referral program without a viral coefficient math is just a discount code.

Full playbook

Mechanics

Reward, timing, gating, share format. Every one of these has a right answer for your business.

The math

K-factor > 1 is fantasy; K > 0.3 is a real channel. Model it before you build it.

Fraud

Assume abuse from day one. Rate-limit, cluster-detect, hold rewards for suspicious chains.